The Real-Life Diet of Mulan’s Yoson An, Who Got Into Filming Shape With a Four-Month Boot Camp

It’s pretty difficult not to hear the opening drumbeat of “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” when Yoson An talks about his preproduction training for Mulan, and not just because it’s one of Disney’s finest anthems. While the track itself was axed from the live-action remake (along with the rest of the original soundtrack), its spirit lives on—mostly because the training montage that accompanied it seems to have gone down in real life during the months leading up to shooting.

Once An was cast as Honghui, Mulan’s principal rival-turned-paramour, the New Zealander joined six of his future squadron buddies for four months of back-breaking prep intended to mimic the training their characters would have received. Under the watchful eye of a former Serbian Special Forces officer, the group did rigorous daily HIIT sessions and kettlebell circuits. Afternoons were spent training in all things ancient war: archery, horseback riding, military marching, and tons of martial arts choreography. They were joined by stunt coordinators from Jackie Chan’s team to nail the back-and-forth of fighting onscreen, before Liu Yifei, who plays the titular role, jumped in to spend an entire month practicing the duo’s first flirty sparring match.

An called GQ from New Zealand, where he’s been enjoying some much more low-key workouts, to talk about how he learned to fight—and act—like a soldier in sixth-century China.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in between about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: The standout moments of this remake are hands-down the fight scenes. How much preparation went into those?

Yoson An: We trained for four months prior to production, eight hours a day for five days a week. Our trainer, Bojan Mladenovic, had a military background, so it did feel like a boot camp. My squad trained together like soldiers, like brothers in arms. Bojan guided us through our nutrition and pushed us beyond our limits physically, emotionally, mentally, so we all bonded on a level that not many people can.

We’d spend an hour and a half on high-intensity interval exercise to build muscles. We trained with a lot of kettlebells. Once we got to peak shape, we'd do a lot of sprint training, as well as rotations at different stations with very minimal breaks in between, to keep our heart rate up. Then we would spend three or four hours working on our martial arts choreography. We’d have a little break and go into horseback riding, archery, and military marching. It was like a full-time job during preproduction.

And then throughout production we had to keep up our physical training, more or less, because we all had shirtless scenes spread out in different parts of filming. Also the armor that we wore weighed about 25 pounds, which is not that heavy, but when you have it on you for, like, 12 hours, it weighs on you. So the training helped with all that.

Was any of this familiar to you?

Absolutely not. Everything was so new to me. I'd never been on a horse. Because of the horse training, I can ride a horse now! I could go hop on a horse and cantor.

What was it like to learn the choreography for all the fight scenes?

It started with those months of learning martial arts—all these different styles, different forms. You don't get to see it in the film, but we did also learn Chen-style tai chi as a group. Some of us had to use spears; Jun, who played Cricket, would use a bow and arrow; and I was specialized in swords. So all of our trainings were slightly different. If anything, the style in the movie is just Chinese kung fu. We had these stunt boys from China—a lot of them were from Jackie Chan's stunt team—who taught us a whole lot. They'd guide us through all the basics, and then we'd just add on top of that.

Liu Yifei, who played Mulan, and I trained individually with our stunt partners to make sure we polished things before they put us together to fight with each other and find our rhythms. Every person, even when they might be doing the same moves, has a different rhythm and a different way of communicating. Stunt fighting is not like real fighting, where you're trying to beat up the other person. It's about communicating with our bodies, with our strikes, and it's always a bit of a dance.

Were any moves especially difficult to nail?

There was a very particular move when Mulan and I fight, and it's right before she kicks the spear up and has it pierce towards me. I had to duck under and spin my body around to avoid the sweep of her spear. It's a very quick moment in the film, and I found it quite challenging at the time to go low enough to get below her spear and come back up with proper balance. It's all about just propelling your body forward and using that momentum to get yourself back up. A lot of it is just practice and training—and then really going for it.

You also have some background in martial arts. Did that help?

I had a black belt in karate, because my parents put me in karate when I was 9 with my sister, and I just kinda went on doing it through my teenage years. After I did karate, I dabbled in a little bit of MMA, some jujitsu along with the MMA, and I did ninjutsu as well, because I was a fan of Naruto growing up. [laughs]

Have you dabbled in any other types of fitness?

I'm a pretty avid rock climber. I go with my friends almost on a weekly basis here in Auckland. You have to stay really present in each climb, particularly the more challenging ones. It's like a form of meditation.

At university I was friends with these competitive power lifters that lifted ridiculous amounts of weights. I just hung around with them—compared to them, I didn't lift a whole lot, but I got strong pretty quickly just by lifting with strong people. They got me into a little bit of snatching and jerking, squatting, deadlifts, and bench press kinda stuff.

What have you been doing since the film wrapped to keep your body and mind in shape?

I've been on quarantine! Thankfully I have some kettlebells with me, so I have something I can do at home to get my heart rate up. I go for runs near my house, which has kept my fitness up. But because so much is going on, I feel it's very important to keep ourselves still and quiet, and know how to be with the stillness. The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is meditate for 20 minutes. I just sit on my bed in the lotus position, close my eyes, and empty out all the thoughts I have. Another practice I like to do is yoga and sudarshan kriya, which is a form of yogic breathwork. I also practice Chinese qi gong from time to time. These keep me very grounded and allow me to just be still. Knowing how to breathe properly really calms your nervous system. And with a calm body you have clearer thoughts, a clearer mind, you feel better.

Thanks to serious routine of meditation, intermittent fasting, and shut-eye, the NFL Hall of Famer’s mind and body are sharper than ever.

Originally Appeared on GQ