Quintuple Threat Peter Jang on Becoming a Power Ranger and Blurring Boundaries Through His Work

Mixed Asian Media - January 27, 2023

By Jalen Jones

Peter Jang logs onto our Zoom visibly excited. As a true stuntman, he has carefully planned out his environment so that it best supports the action of our interview. A sign with the name of his up-and-coming production company, Simplicity Pictures, rests on a stand behind him; he points back at it as he introduces himself and his work. “I’ve been in the film industry for 12 years now. Lots of television shows and movies, mostly as a stuntman and actor. But I am also the owner of Simplicity Pictures, as you see.” He says this with a smile that almost winks. Through his production company, Peter has written, produced, directed, and acted in four short films. Currently, he looks forward to turning one of his scripts into a feature-length film. “[The script] has been doing very well internationally in writing competitions, so it’s a good story. Very timely — I’m excited to make that one.”

You have likely been an unknowing witness to Peter Jang’s work. Peter has performed stunts in a colorful variety of shows and movies — The Suicide Squad, The Forever Purge, NCIS: Hawai’i, Criminal Minds, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. being just a few of them. Although stunt actors have a reputation as lucky daredevils, Peter is sure to ward off any misconceptions about their line of work.

“A lot of people have the idea that being a stuntman is just being a daredevil. But if you’re just a daredevil, you can do that stunt only once before getting hurt. How are you supposed to do your work after that? You’re doing something physical, and yes, you’re doing something risky — but it’s a calculated risk. You have to figure out how to solve the problem; how do I get this image from this action, while keeping myself safe? There’s a lot on the line, and I think my physicality mixed with my analytical skills made me able to stick.

I'm a strong believer that you should lean into what you're passionate about, but also what you're good at. We're all bestowed with different gifts, and we're all bestowed with different experiences. As an artist, that's what we're supposed to draw off of — our experiences and our life and our identity. [Regarding stunt work], I've been doing martial arts since I was 8 years old. I was a national champion in Taekwondo quite a few times. I used to travel across the country, to compete. I never thought I would make any money doing it, but it was just something that centered me whenever I had stress. I found that martial arts really kept me healthy not just physically, but also mentally. Doing that my whole life helped me use that in the industry.”

Though a veteran in his own right, Peter Jang is grateful for those that came before him. Pulling a meticulously placed action figure of himself as “Ryu” Ranger into frame, he tells me about his experience acting as Ryu in Power Rangers Legacy Wars: Street Fighter Showdown.

“I was part of some viral YouTube videos for Bat in the Sun. They were fight videos, [and I acted as] Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, up against the White Ranger from Power Rangers. Jason David Frank, the guy that played the White Ranger way back when, actually got involved with the video — he put his face on it, and talked directly for the beginning. So that kind of started our collaboration with him. Then we moved on to do the Green Ranger versus Ryu from Street Fighter and I played Ryu [while] he played Green Ranger. [Jason David Frank] was such a great guy, and was super dedicated to his fans.” 

When Ryu was turned into a power ranger in the Power Rangers video game Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, Jason David Frank insisted that they bring back Peter Jang for the associated short film. “[Jason David Frank] was such a bright light to everybody. I'm very honored that he fought so hard for me to become a Power Ranger.”

Our conversation takes us back to Peter Jang’s work beyond stunt performing where he discusses the feature film he mentioned prior. 

“It's a science fiction drama about a man in the near future, who practices for a date with his dream girl by running simulations that are indistinguishable from reality. In the process, he loses his mind and morality. It's kind of like Groundhog Day, mixed with Inception, mixed with American Psycho.

I like the idea that it’s in this near future. The main character is involuntarily celibate, but not because of reasons we think of today. [It’s] because in this near future that I see coming, we all kind of start working from home, and we start doing all these things online. You don't really have to go out unless you really want to, and a lot of people will choose not to. So in this kind of world, it makes dating a little bit different… You kind of see that already with social media. You know, people kind of withdraw, and they have their social media life, but they don't have [much going on in] real life.”

The screenplay, titled Simulation, was ranked in the top 10 in Filmmatic’s screenplay competition (only a few rankings below the likes of Shia LaBeouf’s work, Peter notes) and was one of the top 10 finalists in the genre competition for the International Screenwriters Association. 

“It's done very well. And, you know, I'm excited to make it. Technology's kind of taking over and pushing us in different ways. I really wanted to explore the repercussions of that mentally on people — especially regarding people that have complicated lives. [The main character is] not only dealing with the simulations, but also with his personal life, where he has a father who has Alzheimer's. There's a lot of things going on inside of Simulation. I wanted to blur the lines of what’s real, and what's a simulation.”

Simulation is still in pre-production, but this doesn’t mean we’ll be without Peter Jang’s work any time soon. Most recently, Peter has directed a couple of short films. Mask, one of his latest productions, will be released in 2023. Mask follows a Veteran who is coping with his PTSD symptoms — a subject that Peter is passionate about, and had found inspiration for from his mother’s experiences as a veteran. Mask has made waves in film festivals, notably bringing Peter to receive the “Best Actor” award from the RED Movie Awards.

Breaking from older stuntman tradition, Peter has also increasingly doubled as an actor throughout the years. Many of his peers had pressured him to choose between stunt work and acting, as industry culture makes it so that “you can’t do both.” Peter admits that the logic behind this checks out. “When you start getting into leading man kind of stuff, if you get injured, the whole production has to shut down. But at the same time, there is becoming more and more of a market for people to do both acting and stunts.” Peter aims to continue filling that niche as he progresses with his career.

“Playing Ryu, becoming a Power Ranger, and getting connected with Jason David Frank kind of mixed together to become a career, and I still don't really know what to call myself sometimes. I'm not just a stunt person. I'm also an actor. I'm also a director. I'm also a screenwriter. Before, the triple threat was singing, dancing and acting, right? But now the triple threat is writing, directing, producing. It’s more like being a quintuple threat has become more and more popular. I think I'm a product of our current time.” 

Through the lens of an actor, Peter has recognized a recent push for diversity, finding it exciting, but peculiar. “It’s the old style of diversity,” he states, where characters are sometimes pigeonholed into a singular race or ethnicity. “As a mixed person, how many stories are there about us?

I've noticed that the castings now are very specific on what they want. Because I don't look like one type of race, people don't really know where to place me. A lot of times they're like, ‘maybe you can be Native American,’ and I’m like, ‘but I’m not.’ So it can get kind of difficult for me as an actor, just because I'm trying to figure out where my place is — kind of like what I've been doing my whole life. I grew up in Ohio, which was mostly Caucasian. So many people called me ‘the Asian’ in my school. But then once I left and tried to hang out with ‘the Asian crowd,’ they were like, ‘well, you're not really…’” Peter trails off, but decides to finish on an optimistic note. “I've always been trying to find my place in the world, and now I'm also trying to find my place as an actor. I've also done this to myself, being this ‘multi-head’ right now! I’m in all of the things — I see myself as an actor, writer, director, stuntman, I’m all of them. I’ve really just started realizing I can be everything. That's what the American dream is, right?”

As is customary for Peter in all of his Instagram posts, I ask him to leave us with a #QuoteOfTheDay.

“It's by Te Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia. ‘All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds Awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.’”