Episode 814 - Mr. Yuri Lowenthal
Mr. Yuri Lowenthal is a Martial Arts Practitioner and Enthusiast. He has appeared as the voice actor for Spiderman, Goku, Superman and many many others.
I went to New York from Japan and while I was there, I found a Kung Fu and Wushu school. I knew after checking out the school, I had finally found what I really love about Martial Arts. It had that fluid quality that I wanted. They were not focusing on sparring all the time. The Chinese instructor just wanted people to study Kung Fu.
Mr. Yuri Lowenthal - Episode 814
Mr. Yuri Lowenthal, a self-proclaimed nerdy kid, grew up in the 80s as Kung Fu movies and Anime started to gain popularity. Mr. Lowenthal's interest in martial arts began when his dad was working for USAID in West Africa, where they found a Korean teacher who taught Tae Kwon Do to the Nigerian police.
Lowenthal's love for Japanese culture led him to Japan, where he studied the language and joined a Shaolin Kempo Club. He even fronted an American music band at the invitation of one of the Japanese students he met. At present, when Mr. Yuri Lowenthal has free time, he does voice acting for our most beloved characters in animated films and games such as Spiderman, Goku, Superman, Ben Ten and so much more.
In this episode, Mr. Yuri Lowenthal talks about his Martial Arts Journey, his passion for its history, and his fascination for Eastern cultures. Listen to learn more!
Show notes
You may check out more about Yuri Lowenthal and his work on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0523180/
Follow Yuri on @yurilowenthal on both IG and Twitter!
Show Transcript
Jeremy Lesniak:
What's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. It is episode 814 and my guest today is Yuri Lowenthal. I'm Jeremy Lesniak. I am your host here. I'm the founder of whistlekick and I've been trained in my whole life. I love martial arts. I believe martial arts brings out the best version of ourselves and that's why we do all the things that we do. We connect, educate, and entertain traditional martial artists worldwide through this show as well as the other things that we're doing because we're trying to get everybody in the world to train for just six months. It's a big goal. I've never shied away from big goals, so I picked the biggest one I could think of. If you want to help us, if you want to learn more about what we do and how we're working on this goal, go to whistlekick.com, check out the links to the books and the events. Check out our store. Use the code podcast15 to save 15% on something in there like apparel or training equipment. A lot of great stuff over there, and it changes often. The show, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com has its own website, and it is, I say it's whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Sometimes they get in a groove on these things. Can you tell? And what are you gonna find over there? You're gonna find every episode we've ever done because we want you to be entertained. We want to connect you with martial artists worldwide, and we wanna share with you their wisdom on the road to education. If the things that we do resonate for you, please consider supporting us and please continue to support us, whether that's through our Patreon or some other method. If you wanna join the Patreon and get bonus content, you're not gonna find anywhere else as well as know who's coming up on the show. Join the Patreon. patreon.com/whistlekick starts at two bucks a month for $2 a month. You know who's coming up on the show. $5 gets you bonus episodes, and it goes up from there. Now, my guest today, I don't even know how to summarize this, I don't wanna give things away because there's some cool stuff that we talk about, and I'm afraid that if I summarize most of those parts, you know what? Let's do this, Yuri Lowenthal is somebody who started martial arts as a sort of a family thing. There was some family influence there, and let's say wandered a little bit tried some things, and twice in his story, we hear about finding the right place. All on the road to doing some really cool stuff that you're gonna recognize if not from experience, at least in name, I'll almost promise you that. But instead of the vagueness, let's just go, here's Yuri's episode. Well, thank you for doing this. I do appreciate it coming online.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Sure, certainly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And if you're good, you know, we can just kind of jump in.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Let's jump in.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I like when we just get to jump in. All right. Cool, right? So we're here. I know Andrew met you at Rhode Island Comic-Con and I'm sure you guys have had some conversations. I don't know about really any of them other than we're here now and we kind of do that by design.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But it is a martial arts show. And I know you have some martial arts background, so let's press play on the tape. Where's the first chapter that picks up with you and martial arts?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I would say, I mean, I grew up a nerdy kid in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and I'm trying to think of exactly when it started. I began training. I mean, you know, growing up. That kid in the, you know, primarily in the ‘80s there, you know, we were obsessed with you know, ninjas.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
That was…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. You weren't alone.
Yuri Lowenthal:
That was sort of where we were at. But my dad had already been studying Taekwondo for years. He was, yeah, he was, if I recall, by the time I started training, we were, here's another little curve ball. We were in West Africa, at the time, my dad worked for USAID and we had moved to West Africa. He had already been training in Taekwondo, and we found a teacher there. He was the guy who, he was a Korean guy who taught the Nigerian police Taekwondo. And he wanted to do, he wanted to teach a class for Americans as well at the embassy. And my dad was like, well, I already studied Taekwondo. And there was another guy in the community he did as well. And so they put together this class, and that's when I started my training. I started training with my dad as one of the teachers.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, that's cool. How old were you roughly at that point?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I was roughly 11, 10. 11…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Yuri Lowenthal:
At that time.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And trained the entire time that, that I was there. And then when I got back to the States when I was 14, I continued Taekwondo in Northern Virginia with obviously a different instructor. Another, still a Korean guy.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Yuri Lowenthal:
But that's where I continued my training. I don't know, do you wanna just start with the beginning parts or…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Well, it's, you know, we can go where you want to go because
Yuri Lowenthal:
Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, one of the things I've learned over the years is that the less I steer, the more the guest drives where they want to take it. And that's the stuff that they tend to really, you know, be passionate about. So you hit the points in the order you wanna go.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Okay. So I did Taekwondo. I never, my dad was a black belt, but I never got my black belt. I was just short of it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How long were you in West Africa?
Yuri Lowenthal:
And that was, I was in West Africa for four years.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And then…
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, yeah. So just Shai.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. And I, you know, when I came back to the States, you know, continue my training and just never, never quite got there. I think in retrospect, I mean, I was a kid in high school and I had a lot going on. And so I wasn't focusing on that but I also feel that I got bored with that particular style. Not because it was too easy, but just the type of form it was. It was very, it felt very rigid to me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And it was also during that time that I got into gymnastics in high school. Okay. And my two teachers there, or my two coaches were these Vietnamese martial artists and gymnasts. And they were super into Kung Fu. They had been, you know, training at Kung Fu. And we used, while we didn't do any of that training while we were practicing gymnastics, we knew they could do it. And they would occasionally do stuff and they would take us to the cool theater downtown. That was the only place that showed, you know, Kung Fu movies.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I somehow, when you said growing up as a kid in the ‘70s and the ‘80s, I knew we'd get a point where…
Yuri Lowenthal:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Went and saw Saturday Morning matinee, I'm guessing Kung Fu theater, you know, from like nine to two, right? That seems to be like what everybody did.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Exactly. That's where I was introduced to Jackie Chan. You know, like, I mean, you know, all the classics, you know, Shaw Brothers films, and so I, in, you know, in looking at those styles, I was like, ah, that's a much more fluid style. It felt somehow more interesting to me. I didn't start studying that then, but I fell in love with Kung Fu at that point. Ended up, you know, leaving, you know, Taekwondo, just just, you know, sort of giving up on it. And I mean my teacher may have been a little sadistic too. I don't know. Maybe that led to some of it. I have no idea.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But he wouldn't have been alone. They're kind of few.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially that I…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I’m sure that's not your first story like that.
Yuri Lowenthal:
No, no. And then I went to college at William and Mary in Virginia. And had fallen in love with Japan at that point. I started, I mean, again, like all kids in the eighties, you know I mean, I grew up watching, you know, Godzilla movies on Sundays, and, I was, you know, fascinated with, you know, Japanese culture and at that point, anime, even though I didn't really know, know it as much as anime like the way we do today.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And, you know, ninja Films and Samurai and, you know, all the all sort of the, you know, the cool things that kids get into when they find out about Japan. And I had started studying Japanese in my very last semester of high school. They just started this pilot program. And I had already studied some other romance languages and I'm like, oh, well Japanese sounds really interesting. Totally got into that and wanted to continue that in college. So one of the reasons I chose William and Mary was they had a burgeoning Japanese program. And so I was studying Japanese in college.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And I knew from previous experience living overseas and so on, that if I didn't get any kind of immersion, I would never truly learn the language. So I looked for ways to get to Japan. And the first way I found was a junior year abroad program that then took me to Japan, took me to Osaka. In my junior year. And when I got there, they have a club system at university, a college. Cuz we would, we were sort of on the campus of a Consta Gadi University and, I looked at all the clubs and there was, you know, like a rock and roll club and this club and that club and they had a Shaolin Ji Kempo Club. A Shaolin Kempo club, which was sort of like a very interesting bridge between Taekwondo and you know, sort of more those style arts and belts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And a much more fluid style. And so I started doing that. I was like, this is probably a good club for me to get into and studied with this. And then also as a bonus, the guys that I was, it was all Japanese students for the most part. Those guys. And I started a band together while I was there, which is ridiculous cause I'm no kind of musician or singer. But because I was this cool American guy, they were like, you've gotta front our band. We play all-American music. Anyway, and I was like
Jeremy Lesniak:
What kind of music were they? Were they doing, was it all over the place, or was it…
Yuri Lowenthal:
Well, that was exactly, that was the, yeah, I said, well, what kind of music do you guys play? And they're like, oh, we play Hard The Rock. And I'm like, awesome. I listened to a lot of, I mean, what do you guys listen to? And they're like you know, like Brian Adams and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I was expecting you were gonna say like, oh, you know Starship.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Exactly. Toto. You're like, Toto and Brian Adams. And I'm like, okay, we have different definitions of Hard Rock, but cool. Let's, I mean, look, nobody's ever been willing to gimme a chance before in a band cause I'm no good. So yeah, let's do this. So we would study during the day and then on weekends we would go and rock out in a band together.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, that was great.
Yuri Lowenthal:
I was terrible. But it was fun. And they were very supportive. And we played one wedding, I think, but it sounds like the battle of the bands. But it was super fun. And so I was doing Ji Kempo there. And then I came back to the, you know, I came back to school after my junior year abroad, and then went back to after I graduated, I went back to Japan for a couple years, but didn't continue any martial arts training. I was doing a lot of theater training. I was doing Suzuki-style theater training, which was a very physical style. And even though when I went back to Japan, I went to work for the Japanese government, it was a very bureaucratic job. I had since, you know, in the end of high school and in college, fallen in love with acting and theater and would show up to this with job and do this job that was allowing me to live there in Japan. But it was, you know, it was an old school, Japanese, you know, very bureaucratic government office, and it was not fulfilling and it was very smokey. It was, you were still allowed to smoke in the office in the, you know, early ‘90s in Japan. And. So I would, as soon as I would get off work, I would go work with, you know, Japanese theater companies and Australian theater companies and make stupid movies with my friends. And, you know I just, I found I couldn't let that part of me go. And after a couple of years in this job, I thought, wow. I'm, you know, I'm clearly in love with acting and storytelling and, you know, making movies, and I gotta, I don't wanna look back in 30 years, you know, in a, like a dead end, you know, government job and think, oh, that sounded like it could have been fun. I know the government work will be here. If this whole acting thing doesn't work out all, you know, I'll go, I'll try it and we'll see what happens. And so I left Japan, came back to the States visited. I figured I would've to start in either New York or Los Angeles. Visited both loved New York, hated Los Angeles. So moved to New York for the next six years and just did you know, experimental theater and black box theater and independent films and sort of whatever I could do. And while I was there, I found in just my last couple of years of those six years, I found a Kung Fu school, a Wushu School. I don't know why. I mean, I knew in going to check out the school that I had finally found what I really, you know, my, like, what I really loved about martial arts. I mean, that it had that fluid quality that I wanted. They were not focusing, you know, on sparring the whole time, which, you know, always used to be the case in Taekwondo. And the teacher was a Chinese guy who's a rocket scientist.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Literally?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Right? Yeah. A rocket scientist, Kung Fu, you know expert and he would, his job was rocket science, but he had opened this Kung Fu school, and I mean, he rarely came in. All his students were teaching the classes. But the really cool thing about it was that he wasn't into upsells and selling, testing, and your next belt thing. And, you know, he wasn't into the money, you know, charging you exorbitant amounts for, you know, your uniform and things like that. He just wanted people to study Kung Fu. And so it was really cheap. It was like 75 bucks a month or something like that. And I would go early in the morning before going to my day job. I worked at a bank, I worked at Citibank, and I would skate a rollerblade too, it's how I got around in New York. And which in retrospect sounds extremely dangerous. And I would never let my son do that. But I would skate to Kung Fu at and do that from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning. It was like a two-hour class. And then I would put my work clothes on my sweaty body and, and skate up to my day job. And I loved it. And I did that for like a year and a half or two years almost, and then moved to Los Angeles, where try as I might, I couldn't find a school that had the same vibe. There were Wushu schools in, more so now I think in Los Angeles, you know, so, and they were, it was like combination usually like stunt Wushu and you know, things like that. And I went and sat in on a few classes and they just didn't have that same vibe that I'd fallen in love with, which was just doing it for the love of the art that we had in New York.
Jeremy Lesniak:
People have said that about a lot of things in LA, right?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That it's all, you know, one degree of separation from acting work, you know, career work, camera work.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. And yeah, I think, you know, that might very well be the case. I haven't studied all the, you know, or visited all the schools out here. I'm sure there are some good ones, in fact. So the end of that story is I just gave up and didn't study for, you know, 20 years, while you know, while living out here. And I, you know, but I always look back fondly on, oh, I had just found what I really loved, you know, in that world, what really, you know, got to me. In the meantime I had you know, I'd been acting. And, you know, created a career that's most people know me for my voice acting stuff in video games and animation and so on. But I still do know a little bit of everything. And in fact, in one of my jobs was narrating a documentary about the history of Kung Fu films called Films of Fury which you can find out there like look it up, Films of Fury. It's a basic primer. Like if you really know Kung Fu films, you'll be like, I know all this stuff. But it's a really cool, you know, sort of quick primer for, mostly for people who aren't familiar, but it's super fun.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When you picked up that gig, how long had you been out of training?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Oh, years. Years and years and years.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But did you pick it up because you missed training or was it just complete coincidence?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I think it was part coincidence. I mean, the people who were involved in making it already knew me. And they're like, hey, you like martial arts films. hey, you're a voice actor. What would you do this? And, I, yeah. I mean, you know, obviously, I missed it, but I also still loved, you know, the like martial arts cinema and so it was still exciting for me. And so I did that. And then about seven years ago my wife and I had a son and all I could think of as he was growing up was, I want to get this kid into martial arts. It was good for me as a kid. I think it'll definitely be good for him. He's really in his body. He's got a lot of energy. But I remember looking at, I was like, Wushu probably be great. I would love for him, you know, partially because I thought it'd be great for him. And partially, you know, just as a guy living through, you know, living, you know, vicariously through his son. I wanted him to get into that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And so I thought, oh, well, my homework now is to find out if they're good, you know, if there's a good school now that's opened up in the meantime. And luckily, and you know, I did, you know, to whatever credit, I did look into some other, not just, I wasn't looking to Wushu schools. I knew I wanted him to get into martial arts. Ideally, it would've been that. But I looked at a bunch of different places and I found a school that was taught, or that is taught, Master Hu, or Shifu Hu, who's there right now, and teaching. He does it. He used to be in, you know, Kung Fu films like, I forget, some Shaolin Film with gently you can see him.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, cool.
Yuri Lowenthal:
He used to be in that, he came to the US and he and his wife started a school and they had, like, I went in and watched I audited a class with my son when he. Got, you know, to be of age. We had, I had looked into some places before and they were like, oh, you know, six is the youngest age. We'll take it. I'm like, ah, he could start earlier than that. And we looked at one place that was, it was more culty than I wanted it to be. And then finally I found this place and we went and audited the class. And I was like, holy cow. This school feels like the school that I was in love with in New York. It's very bare bones. The Shifu's really good with kids, he's very patient. He's not a task master. He understands that kids learn when they're having fun. And I was like, this is the place. And so I started my son at this school and, you know, he complained sometimes about having to go to class or whatever, but I can tell that he loves it and he's getting great at it. But I would sit there on the sidelines watching him the entire time thinking, Man, I wish I was back out there. And then I saw that one or two of the other kids in class, they had parents who would come in and train with them in the kids' class. And I thought this is perfect. I'm in my fifties now. I've got no business, you know, starting, you know, just hardcore martial arts training. This is probably the perfect gateway to get back in. And I started training again in the kids' class and I tried some of the, they had day, is it mostly like evening classes? Cause they know the kids have you know, school and stuff during the day. But they had adult classes in the mornings and I thought, I have a weird job sometimes I'm free in the morning. And I started those classes and couldn't keep those up just because my work is so erratic. I couldn't be regular with the adult classes. So I've gotten back to it in, just in working with the kids class, which is actually perfect for me in my age, I had already jumped back into it a little too hardcore and hurt myself. Cause in my head I was like, oh yeah, I just finished my Wushu train, you know, been 20 years and I was now in my fifties. You know, oh, I'm sure I can do, you know exactly what I did before and hurt myself a little bit and had to rest up and come back and start a little slower. Cuz you know, you get the kid energy going, especially with all these kids around, and I'm not, you know, as young as I used to be. But it's been fun getting back to it in a very casual way and in a way at my age where I'm not, you know when I was younger I was obsessed with, you know, perfection and getting better and excelling and getting to the next level and all of that stuff that, you know, youth brings. And now I'm like, ah, I show up to class. That's, you know, that's like the level at which I'm comfortable on the, you know, level that, that suits me right now. And it's been fun getting back into it, especially at this age, and kind of, you know, learning it again and bringing it back into my life. But yeah. It's just an interesting place to be right now.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So many places we can go with the things that you just kinda laid out.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, that I'm gonna play a guess here because you, you talked about Taekwondo and you talked about Japan and Kempo, which I've always described to people who don't know it is Kung Fu that hung out in Japan for a while.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Some of the edges got you know the soft edges got sharpened a little bit.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And talking about Kung Fu and Wushu and, but also gymnastics. And so what I'm wondering is, does it all kind of fall under the same heading for you? Is it all movement? See, some people keep martial arts in a separate box, but I'm wondering if you're not someone like that. Was gymnastics another way of expressing your body in the way Wushu was?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. And I think, you know, not to diminish either gymnastics or martial arts,
Jeremy Lesniak:
No.
Yuri Lowenthal:
But for me, it was also like a cool factor somehow. Like I thought it was all so cool. Like I thought, you know, gymnasts were cool. Flipping around was cool. You know, martial arts was cool. You know, Jim Kata for us was a big, you know, at the time. I know it is a laughable film. But we loved it cause we were on the gymnastics team and we were right also into martial arts. So like it was, I've since watched it in recent years and it is still very good for a laugh. But. Yeah, I think it does have to do with movement. When I was in Japan, I also studied butoh dance, which is a very odd you know, when seen from, you know, the outside or from the inside too, honestly. A form of dance that is a very grotesque you know, dance form that grew out of, like post-atomic, you know, Japan. And is sort of the anti-ballet. It's slow and not fluid at all, and, you know ugly and, but I was, I'd always been fascinated by it. Most of the practitioners you know, paint, you know, shave their bodies and, you know, paint their, you know, paint themselves entirely white. And it's, it's very striking to look at and. I think when you look at the theater that I studied there and the dance that I studied there and you know, martial arts and so on, I guess I've never really thought about it this way. And which is one of the reasons I was excited to come on this show because I've never really looked at my life from a, you know, martial arts or movement perspective. I always talk about it in terms of, oh, you know, acting or, you know, languages, traveling, whatever. But it is interesting to see how often I was entranced by movement and studied movement in one form or another. And yet I don't, because I never, you know, I never became a dancer. I never even, you know, became a professional martial artist, any of that. I never really look at myself as a movement professional or somebody whose life is steeped in movement and yet, What you're laying bare right now is it looks like that maybe I have been.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. It's, you know, over the years as I talk to different people and you know, I'm thinking about an episode that we released yesterday. Of course, this will air a few weeks into the future, but yesterday we released an episode with Rick Worthy, I don't, you know him by name. You would certainly recognize him. His IMDB is incredibly long. And The Magicians and Supernatural and a bunch of other stuff. And one of the things that we found through our conversation, even though it's been a long time since he's formally and actively trained, because he, like you, started training early because it was such a passionate thing. It became this perspective that he looked at the world with and he looked at his acting, looks at his acting with, and that's kind of, I'm hearing something similar with you that. You know, 'cause what's acting if you just stand there, right? It's kind of boring. And, I suspect it's not an accident that of the images you sent over, you know, the more prominent one is you in a motion capture seat, right? Literally right in the name motion.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Right. Motion. You're absolutely right. And it's been interesting seeing how, you know, I started in theater which is very physical and, you know, went into, you know, film and TV and then found voice acting, which you don't get to see my body when I'm acting. And yet I'm very physical behind the mic. And I think it's part of what really brings my performance to life is feeling it in my body, even though you can't see my body.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And even though I don't have a, you know, freedom of movement, you know, when I'm right behind, you know, the mic here, I can't just go all over the place cause the mic is what picks up the performance. Although, I will say, you know, it's so much of what I do in video games is. And if you've played video games, it's a lot of, you know, combat-type things. Yeah. And some actors are very uncomfortable at doing, making, like physical sounds. And yet, you know, I've been keying, you know, my entire, you know, life. And so like, and you know, when I'm throwing punches, there are sounds, and when I'm, you know, doing those kind of movements, there are sounds, and that I think that has really colored my performances. But then to find myself, you know, back to video games, coming back to a place where video games employ a lot of motion capture now. And they're looking for actors who are good voice actors, but also who have, you know, movement backgrounds and theater backgrounds. And while I do have extremely, you know, talented stunt doubles for games like Marvel, Spider-Man the, a lot of, you know, the, all the acting part is me and then my, you know, my double steps in. And it's like this fantastic dance where, you know, a scene might have some acting components and then some action components. And I'll do the scene up until a certain point and then my stunt double steps in and finishes the scene with the action. And it's been a very cool dance, like I've said, and dance again back to, you know, back to movement, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
We can call it a dance, we can call it a fight, we can call it a scene, right? it's all roughly the same stuff. You know, I haven't seen you do voiceover work, but I've, we've all seen plenty of, you know, b roll and behind-the-scenes stuff of people doing voiceover, and what do we see? The good ones are moving around. We see their hands. If you see people record music, right? The passionate music, they're, their hands are all over the place and they're right on the mic because they've gotta be right there because they're trying to bring so much of it forward. And it sounds like it's all the same stuff. So here, before we go to some other stuff. I gotta ask why gymnastics, right? Because you come back from West Africa. So unless you're the only person who's experienced this, I'm imagining you're stepping back into a school where, you know, people are like, oh, there's the new kid. He used to live in Africa. And probably not always an easy transition.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And maybe was different where you were, but I'm not familiar of an area of the country where boys' gymnastics was broadly considered popular.
Yuri Lowenthal:
No, exactly. We were a football school, like, you know, many schools. I mean, you know, whether they, there were a fair amount of sports there, but you know, the sport was like football and baseball. And, the gymnastics team was small and underfunded. You know, old equipment. But the people who joined it were really, you know, hardcore. And it's funny because, not funny, I started when I was a, started doing gymnastics when I was a sophomore in high school, which if you know anything about gymnastics, most kids start gymnastics when, like when they're four.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And they do gymnastics their whole lives. And by the time that they're a sophomore in high school, they're super flexible and really good. And I was just starting, like, I was starting so late to the game, that I knew I would probably never be really good at it. Because most people who, you know, get really good at it started when they were Right. You know, right after they were born. But I knew it was something that excited me. And the, I think it still went back to, you know, martial arts. You know, I, you know, the cool martial arts film is, you know, there's a lot of flipping and handspring and I saw that in, you know, in gymnastics. I was always fascinated that part in gymnastics. I wanted to be flipping around and cartwheeling around. And there were other things that I had to learn.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, there were all these other I forget what they call them, you know, specialties or whatever in what's your favorite, what's your best disciplines?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Disciplines? Not just, but there's like, there's the rings and…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Parallel bars and you know, floor of exercise and event. What's your best event? You, I was used to asking and mine, I tumbling was always what I was into. I learned all the other stuff. I was terrible at Vault. I'm very like bottom heavy because I grew up doing martial arts and playing soccer and ice hockey. And so, and as a matter of fact, my You obviously can't see it here or hear it. But like I have strong like thighs. And my dad did too. I think it was partially genetic thing. We call them the Lowen thighs for my last name. And because my dad had the same thighs, I've got these thighs. So, you know, we're sort of strong in our lower half. And I did a lot of sports that contributed to that. And so getting to gymnastics, it behooves you to be lighter on the bottom and, you know, really strong on top. So I already had some of that going against me, and certain things were much harder. But I loved, you know, I loved the tumbling aspect. And I had already, you know, been in martial arts, so I had, you know, a flexibility component going for me. That helped in, you know, balance. There was a lot of, you know, a lot of my martial arts history and experience came to, you know, came to bear in my gymnastics as well. And that, and mostly in, you know, in tumbling. So that was my favorite event.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're almost describing gymnastics as martial arts. I mean, the way you talked about tumbling and kind of bringing forward what you saw in the movies. Yeah. So it's…
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah, and I guess it was, yeah, it was closer to the type of martial arts that, it's funny, I, you know, left Taekwondo and went to gymnastics in an effort probably to get closer to the types of martial arts that I thought were cool.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
You know, the stuff that I saw in movies, you know, the Kung Fu and that type of thing, it was sort of the closest I could get to that. And even though I was starting late, it was fun. And what, and, you know, ended up being great because it turned out those first two coaches.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that's what I, that's kind of why I wanted to go into the gymnastics subject. I wanted to talk about that. Did you know that they had martial arts experience when you joined gymnastics?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Not when I joined the team…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Complete luck.
Yuri Lowenthal:
To do martial arts. It was total luck. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. And did they know about your taekwondo background? And did you have conversations you remember anything about that?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I don't remember, but it must have come up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. But they were amazed, you know, like, you know, occasionally you'll meet somebody and you won't know that they're martial arts and then they pull something and you're like, oh, wow. You're really like, these two guys were magic. And they were really light and light and would pull stuff out. Like, I remember once, one of the coolest things I saw when I was doing gymnastics and they were coaching There's a, you know, a high bar where, you know, people swing, you know what they call giants around a high bar. And then you would release from the high bar and, you know, you'd do your dismount, you know, your lips and land. Ty was showing us something once and he released late. And so instead of going out and he released over the bar and was doing his dismount and his air sentence was really good and he ended up doing his flip and then landing on top of the bar, which I've never seen anybody do before. And still in my head is one of the most amazing things I've seen do physically.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've never seen anything like that.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. And balanced on like, I mean, like, he was like a cat. I don't know. Those guys were the coolest. And I, you know, there's sometimes I think back on them and I'm like, and I wonder where they are. I wish I had kept up with them. You know, we kept up with them for a few years cause they only coached. I think the gymnastics team for the first couple of years that I was on it. And then they left to go do other stuff and we got a more, you know, sort of classic gymnastics coach who had actually, graduated from William and Mary where I ended up going. So when I went and started doing gymnastics at William and Mary, which didn't last long, I did varsity gymnastics for maybe two years. And I realized, I think at that point it caught up to me that I had started late and I was not as good as the rest of the team. And while they were very, you know, welcoming and very supportive, I was more interested at that point in studying Japanese and doing theater. And so I was spending most of my time in the theater anyway.
Jeremy Lesniak:
When I think the one piece that we don't really have yet is when you thought about acting as a career, it seems like the interest grew, but I mean, let's face it, most people who get into acting never make it a career.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah, true. And I never, and for a while, I didn't think, it never even seemed like an option. I mean, I certainly didn't grow up in a family of artists or actors or nor did I know anybody like that. Growing up, I just assumed that I would go into international relations in some form or another, like my dad and something ha, like in my last year of high school, I had always sort of wanted to try acting. I mean, I always loved, you know, I loved movies and I, you know, I loved storytelling and I rolled radio shows and just, you know, just, you know, to as an appreciator of that sort of thing. And I'd found writing too. I loved writing, so I fell in love with storytelling in one form or another. I was writing short stories and things like that and plays and, but, I had never really thought I'd always wanted to try acting, but I was always so busy doing gymnastics or martial arts, or playing Dungeons and Dragons or, you know, collecting comics or, you know, like all the stuff that I was into at the time. Yeah. That I never committed to trying it. And I think in my last year of high school, I realized that if I didn't try it, then I would go off to college and I would be sort of, you know, not fully formed. But I, you know, I probably wouldn't try it if I didn't try it. Then in high school, so my last year of high school I tried out for a play and got into a drama class and fell in love with it that year. And when I was looking for a college, also looked for a college that, you know, the things that I was looking for in a college was Japanese theater program and gymnastics, which was sort of all the things that I had, I was interested in, right? Then. And William and Mary had all of those things. And I ended up going there much to my father's chagrin. And I, you know, he was a, his alma mater was Williams. And I'd gotten in there and I ended up not going to his alma mater, but in retrospect, because he was the one paying for college you know, going to William and Mary was like a state school. There was a, you know, we had a really good tuition break. And in the end he, I think he was happy that it ended up being far cheaper for me to go to William and Mary. But I, you know, I, even when I was in college and doing theater and in love with acting, it didn't seem like a, like it could ever be a reality, you know, that seemed like, you know, something that other people did. You know, that was never gonna happen for me and I could enjoy it, but I would go into international relations like my dad and I didn't, you know, get a theater degree, although I had almost enough credits to double major just cause I was spending so much time in the theater and taking so many classes. I majored in East Asian studies because I was studying Japanese at the time, and it seemed the right course. And then, you know, right outta college started working for the Japanese government, local government office in Japan. And so I was basically on track to be doing that kind of work. And could have, I was enjoying myself. I was loving being in Japan, but that I had already gotten the itch, you know, I had already, I'd already gotten hooked and, you know, back to, you know, sort of where we started the conversation, that was where I, you know, I had to come back and try it and see how it worked out. And thankfully…
Jeremy Lesniak:
When?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I mean, it didn't work out right away. I, although I will say one of the things I believe you have to have to succeed in this business. Not that I know what it takes to succeed. Everybody has a completely different path. You have to love it. And because you're not going to get paid most of the time, and it's definitely not when you're first starting out. And there has to be something that's driving you. And I loved it. And, you know, the six years that I was in New York, just, you know, acting in black box theaters for, you know, less people in the audience than were on stage most of the time was that I just, I loved it. And that carried me through to a point where I finally moved out to Los Angeles with my wife and we were looking for other ways to earn a living as actors besides TV and film.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And she's also an actor. Okay.
Yuri Lowenthal:
She's also an actor. Yeah. We came out together, got married along the way, actually. We eloped in Vegas from on the way out from New York to Los Angeles. And 21 years we just celebrated.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Congratulations.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Thank you. But you know, we were looking for other ways to earn a living out here besides TV and film, which is very hard to, you know, break into. And even when you're well known for it, the jobs sometimes are few and far in between. And we needed to earn a living. And we were looking for something besides waiting tables and working an office job. And she said, well, what about voice acting? And I was like, wow, I wish I had thought of that first. I'm, you know, I'm the resident nerd in this family. Like, I grew up watching cartoons, playing video games. Why didn't I think of that? And it was, again, it was this, the belief that job but, you know, wasn't somehow an option for me. It was like, you know, I didn't know anything about voice acting. I'd studied acting, but not voice acting. There were no voice acting classes at the time when I was studying. And you just sort of, you look at that sort of world from the outside and you're like, oh, well there are like five people who do that, who do all the jobs. You know, there's like Mel Blanc and you know, Kevin Conroy, whoever…
Jeremy Lesniak:
And Morgan Freeman.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And Morgan Freeman, exactly. Depending on what you wanna do. They're like five people who do that. And good luck, you know? Yeah. I knew how to audition for TV and film and theater, but I had no idea. And so we took a class and, you know, like, I mean, that's always the best place to start, you know, take a class. And the teacher for that class got a job directing a Japanese anime dub and dubbing into English, and he started auditioning his students. And I got a job doing that. And that, and possibly the fact that I spoke Japanese, you know, at that point, Was felt like a, you know, a good fit. And it was something that, and I'd grown up watching, you know, anime and cartoons and it was like, this is a good fit. And once I got into sort of that side of it was an entree into, you know, other parts of the business. And you know, 20, 21 years later, and here we are.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So when we talk about a role, like acting in a video game, right? You brought up Spider-Man.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It kind of feels like all the pieces and it feel, it's really interesting because you know, if we go back, you know, I can't imagine that you at, you know, Kung Fu theater on Saturday morning. Weren't sitting there as the rest of us did, saying, I want to do that. I want to be that. I want to embody that. And that's, you know, for the audience, they may not realize that the video game industry is actually larger than the movie industry at this point. I suspect you know, that by just, by raw dollars, more dollars are spent on video games. And I believe it's part of that, right? There's, you know, the time, right? Replay value and things like that. But I think it's also, it's easier to see yourself as part of the story. So here we have you playing a character solely so other people can be that character. And it just kind of, it's interesting to me cause it kind of stacks up all these things that, you know, your skillsets, but also these things that you've spoken so passionately about today.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. It's funny to look at it from that perspective, but yeah, you're right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Do you have anything coming up you can talk about?
Yuri Lowenthal:
The new Spider-Man game is coming out this year. Okay. I know from people who were fans of the first game, they've been waiting for it for a while and they won't have to wait much longer. It's coming out this fall. I can't say much more than that because they don't want me to.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Yuri Lowenthal:
There's a game coming out in just a few weeks from now, so probably right about the time. According to you that this might be airing called Red Fall, which is get your friends together and fight vampires kind of game which has been really fun as well. My wife and I are always still you know, working on putting together our own projects as we do in our spare time. Although since we had a child, it's the time for that sort of thing has been less but we're still, you know, writing and trying to create projects as well.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice.
Yuri Lowenthal:
And yeah, I mean, we're just still doing it, still, you know living the dream as best we can, and now studying Wushu again, which is…
Jeremy Lesniak:
So let's…
Yuri Lowenthal:
Which has been fun. And to be there with my son, I mean, my dad is, you know, when I look back, my dad was always the assistant coach. Like when we were doing hockey, he was always on the ice. You know, when we, when I was playing baseball or soccer like he was always one of the assistant coaches. And it's, while I'm not, you know, any kind of coach in Wushu being there, you know, on the floor with him has been, you know, really cool and a really cool connection that we share now.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What was it like shaking the rust off that first class?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Oh, it's terrible. Oh, it's the worst.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How'd you feel the next day? Do you remember?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah. Cause 20 years, you know, feels like, you know, when you're, you know when you're a, you know, a guy in your 50s who still, you know, plays. You know, 15-year-old characters or, you know, gets to be Spider-Man, you know, in his fifties. You still think there's a part of who still think that you're that age and so you know, hitting that reality has been tough. And again, like I had to realize I gotta slow weight down cause I'm not the guy that I was or I don't have the body that I did, you know, 50 years ago, or sorry, 20 years ago. But it's been an interesting adjustment. Sometimes painful on the, you know, on the body and sometimes just painful on the psyche. But it's been cool. Really cool.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's great. And is he still digging? It seem like this could be something that he spend some time with?
Yuri Lowenthal:
He cause he just wants to, you know, come home and play at home with us. And I have to drag him to class. I mean, you know I was the same way, but he's still doing…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Most kids are but on the ride home, he is. Yeah. Probably pretty jazzed.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Exactly. And even, you know, when he's there, You know, he loves doing it. Like he gets into it. it's just dragging him there sometimes. But, you know, he is six, so, I get it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nice.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah, no, it's fun. I mean, you know, I complain about having to drive all the way to, I was hoping we would've found a school that was much easier to get to, but you know, it takes, you know, it's Los Angeles, you gotta drive everywhere. But it's worth it. I mean, it's a great school, and the vibe there is great and the Shifu is awesome.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay, good. I'm glad you found it again.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Does that, jumping back in, does that change anything with the gigs or the roles you're looking for, or maybe the projects that you're working on for yourself is, does opening that martial arts store again make you think differently about work?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I mean, I always. You know, sort of getting back into something or learning something new. Cause I almost look at it as, you know, this at this stage, you know, 20 years later and, you know, being my age, I almost look at it as learning something new again, starting over again. And I think it's helpful at this age to find things. I just, like, I just started learning to try to, you know, play guitar. I had tried, you know, a misfire several years ago and, not misfire, but I, you know, tried to give up very quickly. I'm trying to learn new things at this age. It feels important somehow to do things that I'm not good at. And try to learn to get better too, you know, to stay focused and stay sharp that then sort of, you know, leeches out into the rest of, you know, my life and, you know, everything I'm doing to lend you know, something new to that. So getting back to it has, you know, given me that energy. I think, you know, in other things as well. I'll always try to work, you know, martial arts in one way or another into my projects where I can. We did a short film several years back and, there was a scene, it was a fight scene in it that we choreographed and, I was, again, I was disappointed in how many years had gone by since I had trained. I was like, oh, wow. I thought this would look really cool. But it always finds its, you know, finds its way in. But you know, one of my, you know, I try to do a little bit of everything, you know, one of my sort of idols from Hong Kong cinema is Chow Yun-fat. And he is like the consummate, like I've always idolized him because, or looked at him as a model because like he can do everything. Like he's great. Sure. He is an action star. But he's also really good at slapstick comedy. Yeah. And he's also really good as a, you know, romantic lead. And he's also really good as the villain. Like, I mean, he can do anything.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And he's as well known as he is, I think he's still dramatically underrated.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Oh, 100%. And I, years ago, I, you know, that's what I should see. I'll send you the, or remind me, send me an email, Jerry, and I will send you, I just uncovered a photo of me and Michelle Yeoh when I was in New York in the 90s I was, I would help out with these film retrospectives. There was a company that would bring in, that would do Hong Kong film retrospectives. And I would offer my services to, you know, help out in any way, hey, so I could, you know, meet Hong Kong film stars and so I could go to the movies for free. You know, I just, so, I just wanted to be there. But yeah, that one day they asked me if I would escort basically be the bodyguards for Gently and Michelle Yeoh and I, to this day, I think that's hilarious that they would've asked me or anyone really to do something like that. But on one of those in one of those retrospectives, it was Chow Yun-fat retrospective, and they, he was doing a signing, an autograph signing after one of the screenings, and I got in line to get his autograph. And there were, you know, every, it was at a time when he was really, you know, popular among a, you know, very sort of culty set of, you know, filmed people. And, you know, Quentin Tarantino was sort of bringing 'em to the forefront and, you know, people were learning more about Hong Kong cinema. So the line was actually pretty long. And it was New York a lot of film nerds in New York and I, then I got up to him and they cut off the line right behind me. So I was the last guy and there was still a lot of unhappy, you know, people behind me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Yuri Lowenthal:
So I was the last guy to get up to him. And I had planned out sort of my plan of attack. And I was and I went up to him and I said hey, Mr. Chow, I'm sure your hand is very tired from signing all these autographs, and you've been here a long time. So instead I would like to give you my autograph. And I gave him a headshot, of, you know, the acting headshot that I was using, that I had signed. And he looked down at it. He got, he was a momentarily, very confused. He looked down at it and he looked up to me and he said, you're an actor? And I said yes. I'm, that's what I'm starting to be right now. And he stood up and he took his hand in both, you know, he shook my hand with both of his hands, you know, like this. And he said I look forward to working with you someday. And I'm, you know, I'm sure it was just, you know, polite lip service. And I know, you know, now, I'm in a position sometimes where I'm at conventions and I'm signing autographs and, you know, a lot of, you know, people who, you know, wanna act, come up and, you know, and, but I always try to connect with those people because I understand what those words meant to me that day. He may not, it may have been a passing thing, a passing politeness for him, but for me, you know, on, you know, dark nights of the soul, when I didn't know what I'd gotten myself into with acting, I had that as a, you know, just something to hold onto was, you know, like a rock and, you know in a stormy sea. And it was like Chow Yun-fat said that he wanted to work with me someday, or, you know, I should at least, you know, keep going. So that one day I get an opportunity to do that. And then it meant so much to me that then, you know when I'm interacting with fans that at conventions and so on, I really try to be, you know, I'm very present. No matter how tired I am, no matter how many people have come before, try to be very present. Cause I will always remember what those words meant to and still continue to mean to me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What a great story. That's powerful. Yeah. I made a note. I'll email you.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Excellent. Good. I'll send that picture. I wish I had a picture of me and Chow Yun-fat thought, but yeah, that is a picture of me and standing with Michelle Yeoh, who was the sweetest can be and nobody deserves the success. Like she, like actually her and Kiwi Kwan also.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Talk about persistence with her. I mean, finally, after she's been doing it for how long she's being broadly recognized. I mean, so many of us have recognized her for a very long time and said, you're killing it. But now the whole world's saying, oh, okay, I guess you're actually pretty good at what you do.
Yuri Lowenthal:
Exactly. Yeah. That film punched through, you know, figuratively and literally, and yeah. Became what it did. It's just, I love it. I love it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How can people find you? You're on social media?
Yuri Lowenthal:
Yes, I'm on social media. Who knows what the future holds for Twitter? But it's where I interact most, you know, with people. I'm @yurilowenthal on Twitter. I'm also @yurilowenthal on Instagram. Although I'm old and find myself, you know, interacting less on there. But yeah, no, you can find me, you can, you know, I'm easily stalked online.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Awesome. Well, I appreciate being here today, and this is where I kind of throw it back to you one more time. How do you wanna leave this for the audience? What words?
Yuri Lowenthal:
I just, I guess just to say that you never know how, I mean, getting into martial arts, you never know how it will impact your life. There's the way that you think it will which is, you know when one, that one night when you're getting mugged in the alley, you're gonna kick that person's ass and you're gonna, you know, feel, you know, like a badass. But I think you should leave yourself open to the ways in which it will affect your life that you won't even see coming. And that you will, that will constantly surprise you. And sometimes you won't even realize until you're on a podcast about martial arts cause there's a lot more than just kicking ass.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I wanna thank you for sticking around. Did you enjoy that episode with Yuri Lowenthal? I sure did. I had a great time talking to him. Growing up, Spider-Man was my favorite superhero, and the idea that I just talked to someone who got to be Spider-Man multiple times, that is one of the coolest things in the world. In fact, if I could go back and tell my five-year-old self someday you're gonna talk to the guy who became Spider-Man, I don't think I would know what to do. I think I'd probably start crying or something. How cool. Yuri, thanks for coming on. Thanks for sharing everything, for being so open. I appreciated our conversation. Audience, but check out his IMDB or any of the other stuff we've got linked in the show notes is social media, et cetera. If you wanna support our continued work here to bring you, great guests, please consider supporting us. Join the Patreon at patreon.com/whistlekick, as well as any of the other many, many things that you can do to help us out. Check out the family page if you're looking for ideas. Two more. You wanna hand me out for a seminar? Let's do it. I've got a unique method of teaching that applies to everything, and I don't teach you how to kick. I teach you how to learn how to kick and how to practice kicking as an example, and it's been quite successful. People love it. They generally get invited back for seminars at a pretty high rate, so I'm doing something right. The other thing you might consider is we have a team here that we use to help Martial Arts schools grow. I lead the team as you might expect, and whether success to you is growth in numbers or growth in dollars or something else, we can help you with it. We're not gonna tell you you have to do it this way. We're gonna work with you to identify what is important to you and help you get better at that and grow in the way that is successful to you. You want to talk to me about that or the seminar thing or anything else? Email me jeremy@whistlekick.com. I look forward to your feedback. Our social media is @whistlekick everywhere you might think of. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.