Tony Jaa – performance artist, wall tagger

In the midst of preparations for Tom-Yum-Goong 2, still in production, with prominent guest stars being added, and still due for release sometime next year, the post-meltdown, post-monkhood, now-married-family-man martial-arts star Tony Jaa recently took time away from the movie shoot to put on a live performance at the opening of an exhibition of street art inspired by him.

“Pride of the Nation #1 Tony Jaa” at Bangkok's Artery Postmodern Gallery features various interpretations of the Ong-Bak star, from his fierce side, as represented in a Hulk-like green-hued painting, to his gentler side, as symbolized by a little boy in a pink bunny costume, his arms clutched around the trunk of an elephant.

Here's more, from The Nation's Soopsip column yesterday:

“I’m into martial arts, so I get my inspiration from watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li,” he said at the opening of an exhibition of art that he in turn inspired.

Jaa put on a show of his own while musicians played and graffiti makers did their thing.

In another corner, Patcharapon “Alex Face” Tangruen explained that Jaa’s affection for animals led him to draw the actor as a cute boy with an elephant. “I noticed his soft side during our workshop.”

Cecê Nobre from Brazil emphasised Jaa’s eyes in a portrait of bravery and determination. “He doesn’t need to flex the muscles to show his courage.”

Good stuff, but Jaa believes everyone can succeed in whatever they do. “You’ve just got to have belief in your work.”

Read on at Soopsip for more news of another film in the works, a biopic of the Myanmar fortuneteller "ET", planned by Kantana's Nirattisai Kaljaruek.

You can see more of Tony Jaa in a video from Thai PBS, embedded below.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 is now set for a Thai release in May 2013. Head over to Twitch for more discussion about that.