John Cho Responds to Fans Who Think He's Too Old for His 'Cowboy Bebop' Role

John Cho is reacting to some controversy surrounding his Cowboy Bebop casting.

The 49-year-old actor plays bounty-hunter Spike Spiegel in the live-action adaptation of the anime, which is set to be released on Netflix this fall.

In an interview with Vulture, John shared his thoughts on fans who felt he was too old to play Spike, who is 27 in the original show.

Click inside to see his response…

“The biggest fear that I had was I was too old,” he admitted. “I knew people were gonna have issues with my age. And I had to get over it.”

“I’m not a person who says age is just a number or whatever. It was gonna be harder — physically. And I was gonna look different than a 25-year-old guy,” he continued. “At some point, the opportunity is ‘Yes or no — do you wanna do it?’ And I did wanna do it. So I wasn’t gonna stop myself from doing it.”

John went on to say there are some benefits to having an older actor take on the role.

“First of all, I couldn’t have done it when I was 27,” he said. “I mean, maybe I would’ve been better suited athletically, but in terms of my discipline, I am strangely better suited at this age. I don’t think I would’ve done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike. There’s always a trade-off. What young men are typically best at as actors is rage. And that might’ve been a more pronounced element in the character. What I’m better at, being older, is showing weakness and vulnerability and love. Those things are more accessible to me. Personally, I’d prefer the version I’m able to do now. That’s my taste.”

He also discussed the injury he sustained on the set of the show, which forced production to half for 7-9 months.

He told the outlet he “felt very guilty that I had let the production down, and my cast, and the crew in New Zealand that had had a job, and then they didn’t the next day.”

“I didn’t feel that I could come back and half-ass this role,” he added. “I had to take it deadly seriously. It was people’s livelihoods and I wanted every single person on the set to know that I was doing my best every single day. Which sounds Boy Scout-ish, but it was the truth. Maybe it was an apology that took a whole season for me to express. Because I felt so responsible for that upheaval in a whole crew’s lives.”

Cowboy Bebop is set to premiere on Netflix on November 19. Check out a first look at the show here!