37. Podcast Special SHANG-CHI | Interview with Florian Munteanu | Mindset & “Chi”

Hi everyone and welcome to Project Mindset. This channel is for all of you who know that with the right mindset, anything is possible in life. Today we have a podcast special for you. As always, it’s about mindset, but today we’ll also be discussing other topics. First, the new Marvel film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. And second, a super interesting and, for me personally, a real highlight interview with actor Florian Monteano, who plays Razorfist in the film.

Great character, great role in this film. And it’s about the topic of Chi, the Chinese word for life force or life energy. Now, you might be wondering what these topics have to do with each other and why I’m so passionate about talking about them. So, let me give you some context first. I personally really enjoy podcasting. I love talking about mindset topics and my experiences, how I’ve dealt with certain situations in my life, when I’ve had a huge failure, and how I managed to get back up and keep going.

What a podcast can achieve

And to be honest, I’m happy if listeners can take away even just one thing from one of my podcasts. That thing changes their lives, for example. Then I’ve done my job, so to speak. Because I know very well that sometimes it’s enough to simply change your perspective. You deal with certain topics or things that happen in life differently. Because, as I’ve said before, in many things or topics that happen in life, even negative things, there are, I would say, almost always positive aspects that you can learn from them.

As I mentioned, I really enjoy podcasting. Unfortunately, it does have one drawback: the discussion is relatively one-sided. Podcast platforms are typically structured so that the podcaster talks, produces their content, shares it, and feedback usually only comes through a review on the platform, such as Apple Podcasts. Please don’t forget to leave a review yourself, or send me an email. I usually share my email address as well: halloatprojectmindset.de.

Occasionally, personal feedback also comes from people close to me. I really appreciate that, of course, but still, the communication is relatively one-sided. So it’s all the more gratifying when I simply receive feedback. But what was a real highlight for me recently was an email I received. I have to admit, at first I didn’t take it seriously; I didn’t really read it properly. It sounded a bit like spam to me.

The inquiry regarding the Marvel film

It was something about a new film and whether I could imagine somehow connecting my podcast mindset theme with it. To be honest, I didn’t really pay attention to it at first. A short time later, I think it was actually a week or two, I received a reminder email. “Yes, dear Mr. Mehman, can you imagine actually talking a bit about the podcast, saying something?” Well, I thought to myself, okay, I’ll read the email very carefully now. Maybe there’s something to it, maybe there’s something I’d really enjoy.

And indeed, it was about the new Marvel movie Shang-Chi, and for those who don’t know, I’m a huge Marvel fan. I mean, seriously, I’ve seen every single movie in the MCU, the Marvel Comic Universe, at least once. I absolutely love watching them. My little one is also a huge Marvel fan, even though he’s never seen a movie. But we play with the characters, we talk about how strong the Hulk is, how awesome Captain America is, and so on. Even he’s a Marvel fan, despite never having seen a movie.

How the interview came about

And after reading through the email, I thought, okay, give it a try, I’ll call and find out exactly how it would work. I actually spoke with a super friendly woman. We talked about whether it would be a good fit, especially since I’m completely unpaid – I really want to be transparent here, everything I did was unpaid – and whether I could imagine talking about it. And I also think the topic is an extremely good fit, because the name Shang-Chi, as you can already tell, incorporates the concept of Qi, or life energy.

So, on the one hand, it was clear to me: hey, I can do something for Marvel, how cool is that? And on the other hand, the mindset theme fits extremely well. Then, the woman also told me that if I wanted, I could interview one of the actors from the film, Florian Monteano, because there are a few videos on my YouTube channel where I’ve done interviews. I was like, yes, absolutely! That really interests me, so I’d love to do it.

From Creed 2 to Shang-Chi

I already knew the actor from another film, Creed 2, also a fantastic film, you all have to see it. He acted alongside legends like Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan, and Dolph Landgrain—really, I’d say top-tier Hollywood talent. That’s how I already knew Florian Monteano. So it was absolutely clear to me that I would love to do this interview. But, I’ll get back to the interview in a moment. What was also really cool for me, and what I really appreciated, was getting feedback on my podcast.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve had a podcast for a while now. I really enjoy producing the content. But I haven’t gotten much feedback. And as is often the case when you’re releasing a podcast every week—I try to stick to a weekly schedule—and occasionally making a YouTube video with interviews, well, you naturally need some motivation yourself, even though I’m quite critical when it comes to motivation.

I think discipline is much more important than motivation, but to be honest, it feels good to just hear that someone sees it, that someone hears it, that they think it’s cool. That you can somehow continue from there. So, perhaps a little message here for everyone who is currently working on certain things in their life and maybe hasn’t received direct feedback yet. Yes, sometimes you get feedback a little later, but perhaps it’s all the better for it.

Feedback on your own podcast

I really have to say, as I just mentioned, the feedback was incredibly gratifying – the fact that people find my podcast when searching for “mindset,” that they appreciate the quality. That they like the YouTube videos. That really did me good. But now back to the interview and the film. We had arranged with the PR firm that I could see the film in advance. I did that in Munich. It was a fantastic film. It’s in theaters now.

I can really only recommend watching it. And after the preview, so to speak, where I got to see it in advance, I was then able to do the interview with Florian. That took place the following day. The whole thing was in Munich, at the Bayerischer Hof. It was a lot of fun. Florian Mutterano is a really, really nice guy. We had a great conversation. I had 20 minutes. I asked all the questions that were important to me. He also gave really inspiring answers. One of the sentences that stuck with me the most was, among other things, “Where is no magic pill?”

Hard work, discipline, and consistency

And what that means for me, or rather, what I think Florian understood it to mean, is that you simply have to put in hard work, consistency, and discipline if you have big goals, big visions, big dreams for yourself. And with him, I definitely believe that. Because, when you consider that he took Hollywood by storm, coming from Bavaria. And I think that’s actually not so easy. His first film was Cree 2. That was already a really, really good film.

With Sylvester Stallone. His second film, the new Shang-Chi Marvel movie. His third film is coming soon. So I think if anyone can talk about big dreams and visions, it’s him. He actually achieves the things he sets out to do. And in the podcast, we also talk about the skills you need to achieve these dreams and visions. I highly recommend everyone give it a listen. And just a quick word about the film, or rather, the character of Shang-Chi. I was also wondering, hey, what does Chi actually represent?

And I’d had contact with friends before who were involved with Chi or Tai Chi. From a mindset perspective—and I’ll get to that in a moment—there’s a very important point about Chi that I completely understand and fully support: what it actually means, what it means to me. But perhaps we should briefly define what Chi actually means. Chi is essentially like life energy that flows through the entire universe, affecting and flowing everywhere.

Chi and the search for inner balance

So, personally, that’s how I understand Chi. The meaning of Chi is also—and this is incredibly interesting to me—the search for human balance within the universe and also within one’s own inner being. And I think that’s one of the topics that’s particularly relevant to me: equilibrium, or, as I call it, balance. I also talked extensively about balance in another interview. It’s a recurring theme for me, both in a podcast and in the interview with Bill Schlichter, which you can also find on YouTube or here on the podcast channel.

What balance in everyday life means

For me, balance really means—or let’s start from that perspective—balance is important because I believe that having too much of one thing can lead to unhappiness. What I mean by that is that, for me, family comes first. Family is truly the most important thing in my life. But that doesn’t mean I have to, or should, be spending 24 hours a day with my family. Because, aside from the fact that you’ll eventually drive each other crazy, being happy in life also means taking care of other important things—perhaps not as your top priority, but maybe even as a second or third.

For a healthy life, you should exercise, you should pay attention to nutrition, and you should examine your habits. That means something can be incredibly important, like family, but on the other hand, there are other topics that are also extremely important in life. And there really are many such topics. So, for me—and I think anyone who listens to me knows this—exercise is important. My wife would chime in, “I’m a workaholic,” and work is important, yes, it is, but meeting up with friends is also important.

Friendships as part of the balance

Many people underestimate how good it feels to simply drink a glass of wine or a beer with friends outside, to just have a good time, to be distracted, and even to have deep conversations. That’s at least as important, for me, as exercise, even though I do exercise much more often than I meet up with friends. But that’s the interesting thing about Chi: it’s all about balance in life.

As I said, you can listen to the interview episode with Bill Stichter again, because it’s also about him having three children, his startup, he’s incredibly busy, doing sports at the same time, and of course taking care of his wife – exactly the kinds of issues I’m familiar with and try to juggle without feeling guilty, for example, thinking, “If I work too much, my family will suffer.”

Even the YouTuber from the last episode, you might remember him, Frank Krüger, also gave a super interesting interview, where they talked about how to balance everything. And I think that’s also one of the themes in Chi, or rather in a Marvel film. The film was super, super emotional for me. It was very much about family, and also about, well, about themes, about relationships between father and son, father and daughter. So, for me, it was a really great film.

The conversation with Florian Munteanu begins

Exactly, and then of course the highlight in Munich, the interview with Florian Monteano, which was really exciting and interesting. And before I play the podcast or rather the interview here, you can also check out my YouTube channel, because I’ve published a short video there with behind-the-scenes footage, which I think looks really interesting and exciting. You can choose whether to listen here or on YouTube; just search for “Project Mindset” on YouTube, or you can also…www.projectmindset.deslash 730 go.

Why 730? Because it’s the 37th podcast episode today. The video will be linked there. So, enjoy the interview with Florian Monteano. Here we go . Florian, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about the film, about the mindset. I’m so glad I can be here. Yes, thank you very much. I got to see the film yesterday, it’s an amazing film, so many emotions, so many fight scenes that were really, really good. And when I saw you in the film for the first time, in the bus scene, my first question was, how can such a tall person even fight in such a small bus?

Fight scenes in a confined space

So, how did that work? You must have bumped and scraped all over yourself, right? Yeah, that’s a question I get asked a lot lately. To be honest, that bus was exactly what you described. Small, cramped, and for a big guy like me, it’s obviously really, really hard to move around in general. And when you have to fight your way around, it’s even harder. And I’m telling you, I was constantly hitting poles, chairs, and walls.

I was often up against the ceiling. I can’t even count how many times we ended up at the doctor’s or physio’s because we were injured so often. But in the end, I think those are just the things you have to do to create such epic fight scenes. And I think we managed to do that in the end. Absolutely. It was definitely epic. The word fits perfectly. Something else I was wondering about, you’re a boxer, a southpaw.

From boxing to martial arts

That was a completely different movement for you. What you’ve always done is more like martial arts. And as a southpaw, you’re used to initiating the swing from the right. Was it a bit challenging for you, from a Fighting AQ perspective, to say, “I have to learn something new, I have to move differently”? Yes, as a southpaw, you naturally work a lot with your lead hand, which is my left hand. And in this case, because the blade, the weapon, was also on my right hand, the entire focus was naturally on the right hand.

Normally, if you box as a southpaw, you probably use your right hand 20% of the time and your left 80% of the time. That’s how you control the fight. So this was definitely an adjustment, because I only really needed my left hand to control the distance or to stabilize myself in that cramped bus so I wouldn’t lose my balance. And of course, it was an adjustment, absolutely. I mean, I’ve boxed my whole life. But this film is so heavily inspired by martial arts that it was clear from the start, okay, I’m definitely going to have to learn some new things here.

New movements outside the comfort zone

And I was very grateful for that, because you never stop learning. Whenever you want to reach a new level, not just as an athlete, but also as an actor, and as a person in general, you have to step out of your comfort zone and try to learn new things. The training was strenuous, but on the other hand, it was also just plain fun. And I think—and this was very important to me, if you compare it to Creed—I absolutely didn’t want people to say, when they see Razorfist fighting, “That’s Drago.”

I wanted to create something completely new, to break free from that old role. And I think that’s worked out really well for us. In any case, as I said, as a boxer, I think it’s a completely different movement than being a martial artist now, it’s amazing. I’ll come back to the topic of learning in a moment. But I got the impression that there was a very special relationship between you and your mentor, the Mandarin, so to speak. And I also get the impression that you’re not just loyal in the film, but in general.

Loyalty and gratitude

I think your loyalty has a lot to do with gratitude. Gratitude is an important theme for me. So, in this case—I believe you mentioned this in another interview—you also described how you were essentially raised by him, by Mandarin in the role. To what extent is there something of yourself in Razorfist, and to what extent is there something of Razorfist in you? Generally speaking, I would say that every actor tries, when they go into a film, to give the character a personal touch.

You want to make it your own, so that no one else can play it. And of course, in consultation with our director, I tried to convey my own values ​​to the character, to transfer them, so to speak. Accordingly, a lot of Razorfist is in me. It’s a give and take. And from the very beginning, I was very, very grateful that this character isn’t just a one-dimensional character. But that he has depth, that he has, let’s say, certain layers that don’t just represent the soldier’s role or side. He’s much more complex and has many more facets that you see and, thankfully, reveal.

Razor Fist and film history

I also think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. This was really an origin story. It was very important that we saw Shang-Chi as the first Asian superhero and also explored his backstory. And I think with everything that’s coming in the future, we’ll have more time to work through all the other characters’ backstories. For example, in Razorfest, I noticed you conveyed a lot of emotion through your face. So, when you look at you, you seem like a solid guy, all right, but you communicated a lot through your facial expressions.

I thought that was incredibly good, honestly. Especially regarding your physique. I imagine it must have been quite a challenge for you, both in terms of preparation, maintaining your physique and then dealing with the mental strain of the film itself, the shooting. How do you prepare for something like that and how do you get through the shoot without, let’s say, becoming completely exhausted in the end? That’s a very good question. Well, I do have this sports background, which is always helpful.

Physical preparation for a role

Especially when I have to prepare for physically demanding roles, I naturally have a certain amount of basic experience and I know exactly what I’m doing. I simply need the director’s instructions. If it’s purely about appearance, about the visual aspect, what do you want me to do? How do you want to portray the character? Once I know that, then I also know exactly how I have to train, how I have to adjust my diet. And in this case, he simply said that if we were to focus solely on the visual aspect, without any background information about the character himself, then he wanted to portray this character as very, very massive.

Fitness and muscle building for the film

Accordingly, I… You succeeded. Yes, thank you. But accordingly, it was also very hard for me, because I’m actually more of a conditioning athlete than a strength athlete, even though I do carry around a certain amount of weight and am a certain height. But I’m used to always preparing myself in top physical condition, running, boxing, swimming. That’s always part of my general training. I skipped that this time, and I’ve definitely never weighed as much in my entire career as I do now, around 113 kilograms.

It was a lot, a lot, and it was simply very unusual because you move completely differently with that much weight. Handling all that weight was a new experience. Maintaining that weight was very hard for me. With all the cardio training, my body and metabolism were used to weighing less. The weight would drop again without me doing anything, because that was familiar to my body.

That’s why maintaining that weight was so difficult. Then we had Covid on top of it. We had to stop for three months, and even during those three months when we weren’t doing anything, I still had to maintain that weight, because once I lose weight, it’s incredibly difficult to gain it back. It was very, very exhausting. I think you asked another question. That’s basically it. I believe the body eventually finds its own balance.

Food and training for the role profile

He’ll get used to it eventually, sure, but you have to eat a lot and very frequently, and I’m just not used to that. I usually eat when I’m hungry, and otherwise I don’t eat, and with that, it was really like this: every two or two and a half hours, I had to wolf down some kind of meal. I wasn’t even hungry. That was really, really exhausting. Yes, I definitely think so. You also mentioned the topic of studying earlier. I’m guessing you’ve studied a tremendous amount over the last few years, learned a lot of new things.

What did you learn from the film Shang-Chi? I mean, mentally, in terms of mindset. How did it help you grow as a person? Well, generally speaking, it’s a privilege for me to act in such big films because you have the chance to work with incredibly talented people. Whether they’re in front of the camera or behind it, they’re usually the best in the business. So, I mean, as soon as you surround yourself with people who are on your level or even better than you, you automatically become a better person.

Personal development as an actor

That’s a completely normal process. That’s why I’m so, so grateful for it. I’m definitely not the same person I was three and a half years ago when I was making Greed. And like you said, development never stops; your skill set keeps growing. As a person, I can obviously handle pressure much better now. I’d also say my social IQ has definitely improved. My interpersonal skills, how I interact with other people. Exactly. Yeah, that’s something. And if you’re saying I want to continue growing as a person, I think that’s absolutely true.

Perhaps the first question is, what are your greatest strengths right now, and then, if you’re willing to share, your greatest weaknesses? What’s important for you to learn next, for yourself as a person? That’s a very good and insightful question. It’s also very difficult to summarize it in a short answer. I would definitely say that, from a human perspective, strengths and weaknesses are key. If you highlight a strength, it could, of course, also be a weakness.

Strengths also depend on the opponent.

And whether it’s actually a strength or a weakness, in my opinion, is interpreted that way or depends on the people you’re dealing with. If we’re talking about loyalty, for example, as you just mentioned, then it’s naturally a give and take. If you decide for yourself—and I’m the type of person who’s all or nothing—meaning, if I decide, okay, I like someone, are you committed?

Committed, loyal, and I don’t doubt that person. But if that person then abuses my way of thinking and my way of being, then loyalty can also be a weakness, because you’re being used and doing things for someone who doesn’t appreciate it at all. So it always depends on the point of view, on the perspective. But I do think that the values ​​that are most important to me, like loyalty, family, and brotherhood, are the values ​​that come first for me.

Staying true to one’s own values

I’ve lived by that philosophy since day one, practically since, I don’t know, kindergarten. I don’t let it throw me off course, even if things go wrong, maybe even because of other people. In that respect, I feel grounded and on a good path. Dwelling on other people’s mistakes would not help. I shouldn’t look in the mirror and then blame myself, because at the end of the day, I can only do my own thing right, and everyone has to decide for themselves which path they want to take.

Your own personality and happiness shouldn’t depend on other people. And if we get back to the point, which skill would you most like to develop? Well, the skill I’d say I’ve learned the most during the production of Shang-Chi, and which is also a skill I’ve been trying to improve for about a year and a half to two years, is patience. I’m the kind of person who has the biggest goals, the biggest dreams. There’s a reason I’m in this position now, because I never let anyone destroy my dreams, no matter how big they were, no matter how far away they seemed.

Ambitious goals and one’s own impatience

And of course, I want to get things moving quickly; I want things to happen fast. Hard work is part of who I am. I don’t want to waste time on that either, because if I have big dreams, who knows how much time I’ll actually have to realize them in the end? And patience is definitely something I’ve learned in recent years; sometimes it just takes time. Perhaps you, too, aren’t yet in a position to realize the things you actually intend to do.

And even now, during the Corona pandemic, it was also a test of patience, where you were practically forced into it, because everything slowed down. All the processes that arose alongside everything else—the testing, the masks, all the routines that developed as a result, the safety measures—all of that slows down processes, and then it takes even longer. That’s why you need more patience. And that was very difficult for me to learn. But it also showed me what I meant before: sometimes taking your time, maybe even taking a step back, is the right thing to do.

Patience as a challenge

Yes, patience is definitely a very, very strong, but also difficult skill. Anyway, I think we need to thank you very much, we also need to slowly come to the end of the interview. But I noticed something earlier, when you just mentioned patience, I once heard a great saying: you can’t bake a cake faster by simply increasing the temperature. It takes as long as it takes. Similarly, in fitness training or sports in general, many people come to me and ask, “Okay, can you give me some training tips?”

Exactly, it just takes time, you have to practice. You have to make time, like you said. The last question, I always ask my guests at the very end, because it’s also incredibly interesting for me personally to understand what kind of mindset this person I’m talking to has, and therefore also, what mindset, what attitude has had the biggest and most important impact on your life? You mean by attitude? Actually, many people, for example, follow quotes, there is no magic pill, and many also embrace gratitude as a mindset, as an attitude.

What has had the biggest and most important impact on your life?

There is no magic pill

So, if I apply this to my whole life, then I would definitely say that there is no magic pill, simply because without hard work, without dedication, without a certain sacrifice for something, and of course consistency, you won’t achieve anything. And no matter how big your dreams are, you have to get off your butt, you have to get your act together. That’s something that I think many people underestimate because they want quick success. But that’s just not how it works.

And if I now, I’m with Creed, we started back in 2018, that’s three and a half years now, where I’ve basically put my foot in Hollywood, if I add one new thing to that, then it’s definitely that failure, falling down, also failing sometimes, is simply part of it and definitely makes you stronger.

You just can’t give up there, you know that famous Rocky quote from Rocky VI. Get up one more time than you fall down. Exactly, when he’s teaching his son that lesson and says, you can fall down as many times as you want, the important thing is that you get back up and keep going. And during that time, I mean, in the public eye, it always seems like everything in my career has gone very smoothly. But it hasn’t. We had a lot of setbacks, but my team and I always kept going because we all believed in this dream, we all believed in my abilities, and in the end, those setbacks only made you stronger.

Learning from setbacks

That’s definitely something I’ve added to my mindset. Florian, you’re incredibly inspiring to me. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope we see each other again. Great, thank you. So, that was the interview. I hope I didn’t overpromise. What he said was incredibly inspiring to me, and I have to say, he has a truly admirable career. I think what he said, “Whereas No Magic Pill,” is something I can absolutely endorse.

Why effort is part of the journey

So, the topic of hard work has always been important to me, because I think people too often think, “Well, smart work is all it takes.” That might actually be true to a certain extent. But I think many things in life are hard, or many things in life are hard work. I’ve already released podcast episodes about this. Unfortunately, “hard” is also associated with negative things; at least, people tend to associate it with something negative. But I think hard can also be something positive. If you remember, I think having a good marriage is also hard work.

But what’s harder, going through a breakup or putting a lot of hard work into a marriage? The same goes for friendships, and the same goes for jobs. I think hard isn’t automatically bad; rather, it actually shows that you have to invest energy. And that’s exactly the point I personally get in the interview with Florian..

As you probably already know from my YouTube interviews, I can’t help myself, I always have to get hands-on. So, for the interview with Florian, I also had my focus mitts and boxing gloves with me, because I always like to participate or do something with the people I interview, whether it’s playing basketball, kickboxing, or even, as in the last interview, actually using a saw – doing something together. With Florian, I knew I had to do a little focus mitt training with him, so I brought my focus mitts and boxing gloves. And you can actually see a short scene in the YouTube interview afterwards of us doing just that very, very short focus mitt training session.

A personal conclusion to the interview

I only know one thing: he’s incredibly strong, and my hands practically flew off! It was really cool; you should definitely check it out. A huge thank you to Amelie Auerhahn from Friendly PR for organizing the interview, and of course, thank you to Disney, specifically Birgit Seidel, for letting me see the film in advance. I had an absolute blast being a part of it. So, that’s all for today. Talk to you again soon, and until then, remember, mindset is everything.