‘Assassin’s Creed’ Movie’s Michelle Lin at PAX East

Assassin’s Creed hits all my video gaming buttons, so when the opportunity to interview actress Michelle Lin from the movie, I had to say yes. During PAX East, the Assassin’s Creed Movie ran a blood drive to help the American Red Cross create awareness. With the tag line, “your blood is not your own,” the movie’s motto matched perfectly with the philanthropic side to blood donation.

In the interest of honesty? I loved the movie. I watched it on my tablet from the hotel room the day before I interviewed Ms. Lin. I don’t care what anyone else says, I read this as an origin story. From that perspective, the movie was perfect. There was less assassin and more discussion than I think some people may have wanted. I didn’t care. Things like the leap of faith matched everything I’d want to see in an Assassin’s Creed movie.

In addition, I really loved that in the end there appears to be a total regime change. For a franchise that relies almost entirely on white male characters, the end of the movie provided a nice segue to make any (rumored only) future movies far more diverse and inclusive. If future nonexistent movies focus on the three assassins we see in the final scene, we’d be seeing a great representation of male, female, and people of color. Also, if those three assassins have future stories, we’ll be hopefully seeing more of Ms. Lin.

And, we want to see more of her. You can read her IMDB bio, but it doesn’t actually do her justice. Ms. Lin is the real deal. She is currently training to be a martial arts instructor at the YMMA Retreat Center in California. As the interview progressed, we moved from discussions of women and people of color in a white male dominated franchise to her amazingly interesting training. Ms. Lin’s training was what brought her into the Assassin’s Creed  world. During our discussion, she shared with me how the action choreographers worked with her to make Lin’s moves match the physicality of the actress who plays her.