'What they did was so beautiful, so heroic that I wanted to do it too,' Jaa told Time in a 2004 interview. He was so inspired by them that while he was doing chores or playing with friends, he would imitate the moves that he had seen, practicing in his father's rice paddy. In his youth, Jaa watched films by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li at temple fairs, which was his inspiration to learn martial arts. He is capable of speaking Kuy, Thai and Cambodian. He is of Kuy descent, a Mon–Khmer ethnic group that inhabits Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Tony Jaa was born and raised in a rural area in Surin Province to Rin Saipetch and Thongdee Yeerum.
