I learn my lines in the loo if I have toA cross-over hero, Chow Yun Fat has been a big star in Asia for 20 years, but is still hard at work now -- taking on Hollywood.
WARNING! There's a major spoiler in the Q&A [for the movie THE CORRUPTOR], so skip that if you don't want to know the ending.
For more details of CYF's inescapable genius, check out my Chow Yun-Fat: God of Actors fan page!
I learn my lines in the loo if I have to
A cross-over hero, Chow Yun Fat has been a big star in Asia for 20 years, but is still hard at work now -- taking on Hollywood.
TRY as you might, but it is hard not to like Chow Yun Fat.
You would expect the man who has been one of Asia's most luminous screen icons over the past 20 years to burst through the doors and brandish an ego the size of Hongkong's Chek Lap Kok airport.
But instead, he arrives at Four Seasons Hotel's ballroom with a grin the size of a banana and a long arm well-extended.
In what could be an unprecedented move in movie-star circles, he painstakingly combs through the floor to initiate handshakes and greetings.
"Hiya", "Good to see you", "Hello, I am Chow Yun Fat", he offers.
A great public relations move, no doubt. But for the 50 unsuspecting journalists at the press conference held on Tuesday, it worked.
After a good morning shave, his hair is greased to a shine and he looks casual in a beige cotton sweater and matching trousers.
He stops mid-sentence just to turn over a cassette tape that has popped in the army of recorders before him.
Without his signature onscreen trench-coats and toothpicks, his gait is somewhat awkward. You realise that traces of Ah Fai, the uncouth upstart in his '70s TV serial, The Brothers, have remained.
But the Chow of today has broken through the Western fortress that is Hollywood.
Based in Los Angeles for the past few years, he bears signs of his American sojourn, such as his favourite reply: "Absolutely."
His first Hollywood movie, last year's The Replacement Killers, had lacklustre showings at the US box office. But his second outing, The Corruptor, which he is in town to promote, holds more promise.
"This is definitely my best Hollywood movie so far," he says breezily in English.
And this is not merely promotional spiel. Starring opposite Mark Wahlberg, Chow plays Nick Chen, a decorated cop in New York's Chinatown who is "a lot more layered", he describes.
Not only is his new character more grey than the one-dimensional assassin he played in his first movie, he gets to speak a whole lot more too, in fully fleshed-out English dialogue.
Although his English has now improved to a level where he dishes out punchlines with finesse, delivering the lines, he says, was no piece of cake.
"I don't understand some of the slang. Like I had to say 'Cagney and Lacey' in the movie. I've never seen the series on TV before, but still I had to say it. If you take the money, you have to say it," he says, his face breaking into that familiar grin again. ASK him for his advice to the youth of today and his immediate answer is "work hard, work very hard".
The man who spent two years learning his ABCs so that he could act in The Replacement Killers is himself, at 43, still hard at work.
"For this film, I was memorising my lines every day in the toilet and in the shower. I needed 12 times as much effort to say my lines as any Hollywood actor," he recalls.
His indefatigable spirit is matched, perhaps, by his lack of showiness.
When quizzed about being upstaged by the homegrown Liang Po Po The Movie at last weekend's sneak previews, he was brimming with congratulations.
"I would love to see a Singapore film beat a Hollywood film," he says, referring to his own movie as well.
His admired idols are still the drama teachers who coached him in the '70s -- Chong King Fai and Chan Yau Hau, his "see-fu's".
Although considered by most to be on a par with action star Jackie Chan in the regional stardom stakes, he still calls the latter "da ge", or "big brother" in Mandarin.
And unlike Chan, who prefers to have a directing hand in his Hollywood movies, Chow is happy sticking to what he loves -- acting.
"I don't mind taking orders from Hollywood directors. It's the same in Hongkong, I've always been a very obedient actor," he says. The filming styles of the two movie-making hubs are noticeably different, though.
"Things are more systematic in Hollywood. There is a lot of hard work preparing the role, like discussions with the director, and more room to think about the character. In Hongkong, the schedule is very tight, very rushed," he says.
In fact, it was the breakneck speed of making more than 70 movies in the mid-'80s that nearly drove him to retire. That was until his wife, Singapore-born Jasmine Tan, urged him to check out Hollywood.
EVEN though he now has a sizable foot in Hollywood's door, he is not overly optimistic about becoming the next Asian megastar after Bruce Lee.
John Lone, another Asian actor who hit big time in the '80s with Year Of The Dragon and the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor, has now sunk into oblivion.
"Maybe after a few movies in Hollywood, it'll be over for me," Chow says readily.
"Making movies is just like life, you have to follow fate. If my movies are unsuccessful, I'll be OK. I'll just go back to Hongkong and make movies there.
"I won't have to deal with English anymore, because sometimes I have nightmares, you know."
In the meantime, it looks like those nightmares will be recurring ones.
He is set to play King Mongkut in his new movie, Anna And The King, in Malaysia next month opposite Jodie Foster.
"Every time Anna asks the King something, his reply is two pages long," he says, a hint of dread in his tone. "Once I thrash out the English, I will be OK. I'm not even concerned about the performance for now."
He is determined to make his King different from the earlier film version fleshed out by Yul Brynner.
His monarch will not sing, dance, or have his head shaved bald, Chow says with a trace of relief.
Next year, he will work once again with his long-time collaborator, John Woo, in the film, King's Ransom, an action comedy about a Chinese circus troupe working in Las Vegas.
Then, the meeting ends, and again, he gets up for a round of handshakes and thank-yous.
Suddenly, journalists who were prim and business-like just minutes before morph into shameless fans, begging him for autographs and pictures.
He obliges, before blowing kisses and calling out more goodbyes.
And he heads for the door, the same superstar charmer he was when he first came in.
This is the part with the spoiler!
On how he manages to always look good:
"Don't ask me, ask my wife."
On his character in The Corruptor, who dies in the end:
"I'm happy about that, because I don't have to make a sequel."
On his co-star, ex-rapper Mark Wahlberg:
"He's a very smart, aggressive American boy. Does he admire me? I don't think so, because I don't know how to rap."
On the film's director, James Foley:
'He's more interesting than John Woo. John Woo is very boring (laughs), very quiet, just enjoying his explosions. Foley was crazier, shouting at everyone on the set, but in a decent way."
On how he might never pass an English test:
"With every movie, my English will get better each time, especially the diction. But the grammar? Forget it."
On the secret of his screen presence:
"It's about how to communicate with the lenses. Whether it's Japanese, German, or American lenses, you do it differently. The best is Panavision."
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