Asian Connections
1999

AsianConnections Team member Suzanne Kai chatted with superstar Chow Yun-Fat in Beverly Hills about his latest film, "Anna and the King." Chow talked about his film roles, and about the person who has inspired him most in his life.

Chow was charming and engaging, revealing more of the human being behind his "superstar status." He talked of the hardships of his childhood and moral values in today's fast changing society.

Chow Yun-Fat comments on his name: You can call me Puppy Chow. [laughter] Chow is my surname. Yun-Fat is my given name. Some people call me Mr. Fat. Interesting. Or maybe you can call me "Fatty" [laughter]

AsianConnections: You just flew in from China to California?

Chow Yun-Fat: I just finished a new movie in Beijing. It is another Ching Dynasty epic movie, involving a lot of martial arts, sword fighting, and romance. It is called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," directed by Ang Lee.

AsianConnections: First off, I want to mention that your role is historical, in that you are probably one of the first, if not the first Asian male to play a starring romantic role in a major American movie.

Chow Yun-Fat: No, no, no. John Lone, "The Last Emperor." Oh, another guy is [the late] Haing Ngor. He did "The Killing Fields." It's a very heavy drama role. I like it.

AsianConnections: But we believe you may be the first Asian male actor to carry an entire major American motion picture as a romantic leading man. How do you feel about doing dramatic versus action roles?

Chow Yun-Fat: Of course, holding a girl [is] better than holding a gun! [laughs] Plus this movie, I got tons and tons of concubines, wives, and kids. But you can see a lot of action movies that I've done before, even though I still have two bags of uzis and colt 45's, [it's] very heavy, and every time you have to push your finger to open fire, so tiring! But if you have tons of girls, you just sit there, somebody do[es] a massage for you, serving you food and water. It's totally a different story.

AsianConnections: Your choice of role in "Anna and the King" is a fantastic role for an Asian male actor. Most of the Asian male roles have been somewhat stereotypical. But this is the first "whole person" what are your thoughts on that?

Chow Yun-Fat:Yes, yes, very interesting. And very exciting and very challenging. I think it's good that more American people [can] see the different faces of Yun-Fat. Not just like?nly he can do action. Actually, if you go back to the early 80's I did a lot of TV series which is very popular in Hong Kong. They are romance. Like now, in this movie give[s] Yun-Fat one more try, to go back to the old days, to do the drama again, to do the romance again. For the first time in 1986, I made with John Woo, "A Better Tomorrow," and [then] sudden[ly], I become an action hero, because before that I am still a romantic, comedy actor.

AsianConnections: Can you tell us about working with Jodie Foster?

Chow Yun-Fat: She's very talented, she's very professional. She's got tons and tons of patience. The lady's no sweat. Even under the heat [35 C/90 F], very hot sun, very humid weather, she never sweat. She's just cool and calm. I'm lucky that I have such kind of opportunity to work with her. She's adorable. Sometimes can be playful and funny.

AsianConnections: Jodie says very complimentary things about you as well. She mentions your "inner stillness."

Chow Yun-Fat: Because I paid her. [laughter]

AsianConnections: Who is the most inspirational person to you?

Chow Yun-Fat: I think my mother. She is a very tough lady. And she taught me how to survive, because we grew up in a very poor, bad situation. When I was young, I had to carry two baskets to selling our dim sum from village to village, from mountain to mountain. So I have a very good experience with her as a partnership. She was my role model when I was young, how hard she worked, working so hard in such very bad situation, and everyday working and living in agony. Because my father was a seaman, so every year he just come back about three weeks, and then he'd be gone. So almost a single lady, have four kids in our family, and she put a lot of time to just for living. So she is a very optimistic lady, even though no matter what the situation, she still stands very firm. Very stiff, and very straight. She never bowed to her environment. So she is one of the heroes in my life when I was young.

First when I was in high school, I had a lot of movie idols, like John Wayne, Steve McQueen, James Dean, and Marlon Brando. Especially, I don't know why in the old days we had a lot of good top guys in movies like Cagney and Clint Eastwood.

AsianConnections: How do you feel about being called the "Clark Gable" of Asian actors?

Chow Yun-Fat: Overwhelming. Too much for me.

AsianConnections: What do think about men being emasculated now in the late 20th century?

Chow Yun-Fat: Now, I can sense that even in Hong Kong, a lot of younger actors, they lost their strength to struggle, [they are] more aggressive in the luxury way. You know, "I want this, this, this." But in the old days, you can see especially after World War II, everybody was living in a very a calm situation, the whole country wanted to build up a society. Everybody worked in a very peaceful harmony. Now, after the economy boom in the eighties and nineties, now to the year 2000, everybody's now you can see a lot of material things in the market. Because for the young generation, they cannot afford it, [to] buy all the stuff in front of them, and now the pacing of life is going very fast, all over the world. Maybe they have lost the security, because there are too many violent things going on. Especially in modern days, the parents must go out to work and leave the children at home just only watching TV, so they don't have a guideline to what is life. In the old days you can see the parents always take the kid, [and] taught them how to be a good man. Now everything is the TV as a media to guide them and as a baby-sitter.

AsianConnections: The values are superficial?

Chow Yun-Fat: Yes, yes. So you can see that no matter where, in the United States, Europe or Asia, the second generation can be very aggressive. [The second generation say], "I want to be rich, I might as well have a lot of money. [They say] "When I have money I have power."

AsianConnections: Do you make your home here now?

Chow Yun-Fat: No, I still stay in Hong Kong with my mom. We have a saying that, if your parents are still there, you cannot go far away.

AsianConnections: Do you think King Mongkut, given a choice, would have taken a life with Anna, and say he didn't have to be king anymore or a life with all his wives. Which would he pick? Did he want to be with one woman?

Chow Yun-Fat: Actually, I buy [into the idea as] one of the English kings. He sacrificed all his power.

AsianConnections: King Edward?

Chow Yun-Fat: Edward. Living in Paris.

AsianConnections: To be with the woman you want to be with.

Chow Yun-Fat: Yes. I mean, for reality, I'd hate to be a king, because everyday you have to manage all the documents and arrangements to meet all the ambassadors from all over the world, and plus your life line. Tons of tons of concubines to kill him. Waiting to be served. And we are not talking about one night. Every night! Oh, exhausted! [laughter] You know, that's why in the old days in China, you can see kings not living longer than 45! [laughter]

AsianConnections: How about your personal life? I understand your wife had a role in helping you with your English. Your English is perfect.

Chow Yun-Fat: No, no, no, I'm still learning everyday. So, so. She always gives me a hard time. She, like say, "Yun-Fat, you cannot say this in front of that." Some grammar, which is wrong, you have to say that instead. It's quite hard. You have to say that, you have to do that, you have to say this word. Because English is just not my mother language, so what can I say?!"

AsianConnections: Is your wife from Hong Kong, too?

Chow Yun-Fat: No, [she is] from Singapore.

AsianConnections: She speaks British English?

Chow Yun-Fat: British, all the time.

AsianConnections: So which was harder for you? Speaking Thai, or speaking English in the movie?

Chow Yun-Fat: Both. [laughter]

AsianConnections: Before you started acting, you did a lot of odd jobs. What was your first job ever?

Chow Yun-Fat: My first job, when I was in high school, during the summer school, I worked in an electronic factory. As a worker checking all the computer chips. They have a meter, a small three hole. The chips, they had three small thin copper bar you have to stick into the meter. If the meter worked, you put it on this side, and if the meter didn't work, you put it on this side. It was quite boring. [laughter]

AsianConnections: Did it prepare you for sitting around that way, waiting for action?

Chow Yun-Fat: Oh yeah, oh yes.

AsianConnections: Are you a dad? Do you have kids?

Chow Yun-Fat: No, no. I like kids. But sometimes they give me a lot of heartache. They give me a heart attack.

AsianConnections: How about working with the kids in this movie?

Chow Yun-Fat: We shot in a lot of different locations. We shot on one island, and we hired all the children from that island. So you can see some children, they are not the same. So we go back to Kuala Lumpur, we hire some people from Kuala Lumpur. So in total, in my family there were 56, but from three different locations, add up a hundred something!

AsianConnections: How did you prepare for such a powerful scene such as when the daughter of King Mongkut dies? What do you visualize when you are doing the scene, when it is such a hard thing to watch?

Chow Yun-Fat: I'm not much into method acting. I just sit there waiting for the cue for action. When the director say, "Yun-Fat you do that, that, that." I just provide service. I don't have to do anything. Just sit there and listen to the director. Easy. But we have a lot of things to make us cry, like they can get smoke in your eyes, tear drops in your eyes, so why do you have to do that [method acting]? Stupid. You don't have to do that.

AsianConnections: Can you cry for us right now?

Chow Yun-Fat: Eh, I don't have the smoke. [laughs]

AsianConnections: So real men don't cry, hah?

Chow Yun-Fat: Yeah, like John Wayne!

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