AsianConnections:  Do you make your home here now?

Photo: Andrew Cooper - 20th Century Fox

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.

Photo: Andrew Cooper - 20th Century Fox

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!

                                                                                                                        -- AC Team

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