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AsianConnections Interviews Chow Yun-Fat Chow Yun-Fat Features 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. The conversation is filled with laughter as you can read and hear from the following interview highlights and audio clips: Photo: Andrew Cooper - 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�only 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.
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]
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