Aaron Kwok looks at more roles, seriously
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China Daily, July 5, 2011
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Song and dance megastar Aaron Kwok is leaving his pop life behind and getting serious about acting. Provided to China Daily |
Aaron Kwok Fu-Shing has been one of China's most successful pop music icons for more than two decades and has a gobsmacking luxury car collection to prove it. Parked in his Hong Kong garage are four Ferraris, four Lamborghinis and two Porsches and, of course, a few top-of-the-line Mercedes Benzes he drives to the local shop. Across the Chinese-speaking world, Kwok is regarded as royalty and known as one of the "Four Heavenly Kings", along with Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung. Now at age 45, the song and dance man is focusing on another of his life-long passions.
Today he wants to be known as a serious movie actor. "A method actor," Kwok says, as he gives a thumbs-up and looks his interviewer in the eyes.
Kwok's star power is as eye-catching as his exclusive car collection, but this month he was in Europe, attracted by another kind of horse power.
West of London, only 10 kilometers from Windsor Castle, he recently attended the Royal Ascot races, in his capacity as the "ambassador" of Swiss watchmaker Longines, one of the many lucrative sponsorship deals he enjoys. Pepsi, Fuji Film, Clarins Skin Care, Citibank International, HSBC Credit Cards and the Hong Kong Jockey Club all pay the good-looking celebrity millions to put his face on their brands.
After a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong and a one-hour drive through London's horrible traffic snarl, the superstar arrives at the famous race track still looking sprightly and dapper and launches into a discourse about acting. Perhaps he is using some of his "method acting" to overcome jet lag.
"I am still at the beginning in acting," he says humbly, considering he started acting more than two decades ago and has appeared in more than 30 Chinese-language films. "It's definitely the best time for an actor after 40, when you are mature enough to act in different sorts of films."
Kwok's fourth decade has definitely been more fruitful than most Hong Kong-based actors. In 2006, he became only the second actor in the history of the Golden Horse Awards to win the best actor award two years consecutively for his role in After This Our Exile. He had won the 2005 award for Divergence. Jackie Chan was the first to achieve such an honor, winning back-to-back awards in 1992-1993.
Kwok's move into acting began in 1989 in Close Escape, which was a typical Hong Kong-style police-and-gangster film but despite performing in many films, most of them romantic comedies, his early work were considered by many as lightweight. Up until he turned 40, his diehard fans had enjoyed his movies, but loved him best as a pop singer and dancer.
And Kwok is an amazing dancer. He was born in Hong Kong and after leaving school worked in a jewelry shop but was keen to pursue a performance career. At 19, he began training as a dancer and his natural talent made him a standout when he starred in music videos and concerts for other established singers. By the late 1980s, he also ventured into acting and played minor TV drama roles.
His musical breakthrough came in 1990 with the release of his debut album, Loving You Forever, which rocketed him to stardom. Like the other "kings", Kwok has picked up many best-singer and best-performer awards in Hong Kong and also in Taiwan, where he was known for his Honda motorcycle TV commercials.
The birth of the "Four Heavenly Kings" was a milestone for Chinese pop music culture because these young men became the first idols, not just for Hong Kong music fans, but also for many mainlanders born in the 1980s.
Kwok was certainly the best dancer among them, but he does not want to reminisce and linger on days gone by.
"It's gone, and I don't want to look back. I love new challenging jobs," Kwok says. "And I am what I am now."
Now, it's all about films. "I have reached a certain level in singing. What I am pursuing now is the feeling of acting," he says.
A major shift from music to film happened in 2006, when Kwok left Warner Music, where he had been contracted for 13 years, and signed with the Music Nation Group.
He felt his new label would allow him to "realize his years-long wish - acting in more better quality films".
When asked if he had met any difficulties in this new challenge, he said: "Not at all", and then called it a "very natural" development.
Reiterating his love for new challenges, Kwok says he wants to act in "all the roles I've never tried before".
"People from all walks of life, no matter which role I act, I'll present it vividly on the screen," he adds.
His most recent movie reveals his plan to become more of a heavyweight. Kwok stars in Life for Love, a tragic love story about two AIDS-affected people. Kwok plays a primary school teacher who is sent from the city to teach in the countryside, contracts AIDS and later develops a crush on another AIDS patient, played by the mainland's biggest female movie star, Zhang Ziyi.
As more serious Chinese films roll into production Kwok is optimistic about the future of the industry and wants to be in the thick of the action.
"Many foreign investors now know the film industry is developing rapidly in China ... the future (of Chinese films) will be terrific," he says.
He says China has many "great actors" and "great directors", and singled out Jiang Wen, director of Let the Bullets Fly, as his favorite.
The comedy, released in December last year, grossed 730 million yuan ($113 million) at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing domestic film in China's cinematic history. Despite being a megastar himself, Kwok respectfully calls 48-year-old director Jiang "Teacher Jiang", and hopes to work with him in the future.
When asked to name the actor he wants to work with most, Kwok pauses for 30 seconds then says he has too many favorites, but names comedians Ge You and Zhao Benshan.
"But if I have to single out one actor in the Chinese world, I would say Chow Yun-Fat," Kwok stresses.
Chow, 56, also from Hong Kong, is best known for his collaboration with filmmaker John Woo in heroic bloodshed genre films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled; and for his leading role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Kwok and Chow recently worked together in The Monkey King, a Chinese 3D-Imax film to be released in July next year. Kwok says their cooperation was very brief, but he hopes to work more with Chow.
Talking about the future, Kwok continues to focus on acting but would not rule out directing some time down the track, especially "if there's a very good script in front of me".
"May not be now, as I think more personal experience and accumulation are needed to be a director. I am enjoying acting now, so I won't push myself," he says.
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