Tony Leung is the “Actor in Focus” in this year’s Hong Kong
International Film Festival. Twelve of his films will be shown: Chungking
Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love directed by Wong Kar-wai; City of
Sadness, Flowers of Shanghai by Hou Hsiao-hsien; Cyclo by Tran Anh Hung; Tom,
Dick and Hairy by Lee Chi-ngai and Peter Chan; The Days of Being Dumb by Kor
Sau-leung; Bullet in the Head by John Woo; My Heart is That Eternal Rose by
Patrick Tam; People’s Hero by Derek Yee; and Love Unto Waste by Stanley Kwan.
From these 12 films, which were made at different stages of Tony Leung’s
acting career, we can observe his growth from “acting with style” to
“acting without style”.
Cecilia Wong: How do you feel about being chosen as the “Actor in Focus”
in the Hong Kong lnternational Film Festival?
Tony Leung: It’s a great honor and I’m very happy about it. In fact, many
of my fellow actors work as hard as I do. I am just luckier because my efforts
ate recognized. It feels great to have others to recognize your efforts and the
films you have made in all these years and to share your experiences with them.
The 12 films so selected will give the audience an overview of my growth since
the first day of my acting career, and how I have changed in the way I act over
the years.
How different is it from receiving an award? What does it mean to you?
Is has a different meaning. If it were a film award, it would be all about
one film and everything in it. However, being the “Actor in Focus”, where 12
of my films will be shown, it enables others to see my growth in the last 18
years in my career as we I as how I nave changed in the way I act.
Which of the 12 films would you choose to watch if you were the audience?
Actually, many of the audience have grown up together with me. If they love
films and wish to know how an actor has changed and what he has experienced in
his acting career, they would choose to watch all of his film rather than just
one of them. If I like an actor, I would watch all of his films. To watch only
one of his film, you see nothing more than his performance in that particular
film, and will have no idea of his growth. Only by watching all his films will
it be possible to understand his passion for acting.
Can you briefly talk about your acting career?
At the outset, I had my own way of acting. Then I tried to forget the
“way”, and tried to act like a layman or amateur actor. Such a feeling was
especially strong after City of Sadness by Hou Hsiao-hsien. As most of the
actors in the film were amateur actors, their spontaneity and the fact that
there is not a trace of “acting” in them impressed me very much. As an
actor, I’ve always wanted to progress so such a level. You have to work very
hard, and the difficult part is to give people the feeling that it is “a
person who knows nothing about acting doing it”. It is like Tai Chi, in the
sense that you forget all the styles eventually and do so without style. The
transformation from “acting with style” to “acting without style” is
very difficult because our experience has already established a style in our
subconscious, and it is most difficult to remove that established style and
bring out a new feeling.
Is it difficult to put this “acting without style” idea into practice?
It depends on whether there is someone who can work with you. I mentioned
this idea to Hou Hsiao-hsien more than 10 years ago after City of Sadness. For
the last 10 years or so, I’ve been trying to do this but it did not work out
every time! No matter how hard you try to forget the learnt techniques, you
still use them without knowing it because there are a lot of experiences in your
subconscious. It was not until I met Wong Kar-wai then I began to realize I
could continue to try the idea and we could work it out together.
Is this the reason why you have worked mostly with Wong Kar-wai apart from
the fact that you know each other well enough?
It can be said that Wong Kar-wai and I have grown up together. I had already
come up with the idea when he started to make films. But I could find no one at
that time to work with me. As most directors would have the script and
everything ready before the shooting, it would give me an idea about the film,
which made it difficult for me achieve the effect that I had anticipated. To
achieve “acting without style”, the basic rule is that there should be no
direction, no preparation, like your everyday life, when you have no idea as to
what will happen in the next second but you will know how to react...
Coincidentally, I got to know Wong Kar-wai. His way of making films enabled me
to my idea. In In the Mood for Love, I started to have a grasp of it finally.
Will you keep it up?
Yes. I’m sure it is the ultimate wish of all actors to reach that level —
where no trace of acting can be found in them. This is the supreme level. I used
to like Robert de Niro and Al Pacino a lot. Being both “method acting”
masters, they have developed a certain style — rhythm, method or reaction, and
seem unable to act without it. Everything can be anticipated. This is not what
I’m after as far as acting is concerned. I wish to do something more by
utilizing more feelings in the acting.
Only Wong Kar-wai has been able to meet your demands in last 10 years? Is
there any other director who can?
In Hong Kong, directors usually have the script ready before shooting. Wong
Kar-wai is an exception! All he has is an idea and nothing else. Acting in his
films is like doing an experiment, and only in this way can you explore new
things. If I already have a good control of the “acting without style”
technique, of course there should be no problem working with directors who have
scripts ready before the shooting like Hou Hsiao-hsien or Tran Anh Hung. The
fact is that I am still working on it and have not had a good control of the
technique, which is why there is only Wong Kar-wai who can meet my demands for
the time being.
There has been one occasion on which you felt confused and wanted to give up
acting. After you had watched yourself in Days of Being Wild, you found your
direction again. Has there been any other occasion?
On my first day of acting, I knew acting was an endless pursuit, and there
must be occasions when you will improve or stray. This is a plain truth and I do
not think it is an issue, If you think that you have done well enough and will
never make mistakes, you will never improve. Acting is like life, in the sense
that you learn from mistakes and continuously re-examine yourself. Acting is not
a win-or-lose game. The most important thing is participation, and to learn
every day. I see an award as a conclusion of a stage rather than something that
tells me I have done good enough. I believe I will do even better at a later
stage.
Can you talk about the films and your impressions about the respective
directors?
Love Unto Waste
It was made a long time ago. I was young. Stanley Kwan trusted me and let me
do things my way. It is a pity that we have made no other films since. Maybe
it’s because he prefers to make films about women.
People’s Hero
Derek Yee used to be an actor, which is why he understands actors. He is
easy-going, and it s a happy experience to have worked with him.
My Heart is that Eternal Rose
Patrick Tam is a very good director but we argued a lot. He wanted everything
to be exactly the way he wanted them to be, e.g., the movement, the lines, etc.
As I was young and did not know much about acting and films, we tended to argue
a lot. But after I had watched the film, I had to admit that he really did a
good job.
Tom, Dick and Hairy
I made a lot of films for UFO. Lee Chi-ngai and Peter Chan are very nice
people. I could do whatever I wanted in their films. Gradually, I became out of
control. It was so pleasant and comfortable acting in their films.
The Days of Being Dumb
Kor Sau-leung is a very humorous person. It was fun acting in the film. Jacky
Cheung and I would improvise a lot of things on the spot, and Kor was willing to
take them. Actually, my most spontaneous acting and lines can be found in The
Days of Being Dumb and Tom, Dick and Hairy. Maybe it was because I know these
directors well, so I dared to try new things. Actually, these everyday life
comedies are closer to my nature.
Bullet in the Head
It’s hard to imagine that such a nice and gentle person could make such a
romantic film, John Woo was so stubborn that it was impossible to convince him.
Even when I had told him my views, it could not affect his decision. The
explosion shots in the film did make me worry because no absolute safety could
be guaranteed due to limited time and shortage of funds. Having said that, there
is no question that his action films are wonderful.
Chungking Express, Happy Together and In the Mood for Love
These three films by Wong Kar-wai feature three different stages of myself.
For example, I was less reserved in Happy Together than in In the Mood for Love.
In In the Mood for Love, bringing out the personality of the character without
too many facial expressions was a new and difficult challenge. I had to be fully
confident of myself to play the role well.
City of Sadness and Flowers of Shanghai
I felt myself growing up from City of Sadness to Flowers of Shanghai. Hou
Hsiao-hsien is a director whom I admire a lot. He loves films, and never uses
films as a means of making money. There is no better word to describe him than
“stubborn”.
Cyclo
The role in this film is similar to Chow Mo-wan in In the Mood for Love. I
was not able to explore toe role deeper. As a result, the effect was not strong
enough and, indeed, rather superficial.