Exclusive Chow Yun-Fat Interview, Pirates 3

Posted by: Sheila Roberts

MoviesOnline sat down for an exclusive interview with renowned Asian actor and international superstar Chow Yun-Fat at the Los Angeles press day to promote his latest film "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” Born on the quiet island of Lamma, once part of the British colony of Hong Kong, Chow joins the cast of Pirates for the third installment to play the smart, duplicitous pirate lord, Captain Sao Feng.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer explains his and Gore Verbinski’s casting decision to bring Chow Yun-Fat aboard: "You want to hire enormously talented actors who are at the top of their game,” says Bruckheimer, "and that’s the definition of Chow Yun-Fat. He’s a masterful actor, an international star, and a perfect addition to the trilogy.”

"They were all pirates in reality, and betrayal was normal,” notes Chow of his character. "Therefore, Sao Feng treats it as a business transaction. There is no good or evil in the pirate world, and Sao Feng is neither a good person nor a villain. They are all pirates, and that’s how pirates are.” In terms of the films’ international appeal, Chow explains, "I think everyone has a fantasy to do things that cannot be controlled by parents or the authorities. Pirates are rebels, so especially in the minds of young people, the movie has global appeal.”

Chow Yun-Fat exploded into international stardom after more than a decade as Hong Kong’s most popular leading man in a memorable series of hard-edged portrayals that included director John Woo’s now classic films "A Better Tomorrow,” "The Killer,” "Once A Thief” and "Hard-Boiled.” Chow has also starred in Ang Lee’s critically lauded kung fu epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” the romantic "Anna and the King,” and most recently, Zhang Yimou’s "Curse of the Golden Flower.” The energetic Asian film star split his time shooting Pirates 3 in the Bahamas and on Disney’s Stage 2 in Burbank, while also filming "Curse of the Golden Flower” in China.

Chow, who had already performed several scenes on Grand Bahama Island, was a major attraction on the Singapore set, especially to those members of the company who had followed him for years as he ascended the ranks of superstardom in Asian and U.S. cinema. "He always said that he was honored to be there,” recalls Reggie Lee, who portrays Tai Huang, Captain Sao Feng’s aide-de-camp. "Here’s a megastar who we all idolize, who in fact is so humble and friendly to everyone. Yun-Fat’s work is spectacular, he has a great work ethic, and having a chance to act with him was just spectacular.”

Chow is a tall, handsome, and charismatic man with an extraordinary passion for acting. His calm, soft spoken demeanor during our interview seems the antithesis of his dynamic on-screen presence. Sporting a red athletic jacket and jeans, here’s what the gifted actor had to tell me about his adventures playing a powerful Singaporean pirate in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”:

Q: What was it like joining the cast for this film?

Chow Yun-Fat: It was like an angel. I’m happy every day on set. Even though I’m a newcomer on this movie, everyone treated me like a friend, like a family member.

Q: What was it about the role that made you say I’ve got to do this?

Chow Yun-Fat: Well as an actor, if you have this opportunity, you cannot refuse it, you know, [laughs] and I loved Part I and Part II. As an Asian actor, I really wanted to play one of the characters in this movie to show different cultures – the West and the East.

Q: Were you surprised at the scale of the production and the sets?

Chow Yun-Fat: It was stunning. I was thrilled the first time when I walked onto the set. Everything looked real. Every detail and element plus the lighting, the steam and smoke coming up. Everything is so fantastic. There was a lot of inspiration for my character, from the lighting, the costume, and everything. It was fantastic.

Q: What is the reaction in Hong Kong and China to the Pirates movies? How do they see it?

Chow Yun-Fat: In Hong Kong, I think in all of Asia, people just love it, except for China where they banned Part I and Part II. I don’t know for what reason. I hope Part III can be released in China.

Q: Can you talk a little about how you found your inner pirate and built your character for this role?

Chow Yun-Fat: Honestly I don’t have that much influence on my character. I’m lucky that the writers and the director have a very strong vision. They know how Captain Sao Feng should be and how the chemistry and the elements in the story should play. At the very beginning of the movie he begins as a Singapore pirate lord. At the very beginning of the movie two whites guys are begging him to save Jack Sparrow.

More or less they gave this character, Captain Sao Feng, a lot of power to control the whole situation so the director knew the vision. He knew which direction was correct for Sao Feng’s character. Gore Verbinski gave me a lot of information and told me ‘Everything is under control by your own hand. If you have any problem with the pronunciation, with the lines, don’t panic. Just let it go. Later on we can do it in the ADR.’ [Laughs] This was very strong encouragement and solid words to my character.

Q: How was Gore to work with as a director?

Chow Yun-Fat: I can say he’s like the movie star called Steve McQueen. He’s very controlled and very much the man on the set. He’s got a very strong vision. He’s very wise about his direction. I’ve worked with a lot of directors. He’s very, very clever. He’s a genius.

Q: How is he different from Zhang Yimou?

Chow Yun-Fat: Zhang Yimou is more calm, more to himself. Gore is more open. Zhang Yimou is open too but he sticks more to his own thoughts about the relationships, the human touch, all the emotional elements because if we’re talking about the family business, Chinese and Italians are the most vulnerable human beings. The human touches are very intimate. Gore is more direct, you know. He’s more the American way. Have you seen the movie "Curse of the Golden Flower”?

Q: Yes.

Chow Yun-Fat: Did you like it?

Q: Yes, I thought it was beautiful.

Chow Yun-Fat: Zhang Yimou is a great director. "Ju Dou,” "Red Lantern.”

Q: Did the Singapore film sets bear any resemblance to the actual Singapore of that era?

Chow Yun-Fat: I believe in the 17th century and even today in the part of Singapore closest to the Malacca Straits we still see a lot of Indonesian fish farms and fishing villages where they live very close like that. Have you been to Indonesia?

Q: I’ve been to China and Hong Kong.

Chow Yun-Fat: If you go further south, if you go to Indonesia near Malacca and Malaysia, you can see some of the huts exactly like in the movie.Where have you been?

Q: I went to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and a city near the Li River.

Chow Yun-Fat: Oh, Guilin. Beautiful!

Q: Did you have an opportunity to talk to Keith Richards while he was on set?

Chow Yun-Fat: No.

Q: You’ve had a lot of experience with sword fighting and weapons training. Did you undergo any additional training for Pirates 3?

Chow Yun-Fat: Yes, I did. Before we started to shoot the movie, we had two weeks to cooperate with the stunt coordinator and to work out all the movements on the set so they brought in a stunt man to work with me and advise me how to move every single step of the movie. Actually on the movie set we only took about 4 days to finish all of it, but we needed 2 weeks for training.

Q: Did anything unexpected happen?

Chow Yun-Fat: Everything was as usual except one day when I was doing my death scene and we were in character, all of a sudden a cell phone rang and spoiled my appetite. [Laughs]

Q: So what did you do for fun when you weren’t shooting on location?

Chow Yun-Fat: I took some photographs behind the scenes -- black and white photographs which I like the most.

Q: I’ve heard you sometimes donate your photographs to raise funds for charitable organizations…

Chow Yun-Fat: Oh yes, because last time we had a bad time when the tsunami hit Thailand and Phuket and so many people were killed. Some of the people in Hong Kong raised funds to donate to people who needed help. So I donated one of my black and white pictures. They put it on the internet for open bidding so finally we got a lot of money to send to the people in Phuket.

Q: What do you look for in a script in terms of the role or the storyline when you’re considering a film project?

Chow Yun-Fat: I look for the passion of performance. Actually as an Asian actor, English is not my mother language and I still struggle a lot with the Indonesian language. I’m always figuring out how to use my Chinese mother language to merge with the English together. If I didn’t have the English problem, then it would be easier when I was on the set and saying English as my mother language. The biggest problem is you have to know about the language construction, all the tongue twisters, which phrases are correct. Sometimes it can kill me. [Laughs] I need a dialect coach to guide me and put me on the right track. But don’t worry, we have the ADR. [Laughs]

Q: Did you have the opportunity to take your costume or any souvenirs from the production with you when you left?

Chow Yun-Fat: No, honestly every day for me is like a Christmas day. All the souvenirs are already in here [points to his heart]. I don’t need that.

Q: Can you tell me what you have coming up, what your next project will be?

Chow Yun-Fat: It’s not confirmed yet. Some of the projects I’m still negotiating and talking. They’re still open, not solid.

Q: You just finished The Children of Huang Shi. How is it switching from doing a huge movie like Pirates 3 to doing a smaller, independent film project? Do you have a preference or is it fun to do both?

Chow Yun-Fat: If I have the opportunity to do both, I prefer both. Sometimes the big production value movie will drown you as an actor. You will get used to the luxury, the trailer [laughs], good food and good hotel. Once you put yourself in a small movie, it reminds you that you are from the poor. [Laughs] Just like my character, you can say that he’s a good guy, somebody can say that he’s this good guy, you know, not extremely black or white, always in the middle. I think put this in the Chinese sphere -- the ying and the yang -- harmony is always put in the middle. There’s always the good. It’s a nice balance.

Q: You’ve played such a wide spectrum of roles in your career. Is there anything you haven’t done that you’d like to do?

Chow Yun-Fat: I really want to do some character which is dumb, you know? I don’t have to speak any words. [Laughs and claps his hands] That will be fine. Just only the facial expression.

Q: It’s been a pleasure meeting you. I really appreciate your time.

Chow Yun-Fat: Thank you. It’s been my pleasure too.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” opens in theaters on May 25th.