Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Trivia

• Since then they have worked together on The Yangs' Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes of Time (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000), Hero (2002), and 2046 (2004).
• In 1982, Tony passed the training courses of television channel TVB. Due to his boyish looks, TVB cast him as host of a children's programme, 430 Space Shuttle.
• Tony Leung enjoyed comedies during his television years; it was for these he became well known.
• Many consider Tony Leung's role in John Woo's 1992 action film Hard Boiled in which he co-starred with Chow Yun-Fat, as his breakthrough role in film.
• However, Leung first gained international exposure through Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1989 film A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Golden Lion.
• Leung often collaborates with director Wong Kar-wai and has appeared in many of his films.
• His most notable roles in Wong Kar-wai's films include the lonely policeman in Chungking Express (1994), a gay Chinese expatriate living in Argentina in Happy Together (1997), and a self-controlled victim of adultery in In the Mood for Love (2000), for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes.
• Tony Leung is considered by many to be the finest actor of his generation in Hong Kong. Robert De Niro is an admirer of his work, and Leung has been called Asia's answer to Clark Gable.
• Tony Leung also has an on-and-off Cantopop and Mandarin pop singing career.
• Tony Leungsang the theme song of Infernal Affairs with Andy Lau.

Quotes

• "John Woo is very prepared. He respects his actors very much...he gives you a lot of freedom to create your character. So I improvise a lot."
• "As an Asian actor, I would like once in my life to do just one Hollywood movie. It would be a memorable experience."
• "My character has the same background as 'In the Mood for Love,' the same hairstyle, the same costume, it's filmed on the same set and because it's Kar Wai I don't have a script. I need something to get hold of, and I said, 'Can I have a mustache at least?'"
• "I wanted to take a different approach. I wanted this character to be very optimistic, always with a smile on his face, but I just wasn't able to put it into the scenes. I don't know why."
• "Maybe it's because I came from a broken home. I wasn't so happy in my childhood. My parents broke up when I was six. Before, I was a very active, naughty child, but after my father left me I stopped talking. I became very good at hiding my emotions. I felt so ashamed of telling others that I didn't have a father, because that was not common in the 1960s. People didn't break up - even if they didn't love each other - in traditional Chinese families. Not like today."
• "Absolutely. I found myself buried in the character. I need some time to tune myself out."
• "Hero [2002] was the first time I had ever worked on a mainland Chinese production. It was great to work with such a good cast that included Maggie, Jet Li, Chen Daoming, and Zhang Ziyi. I was particularly excited to work with Yimou, a director whose work I have always admired. When I first heard the story, I thought of Kurosawa's Rashomon [1950]. At that time, Yimou gave me a choice of playing the narrator, like Leslie Cheung did in Ashes of Time [1994]. In the end, I did what Yimou wanted and
• "She looks for happiness, and will do whatever makes her happy. I'm very pessimistic. Sometimes, out of the blue, she will want to do all sorts of things. I can't deal with that, I have to plan everything properly first."
• "Kar-wai is very demanding, and we never have a real script. [But he] challenges me. He is always pushing me to go deeper, to become that person. I like it."
• "Acting has always been a way for me to express the emotions I had buried. If I hadn't acted, I would have gone insane. In my acting class, I could let out my real tears and everyone thought it was the character. But no, it was me."