Tony Leung Chiu Wai Quotes

My father left us three times when I was between three and six. You just couldn't tell - suddenly one day he would leave and then maybe he would come back after six months without telling you why. And then maybe he would disappear again after a year and it's very difficult to take when you are four or five. You just don't know how to handle it and nobody in the family wants to talk about it. My mother didn't know how to tell us and she needed to work because we needed money to live.

I was 19 years when I got into acting training classes at a TV station and then I found a way to express my feelings. My father left us when I was a kid and I just shut down all of my emotions. I wasn't talkative; I didn't know how to communicate with people. I tried to separate from people. After I got into the classes I found a way of expressing myself through characters. I can cry behind a character, I can shout behind a character and it became a relief. And it's fun.

I don't want to be more famous. I enjoy making movies but I enjoy my private life too. As an actor, to do it once in my lifetime I think would be a good experience. But I'll just leave it to fate. I had a chance to work with Ang Lee because of fate.

I think movie makers in every country are looking for ideas. It's interactive. And sometimes we remake a lot of Hollywood films but we don't buy the rights, we just try to imitate those films.

I think the love scenes are very powerful and they're not trying to simply show the bodies of the actors but trying to reflect the inner feelings of the character so it's easier in that way.

I don't want to become more famous because I don't have any privacy anymore and I hate that very much. Outside of work I just want to be an ordinary person, not to be recognized, not a monkey on the street when everybody is looking at you.

The most difficult thing is that I don't speak Mandarin and I had this experience - of working in a language that I don't understand - before and it's really horrible. Eighteen years ago, I played a mute in one film because I couldn't speak Mandarin. There was another film where I had to speak Vietnamese. It's horrible!

I think doing love scenes is never easy without a strong emotional background.

I really enjoy the process of making movies. The only thing that really concerns me is working with great directors and actors, and that is fun and exciting.