Every culture is different in terms of what is taboo and what is acceptable. I grew up in Singapore, where people are very mindful of that. One can see that as restriction or as consideration for a fellow person living within a shared environment.
Ng Chin Han
When I was shooting 'The Dark Knight,' I always felt like I was shooting an intimate drama for some reason. The scenes were all intimate, and they were always between a few individuals.
It's always fun to see faces that are either familiar or resemble yours. I was fascinated by movies like 'Big Trouble in Little China' growing up because there were so many Asian people in it! The same with 'Year of the Dragon' or 'The Last Emperor'. It was just so great to see so many Asian actors working.
The first play I did was a funny one called 'The School for Wives', by Moliere. We were wearing the ugliest wigs and the worst costumes you can ever imagine to try to recreate 17th-century France in Singapore. But I got my first real pay cheque from that. I was very happy taking that cheque to the bank.
When 'Ghost in the Shell' was first made, it was so prescient. It was sci-fi.
Roland Emmerich is a very interesting individual. He is more erudite and well-read than most of the people I know.
I feel as much pressure as anyone does about their work, really. You just want to be productive; only difference is that the work is seen and judged by a few more people.
'Dark Knight' shot in London and Chicago, and we were on that for so long.
We live in a time where there's a great deal of navel-gazing with the devices that we have that occupy so much of our time... many subjects of history are lost.
I got to act with my childhood film idol, Robert Redford, and that's a gift in itself.
You'll be able to find many unemployed actors, you know? I've been gifted a wonderful career, and to now be able to find myself in a place where someone can look at the course I've charted and say, 'I can do that,' or 'I can do even better!' is a privileged position to be in.
CAA has a great history of representing fantastic talent, many of whom are my heroes in film and television.
Everyone from my high school and junior college are now doctors and lawyers. I came from that kind of environment, but I chose to go on another path, even though I did promise my parents that I would get a degree. After that, I could do anything I wanted; that was the deal.
After I did television, I just felt I didn't have any more to give to the medium. And so I went back to the theatre and started directing and producing, and found I enjoyed it as much, if not more, than acting.
As a young actor, there's a lot of hubris. You come in with guns blazing, all kinds of ideas as to how you want to play a role, and you endeavour to convince people of your interpretation or your point of view.
After you shoot a day's work, you gotta see rushes, and then you have more meetings with the budgets, with your producers, with your designers. It's never-ending.
During my university years, I was doing a lot of theatre acting. I would be skipping school for rehearsal. We were rehearsing at night - we finished at midnight, and I had to go to school at 8 A.M. It was very tiring.
There are so many surprises in my life; I don't take anything for granted. I enjoy every experience that comes; I don't think too far ahead.
I've always had an uneasy relationship with technology and how it insinuates itself into our lives: for example. I always prefer talking face-to-face with friends than texting or calling, and if I want to get updates on their lives, I don't go to Facebook but meet them in person.
Shakespeare has been adapted by Akira Kurosawa. 'Dangerous Liaisons' has been adapted into a Chinese movie. 'Blood Simple', the Coen brothers movie, was adapted by Zhang Yimou.
I grew up with comics. Whether it be from the East or the West, I devoured them.
As an actor, when you want to capture the spirit of the character, and the character exists in all of the iterations slightly differently, you work towards getting a sense of what the creators wanted to do, you know? Then, you work off of that.
