Kelly Chen talks about her new movie, Horseplay, and her career
After two decades in showbiz and with two young sons at home, singer-actress Kelly Chen works as she chooses, writes Edmund Lee
Kelly Chen says there aren’t enough strong roles for women in film. Photos: Harry C @4 peoples. Photo assistants: Chika, Nobu. Wardrobe: DKNY Hair: George Shum@Alchemy. Venue: Harbour Plaza Metropolis
KELLY CHEN WAI-LAM, an established actress and one of the biggest Canto-pop stars of the past two decades, has found herself going down an innocuous spiral of late.
Ever since she put her career on cruise control to focus on starting a family five years ago, the 40-year-old entertainer has been busy fielding persistent, albeit genial, inquiries about her personal life - as if that is the only interesting aspect of her persona.
She has been busy promoting Horseplay, her first major screen role since 2008's An Empress and the Warriors, and when I ask her to pinpoint the question she's encountered the most thus far on her promotion duties, she offers a conclusive response. "It's about my family. They like to ask about my sons. Every time, they'd ask - even though I have no intention to talk about them - and then people would think all I want to do is talk about them. The thing is, once the reporters have posed the question, I have to answer them, don't I?"
She pauses for a few seconds and, perhaps sensing a dash of irritation in her answer, goes on to clarify her stance. "Well, I mean, I'm fine with that. It's not a problem for me to answer these questions. It's just that I'm afraid the audience would think that I only want to talk about my sons. It's not my fault, really. It's just what the reporters ask. I'm afraid that my audience would be annoyed."
But why shouldn't she feel irked? After all, the singer-actress has become increasingly particular about the film projects she takes on, and is more keen to talk about her choice of roles than, say, her two young sons (whom Chen, in true celebrity fashion, has given nicknames after Chinese shrimp dumplings and soup dumplings).
Chen believes that interesting female parts don't come around often in the male-dominated industry, which might explain why she has fewer than 30 acting roles - a low number for a star of her calibre - on her resume.
Still, her selection criteria remains uncompromising. "I'm choosy with my film projects because there's very little acting to do if you're an actress [in the less interesting roles]. I don't want to waste time with those. I'll take part in a male-centric film only if it has a very eye-catching script, like the Infernal Affairs movies, in which I was allowed to play a key role as a psychologist."
Then again, when we meet for this brief interview to chat about her latest work, the family-friendly adventure Horseplay, Chen is also quick to assure me that being typecast as a goofy character is the least of her concerns - as long as the part is right. "I don't really think about this - absolutely not," she says. "Every time I'm given a script and offered a role, I think long and hard about it. I don't casually accept everything."
Primarily shot on location in London and Prague, Horseplay reunites Chen with veteran actor Tony Leung Ka-fai after their parts in writer-director Lee Chi-ngai's segment in the Hong Kong horror triptych Tales from the Dark Part 1 (2013) - that film's one-week shoot had left both wanting more. Horseplay is Chen's third collaboration with Lee: they first worked together in the Takeshi Kaneshiro-starring romance Lost and Found (1996), which was Chen's second leading role.
In Horseplay, Chen plays an entertainment TV anchor who aspires to serious investigative journalism. On a trip to attend her friend's wedding in London, she's inadvertently drawn into a web of intrigue as a master thief (Leung) and a bumbling detective (Ekin Cheng Yi-kin) both join a quest to track down a priceless antique horse. By keeping the action benign and the romance decidedly chaste, Lee has made a picturesque film that is as jaunty as it is superficial.
Chen says Lee is a "humorous director who is very attentive to plot details"; she finds it a pleasant coincidence that every time she has worked with Ekin Cheng on a movie they're inevitably travelling somewhere (Malaysia for 1998's Hot War, Tokyo for 2000's Tokyo Raiders).
She appreciates the chance to work with Leung again, because the latter offers insightful advice on set. This came in handy one day when a scene Chen was involved in was amended at the last minute.
I have, however, nothing more to report regarding her role in Horseplay - a consequence not of Chen's ineloquence but her, shall we say, overly efficient method of dealing with the local press. While the photo shoot for this week's front cover is in progress ahead of our interview, Chen's publicist, Leo Tam Ka-ming, has helpfully - but insistently - offered to answer any questions I may have about her participation in the film. He even gives me permission to pass off his answers as Chen's own.
"Trust me, it's no big deal," says Tam, who has been Chen's publicist since 2003 and even has a cameo in Horseplay. "It's fine. It's more efficient this way. Sometimes I handle interviews on her behalf to save time."
In fact, when I begin the interview with a general question about her interest in the project, Chen turns to Tam and asks, "Did you?", upon which the publicist confirms that I have been briefed about the film. Under the circumstances, should I risk looking like a fool again by asking what I should maybe have asked Tam about instead?
It is safe to assume that Chen's media strategy would attract the scorn of her journalist character in Horseplay, but the singer is known for her squeaky clean public image. More often regarded as a "trendy mum" than a pop idol these days, Chen has played a variety of endearing movie roles over the years, including - in an admittedly extreme case - the Goddess of Mercy in the recent 3-D fantasy The Monkey King. And mercy - in the form of a follow-up phone interview - she does grant me after the photo shoot.
As our conversation resumes four days later, this time with the comfortable anonymity offered by the phone, I ask Chen about her thoughts on the presumably common practice of having someone else speaking on her behalf. "Yes [it does happen], because Leo has listened to my answers 100 times already," she says. "Because I always say the same thing. He knows everything."
Being one of the most popular celebrities in town with a career in music, movies and myriad endorsements, Chen's life has pretty much been an open book since she returned to Hong Kong in 1994 upon finishing her design studies in New York. In any case, the straight-haired beauty is content to leave her hectic work life in the past.
"My work rate is no longer as high as it used to be," says Chen, who is about to start recording a new Cantonese album to mark her 20th anniversary in show business.
"And I don't miss the old days, because it was a hard life. I didn't have time to appreciate what was happening around me - all I knew was to work more and more and more. It's true that the more effort I put in, the better result I was going to get.
"But every stage of life is different," says Chen . "Now that I have a family I have to wait for the really good scripts - unlike back in the early days, when I had to seize on any opportunity for exposure and take any roles that came my way - I've become extra-choosy. I won't miss the very hectic life I had. I have to enjoy life a little more."
As part two of our interview draws to a close, Chen advises me to contact her publicist again if I happen to have any more follow-up questions.
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Horseplay opens on March 27
