Biography: Leung is a Toisanese-Chinese born in Hong Kong, though his family came from Taishan, Guangdong, China. Leung's early childhood was punctuated with parents' quarrels and arguments about money. A mischievous boy in his early years, Leung's personality changed when his father, a chronic gambler, left the family when he was seven; he and his younger sister were brought up single-handedly by their mother.  Leung became a reticient, quiet child; his childhood experiences made it difficult for him to trust in marriage and paved the way for his acting career. Leung's mother worked hard to keep him attending a private school, but even so, Tony had to quit school at the age of 15 due to financial difficulties. As an adolescent he behaved himself and remained very close to his mother. During a DVD interview on the making of Hero, he says that he sees his mother as his definition of a "hero[ine]" for having brought up two children alone. After quitting his studies, Leung worked in a variety of jobs, first as a grocer's runner at his uncle's shop, then a showroom salesman in a Hong Kong shopping centre. He met actor and comedian Stephen Chow who influenced his decision to become an actor. The two now-superstars remain very good friends. In 1982 he 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. 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. He 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. Leung also has an on-and-off Cantopop and Mandarin pop singing career. He sang the theme song of Infernal Affairs with Andy Lau.  Leung speaks decent English and is well read and well versed on historical issues. During the late 1990s, some predicted that it would be difficult for him to break into Hollywood since he would not take on stereotypical and degrading roles because of his pride and character. To date, he has not done a Hollywood film, but is primed to appear in one after signing on with an American film agent. In addition to Cantonese, English and Spanish, Leung is also able to speak Mandarin and Japanese (as heard in Tokyo Raiders). During the promotion of the film Hero, some politicians and commentators in Hong Kong attacked Leung for expressing the view that the Tiananmen Square demonstration crack down was necessary to maintain stability. Under constant political pressure and boycott threats, Leung made a single statement that he may have been quoted out of context but refused to retract his statement in the magazine. However, the film magazine editor maintained that the original statement was not out of context and challenged people to read the complete interview.  Leung has dated Hong Kong actress Carina Lau since the end of 1989. He had known her since The Replica in 1984 as she had been good friends with Margie Tsang, his previous girlfriend. He worked on-screen with Lau in Replica (1984), Duke of Mount Deer (1984), "Police Cadet" (1984, 1985, 1988), The Yangs' Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1990), He ain't heavy, he's my father (1993), Ashes of Time (1994), and 2046 (2004). In 1990, during the filming of Days of Being Wild, Lau was abducted for several hours. Wong Kar-wai said, "Originally, there were plans for Days of Being Wild I and II, and the sequence featuring Tony Leung was meant to be the opening scene of the second movie. But two things happened, one of which was that Days of Being Wild didn't do well in Hong Kong, so the producers said, "No Part 2." The other reason was the Carina Lau's kidnapping." On July 21, 2008, the couple got married in Bhutan in a royal fashion. The wedding created a media frenzy in Hong Kong, with companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue the wedding party. According to Ming Pao Daily News, Faye Wong and her husband actor Li Yapeng had taken them to India in 2007 to visit the 17th Karmapa. The Karmapa's counsel helped them to resolve a crisis in their relationship, and he also suggested Bhutan as a wedding venue.  Besides Wong Kar-wai, Leung has been a frequent collaborator and good friend of Maggie Cheung. Their first TV serial together was the highly successful "Police Cadet" in 1984 (later named "Police Cadet 84" to distinguish it from subsequent sequels). Leung played an outgoing young man who decides to become a police officer in order to earn a living for his family; Maggie Cheung played a shy bookworm, Tony's upstairs neighbour and love interest. 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). Quotes: "[Acting] allows me to express my emotions without me getting embarrassed. I can cry or smash things on the set, but no one knows that's just acting or that's how I am really feeling." "After my father left me when I was eight, I became afraid to talk to other people. In school, when other children talked about their parents, I would get very embarrassed. I didn't want to mention my father, so I seldom talked to others." "I am very restrained, very suppressed, very quiet. I don't like to talk too much because I don't know what to do in front of an audience. Actually, I don't know how to communicate with others because of my background and I am scared." "I prefer drama. Action is too much for me at this age - you need to be very well prepared. But even for a drama like this, I feel very exhausted. I dare not think about action films with Wong Kar-wai, but we are supposed to do one next year." "I think I was influenced by a lot of American actors. I'm a great fan of Martin Scorsese and I saw a lot of Gene Hackman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Jack Nicholson. I watch a lot of them; I might be influenced by them in some ways, but when I was acting I did not intend to imitate them." "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." "As an Asian actor, I would like once in my life to do just one Hollywood movie. It would be a memorable experience." "I like not knowing from one day to the next. It keeps me from thinking and allows me to just be in my character. Too much information restricts your creativity." [on working with Wong Kar-wai who doesn't use scripts] "Absolutely. I found myself buried in the character. I need some time to tune myself out." [on whether the character Chow Mo Wan has entered his life] "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." [on the origins of his mournfulness] "We love and care about each other. But we would never say these words to each other. We are the kind of people who do not know how to express our feelings to each other. My mother was against my going into TVB." [on his relationship with his mother] "I am not an adventurous person. I don't like to take risks. I am the kind of person who likes to be secure. If I go out, I make all my plans beforehand." "We made 'Infernal Affairs' at a time when the Hong Kong film industry was at its lowest. This film was the top-grossing box-office success that year and perhaps number two or three in our all-time box office. I was very happy to work with such an excellent cast. It was kind of a guys' movie." "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." [on his character Chan Wing Yan in Infernal Affairs] "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?'" [on discussions with Wong for his character, Chow Mo Wan, in 2046) "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." "Once I'm committed to a role, I will go very deep into it, even when I'm not at work. I'll keep on studying the script, maybe 40 or 50 times. I might call a scriptwriter at three in the morning to say I've thought of something new." "Nothingness. I would most likely be engaged in nothingness. A state of nothingness and play!" [on what he'd do if he weren't an actor] | ||||||||||
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