Hong Kong actor Louis Koo Tin Lok (古天樂) may have a reputation for being a reticent cool cat, but it was a different Koo that faced the media when he was in town last week to promote his film “Happy Birthday”.
Rebutting recent criticism of him as being unfriendly and lethargic, the 37-year-old actor explained that the hectic publicity schedule had him drained.
“You answer slowly and wearily, stop making jokes, and people misinterpret you as being solemn and serious,” he told TODAY.
According to Koo, the succession of early morning press conferences and reporters asking the same questions over and over again had proved to be a challenge.
So, perhaps because Singapore was the final stop on the publicity tour, he was in a noticeably cheery mood. At the press conference, he was spotted fooling around with a digital camera, trying to distract his co-star Rene Liu by snapping photos of her.
In “Happy Birthday” ? which is based on a short story by Liu and opens in cinemas tomorrow ? he plays a studious and bespectacled university student Nan, a marked departure from his usual strong and silent image.
Liu plays Mi who is in a relationship with Nan. But the romance goes awry when Mi begins to have feelings of insecurity about their liason.
“I’ve been asked a lot about how it feels playing the role of Nan, but that’s probably because I haven’t acted in many romantic films,” he said.
“I’m not choosy about the kind of roles I play. My main responsibility as an actor is just to act well. But acting in “Happy Birthday” was a nice experience, and I hope to act in more literary movies.”
Despite co-star Liu’s reputation for being difficult ? something that the actress admitted herself ? Koo was quick to defend her.
“She’s not hard to please, it’s always been Rene who thinks this way,” he said. “She’s probably thinking too much, but I think too much too, so I don’t have the right to say that of her.”
Liu paid back the compliment with praise for Koo too.
“I’m the sort of person who can’t function properly after 10pm,” she said. “Louis didn’t only perform his role well, he also reminded me whenever my level of performance dropped.”
But if there’s something prototypically Koo that hasn’t changed, it was his usual evasive attitude when it comes to questions about his personal life.
All he would say was that he would have preferred a happier ending to the movie, although he admitted that the bittersweet conclusion is an honest depiction of reality.
“The relationship between Mi and Nan mirrors that of many couples. What happened to them could happen to anyone too.” - TODAY/so [by coffeebean]
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