DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:Thank you.

ANJALI RAO, TALK ASIA:Now, you're coming up on 50 movies in your 12-year career. You're also a businessman. You own a pool hall, which is why we're here.

DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:We're in it.

ANJALI RAO, TALK ASIA:Now, if somebody had said to you back in the day, you know, you're not gonna be an architect like you trained to be, you're gonna be a famous movie star, what would you have thought?

DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:I wouldn't have believed it. I mean it really the whole thing just fell in my lap and then I went with it. And, you know, studying architecture, you never think that you would get into film or movies or this whole business that I'm in, and it was just a surprise. I feel I've had lucky, lucky, lucky turn（s） of events in my life, that a lot of people, you know, strive and struggle to be there and can't get there, and then someone like me, it just falls in my lap. So (I) just try and make the best of it and appreciate what I have, you know?

ANJALI RAO, TALK ASIA:You were born in the U.S. to Chinese parents, but even though you weren't raised in Asia, did you still feel that connection to this part of the world?

DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:Yeah, definitely. I mean, I felt growing up in can Francisco there's all the huge Chinese community there and a lot of my friends growing up in high school that were also Chinese. I didn't speak the language that well when I was there, but I learned a lot from my parents who always instilled in me: No matter that you're an American, you're always also a Chinese. So they always pushed that in my mind. It wasn't until I came to Hong Kong that Hong Kong people started calling me "guai zai,"-which means "white boy," right ~（that） I started to feel that I wasn't necessarily the same. And I realized it is different, you know? Now I don't really feel that I'm either actually anymore. I just kind of think of myself as a person of this world, you know, really. And I think that's the most important thing, is if you can relate to other people, other cultures and just be open, you get much further in society, yeah.

ANJALI RAO, TALK ASIA:You won Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2007 for The Heavenly Kings, which was a popumentary about a boy band called Alive that is ironic in itself because it never was alive: it never existed. What was your motivation for that project and what was it like having to pretend to be in a boy band for two years?

DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:It was embarrassing, really embarrassing, because it's... I mean, you know, we're satiring (satirizing) basically the pop music industry, and at that time there were a lot of boy bands who were very popular. And on the side, me and my friends, we kind of laugh at that, that sort of scene, because I grew up in America. I grew up listening to, you know, punk rock and rock and hip-hop, and real interesting dark, heavy music. And then (to) see this light, poppy, boyish music with girls running after people and screaming and crying was very foreign to me. And so we wanted to sort of poke fun at that as well as poke fun at the industry in general. We thought about making a movie that we'd actually be playing these characters, but I felt like the point wouldn't get across as well as us actually doing it and actually using ourselves to make fun of what we were talking about. So it was difficult because we couldn't tell anybody, so even some of our friends didn't know. And they were like, "You're in a boy band now? What's goin' on? I think you need to work on your dancing skills a little bit." You know stuff like that. And it was, I mean, it was embarrassing really, but we knew what we were doing it for, so it made it worth it in the end.

ANJALI RAO, TALK ASIA:You and Lisa have been together for, you know, a long time now, but you've been able to largely keep your relationship out of the public eye. How do you do that?

DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:I don't really like to talk much about my public (private) life in general, because I really do believe that if you know too much about that stuff， it kind of takes away the magic of what you see an actor do on screen. And so, yeah, I mean it's a matter of just keeping things private, and, you know, special moments for special things. I don't think everything is meant for everybody. You know,I've got to keep some things treasured to myself.

ANJALI RAO, TALK ASIA:Now, Asian movies are churned out in rapid succession. You've got three coming out this year alone I understand. What else is on the horizon for you?

DANIEL WU, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR:I'm now kind of expanding business-wise. I mean, we're here in my... in one of the sort of bars that I've invested in. And I just want to expand my business based on the ideology of doing what I think is right or doing what I think is fun and interesting rather than for a monetary return. So, I started my own management company, Revolution Talent Management, and we're starting a new music division soon, and we're... you know the music industry's changing, and we want to try different ideas on how to make successful musicians out there, and also non-mainstream musicians. I have a lot of friends who have a lot of talent but don't necessarily fit into the typical Hong Kong pop star mode, and I want to give them a chance to show their talents. And whether they make money or not is not important to me. It's really about getting the passion out there and getting people to have a choice and a variety and not just be spoon-fed entertainment, but given a choice to select what they want to see, you know.