New Kid on the Blog

Writing this feels kinda strange, 'cause I'm actually a first-timer when it comes to blogging. I'd never thought I'd do this, but I got an invite from my stunt buddy & fellow actor Ian Powers (Heng Li 恒力), I checked out the site and I really think this is an extremely cool project.

So, hey, I'm a blogger now!

To be honest, the only thing I happened to know about blogs is that frustrated actresses use them as a means to reveal their sexual escapades with (in-)famous directors to a scandal-greedy public via the Internet (in China this seems to be THE big thing lately). Be that as it may, to me the idea of having a public diary still takes getting used to. Plus, I can't help wondering who on earth could possibly take an interest in a struggling stunt actor's dilettante authorial outpourings. But one has to keep up with the times, I guess... jeez, I sound like my own granddad now.

So, anyway, here goes:

"Ze pandas are coming!!!"

I've just come back to Shanghai from an acting gig in Sichuan with my aforementioned crony Ian Powers (you can read all about that project in great detail on Ian's blog). It was a TV movie called " Qing Gui Shang Li( 情归上里)"  about pandas, cross-cultural romance, greed... the whole shebang. As usual, I played the villain, in this case the evil businessman uncle from Switzerland, who'd mainly come to China to hunt down poor little panda bears and turn them into cozy fur coats.

Everybody who knows about TV production in China is familiar with the ordeal such a shoot can be. Shooting in the winter, in the middle of nowhere, on a tiny budget, without any prep time, etc. Under these circumstances it's just amazing how good-humoredly and relentlessly the crew has been toiling away (and still is, since I believe they are still at it). As Ian mentions in his blog, the leading lady Fatima Yaqi ( 法提麦 雅琦) in particular impressed everyone with her stunning beauty, her professionalism, her acting skills, and her cheerfulness. I figure, there was not a single dude on the set that didn't have a crush on her. And Ian, the lucky bastard, got to play her love interest... and while he got to kiss her, I got to shoot her (sometimes typecasting really sucks). Duh, the good guy never gets the girl, anyway! Not if I can do anything about it...

My part was pretty small, all in all, but at least I had a nice little fight scene before I got killed off by some ethnic minority with cross bows in the bamboo underbrush. So all that was left for me to do was pocketing my Red Envelope (the "ghost money") and heading for home.

And just so you know, the bad guys don't get the girls either. 

Dang!