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Simon Yam shares his fears while filming Hong Kong’s latest blockbuster Nightfall.
SIMON Yam plays a police officer again in his latest Hong Kong crime action thriller. In fact, the Hong Kong actor laments that he plays police officers so often that even his seven-year-old daughter Ella thinks he really is one.
“My daughter keeps asking why I don’t arrest bad hats and I keep trying to explain to her that I’m an actor and not a policeman. But, even I get a bit confused myself sometimes. So, you can imagine how my daughter feels,” Yam, 56, said during a phone interview from Hong Kong last week.
Directed by Roy Chow, Nightfall also stars Nick Cheung, Janice Man, Kay Tse, Shawn Dou, Candice Yu and Michael Wong.
In the movie, Yam plays detective Lam who investigates the brutal murder of Hong Kong classical tenor Tsui (Wong) and initially suspects deafmute ex-convict Wang (Cheung). “This time, my policeman character is a bit loony and sometimes even his speech seems nonsensical.”
Since Nightfall is packed with action, Yam had to shoot from rooftops and cable-cars. This meant having to confront one of his two greatest fears – heights. “It’s something even I cannot understand. Why is a grown man like me afraid of heights?”
Vertigo aside, Yam, being the true professional, refused to take short cuts and continued to shoot with the others. “After filming, I rushed to the toilet to throw up. All the wonderful ketam (crab) I had the night before was wasted. No more ketam or filming from great heights from now on!”
What’s his other fear, then? “Cochroaches,” he admitted sheepishly.
Following that, it was inevitable that the topic of Cheung’s muchtalked about weight loss training came up as Yam was full of admiration for his co-star’s commitment to his role. Cheung, 44, had spent half a year working out and maintained his slight yet muscular frame for the duration of the movie shoot. At his thinnest, Cheung was reported to weigh only about 50kg while his waist measured 56cm and was even asked whether he was suffering from cancer.
Cheung is currently in Malaysia with Aaron Kwok, filming Oxide Pang’s Conspirator, which is due for release at the end of this year. He was said to have celebrated by treating himself to a complete meal as a reward for his hellish weight loss when Nightfall has reportedly grossed HKD1,054,875 (RM415,000) on its opening day (March 15) in Hong Kong compared to his previous award-winning The Beast Stalker (Jing Yan) with HKD480,000 (RM188,000), and The Stool Pigeon (Sin Yan) HKD860,000 (RM338,000).
Revealing that Cheung suffered from mood swings and depression from the intensive training, Yam said he could understand how his co-star felt as he had to go through something similar. “I had to pile on the pounds for Eye In The Sky (2007). Putting on weight was easy and fun. All I did was eat polo bao (pineapple buns) and drink susu (milk) everyday. However, trying to lose the weight after that was a nightmare!
“It’s good that I get to keep my shirt on this time while Nick has to go shirtless a lot. He was very strict with his diet and weight training to keep his body lean, and even isolated himself to maintain his character’s psyche. But, that helped our characterisation in the long run, as I couldn’t tell what he was thinking about.”
To give himself an idea of what his co-star was going through as a deaf-mute, Yam even tried putting himself through a silent exercise. “I sat in front of a mirror and tried to remain silent for two hours. It was actually very challenging,” mused Yam, who is taking a break from filming Taiwanese costume fantasy Ripple, co-starring Sandra Ng, Jerry Yan, Joe Cheng and Ivy Chen. He will next be seen in South Korean flick The Professionals (also known as The Thieves).
Nightfall opens in local cinemas tomorrow.