As one of the most sought-after Asian actors in Hollywood today, Singaporean Chin Han has is best remembered for his small but memorable roles in films like “The Dark Knight”, “2012” and “Contagion”. He has also appeared in the TV series “Fringe”, “The Last Resort” and “Arrow”, where he has a recurring role.
His latest project is HBO Asia’s first ever original series, the 10-part detective noir drama, “Serangoon Road” which was shot and filmed entirely in his home country of Singapore. In this series, Chin plays Kay Song, the ambitious and ruthless grandson of the head of a Secret Society which traditionally controls the action around Serangoon Road.
“He’s the successor to one of the biggest crime families in Singapore. He’s a very dangerous man, a cross between Sonny and Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather’. A part of him is very quiet and scheming and another part that’s explosive and volatile. What makes him scary is you’ll never know what you’re going to get with him,” Chin told InterAksyon and other Asian media in further describing his character.
“Serangoon Road” is set between 1964 and 1965, at a time when political and racial tensions in Singapore has reached fever pitch as the city state’s British colonizers are just beginning to pull out. Chin was asked what he remembers about that era.
“I was born near the end of the ’60s so I grew up in the ’70s. But I heard a lot of stories from my parents. Before I started shooting, I also did a lot of research with photos and film to see what it was like then. It was a very interesting time because the British were leaving Singapore and that left the place wide open for a lot of different groups to control the territory,” Chin recalled.
Those groups, according to Chin, included the Americans, the British, the Australian intelligence, the communists and the local gangsters—all of which were fighting for power for Singapore’s future.
As for Serangoon Road itself, Chin says he’s quite familiar with the place and understands why it is such a rich source of stories for the series.
“It’s a big street and a very important place back in the ’60s. Even today, there’s so much going on in that part of Singapore. Little India is there, even Chinatown is not too far. There’s a lot of different influences, the Chinese, the Indian, the Malayans. So when you have too many different elements in one place, you’re bound to get different stories,” he pointed out.
As for his preparation for his character, Chin revealed that it was pretty much a collaborative effort between him and the creators of the series.
“When they came out with the character, they already had an idea for it so when they spoke to me about it, I was intrigued with the idea of doing Asian noir which is rare. But when I came on board, I started creating the character with them so in a sense I was tailoring Kay Song to my vision of him. By the time we finished shooting, we together came up with something interesting that I hope the audience will like,” he noted.
Also headlined by Australian actor Don Hany, fellow Singaporean Alaric Tay and Joan Chen, a Chinese actress and director who has carved a very respectable career in Hollywood, “Serangoon Road” focuses on the operations of the Cheng Detective Agency which is managed by the characters of three actors.
On working with Joan Chen in particular who Chin describes as “a very strong actress”, the 43-year old actor said it’s important that her co-stars to be strong actors as well.
“I’m happy to have worked with her. Joan knows what to give her co-stars so they can also give their best performance. But at the same time, you also have to be a strong actor to act opposite her. There was certainly a lot of pressure for me when we were doing our scenes,” he confessed.
Having played villains in several instances, Chin admits to enjoy playing Kay Song, although he confesses to not feeling good after his character performed heinous crimes in the series. After finishing his scenes, he confesses to feeling very evil that he had to ask the hair and makeup department to cut all his hair off. “After that, I felt much better, like a totally different person,” he quipped.
As far as accepting roles are concerned, Chin said he prefers to play any character that is complicated but is not necessarily a villain.
“If the good heroes are complicated, I’d be very happy to do them. In recent years, I’m attracted to comedies so I do hope to do one in the near future. Doing bad guys is always fun, though. You get to do things you don’t do in real life. You get to play quite a bit when you’re working on roles like that,” he admitted.
Having appeared in projects about superheroes in “The Dark Knight”, “Arrow” and, soon, “Captain America: Winter Soldier” where he also gets to work with Robert Redford, Chin also professes to be a big comic book fan and is particularly enamored with graphic novels.
“To me, graphic novels are like the literature of the new generation because they are a perfect combination of visuals and the spoken word. When you read graphic novels, it’s almost like watching a movie which is why it is so easy to make movies out of them. So yes, I enjoy doing these projects as well.”
Despite having worked with such high-profile directors like Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight”), Gus Van Sant (“Restless”), Roland Emmerich (“2012”) and Steven Soderbergh (“Contagion”), Chin maintains that Asian roles for Hollywood projects involves both hard work and luck.
“You need to be at the top of your game to keep up with the industry. Hollywood is constantly evolving, constantly producing new content with new technologies for filmmaking. The major studios also have access to a very deep and wide pool of actors. At any point when they’re casting for an Asian role, like in “The Dark Knight”, they’ll see Asian actors from New York, Chicago, LA, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and even Australia,” he said.
“Although hard work is already a given, it is not enough, an amount of luck is also needed to make it here. I’ve been very grateful because I’ve been lucky to get these roles.”
“Serangoon Road” premieres on HBO Asia this Sunday, September 22, at 9PM.
source: interaksyon.com
