SINGAPORE – My first interview with Tony Leung Chiu Wai took place on a chilly spring day in Hong Kong in 1992, when he was shooting The Days Of Being Dumb, a 1992 comedy in which he and Hong Kong Heavenly King Jacky Cheung play two losers with big gangster dreams.

For two hours, we squatted and sat on the floor outside a dingy gaming arcade in Wanchai, where the actor, then 29, candidly spoke about – among other things – his dreams, hang-ups and traumatic childhood.

“Wow, that’s more than 30 years ago,” says Leung in Cantonese, eyes widening and a warm smile spreading across his face. Now 61, the Hong Kong movie star was in town on Dec 21 to promote his latest film, The Goldfinger, a corporate fraud sizzler directed by Hong Kong film-maker Felix Chong. It opens in Singapore cinemas on Dec 30. 

Although a rising star, who had by then bagged two Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor for Derek Yee’s thriller People’s Hero (1987) and Patrick Tam’s crime drama My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989), Leung was not quite the cinematic icon he is today.

One of his goals, he said then in Wanchai, was to make his mark as an outstanding actor in the next three years. “I may not succeed, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing I tried.”

He has succeeded, many times over. The first actor to have completed a sweep of the top acting honours in Asia, he has won Best Actor three times at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards and five times at the Hong Kong Film Awards for performances in films including gay drama Happy Together (1997) and crime saga Infernal Affairs (2002). In November, he took home his first Best Actor accolade at China’s Golden Rooster Awards for the espionage thriller Hidden Blade.

His international triumphs include bagging Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for romance drama In The Mood For Love and becoming the first Chinese actor to receive the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival in September.

A prolonged standing ovation at the ceremony reduced the usually self-possessed actor to a weeping mess.

Before presenting him with the award, Taiwanese film-maker Ang Lee – who directed Leung in the erotic spy thriller Lust, Caution (2007) – gave a speech describing him as a director’s dream.

Lee said: “There is something in his eyes that is electrifying. It’s the soul that shines through them. He can say more in one look than many actors can with a full monologue. That’s a soul that can entice you to dream and imagine through him.”

Sporting a pair of Maison Mihara Yasuhiro sneakers, olive track pants and a Valentino hooded camouflage jacket at our interview at Equarius Hotel in Resorts World Sentosa before The Goldfinger’s red carpet gala premiere at Universal Studios Singapore, Leung explains why he got so emotional in Venice.

“I’d never imagined it would happen. I felt that people liked my work, but I never thought I’d get a standing ovation, especially from people I didn’t know. There were no Asians, just people who love cinema. I felt very touched,” says Leung, who has been married to Hong Kong actress Carina Lau since 2008.

His achievements over the last three decades have also gone a long way in helping him get rid of the inferiority complex and hang-ups which used to plague him because of a traumatic childhood. He dropped out of school at 15 after his father abandoned the family, leaving his mother to raise him and his younger sister alone.

Growing up, his ambition was not to be an actor, but a lawyer. Any resentment that his family circumstances put paid to that dream has long vanished.

“I feel I have been answerable to myself and done something that people appreciate,” says Leung, who worked as a shop assistant and electric appliance salesman before joining Hong Kong broadcasting company TVB in 1982.

In retrospect, he reckons it does not matter what one chooses to do in life.

“What’s more important is that after you’ve made your choice, you work hard and do the best you can and it will lead to a good outcome.” 

Acting, he says, has changed his life.

“It has given me a lot of opportunities to work with a lot of very talented people and to lead some ‘very different lives’,” he says, lapsing into English. “I am very lucky.”

His role as a flamboyant conman and stock-market manipulator in The Goldfinger is a case in point. Inspired by the story of the Carrian Group, a Hong Kong conglomerate felled by corruption and fraud in the 1980s, the HK$350 million (S$59 million) movie reunites him with old friends: Infernal Affairs co-star Andy Lau and scriptwriter-director Felix Chong, who also co-wrote the film.

The idea of working with them was a big draw. So was the opportunity to play an unscrupulous and flamboyant fraudster, with a personality at polar opposites with his own.

“I wanted to play a villain. I’ve always played goody two shoes, so it’s very liberating to play someone who does not follow the rules,” he says, referring to his character Henry Ching, an engineer who became a billionaire through several elaborate corporate scams.

“People like him don’t think they’re conmen; they just think they have a different way of doing business. It’s hard to imagine how one person could have conned so many people. Greed drives people to cheat and to be cheated,” says the veteran actor, who watched documentaries and read books and reports on corruption scandals and Ponzi schemes to prepare for the role. “I knew nothing about shares, so I read a lot.”

Getting into character took a while.

“The props people laid out a lot of options for me, but we went through many fittings before I found the appropriate suits, spectacles, rings and watches to give me the right ‘feel’ and courage to play him. Actors need to latch on to something before they feel secure about playing a character,” says Leung, who famously defied Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar Wai – his frequent collaborator – and insisted on having a moustache in 2046 (2004), a cinematic meditation on love and longing.

Another reason he loves acting is how it makes him learn new things.

“Each time I do a new role, I learn something new and acquire new perspectives which make me look at the world differently,” says Leung, who is slated to start shooting Hungarian film-maker Ildiko Enyedi’s Silent Friend in March.

The voracious reader, who developed the habit after working with Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien in the historical drama A City Of Sadness (1989), has been poring over books on early cognitive development and visiting neuroscientists in universities to prepare for his role as one.

His research has changed the way he looks at living things.

“I have more respect for even trees and worms now. I don’t want to kill. I believe all beings have their own intelligence and are sentient,” he says. “I don’t think there should be hierarchy in this world. That’s a construct devised by humans who put themselves at the centre of everything.”

Since making his Hollywood debut in the superhero flick Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings in 2021, he has received many American television and movie offers. He is, however, not in any hurry to head to Tinseltown.

“I”m 61. I don’t know for how long more I can make movies. I just want to work with people from different regions to explore other possibilities.”

If a project resonates with him and he finds a role interesting, he will accept it, regardless of its size. It explains why he agreed to make a cameo in popular K-pop girl group NewJeans’ Cool With You music video, which dropped in July. He also appeared as a handyman in Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s new music video Don’t Mind Me, which addresses the issue of social anxiety, a condition Leung empathises with.

Age has mellowed him, he says.

“I feel I’m more zen. Also, I’m starting to yearn for a simpler life. Simplicity is happiness,” says Leung, who now spends a lot of time in Japan when he is not working.

An avid sailor and snow skier, he says he loves doing things normal people do.

“I exercise each morning after I wake up. Then I’ll take a bike ride, shop for ingredients at the market and cook for myself. I eat simply: salads and buckwheat noodles. Then I’ll read and watch movies,” he says.

“Other than making movies, I like this simple life. When you don’t have that many things crowding your brain, you become more relaxed.”

The Goldfinger opens in Singapore cinemas on Dec 30.