It might be hard to imagine, but Andy Lau, who is the epitome of alpha male on the silver screen, is actually scared of rats.
In an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily, the actor/singer revealed his less-known sides to the public for the first time, sharing his phobia towards rats, his apprehension when it comes to directing a film and even sharing an experience when he lost his temper on the set.
“When I was filming Lee Rock in 1991, I screamed and fled in terror after spotting a rat at the set.
“I insisted that I would only return to the set after they got rid of it,” he recalled, adding that he has since developed an idiosyncrasy on the set: to set off firecrackers whenever he is required to shoot a scene in a back alley, in an attempt to scare off the rats.
Rodent phobia aside, the 48-year-old has a reputation of being the most hardworking artiste in the industry. You can hardly see him resting, even while fellow Heavenly Kings like Jacky Cheung had apparently slowed down in recent years.
When asked about this, Lau explained that the only time when he was working really hard was between 1995 and 2000, after he had lost almost all his savings in the production of Savior of the Soul in 1991.
“I worked really hard so that I could pay off the debts. After that I’ve stopped working so hard,” he said.
Nevertheless, the tag of 'The Man who Never Rests' stuck with him. Even so, Lau, who is noted for his professionalism, once lost his temper when he was shooting Running on Karma.
It had everything to do with a heavy muscle-man costume he was donning for the film.
“The costume was very heavy and it was a painstaking process to put it on. It took 12 hours to do it.
“I ended up requesting the lighting guy to be faster in his job. He retorted saying that I got impatient after waiting for only 10 minutes. That’s when I lost it.
“He did not know that I had been waiting for hours.”
It turned out that all the pain and sacrifices did pay off: it helped him win the Best Actor Award at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards.
When it comes to career, those who know Lau would know that he is deeply interested in filmmaking, even to the extent of pumping in money to help fund films by budding filmmakers like Ning Hao.
However, until today, we have yet to see a directorial debut from Lau.
“Actually I have been reading scripts, but I get cold feet when I see how good other people’s debuts turn out to be. You look at people like Ning Hao who came up with the brilliant Crazy Stone. And I was stunned by how good Jay Chou’s Secret is.
“I’ve been putting off the plans of directing because I’m worried that I might not be able to come up with something good” he concluded.
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