Interview: I'd like to experiment various genres, be more flexible: Chang Chen

"I want to try to play in different kind of movies and become more flexible," said actor Chang Chen, who participated in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's movie Nie Yinniang.

"This time, I took a very serious path and I started asking myself 'why to be an actor', and it's not a question of money, fame or the role you played," Chang told Xinhua in an exclusive interview while presenting his role in the movie "Nie Yinniang" (The Assassin) which is in competition at the ongoing 68th Canners film Festival.

Explaining his collaboration with director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, he said: "first I know how he shot movies, and he gave us lots of books in classic Chinese to study, because he wanted the actors to know that age, what happened and which role had the different characters."

"Then he gave us a lot of martial art novels to read, so we did the study first and then we talked about the script. This movie is based on a short Chinese novel of only five pages but it's very hard to read, it took me hours to understand each word," he said.

Realism is key for Hou, Chang explains that "after this preparation we had to set up the action scenes and practice to dance and to play drums. When you go on the set, Hou wants everything like real and not like you pretend you are dancing or playing."

Asked about the genre he prefers, the young actor said: "maybe I prefer to shoot comedies, because the tension on set makes me nervous, some roles are really hard and you have to keep the tension and the tone."

According to Chang, director Hou is like a close friend or even a father on set, but he is a perfectionist, for example, he wanted the pottery to be perfectly shinning and the candles positioned in specific places.

Asked about the possibility to be a movie director, Chang explained that last year he was directing short movies, but "being a director is very hard, it is a task too huge". When he did it, Chang enjoyed, and he said probably in ten years he would have something to show as a director.

The movie Nie Yinniang could be a "bridge" to show Chinese culture aboard, according to Chang. "It will make people, including the Chinese people, understand better the Tang Dynasty, because you can only discover this period through books, and it will be a surprise for the audience. I think the film will encourage lots of young people to make art films." Enditem