Leon Williams : From lousy Mandarin to Olympic duet

[naxus]

S'pore actor scores with Olympic tune
By Chang May Choon

A FAMILIAR voice was heard crooning a triumphant tune when US swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing on Sunday. It belongs to Singaporean actor Leon Williams, better known as Prince Williams to Taiwanese idol drama lovers. His song? The catchy tune Ai Shi Liu Dong De (Love Flows), a duet with Korean actress Han Ji Hye (Little Bride, My Boyfriend Is Type .

This is Leon's first Mandarin song since signing a record deal with Chinese entertainment giant Starlight Productions last month. Sina.com reported that it is the official image song for the National Aquatics Centre, also known as Water Cube. It's quite an achievement for Leon, who started out speaking lousy Mandarin in his TV debut Heaven's Robe.

But that's not all that the Eurasian hunk of English, German, Japanese and Chinese descent can boast about. The 32-year-old is also fast becoming a household name in China, where his first Chinese film, Almost Perfect, opened early this month. He plays a Ming dynasty prince who slips out of the palace to learn woodcraft and falls for a commoner played by Chinese actress Huang Yi.

In just 10 days, the small-budget independent film grossed more than 23 million yuan ($4.75 million) at the box office, breaking the record set two years ago by comedy film Crazy Stone (21 million yuan). No wonder Leon was grinning from ear to ear on Tuesday when he met The New Paper.

In town to settle some matters for his new private apartment in the west coast, he was his usual jovial self and chatted with this reporter like an old friend. It has been a year since we last met - just before his last drama My Lucky Star was shown here on cable - and we had not heard from him since. He was also missing from the media radar in Taiwan, where he first shot to fame in the drama Heaven's Robe in 2004.

So, what happened to Leon? With a laugh, he explained that he has been taking things easy since his 'best year' last year. All he did was to film a drama (My Lucky Star), a movie (Almost Perfect), a handphone commercial and make a few appearances at events.

But it was enough to make him 'almost half a millionaire'. 'I'm so comfortable that I don't have to work for the next two or three years,' he joked.

The endorsement deal alone earned him a six-figure sum in Singapore dollars, and he commands no less than five figures for event appearances. But he's not doing less work because he gets fewer offers. Leon claimed he has received more than 20 drama scripts in the past few months, as well as three movie offers.

So he can afford to be picky. He's more keen on movies because he felt he had more fun doing Almost Perfect than any of his dramas. 'I'm being patient, I don't want to rush into anything... I can wait for the next best role.'

Meanwhile, he's doing up his new two-room apartment, which he bought for about $1m in January. But he said he will probably rent it out and continue to live with his divorced mother instead. Marriage is not on the cards yet, as both he and his Taiwanese girlfriend, a graphic designer known only as Joyce, are 'not in a hurry' to get hitched.

Earlier on, Leon had to pay his former management company $15,000 in a legal suit over a minor breach of contract, but he felt the money was worth it. 'I bought myself out for that amount of money, and now I'm more careful when it comes to signing contracts.'

Before signing with Starlight, he said he went through the contract with two lawyers over two weeks, to make sure it is 'foolproof and won't get me sued again'. The two-year deal allows him to release an EP (extended play) first and then, a full-length album. He is slated to promote his Olympic single in China in the next couple of weeks. There's also a Korean version named Friends.

When asked why he is venturing into the music industry despite its ongoing slump, Leon said becoming a singer increases his appeal to organisers who are looking to add some celebrity glitter to events like shopping mall openings. If he's just an actor, he can only appear and smile. But if he sings, he can also perform and demand a higher fee. 'I'm happy with the pace at which I'm working now. I'm not likely to burn myself out and I hope not to retire for a long time.'

With a grimace, Leon recalled how he once worked so hard on Taiwan's idol dramas that his health suffered. His chest hurt when he was filming in the cold mountains for Green Forest, My Home, and now he still gets occasional chest pains when he coughs. He said he felt 'very homesick' when he was allowed to return to Singapore only once a year - for two weeks each time. Now, he spends one third of his time with his family here and the rest split equally between working in Taiwan and China. With a laugh, he said: 'I earn my money in Taiwan and China and I come back here to spend it.'

LEON'S LADIES

# On singing the Olympics duet with Korean actress Han Ji Hye:

'She's friendly and bubbly. Her English is better than some Chinese actresses, and she made the effort to communicate with me.'

# On a possible collaboration with Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi:

'It's a romantic comedy along the lines of Pretty Woman so I get to be Richard Gere, and for the female lead, they're looking at Zhang Ziyi.'

# On a possible collaboration with Chinese director-actress Xu Jinglei:

'I can't say much, except that the role will put me in a different light. I'm not the good guy, but I'm not exactly the villain either.'


Source: Asia Newspaper
Credit: AsianFanatics