Hong Kong actor-comedian Chapman To writes, directs and stars in his upcoming Lunar New Year movie, ‘Let’s Eat’.
For his leading lady, he managed to engage popular Hong Kong actress Aimee Chan, making this film her ‘comeback project’ since giving birth to two sons: Aiden Joshua Chan, 2, and Nathan Lucas Chan,1.
For the rather new mother, leaving her kids at home while she films in Malaysia for a month was the hardest hurdle she had to overcome. Aimee said: “I did think about it because my kids are so young and (I can’t bear) to leave them… and I wasn’t in the best of shape to be very honest.”
“It didn’t take a lot of convincing but it was more of the timing - like when and how long (the filming will take). For me the most important thing was to not leave home for too long,” she added.
However, the thought of playing Rosemary (the movie’s character), which To had specially written for her, was the reason she agreed to star in the RM5.25mil budget film.
“I like this role,” said Aimee. “Rosemary is very different from me, it’s interesting to play her… and it was also fun yelling at Chapman! I don’t get to do that in real life!”
Chan is currently pregnant with her third child but wishes to keep the gender ‘a surprise’. During their filming in both Singapore and Malaysia, she didn’t know about her pregnancy till filming wrapped.
“I was feeling quite tired during that month of filming. I thought it was due to our busy schedule because we filmed overnight and many hours too…. Now I know why,” she laughed.
She added: “There was a scene where I was running at my top speed. After that scene, I felt kind of sick. I am pretty quite athletic, so how can this be? I thought it was just exhaustion taking over me but now I know the reason!”
In terms of To’s first-time directing skills, Chan said she thought he was ‘surprisingly good’.
“Chapman is an actor, so he understood actors and how we work. It was really nice for an actress to be a part of it because he will be able to explain to you how he wanted something, and will tell you the terminologies that an actor will understand. In that way, it was really nice and comfortable.”
For the first-time director, he didn’t think directing was the toughest aspect of this project. “Acting has always been hard for me.”
“There is no one actor who can play any and every kind of role, but if you are a director or a scriptwriter, you can direct or write anything you can come up with. To me that’s the biggest difference, and was something I enjoyed the most from this project,” said To.
'Let's Eat' also stars C-Kwan, Tommy Kuan, Daphne Low, Patricia Mok, and opens InCinemas 5 Feb 2016!