Louis Koo and Barbie Hsu: The story behind my interview

The first sign that all was not going to be well took place during the press conference for their new film Connected, a Hong Kong remake of the Hollywood film Cellular.

Louis Koo seemed uninterested while Barbie Hsu and director Benny Chan fielded questions, and what responses he deigned to provide were pithy one-liners liberally sprinkled with sarcasm. When the emcee asked how he would respond if a stranger rang him on his cell phone begging for help, Louis simply said: “I suppose I would try my best.”

Pressed further if that would involve calling the police, he said: “Trying my best can mean a lot of things.”

That was it. No elaboration, nothing. I groaned inwardly. I had a one-on-one interview slot with Louis and Barbie and the last thing I needed was a grumpy, uncooperative actor on only my third attempt at a Mandarin interview.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the press conference ended early. I double checked my interview time slot with the person in charge and decided to head back to the office because I had two and a half hours waiting time. Barely had I warmed my seat when the phone call came. “Can you please come back? Your interview is going to start soon.”

I looked at the clock. It had only been an hour. As if I wasn’t stressed out enough about having to deal with an unresponsive Louis Koo, I now had to rush back to the venue while panicking because I could barely remember my questions because I don’t think in Mandarin and so everything takes twice as long to process – think in English, translate to Mandarin, speak.

I got there in time with R, who was playing photographer, and while waiting for Barbie to finish a TV interview, even managed to catch Louis for a photograph. He seemed a lot more cheerful then, which was a relief. Heck, the man was practically friendly!

Then we got down to the interview.

Louis took a women’s mag off one of his handlers, settled back into his chair and started reading. “I’m listening to you,” he told me. Fine. I got straight into it with Barbie Hsu, and – to my surprise, admittedly – everything just flowed! In Mandarin. There was no delayed process time, there was no frantic referring to my notes, there were no awkward silences while I tried to formulate sentences; it was freaking amazing!

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of Louis. While Barbie was an absolute delight – open, chatty, nice; he kept right on reading. I would go, “And what do you think, Louis?” And he would look at me blankly and say, “What?”, before giving me one line.

When he said his fourth “What?”, I told him only half jokingly, “You weren’t listening to my question!”

He said, “Oh I was just joking,” and gave me another one liner.

By the sixth time, I was going, “Excuse me, Louis, hellooooo? Sorry to interrupt you…”

The sarcasm was lost on him. When I asked him if playing a father onscreen had made him think about becoming a father himself (he is 37 after all), he replied, “I also play a lot of murderers; does that make me want to become a murderer too?”

Stuff the formalities, he was curled up in his chair with his shoes on the seat anyway. “Well, I don’t know,” I shot back. “Do you?”

“No, of course not,” he said.

“Then what about becoming a father?” I was beginning to get a little bratty myself, to be honest. And wonder of wonders, he gave me a full-on proper answer, complete with sentences that made sense.

As a sidebar to my interview, I asked Barbie and Louis for five things their fans didn’t know about them. Louis dropped his magazine in feigned shock, stood up and told his manager, “I have to say five things?” in mock exaggeration, and walked off!

I ignored him and continued talking to Barbie. He came back. I asked him for three things instead. He gave me two which weren’t even proper answers. I gave up. The guy’s a brat. And he’s not even as cool or good looking in person!

Later, R and I found out he has a reputation for being impossible to interview. I suppose I got off relatively lightly. I can only imagine what he does to male reporters. And by the way, this has totally boosted my confidence in conducting Mandarin assignments. It’s a new challenge (and adrenaline rush) I’m really enjoying.