Singaporean actor Lawrence Wong – no, not Singapore’s PM – is one of China’s biggest names in film. After achieving immediate success with 2018’s Story of Yanxi, Wong quickly ascended to new heights, conquering China’s film and TV industry.
But prior to 2018, landing only the occasional gig with Mediacorp, Wong’s career struggled to take flight in Singapore for almost a decade. On a whim, Wong decided to explore China’s industry for a few months. This quickly became the best decision of his life.
Now becoming an industry superstar, Wong shared his story with Resonate, reflecting on his transformative journey from Singapore to China.
RT: Tell us a bit about your upbringing and what got you into acting.
LW: I’ve always been interested in acting since I was young. Whenever I watched TV shows, I used to find myself reenacting scenes from the show during the commercial breaks! Once my mum caught me doing that and said, “What the hell are you doing?!” I’ve always loved acting.
RT: Who were your biggest acting idols?
LW: I used to watch a lot of Hong Kong TV shows with my mum. We loved Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat. I was really taken by them.
RT: How did you get into the acting scene?
LW: I started off doing commercials and then I became a talent for adverts. Sometimes the TV stations will go to agencies and ask for talents to be extras on the set. I did a bunch of those. I liked it.
RT: Did you encounter any challenges when you started out in Singapore?
LW: The challenges came when I decided that I really wanted to be an actor full-time as a career. My look back then wasn’t the ‘leading man’ material. I always acted as somebody’s boyfriend or brother or in non-juicy parts. I had a lot of “part-timer” roles where there were only one or two scenes throughout the whole show. Initially, it wasn’t a speaking role. Then it was a character with a couple of speaking lines. The early challenge was finding substantial work with how I looked.
I’m naturally fair and I think back then in Singapore, they preferred guys to be less fair. I had a lot of physical challenges. I look really young! So That’s why I ended up getting a lot of sons and brothers roles.
RT: So what made you want to try the Chinese market?
LW: It took me over ten years in the Singapore acting scene before China happened. I really toughed it out in Singapore, trying my best to get better at my craft. It wasn’t easy. Back then even when I wasn’t getting substantial roles, I still felt I had so much more to give. It sounds very cliche, I know, but I just felt I didn’t have the opportunity. Being a Mandarin-speaking actor, China is still the place to go to.
But I never really pursued it that hard until my current company came to Singapore and I happened to meet them. They asked if I was willing to give it a shot there. I had nothing to lose. I went over with a try-and-see mentality. China is so big. If you think you’re talented, there are so many more people who are more talented than you. If you think you’re good-looking, there are so many better-looking people than you. So many are younger, taller, whatever, so why you? Especially when you’re a foreigner. I had no expectations. I thought if nothing happens, I’ll come back to Singapore.
“Our Mandarin in Singapore is very different”
RT: What was your first gig in China?
LW: I ended up booking my first gig within the first month! It was so surreal. It happened so fast. I went to a dinner that my China boss hosted with a producer and a director. They happened to be shooting a new show – Love And Passion. The director seemed to like me and he decided to cast me as the secondary lead right there at the dinner, saying everyone there could be the witnesses! I was prepared to not have a job for months or years but I got this role.
RT: Why do you think you received such immediate success in China compared to a decade of struggling in Singapore?
LW: Looking back it was timing for sure. But while my kind of look is not that well received in Singapore as a leading man, it’s very suitable in China. It’s about aesthetic preferences in different markets. It’s also luck!
I also had what it takes to do the job well too. Through all those years of trying to make it in Singapore, I never stopped trying to be good at what I do.
RT: You’ve been listed as the 35th Most Influential Actor in China, how did that come about?
LW: Story of Yanxi Palace was 2018’s most Googled show in the world. It was a phenomenon. The actors, producers, directors – none of us knew it was going to be that big! That was the second show I filmed in China. In terms of international recognition, it was huge. Even my uncle in Canada’s hairdresser told him to watch the show!
My role in Yanxi Palace was as an Imperial guard who fell in love with the servant of one of the Emperor’s concubines. He’s very likeable, funny, and kind. How I played the character was very different to the script. I made him funnier, cheekier, and a lot more lively. I think that had a huge impact on why he was so loved by the audience. Yanxi Palace is about concubines pitting against each other to gain the approval of the Emperor. It’s tense and fast pace so I wanted my character to be more comic relief to ease the tension a bit and to give the audience something to laugh at. People fell in love with the character.
“In Singapore, there are only like ten people on set. In China, there are about one hundred”
RT: What other characters do you enjoy playing?
LW: After Yanxi Palace, I played a lot of characters where I’m really rich – CEOs of companies who can buy the whole building just to make a girl happy. I still think it’s too early to say what role I would want to do that I haven’t done because there are so many things I haven’t done yet. Every role I do I pour my heart into. I give them backstories and things I’ve invented, inspired by the script.
That said, my next role sees me playing a down-to-earth guy who doesn’t come from a rich family. He’s struggling to make ends meet and has a certain outlook on love.
RT: What other challenges have you faced as an actor in China?
LW: My next role requires me to have a really local accent. Our Mandarin in Singapore is very different. I have to go through accent classes to learn that kind of accent to be more believable. I love the process of getting ready for roles though and doing research.
Singaporeans and the Chinese are culturally very different. How the set works, how the industry works, it’s all different. In Singapore, there are only like ten people on set. In China, there are about one hundred! The production size is huge there. But ultimately, the work is the same.
I also filmed during COVID in China. I remember one incident when we were filming in Xiamen and production suddenly told us to go back and pack because we needed to move to Shanghai tonight because Xiamen might be locked down tomorrow because of COVID. We all rushed back to the hotel, packed our things and took the train the same night for nine hours to Shanghai. The whole production team just moved to Shanghai!
RT: What’s your advice to a Singaporean actor considering a career in China?
LW: Be very, very open. Be prepared to throw away all your old ways of doing things. Be willing to absorb new things, focus, and break old habits. For example, in Singapore, we have to be in charge of our own clothes. In China, you have people dressing you, buttoning your shirt! I wasn’t used to it and told them I can do it myself. But then I realised that you have to let people do their job. It seems unnatural but you must adjust.
RT: Who has been your biggest inspiration?
LW: The one person is my boss, Qin Lan. She’s an A-list actress in China who also starred in Yanxi Palace. She taught me so many things, especially when I first went over to China. She’s amazing. She looks out for me and is so willing to guide me.
Acting in a crying scene in Singapore is incredibly stressful. You feel so embarrassed if you’re unable to cry for whatever reason. Everyone’s waiting for you, you feel super anxious. But Qin Lan was the first to tell me to take my time and that everyone is here to service you as you’re the one on screen. If you have to take an hour to get the emotion, then take an hour. She offered me lots of little things that are so different from my old perspective of what an actor should be.
RT: Having successfully established a career in China, do they want you more in Singapore now?
LW: They do but to me, it’s just important to be part of a good script. It doesn’t matter where I go. I’d love to come back to Singapore if there’s a good role. I’d also love to try the US and explore its market. It could be a good opportunity for me to grow. I’ve been in China for eight years now and I’m always someone who seeks new challenges. I think it’s needed for actors otherwise you’ll fall into the same pattern of doing things. People might offer you different genres but you’ll end up doing the same thing just because of the sheer fact that you’re in the same environment.
RT: Finally, how does it feel to share a name with the Singapore Prime Minister?
LW: It’s pretty funny. Either he or the other ministers have shared social media posts making fun of us for having the same name! Instead of putting his picture, they’ll put my picture. I’m happy he’s the Prime Minister. He did a lot to bring us out of the pandemic too!
