Acclaimed Taiwanese actor Jospeh Chang added another trophy to his list of accolades at the 25th New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) on July 15.
The star of award-winning drama Deep Quiet Room, Soul Mat and Netflix series The Victims’ Game received the Screen International Star Asia Award at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center.
The Taipei-born actor broke through in 2006 queer drama Eternal Summer, where his performance as a young man caught between friendship and desire earned Golden Horse nominations for best supporting actor and best new performer. A 4K restoration of the film, directed by Leste Chen, was also screened at NYAFF.
Over the next 20 years, Chang has played a wide variety of roles across both film and TV, from Yonfan’s Prince Of Tears in 2009 to Yang Ya-che’s Girlfriend, Boyfriend in 2012, where his portrait of a man holding decades of emotion won him best actor at the Taipei Film Awards and landed Golden Horse and Asian Film Awards nominations. His television work includes Corner Of Auction World, Love You and The Victims’ Game as forensic scientist Fang Yi-jen.
In Shen Ko-shang’s Deep Quiet Room, he stars as a grieving husband searching for the truth behind his pregnant wife’s suicide. It won best film and best actor at the Pingyao International Film Festival and secured seven nominations at the Golden Horse Awards.
Chang spoke to Screen about memories of Eternal Summer, how he has evolved as an actor and why he wanted to make Deep Quiet Room.
What are you looking forward to most about your time there in New York?
I’m looking forward to receiving the Star Asia Award, but also attending the screening of Deep Quiet Room, which is a great opportunity for an audience from a different country to see this particular film. I’ll be able to receive feedback from the audience after the screening.
What does it mean for you to receive the Screen International Star Asia Award?
I’m both very happy and very encouraged to receive an award with such a grand name – Star Asia – which makes me feel like I need to work extra hard to deserve this title going forward.
You will attend a screening of Eternal Summer, which proved a breakthrough role for you when it was released in 2006. How did that film change your career?
Eternal Summer was 20 years ago when I was my starting point as an actor. When I look back at the choices I made, I actually feel very happy with what I did with the role. At the time, I focussed on playing roles that would expand my horizons and help me learn something outside of my own lived experience. So I cherish that, through this film, I got to understand a world I wasn’t part of. It opened a lot of doors for me to play more characters that are completely outside of my own world.
What is your endearing memory of making that film?
I was very young and working with young directors at the start of their career. I was collaborating with people full of hopes, dreams and ideals, and became part of that family. That sense of community is such a wonderful memory and something that cannot be replicated as I’m no longer young. Working with a wonderful young crew, cast and director remains a unique memory.
How do you approach roles differently now to back then?
I’ve gone through a lot of evolutions in terms of how I prepare for a role. I’m not from an acting academy so I didn’t really think too much about the role and relied on intuition and my instincts. That has changed because I’ve worked with many actors and directors throughout my career who taught me that I need to change the way I prepare for a role. I now examine the emotional core of every character I play, thinking about their unique characteristics, and then somehow connect that with who I am as a person. But the fact is, there is no absolute way to prepare for a role. You need to open to changes based on the location of the film; how you feel during the production; your connections with the other actors; and collaboration you have with the director.
Coming up to date, why did you want to play this character in Deep Quiet Room?
I had wanted to collaborate with director Shen Ko-shang but hadn’t had the opportunity so when this story came to me, I was drawn to both the production and the character itself. If you look at the main characters in this film, it’s very much about the emotional state and journey of the caretakers and also the people being taken care of. I found this fascinating and wanted to be part of that.
Making this film brought back memories of the good old days when I was 20 years old and the feelings of how films were made at the time in Taiwan. Film, like everything else, evolves with the times, and many things have changed within the film industry so I think our director was very brave to take on this subject matter and how he presented it. I feel very honoured and privileged to have collaborated with him.
What’s coming next for you?
I cannot say too much but the next film will be a period piece, set in the 1990s, dealing with changes across different eras and the struggles a person experiences going from the old to the new.
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