Carl Ng is one of Hong Kong’s new generation of stars and like Jaycee Chan, despite having a famous industry father (Lucky Stars comedy legend Richard Ng) he has succeeded on his own merit. Carl started out in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry in 2000 (after being educated in London for 13 years) by appearing in commercials and the odd small TV and film role. In 2002, Carl took a six-month break from acting and worked as an instructor in (which was one of the happiest times in his life he tells me later over a coffee).

When Carl returned to Hong Kong he landed a number of prominent modelling jobs, featuring in for and and then shortly after appeared in such films as Colour of the Truth (alongside Anthony Wong), The Medallion and New Police Story (alongside Jackie Chan) and Heat Team (with Aaron Kwok and Eason Chan).

Carl is a busy guy, if he’s not working on a movie, he’ll be off in Malaysia or somewhere modelling but after a little assistance from his father, Carl worked round his schedule and found an hour to meet me on Hong Kong Island for a coffee.

And, here’s what we talked about…

Jade Screen: Carl, let’s start off by you giving us some biographical details of yourself please.

Carl Ng: I was conceived in Hong Kong, born in Hong Kong, raised in Hong Kong and then I went to England for my secondary education and then University. After that I enrolled into a couple of Drama schools and then started working in London in theatre and trying to get work on independent films and that’s about it and then I found myself back in Hong Kong a few years ago after a brief stint in Thailand working as a diving instructor, a dive master …

JS: So, what was it like growing up in Hong Kong as a kid having such a famous Father?

CN: It was a pain in the backside! (Laughing). I mean I never realised, I was just told that he was an actor and as a kid I didn’t see him all that often and it was very rare that we’d all be together, my sisters and I and would have some kind of normal regular life. When we did see him we’d all have dinner together but otherwise he was off somewhere working on a film or travelling all over Asia promoting a new film release. So I guess you can say that to me if wasn’t anything unusual as this my what my life was all about and it certainly wasn’t a case that I struck lucky or I had won the jackpot in any sense, you know. It was always like that to me. I never thought that it was weird or unusual … If anything my friends families were curious and I can remember whenever we sat around for dinner at seven o’clock al these people would turn up because my Father was there and at that time everyone worked very hard back in the 80s, my Mother was working and my Father was working and everyone just worked so hard because they were building Hong Kong … But it never did dawn on me that my Father was this famous comedy actor or a film star. I can remember I used to go visit him on set when he was working on a film in Hong Kong, like at the old now defunct Golden Harvest Studios and I would walk in and would see my Father talking to people like Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung and it’s funny because Jackie to me at that time was this weird … not weird I mean this older man who would play with the kids and pinch their cheeks (laughing) and so after a while when I would see Jackie I would run away and try and hide from him …

JS: Having a Father who was an actor – did that inspire you to eventually become one?

CN: Undoubtedly yes, undoubtedly … You get to a certain age and you think ‘What do I want to do with my life?’… and I would see what an amazing life my Father had and such a rewarding and fun life and I actually didn’t think about wanting to become an actor when I was in Hong Kong, this was later when I was in London and I really wanted to put the time in and study. When I was in London I did a couple of stage plays and a couple of independent films before I realised that it really wasn’t my cup of tea … the roles I played and got offered to play were very limiting and very restricting and when I was in London I started contemplating, ‘What the hell are you doing?’

by Richard Cooper.

For the rest of the interview please see JADE SCREEN VOL. 5, ISSUE 1