Clara Enriquez
Vanness Wu of F4 fame has taken the entertainment
scene by storm as a soloist. As a member of the
biggest Taiwanese pop act, F4, it comes as no surprise
that he is enjoying huge success on his own.
From the popular soap opera (Meteor Garden I and II),
smash records (Meteor Rain, Body Will Sing, and
Fantasy 4ever), music videos, and the Star Runner
film, the versatile performer came into his own as
singer-songwriter Michelle Branch's co-host at the
recently concluded MTV Asia Awards 2004 in Singapore.
Remarkably, Vanness remains unassuming despite his
success, as evident in the following rap session at
the Fullerton Hotel the day before the Awards.
* * *
Are you excited to be co-hosting the MTV Asia Awards
2004?
I'm pretty excited for the big event, yeah! When I
first heard about this, yeah, I was pretty excited.
And I just can't wait to do it!
Why do you think MTV picked you as a host?
Pick me? I have no idea why they picked me! Probably
because I could speak English.
Do you think that's your strength as a host?
Well, in this sense, yeah. If you tell me to speak
Mandarin in Taiwan, that wouldn't be my strong point
but I will try my best at it. But, you know, probably
just...I can goof off on stage probably. I'm really,
you know, easygoing and willing to do anything just in
the name of fun. I like to enjoy myself and have fun!
Time and again, you have changed your look in keeping
with your pretty boy image, as you have now. What can
you say about that?
On being a pretty boy? Oh, no, this is just temporary!
I mean, my hair was long; I was in America for a
while, so it just grew out and then I had a change.
It's not really saying, like, "Okay, we're changing
styles." We're just going for a different image all
around. It's just enjoying yourself, you know -- have
fun, have different looks, be different. You know?
But, you know, I'm still the same person as I am; I'm
still the same person as I was before. And image is
just image -- it's nothing.
Is it difficult to maintain?
The only thing difficult to maintain for me is my
weight because I gain weight really easy. For the
movie I lost a lot of weight.
How did you do that?
I had a very strict diet of just vegetables and
protein, and canned tuna fish. And that's all I ate! I
didn't really eat anything too over the top like, say,
you know, steak. I couldn't even touch it!
And just working out and shooting fighting scenes 10
hours a day, and just keep on intense working out. So
that helped a lot, and I lost the weight with that.
But right after I was done, it's [blows a kiss] back
to hamburgers and, you know, cheeseburgers and all
that! It's difficult but it's fun, you know?
What's the story behind the movie?
The story behind it? Actually, I was really lucky on
this movie project because of everybody that worked on
this movie gave it their 100% -- all their time and
energy they spent, you know.
Nowadays it's hard to get an actor to have all his
time and energy on one movie 'coz a lot of actors
these days, they also do singing and they also do TV
hosting, right, at the same time. So they only have,
maybe, one week to shoot this part and then they gotta
do something else.
But this time, the actress, the actors, the cast, the
crew, the director -- everybody just, day and night,
two and a half months straight; everybody was together
and every day just seeing each other. And so towards
the end of it we all became like a family. You know,
like this family environment that even now, to this
day -- me and the director, me and the trainers and
the other actors -- we're still very close friends.
So out of that whole experience, anything I got out of
it was just really good. A great experience and good
friendships!
Any plans to do another movie?
Hopefully, hopefully. Right now I'm just focusing a
lot of my energy and time on my second book. And as
soon as that's done and as soon as I'm finished
promoting that, hopefully I'll be back to act as well.
Between singing and acting, which do you enjoy better?
In one phrase it's so close and yet so far. So similar
and so different, you know? They're both very, very
draining at times, but then they're both so
exhilarating, rewarding.
So when you're acting, you're working so hard, like,
three days on just, maybe, two minutes' worth of
footage. And then after the end of these months, you
finally see the [finished] product on the big screen
and you're, like, "Wow!" It's a whole different
feeling!
With singing it's on stage and you're singing to the
audience, and you're feeding off their reaction.
You're feeding off their energy, you know? And you're
just going for an hour and a half straight of just,
like, jumping around and moving around.
"They're so different but, at the same time, it's such
a high!"
Nowadays do you still get excited on stage?
Well, of course! You know, I'm always excited when I'm
on stage to see fans, to see people, to be able to
perform. It's always exciting!
And which song do you enjoy performing most?
Which song? There are so many songs! And they're all
so different, and they're all nice. So there isn't one
that I particularly like to perform, but...just pick
one? Really, I can't!
I just love the different crowds and the people, so to
pick one...? Because they all have different reactions
to them I really can't, I'm sorry!
You used to dance before joining F4?
It was just for fun, while we were growing up as kids,
I was in a dance group. Me and another friend, and
Kenny of Machi -- we would do dance competitions at
car shows and stuff like that. That was when I really
enjoyed being on stage! To get on stage and just
dancing, and then hear the crowd just bouncing and
cheering and everything -- that's when I realized, "I
like this feeling!" It's cool, you know?
How do you feel about the phenomenal success of F4 in
the Asian region and in the Philippines in particular,
where there is a language barrier?
I take it as a blessing; it's a gift from God, yeah.
It's not every day that many people will be able to do
what they love to do and to be able to cross
boundaries of one so big, you know, to not even
understand what the person is saying but for them to
welcome me into their homes and country, and to be
able to enjoy their culture and to learn new
experiences -- it's very humbling. I just hope I'm not
taking it for granted.
What is it about the group or your music that you
think people can relate to?
To be honest, I think it was just the TV show. It was
a good TV show! It had good chemistry; it had a good
story. The characters were just fun, and there wasn't
really anything behind it! ...We just wanted to make
people enjoy a good show, you know; have a good time
while they're watching, you know, an hour of that
segment of that show. It wasn't saying, "Oh, we're
gonna make new boundaries with these."
When we heard that Indonesia liked us, you know,
"What?" When we heard that, you know, Thailand was...
I heard that call, "Huh?" And then the last one, they
said, Philippines, I went, "Oh, my God! Get out!
Really?" And then, "They want you guys to go!"
I have a lot of Filipino friends when I was growing up
in high school. So when I told my friends, "You know,
I'm going to the Philippines," [they said] "I haven't
been to the Philippines in 19 years and you're going
to perform there? That's funny!" It's funny the way
things work, but it's very nice!
Do you get jealous of each other's individual success,
considering some of you are bigger than the others?
Well, I don't think we're necessarily bigger; we just
have a different fan base. We don't really look at it
as who's bigger, who's what. We just look at it as
what we each have to give; we each have different
enjoyments, you know, working.
Mine is I like to sing and dance, and we all like
acting, of course. But it's just different types of
characters, too.
I'm really an active type of person: I love running
around, jumping around, and just goofing off. So for
the first movie when they told me it was gonna be an
action movie, I was, like, "Yes!" I was, like, "Oh,
yeah!" And so that was awesome, but we're really happy
for each other! And everything that everybody else
does, we're really excited for each other.
Have you guys seen American Idol? You know, Clay and
Reuben? Like he said, the media doesn't want to talk
about them unless, you know, they say they're at each
other's throats; unless they don't like each other.
It's kinda the same for us, too: People say that we
don't get along and then we're not friends, and all
that stuff. But the thing is if we don't get along,
why would any of us be here today? Or for the premiere
of my movie in Taiwan, why would the rest of them all
show up?
The media was very surprised that the rest of them
showed up, actually. And I was, like, "Why? We're
friends, you know! What's wrong with you?" They're so
into their own world and they're so into, like, what
they write down; what they believe is true. By some
meaning, I don't know how they fathom all that stuff
up! But it's so funny that they believe what they
write so immensely, you know? And in the end it's
like, "Hello! You know? What is this? You know?"
We're all still very good friends; we don't get
jealous of each other at all. We're very happy!
End.
Taken From F4Friendsunited
