Actor Shawn Yue Man-lok
Actor Shawn Yue Man-lok became a breakout star after his role opposite Edison Chen in “Infernal Affairs II.” With his new movie “Rebellion” coming out on October 15, he talks to June Ng about modeling scams, his bitterness toward the press, and his respect for Edison.
I’m the middle child. I lived with my aunt and my brother lived with my grandma. My parents had no time to take care of us. I only really spent time with them during my teenage years.
Of course there were plenty of problems when I moved in with my parents. I was rebellious, and I didn’t like my parents because they were never there for me. I was only naughty though, I never turned that bad.
My first job was hanging up the lights along the corridors in the Hong Kong Coliseum. Thank God I never got paid for it, otherwise I’m sure I’d still be doing it today. The foreman said he would’ve paid me $1,000 per section.
I was scouted for a modeling agency one day when I was just walking down the street. Yes, there are a lot of scams, but I decided to try it as long as I kept my wallet safe.
I was packaged as a singer. My young brain wasn’t sophisticated enough to analyze what was going on, so I simply did whatever was assigned to me.
In the past few years I’ve learned more about myself and realized that I’m not a multi-tasker. If I want to be good at one thing, I’ll have to focus on it alone, and give it all my time. That’s why I chose acting over singing.