ASIAN TELEVISION AWARDS
ADRIAN SURPRISED
Thrilled at winning Best Actor award for English- speaking role, Adrian stuns host Allan Wu with victory, er, clutch
By Charlene Chua
December 06, 2009
 
 

SO, WHAT do you do if there’s no time for thank-you speeches at an awards show?

Simple, mock-hump the host’s leg.

That was what Adrian Pang did to Allan Wu at the 14th Asian Television Awards (ATA) at the Pan Pacific Hotel on Thursday night.

Adrian was so happy to win the award for Best Drama Performance by an Actor, for playing a ‘blind’ man in the Channel 5 drama series Red Thread.

He finally won a big acting prize for a proper English-speaking role instead of the Ah Bengs and Mandarin-speaking characters he usually plays although they’re ‘not him’.

Adrian, 43, told The New Paper: ‘This is the perfect bookend to an incredibly enjoyable time spent with the cast of Red Thread on the film set. I spent five months, up to 14 hours a day, not blinking as my character was pretending to be blind. This is sweet.’

The cheeky actor said he wasn’t paying attention when his name was announced.

‘I was distracted by (Best Drama Performance by an Actress nominees) Zoe Tay and Joanne Peh’s sexy short dresses,’ he joked. ‘Then I heard my name and my first thought was, ‘What the hell!’

Asked how Allan had reacted to his ‘expression of joy’, Adrian said Allan was okay with it. ‘We go back a long way and we’re always kidding around,’ he said.

His win comes after he was nominated for and lost the Best Actor title three times at the Star Awards – twice for Portrait Of Home (and its sequel) and Nanny Daddy.

But wasn’t that quite a feat too, considering that they were the only Channel 8 shows he has ever starred in?

SO HAPPY: Adrian (back to camera) pretends to hump Allan after finding out he has won the Best Actor award. –TNP PICTURES: GAVIN FOO

He wagered he wouldn’t win

Adrian, who gave up studying law in the UK to become a stage actor 16 years ago, said that for him, taking up Mandarin-speaking roles was akin to getting his teeth pulled.

He was previously nominated at the ATA for portraying Ah Bengs in English sitcoms Ah Girl II, Durian King and Maggi & Me. He won Best Comedy Performance by an Actor for Ah Girl II in 2002.

But this wasn’t much to shout about, according to him, as he prefers ‘the non-Beng sides of myself’.

Joked Adrian: ‘Star Awards I can explain. It’s because I didn’t pay their membership fees. As for playing an Ah Beng, I don’t think I’m good at it, so I don’t know why I keep getting offered such roles. The Mandarin-speaking ones are an even bigger mystery.’

This time, Adrian was so sure fellow nominee Chen Hanwei would win for playing an Aids-stricken man in Channel 8 drama By My Side that he put a wager on it.

Hanwei had picked up the Best Actor award at the Star Awards for that role.

So, although Adrian also beat nominees Pierre Png and Qi Yuwu (both for Channel 8’s blockbuster soap opera The Little Nyonya), he’s now $50 poorer.

Little Nonya

The other surprise of the night was Taiwanese television series 1895 In Formosa sharing Best Drama Series honours with The Little Nyonya. The show is about resistance to the invading Japanese in the bloodiest war in Taiwan’s history.

Taiwanese actor James Wen said it was ‘an honour’ to tie with ‘the biggest production from Singapore’.

James, 31, is well known for playing the dashing artist in Taiwanese idol drama Queen Of No Marriage, opposite Cheryl Yang and Ethan Ruan.

Coincidentally, Cheryl, who played his girlfriend in the series, plays his wife in 1895 In Formosa.

Said James: ‘We have cultivated a great chemistry. Idol dramas, however, are only one genre to me. There are so many other roles that I would like to try.

‘For example, in my next film, there are themes of sex and the supernatural. I don’t mind looking sexy if the role requires it.’

But the sexiest celebrity in the room was still Zoe, who was stunning in a glistening gold dress, even though she lost in her category to veteran Hong Kong actress Michelle Yim.

Host Nadya Hutagalung, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable in an unflattering ruched gown.

She made a few gaffes on stage, for example, instead of ‘Highly Commended Category’, she said ‘Highly Amended Category’. (Each ATA category has two awards – one for Highly Commended mention and the other for the winner.)

Even though she managed to drink some water during a break, the lovely hostess looked dismayed as she tried to recover her composure.

But no one struggled with language as much as Adrian did.

He described how he and China-born Yuwu – who received the Highly Commended mention for the Best Drama Performance by an Actor category for playing a loving boyfriend in The Little Nyonya – tried to strike up a conversation as they sat together.

Adrian said he was pleasantly surprised when Yuwu took the initiative and asked him, in English, what it was like filming his latest movie, The Blue Mansion.

To accommodate Yuwu, Adrian replied in Mandarin. This went on for some time in the conversation.

Adrian said it was finally he who ‘failed’ and they ended up chatting in English.

Then Hanwei went up to him to say that they would be working together in a Chinese drama, tentatively titled I’m All Around (the Mandarin title is literally translated as I’m On Your Left And Right).

Adrian said in mock anguish: ‘Why do they keep doing this to me?’

Guess he’ll be spending the months ahead learning to read his Mandarin script.

MAJOR WINNERS

Best Drama Series

The Little Nyonya and 1895 In Formosa

Best Comedy Programme

The Iromonea

Best Adaptation Of An Existing Format

The Amazing Race Asia, Season 3 (Episode 3)

Best Drama Performance by an Actor

Adrian Pang (Red Thread)

Best Drama Performance by an Actress

Michelle Yim (Moonlight Resonance)

Best Comedy Performance by an Actor/Actress

Chusak Iamsuk (Raberd Thurd Theung)

Best Entertainment Presenter

Jon Niermann (Asia Uncut)

Best News Presenter

Martin Soong (Squawk Box)

Terrestrial Channel Of The Year

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television

Cable & Satellite Channel Of The Year

Discovery Channel

 

The NewPaper