Carl Ng
An actor and model who has worked in showbiz for over a decade, Carl Ng is also the son of prolific comedy actor Richard Ng. He talks to Andrea Lo about his experiences growing up in Hong Kong, working alongside his father and being in the spotlight.
My best childhood memory was running around in Hong Kong with my mother in the markets. It became this adventure for me every day. All the stall-holders knew my mother, and she spoke to them in Chinese. All these sights, smells and sounds of being in the wet market in Kowloon City—it was very romantic, in a way.
My father has definitely influenced me, because I chose to do what he said I couldn’t do. When he realized what I was trying to do, he [told me to] stop wasting my time. I guess that made me want to do it more, simply because I was rebelling.
Eventually I got a little bit disillusioned. I ended up working as a divemaster in Thailand for about a year, but I ended up back in Hong Kong doing film and TV.
The scariest moment I’ve had working with my father was me on my knees and him pointing a gun at my head, saying that he was going to blow my brains out. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my mother standing by the camera, having a cup of tea. It was just a weird moment in time.
I usually play the cop or the guy that gets killed in the first five minutes of the film. And that’s something I’m happy with.
People in my generation who are mixed-race were typecast from the day they were born. Nowadays, it’s completely different. There’s a lot more critical mass behind mixed-race people, to the extent that they form their own culture, which I think is fantastic.