Tony Leung opens up about his failure as a father: “no one in real world has superpowers”

Tony Leung is speaking out about playing a father in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The Chinese actor recently spoke about why he was wary of playing roles that required him to be a father. The actor revealed how it was more to do with his personal issues rather than being typecast. Here's what he said -

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings releases in India on September 3.

Tony Leung on why he didn't want to play the role of a father 

Hong Kong's most recognizable actor, Tony Leung, plays a negative role in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, the negative role which sees him as The Mandarin is also the father of Shang-Chi. Speaking to GQ magazine about why he didn't do a role like that before, Leung said: 

Someone actually approached me to play the role of a failed father but I rejected it because I don’t want to be reminded of how my dad treated me. 

The actor, who is 59 years old, spoke about how his "childhood background" made him distance himself from people. He also mentioned that ever since he was a child he had learned to find things that he enjoyed doing by himself. The actor then explained that this was simply because he didn't think he could rely on others to "feel happy" all the time.

The actor also mentioned how even though he didn't understand the part about superpowers that his character has, he did understand his failure as a father, saying: 

Frankly, I couldn’t imagine someone in the real world with superpowers...But I can imagine someone like him who is an underdog, who is a failure of a father... On the one hand, he’s a bad father, but on the other, I just see him as someone who loves his family deeply. I don’t think he knows how to love himself.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The film also stars Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng, Meng''er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu and Benedict Wong. Chinese-Canadian star Simu Liu plays the lead in the Marvel film.

 Speaking about the cast to PTI, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige also expressed how Tony Leung was a "mythical figure". He said:

We at Marvel have been lucky to have worked with a lot of famous actors, people you could call living legends (but) none of them are as impressive or hit that term legend as much as Tony. He had never been to a Hollywood set before. I live in Los Angeles, sometimes you see other actors around, but Tony was just this mythical figure only in these amazing movies.

Meeting him personally, which I only did briefly before the shutdown, was incredible. Wenwu is a new character. We really wanted him to have villainous overtones but to be this well-rounded tragic figure that you feel for in a deep way. Nobody is better than Tony for this. We had high expectations for what he will be able to bring to this movie and he surpassed them all. It is an extremely special performance

IMAGE - TONY LEUNG INSTA FAN PAGE