Bruce and Vivian debut in "Cafe Waiting Love"

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Bruce and Vivian debut in "Cafe Waiting Love"

Writer: Casey Lee

(L-R) Megan Lai, Vivian Sung and Bruce were in town to promote "Café Waiting Love".

In "Café Waiting Love", Vivian Sung plays as a college freshman who works at the cafe, where she learns the meaning of waiting for the one, while Bruce acts as her college senior, who accompanies her on her journey of love.

Making their feature debut, Vivian Sung and Bruce share their experience with Cinema Online of being on the set of "Cafe Waiting Love", and how similar they are with their characters.

What do you think of Megan Lai's performance as Abushi?
Bruce: Personally, I feel the same as the director. Abushi really went into the character, whether when we are recording or not. Especially when we are not recording, the cast and crew would challenge her by ordering all kinds of coffee. But no matter what we ordered, Abushi was able to brew it.

Bruce gives a thumbs up for his role in
"Café Waiting Love".

Vivian: Since this was the first time I am acting in a movie, so I would observe the other actors. Normally, we would become ourselves again after each shot, and actually Megan is a very lively, funny and happy person but when she was on set, she really went into character. So she was quiet, rarely smiled and was seriously brewing her coffee. From the beginning to the end of the shooting process, she was able to stay in character so I really respected her for that.

Did anyone see any female fans doing anything crazy for Megan?
Bruce: Yes, when we started promoting the movie as we entered the event one by one, the fans would scream at how pretty Vivian is and swoon over Megan at how cool she was, but when they saw me, they couldn't finish their sentence. So I can't even be compared to be as handsome as Megan!

For the female fans, they would have A-Tou (Bruce) and Abushi (Megan Lai) and for the male fans, it is up to your character to be the attraction. But in this movie, your role is not the most feminine. Do you think that your character would be a "goddess"?
Vivian: I think there are too many "goddesses" in this movie, there's the cafe owner (Vivian Chow) who is the graceful type, there is Abushi (Megan Lai) who is the cool type, then there is Madam Golden Knife (Pauline Lan) who is the hot type... so I think the only way to compete with them is in my own way as my character!

Do you think you share the same personality with your character?
Vivian: I think maybe about 95.5% of us are the same, including the not so feminine parts. At first I wasn't sure how I wanted to bring out that part of me because I was shy at first. But after the director and Gidden kept digging deeper into my personality, they managed to bring out that part of me, and I thought that we were quite similar.

When they picked you for this role as A-Tou, they were not looking for someone to be as handsome as Abushi, but wanted someone who was smiley, approachable and could get close with the audience. Bruce, do you think you shared any similarities with him?
Bruce: I think that I am someone who can go crazy, but I would leave it up to the other cast to comment on that.

Vivian: Yes, he can go a little crazy, which really makes him an easy going person. Interacting with him helps me to let go of myself.

Bruce and Vivian share some screen-time.

One of the other reason why you were picked other than for your smile, your dimples and your physique, was because you are capable of doing some crazy things. What was the most crazy thing you have ever done?
Bruce: We would do some crazy things during our student days. There was this one time when I was in a sports team and we would shower together like in a military camp. We were tired after practice one time, so we went to grab a shower. All of a sudden I felt like I needed to pee, and my friend was standing beside me washing his hair and face, so his eyes were closed and couldn't see what was in front of him.

So I turned beside him and relieved myself at his thigh. At first he didn't notice what was happening until after he had washed away the soap then he saw it. He went mad, but he wasn't angry at me because we were close friends like brothers.

Since then, everyone became more wary of each other when we were in the shower. In the end, the team managed to get their revenge. They secretly collected everyone's urine into a bottle of shampoo. So there was this one time when I went ahead of everyone to take a shower, then I noticed that the water coming down on me had a funny smell, and it had a stinging and warm feeling to it. Some of it went to my tongue and it was bitter and spicy, then I looked up and saw someone pouring something out from the bottle of shampoo but the colour was yellow. I was shocked and quickly washed it off with water. I had to wash my hair three times continuously. But I didn't get mad at them.

My friends still make jokes about it. They would come up to smell my hair and ask me why does it have a stench of urine on it.

Co-stars Megan Lai and Vivian Sung.

What was Gidden like on set since he is not directing?
Vivian: I'll tell you some of his bad habits. Since we were shooting during the winter and he has a sensitive nose, he would have clumps of used tissues around him. When I was not having a smooth day at the shoot, he would sometimes approach me in between takes to ask how I was doing. When I told him that I wasn't feeling confident, then he would give me one of the clumped tissues, and he would tell me to hold it tight and press it close to my heart and once I smell it, I would be inspired. I didn't know what it was back then and I would be wondering what is in the tissue.

Other times he would pass out these tissues when he was in a bad mood, or he would ask a crew member to deliver the tissue to us while he is busy typing away on the script at a corner, as a small gift as a prank for the shoot. Gradually, I was influenced by his behaviour. So when I was shooting my crying scenes, my tears would get into my contact lenses, then I would take it out after finishing the scene and give it to the director or to Bruce.

Bruce: Gidden is a funny guy, he likes to fool around and is easy to get along with, but I want to reveal something about him while we were shooting the movie. As long as there were any scenes with the cafe owner (Vivian Chow), he would always be beside her to look after her. Maybe because he really likes her and would always be present on set. He won't necessarily be there when we are shooting our scenes, but he would always appear when the cafe owner was there.

Cinema Online, 28 August 2014