Danial Wu proves he is more than a pretty face. Tony Zhao / For Dhina Daily

Daniel Wu's 'Control' to debut on Nov 21

Exclusive interview with Daniel Wu

Trailer of Daniel Wu's 'Control'

"Cinema found me, not the other way round," he says. "It was destiny, or luck, because the first day I was on the set, I knew it was what I wanted to do."

The film brought him quick fame, and a fixed image of Mr Right, but deep in his heart he yearned to make films like those of Stanley Kubrick.

"I was never that into mainstream music and books," he says. "The first movie that really hit my heart as a piece of art was (Kubrick's) A Clockwork Orange. I remember watching that when I was 15 and I realized, oh, movies could be more than Ghostbusters and Gremlins. They could be a lot more deep, interesting and reflective on society."

But back to reality, his company cast him in films with sex scenes around 2002, because "people thought my body was amazing and they wanted me to take my clothes off".

He tried, only to find he was confused after only one day on the set: "Why am I here and doing this?"

He went to Shanghai and spent three months with the city's martial arts team.

He started learning kung fu when he was 11, after watching Jet Li's The Shaolin Temple in San Francisco's Chinatown. His second mentor was a fellow martial artist of Li.

Kung fu helps as a philosophy of life, Wu says.

"Many people say they pity me that I have made no kung fu (film) masterpiece so far, but I don't think kung fu is for beating someone in a movie, it is more a perspective to see the world," he says.

Self-discipline, for example.

"I have learned kung fu for all these years, during which I have seen many people give up because the training is hard, but I didn't," he says. "You have to put in continuous effort."

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