Eddie Peng doesn’t want to be the First Brother of Idol Dramas

Eddie Peng doesn’t want to be the First Brother of Idol Dramas
Date: 25 November 2008, Tuesday
Source: OMY Entertainment Showbiz
Translated by: Initial E @ http://asianfanatics.net
Not long ago, when we interviewed the three main leads of Honey and Clover – Joe Cheng, Eddie Peng, and Lego Li, Eddie Peng had just been nominated for ‘Best Main Actor’ for the drama ‘Wayward Kenting’ in the Taiwan Golden Bell Awards. Over the phone, Eddie excitedly said: “I’m full of confidence!”

After the results were revealed, it was experienced thespian Lei Hong that got the award instead. Last week, while promoting Honey and Clover, we mentioned the phone interview with him, and he couldn’t resist and said self mockingly: “The words I spoke were so crazy! It was not like me to say them, I’m so sorry.” In his blog, he said: “After three times of being nominated and not winning, I am a little disappointed.” To the reporter, he expressed that being disappointed is inevitable, but he still considers himself lucky that he got nominated 3 times already.
　　
“The first time, I thought that the judges thought that I wasn’t bad, the second time, was that the judges had seen me improve. The third time, I really thank the judges for rewarding my effort. No matter, I am still young, and I have a long road ahead of me.” He laughed saying that Lei Hong, who got the award, was 60 years old, “Hence I have a lot of time.”

After debuting for 6 years, and filming many idol dramas, does he feel that acting in an idol drama limits the freedom of expression?
　
“I think it’s OK, because I did get nominated! Besides, this year for the ‘Best Female Lead’ category there were many actresses from idol dramas, this shows that the judges does gives confirmation to younger actors.”

He said, while filming ‘Wayward Kenting’, he learnt a lot. “I lived in Kenting for 4 months, the views of the people there really affected me. They are very optimistic, they don’t assign themselves a certain road to walk. I really want to see how can I act out my character differently, hence these two years, I’ve been acting in more movies.”


The First Brother seat – taking turns to sit on it
　　
Him, Ethan Ruan, Joe Cheng and Mike He are all very popular idol drama actors, before this there were rumours that Joe Cheng and Mike He were fighting over who got to be First Brother, and didn’t get along. Later on Ethan Ruan burst into fame with ‘Fated to Love You’, sparking rumours that he had snatched away the ‘First Brother seat’. So far, the term ‘First Brother’ has yet to be associated with Eddie Peng, does he feel that he has missed many chances?

“Actually, the First Brother seat is being taken turns to be sat on, and my main goal is not to be First Brother. Other than idol dramas, I also want to try out movies. Ancient ones, documentaries… I want to try all of them. I want to accept the roles that I like, not just because of high ratings.” He raised his ‘Honey and Clover’ character as an example. In the show, he acts as a genius, yet slightly crazy person, not something that the general audience would like, and this was a great training for him. “But if you give me the title of First Brother, of course I will be very happy.” He gave an adorable smile.

The taiwanese media are fond of comparing these younger generation of actors, to that, Eddie doesn’t care: “We all get along, it’s just that the media likes to compare us, so just treat that as entertainment, as long as we don’t believe it, it’s fine.” He said solemnly: “Actually, the people in the taiwanese entertainment industry must work together, there is no need to be enemies with anyone. We need to work together, like when I went to Japan recently for promotions, I discovered that the Japanese really like Taiwanese movies, hence we need to work hard together.”


He is still friends with Jolin

Before this, there were fierce rumours about him and Jolin Tsai being in a relationship. There were also reports saying that his mother was not satisfied that Jolin refused to admit that she was dating her son, and was so angry that she wanted the two of them to break up. He immediately lept out to deny it and clarify, “I can’t bear to see my mother being dragged down by this, she is not the sort that will say this kind of things.”

Eddie has always maintained a casual attitude towards his rumours, but whenever untrue reports involve his family, he would always leap out to protect his family members. “It’s okay if you write about me, because I am in the entertainment industry, and I can face all those, but my family members should not be dragged down into it.” He said his rumours with Jolin has been going on for very long, and that now there was no one writing about it anymore, subtly hinting that the reporter was asking a nonsensical question. When asked whether his friendship with Jolin was affected, he smiled saying: “Actually rumours are no big deal, but it’s not good for the female party involved, hence from then on all his actions are focused on himself only. Affecting the friendship? I think it’s okay, everyone’s still friends.”

There were also reports saying that Jolin’s friends were not satisfied with this relationship, saying that ‘the male party has another motive for the relationship’, accusing him of using her name to create news. To that, he had no big reaction, only saying: “My reaction then was, is that person purposely creating news? Actually I don’t want to think so much into it, as this is something I cannot control. As long as people don’t write about my family, I strongly insist upon this.”