One of the biggest treats that the crew of “AKA Mr. Chow” got to witness was seeing Michael Chow working and creating pieces of abstract art. For writer Jean Tsien it actually helped her gain an understanding of what exactly abstract art is with his piece, “Green Drop.” “I actually saw his father walking out of the canvas. It’s a three-dimensional painting and I was so moved at that moment and he actually made me understand what abstract painting is,” Tsien tells Gold Derby during our recent web chat (watch the exclusive video interview above).
She is joined by the film’s director, Nick Hooker, and producer, Diane Quon. For Quon, it was watching Chow work in his studio that left her in awe: “He had so much energy. You know, we started out filming in his studio and we had no idea what to expect. And you see in the film, him going up and down ladders and running around and putting all these pieces together. It was just amazing.”
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“AKA Mr. Chow,” which can currently be streamed on Max, chronicles the life and career of Chow. Born in Shanghai to one of China’s leading performers, he would first find success as an actor in the 1960s before opening his first Mr. Chow restaurant in London in 1968. The restaurant now has several locations throughout the world. In recent years Chow has gone back to one of his original passions, painting, and has had several solo exhibitions of his work. Quon received an Oscar nomination in 2018 for Best Documentary Feature for “Minding the Gap” and Tsien is a previous Emmy winner in the category of Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking two years ago for “76 Days.”
Hooker’s first experience with meeting Chow came while he was working on a project with Vogue fashion editor, Grace Coddington, and he was trying to figure out a place where they could shoot. “She suggested we shoot it in Mr. Chow in New York on 57th Street and I thought, well that’s an amazing idea but how would we ever get access to that? And she said, ‘Well, I was married to him.’ I almost fell off my chair.” Chow immediately agreed and let them have the run of the place. But Hooker’s actual first connection with him came decades ago when he was a little boy in London. “My father used to take me to Mr. Chow for lunch sometimes as a special thing. I always remembered when, as soon as I walked in the door, the energy of the place. The sense of excitement just really got into my pores.”
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