Just last May, Johnny Liu appeared for the first time on Taiwanese TV, acting in a late-night drama. This year he jumped up to prime time, and took on a lead role. In a very short while, Liu's tall, imposing figure and charming looks have stolen the heart of many a female viewer. But few people know that he once weighed a hefty 110 kilos. How did he manage to shed those pounds? And how did he manage to step out from under the shadow of his famous thespian father Liu Shang-chian, and forge his own way?
My parents always felt that a child had to chubby to be healthy. From when I was nine years old, right up until the time I started trying to break into show business, they always stuffed me up nice and plump. At one point I was an enormous 110 kilos. In the past, maybe my friends just thought I was cute, but nobody thought of me as handsome. When I was in my teens, I went along with my younger sister to Japan, where she was developing her career in the performing arts. I once told my sister's music teacher that I wanted to get into showbiz too. He told me jokingly that if I stayed in Japan and got into Sumo, my chances would be better.
Maybe because I had contact with entertainment circles since I was a child, I always had aspirations to get into this line of work. When I was fat, I used to look into the mirror and cover up both of my cheeks with my hands, imagining how I'd look if I were thin. Because all the men in our family are handsome, I was confident that after I lost weight, I wouldn't look half bad either.
Starting from when I did my military service, I actively worked at losing weight. Once I lost eight kilos in a single month. After I got out of the military, I went to acting classes at Central Motion Pictures, to strengthen my performance skills. I always felt that to succeed I had to rely on my own hard work. So not only was my father's fame in showbiz not a help in my career, I even viewed it as a burden. A lot of whispering goes on in the entertainment world. If people view you as someone who's trying to ride in on his father's coattails, they're quick to look down on you, and you'll find it hard to get ahead. So when I started losing weight, my family still didn't know the reason why. Only after my mother saw a receipt for my acting class tuition did she realize how committed I was.
I'm confident about my looks, but in the entertainment world, appearance isn't necessarily a prerequisite for becoming popular. Entertainers are like products. Appearance only counts for 40% of their chances for success. The other 60% depends on management, planning and publicity. Luckily, I was able to sign up with Trans-World Television Production, a management company that's well-known in Taiwan. Up to now, the company's efforts and my own seem to have had pretty good results.
Appearance is a gift from heaven. But other people will demand a lot of you because of it. When I was acting in CTC's late-night drama "Woman Romance," the director paid close attention and increased my sense of pressure. And because I knew clearly how much the director cared, I had even higher expectations for myself. It turned out that after we finished shooting the series, I'd been roaring so loudly that my throat was almost completely hoarse.
Because I became famous so quickly, I encountered lots of difficulties. For example, now that I'm acting in CTS's prime-time "Chi Hsiang and Ju Yi," some critical vibes have come across the Internet, saying that I've stolen the role of the hero from Chiao En-chun, an actor of the older generation. Now I'm able to take criticism like that in my stride. Before I got popular, I felt a lot of pressure, and I couldn't relax. But in fact this proves that everything was already in my plan: To start my career at 24, and become a star by 25. The efforts I made in advance and my psychological preparation allowed me to succeed, and to be more and more confident. Now my plan is to become an international-level entertainer throughout Asia by the time I'm 27, and my company supports my move in this direction.
A lot of people find it hard to adjust to how fast my appearance has changed. My ex-girlfriend, for instance, didn't like the way I looked when I turned thin, and broke up with me. That shows me that outward appearances can't accomplish everything for you. Everything has to be done by modestly communicating with people.
I don't have any plans to pose for a racy photo album. If I were in a movie and they wanted me to do a scene in the nude, it wouldn't be a problem. But I don't think that a photo album would a way to express the ideal of male beauty. Maybe the Japanese pop idol Miyazawa Rie can express her own pure esthetic appeal through a photo album, but for a man to convey that kind of natural feeling through still photos is not an easy thing.
I think that an attractive man should be natural, healthy, humorous, and attentive to ethics and etiquette. As for outward appearances, they'll only make people like you for a while, not necessarily forever.
