| Wu's
that guy?
August 3, 2001
He may not be familiar to you now but he
soon will be. Meet Talentime 2001's cute, sexy host, Allan Wu.
By Peng Wan Joo
(Click on pictures for larger image)
 We
know a good-looking hunk with star potential when we spot one.
That is why, we asked for an exclusive interview
the first time we met Allan Wu at the press conference of Talentime
2001.
Wu's that guy?
When asked about his age, Allan laughed. "How old do
I look?" he asked with a bright, easy smile. "Okay, I
am 29 this year," says the Californian born American whose
parents are from Dongbei in Shenyang, China.
 Going
into the entertainment scene did not quite happen by chance for
this graduate from UC Berkeley. "I've always had keen interest
in entertainment but I felt that Asians have not been positively
portrayed in America.
Since the media is a very strong vehicle to
reach out to the masses, it would be a good way for me to do my
part to change that," he said.
And it is with this goal in mind that he set
out to look for a job in the entertainment line.
 His
first break
"I had wanted to be an actor," he said earnestly.
But then, he did not have enough experience and thus turned to modeling.
But opportunities were scarce in America and that was why he decided
to turn to Asia.
His first big break came when he caught the
eye of the people at MTV Taiwan. "They told me, 'We think you
look great but your mandarin is terrible,' and so they made me take
a course in Mandarin to learn the language. If I could not speak
it fluently, they would not let me go on air," said Allan with
a laugh.
Switching effortlessly to Mandarin, the
now (somewhat bilingual) actor told me, "I used to be able
to speak or understand very little Mandarin. But after 6 to 8 months
of hard work, I am finally able to read newspapers, read my scripts
and carry on a decent conversation with emotions."
Conquering his language handicap, he went on
to host various MTV programmes in Taiwan like MTV Most Wanted, MTV
Asia MTV International Top 20, MTV Asia MTV Party Zone and MTV Asia
for 2 ½ years.
 Said
Allan, "After that, I did a lot of advertisements and tried
to pick up my performing and acting skills."
With this experience behind him, he moved
on to Hong Kong and in the process, he found himself in casting
talks on several Hong Kong movies. With his sports and wushu background
(he plays a mean game of snowboarding, beach volleyball, basketball,
American football), don't be surprised if you do catch him some
action flick in future.
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