Andy Lau is a certified star, especially to Asian audiences. A legend in Hong Kong cinema, he has a career that spans over four decades, beginning with early hits in the 80s like Boat People and As Tears Go By before establishing himself as a full-blown action staple in modern films like the Internal Affairs trilogy and The Bodyguard. American audiences will likely recognize him from the controversial Matt Damon-led 2016 film The Great Wall, the only time Lau has really starred in a Hollywood film.

Lau’s newest film is The Movie Emperor, directed by Ning Hao, which made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. A satire of stardom and pretentious filmmaking, The Movie Emperor follows veteran film star Lau Wai-Chi (Lau), who has reached a hurdle in his career. He’s already successful and famous, but he’s tired of appearing in ads and seemingly meaningless TikTok-like videos. Lau is also fed up with losing major awards to Jackie Chan. As such, he decides that starring in an indie drama about a rural pig farmer — “because it’s what film festivals like,” agrees his team — is the next best step for his career.

Lau is serious about doing justice to his pig-farmer character, wanting to experience life “like a real person,” so he takes a trip to an actual pig farm on the outskirts of the city. Trouble ensues as one mishap after another plagues the production of the movie, much to the frustration of its already exasperated director (played by Hao). Exploring timely themes like film festival programs, online fanbases, and the inherent friction between profit and creativity, The Movie Emperor is a lot like art imitating life (and vice versa).

A Role That’s Close to Home
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“In the beginning, it was really just exploring this new subject matter with [Ning],” Lau said when asked about his initial interest in The Movie Emperor. Considering his longevity in the industry, Lau has seen first-hand the evolution of filmmaking, particularly in the last decade of our current digital age and its embrace, for better and worse, of the internet era and how celebrity and creativity are affected by it. He added:

However, once we started shooting the movie, I learned it’s really close and very dear to me. And now that the movie’s done, I feel like it’s almost a documentary.

Indeed, our interview itself felt like a scene ripped from The Movie Emperor. There was a team of a dozen or so people — assistants, publicists, photographers, and videographers — orbiting us as we talked. Lau, the actor, is just as cool, contemplative, and soft-spoken as Lau, the character. Sitting in front of him, even I couldn’t deny the presence he had.

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Just as his character is mulling over questions of his place as a veteran actor in an ever-changing industry, Lau, too, has thought about utilizing social media like many celebrities have. “Through shooting this movie, I’ve been wondering whether or not I’ll be able to seamlessly hop on this internet era. For a period of time, I was reluctant to [it],” he said. That said, Lau recently joined TikTok (“I’m a fan, I follow him,” joked Hao).

Good-Hearted Satire
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Hao made his directorial debut in 2001 with Thursday, Wednesday, and has consistently put out new films every couple of years since. His filmography ranges in story and scope, from fantasy films like 2021’s A Writer’s Odyssey to rom-coms like Breakup Buddies in 2014, but if there’s a genre he frequently returns to, it’s dark comedy — and The Movie Emperor is no different. The film’s commentary on the current state of commercial filmmaking is especially biting; there’s a running gag where his character secures funding from a group of tech bro-producers who underestimate what it takes to make a movie and, even further, impose on his creative vision, literally inserting themselves into the scene until nothing makes sense.

However, Hao insisted in our interview that any satire was done in good fun, so much so that he wasn’t afraid to poke fun at himself as a director. “I wanted to magnify each one of us — how we behave, how we talk, how we present ourselves [especially] during film festivals — and bring that out in a comedic way,” he said.

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When it comes to the film’s meditation on the incorporation of social media and the internet in the production and promotion of a movie, Hao added, “I have been thinking about this for some time. You can see on YouTube, and online, short videos, and I was thinking, ‘Okay, how, exactly, do I bring a piece of work and present it in front of an audience?’ That’s when I would say communication is very important.”

Movies Bring Us Together
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In addition to attending The Movie Emperor’s premiere, Lau also participated in the festival’s In Conversation with… series of talks, which also featured other industry icons like Pedro Almodóvar, Lee Byung-hun, and Park Seo-joon. What’s more, in another case of The Movie Emperor imitating life, TIFF honored Lau with the Special Tribute Award (via THR). Humbled and grateful, Lau assured that coming to the festival — or pursuing longevity as a performer, for that matter — was never about the award.

“Of course, it’s great, but that was never my goal,” he said. “The only thing that I would like to do for everybody is make a good movie for the world.”

Hao added, “The whole purpose is really to bring everyone together, to sit in a movie theater, and to tackle, to explore, to stimulate what you experience. The Movie Emperor is a miniature of what’s happening nowadays.”

This interview was facilitated with the help of interpreter Pency Tsai. For more information on The Movie Emperor and the festival, visit the TIFF website.