Frightfully naked in Tales From The Dark 2

SINGAPORE - For his latest role in the horror anthology Tales From The Dark 2, Hong Kong actor Gordon Lam had to film a number of rather explicit sex scenes with pretty actress Fala Chen. For that, he is "forever grateful" to the director.

"Actually, the initial script didn't have that many sexy scenes. But when we started filming, the director added them in. So it ended up with me going to work every day, for eight days, doing sexy scenes with Fala.

"That's not too bad of a job," says the 45-year-old bachelor with a hearty laugh.

In director Gordon Chan's short film, called Pillow, in the anthology, he plays the missing boyfriend of Chen's insomniac character Ching Yi.

When Ching Yi buys a new pillow, she finally manages to sleep and starts having uninhibited sex with Lam's character in her dreams.

"While I do hope many people watch this film, I didn't tell my mother about it. I don't think she can handle it. I think she has read news about the film or seen news about it on TV, but she has not said anything about it to me.

"I think she's too embarrassed."

Speaking to Life! in Cantonese over the telephone, he admits that he had some concerns at first about having to be completely naked in some parts of the film. There is one particular haunting scene where he lies naked on the floor in a foetal position.

"I had never been naked for a movie before so I was deliberating for a little while when the director first asked me to take off all my clothes.

"But since it made sense for the story, I decided to just go ahead and do it. And since I was going to do it, then I thought I'd just go all out and do whatever position you require me to do, and you could all just enjoy the view," he says amid more laughter.

He adds that he did not hit the gym for the role - acting is enough "exercise" for him.

"Acting is just like working out, especially when you're doing more intense roles. You're on the set and everyone is watching you and you feel a lot of pressure. I managed to stay pretty fit just because of that pressure," he says, half-jokingly.

"Anyway, I didn't have much time before filming to go to the gym. I asked the director if my body looked okay, and he said that it was good enough."

Other than the chance to work with Chen, whom he describes to be "very professional", he says he signed on to the project immediately as he is a fan of author Lillian Lee Pik Wah, whose works provide the stories for the Tales From The Dark two-parter.

"I've read many of her novels, such as Rouge and Green Snake. So when I heard about this project, I definitely wanted to be a part of it."

Lam started out with Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, before turning to movies with key supporting roles in films such as Infernal Affairs (2002) and Election (2005).

For the 2010 drama Gallants, which won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film, he wore a new hat, that of film producer.

"I really enjoy producing because you get to see the whole picture and you get to be part of the creative process as well. Having said that, I won't give up on acting altogether.

"There is something very fun about being an actor because you get to play different roles and experience the lives of these characters and do and say things that you would never get the chance to in real life."

Things like stripping, for instance.

Now that he has stripped for Tales From The Dark 2, he is confident about doing it again for future films.

"Since all of Hong Kong and Singapore and other places will have seen me naked already after this movie, then why would I have anything to be worried about being naked for future films?

"I only hope that all of you will accept my body and not vomit in the process."

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