I get to be someone I'm not: Eddie Peng

Taiwanese actor Eddie Peng may play an emotional, bad-tempered competitive cyclist named Chou Ming in new movie To The Fore.

But the 33-year-old heart-throb wants his fans to know that in real life, he is in no way like the character he plays.

"I am not as outspoken as Chou Ming, but that's where the fun in playing this character is. I get to be someone that I am not. In the film, when I was angry, I could vent it by smashing things without a care," he told The New Paper over the phone from Hong Kong on Thursday.

He added cheekily: "But of course, it's not right to do that in real life."

The $16 million film, helmed by renowned Hong Kong director Dante Lam and out in theatres now, also stars Korean idol Choi Siwon, 29, and Chinese actor Shawn Dou, 26.

Love rivals

In the movie, Peng's character and his teammate both fall for the same woman. He ends up snatching her from his buddy.

He insisted this is another thing that he would never do in real life.

Said Peng in Mandarin: "If a buddy and I fall for the same girl in real life, I will talk to him and thrash it out, since we are not that young any more.

"When such things happen, the girl's feelings are ultimately the most important."

Though he has a game plan to deal with his love rivals, Peng said he is in no hurry to get hitched.

The boyishly handsome actor, who is currently single, said: "I don't set a target that I have to get married by a certain age. I want to let nature take its course."

If he does gets hitched, he joked that she "has to enjoy cycling" and must love the movie.

For now, he is just enjoying his new bromance with his co-star Choi.

Peng became good friends with Choi while filming the movie, calling him "a talented and serious celebrity who can sing and act well".

He said: "We talk about other stuff such as our interests outside of work. We get along well, and we are like brothers."

Choi, who was in Singapore on Wednesday with director Lam to promote the movie, also shared his fondness for Peng, saying that he was "a good source of motivation and inspiration".

Even though Choi had declined to rank the three male leads of the movie based on who is the most handsome, Peng gave his answer without hesitation.

He made the local reporters laugh when he said: "Definitely Siwon. He is such a handsome man. Well, he stripped in the movie, I didn't."

This article was first published on August 8, 2015.
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