Mayday Guitarist, Stone Rallies Fans at Singapore Film Festival
By Sonia Kil
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Stone, the Taiwanese performer who has gone from being the guitarist in Mayday to a promising acting career, drew crowds on Friday, the first full day of the Singapore International Film Festival.
Speaking at Projector, the indie theater inside the historical Golden Mile building, some two hundred fans gathered to hear the artist share career experiences and artistic insights.
Films that featured include: Arvin Chen’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”; Tom Lin Shu-yu’s “Zinnia Flower”; and Ho Wi Ding’s “City of Last Things.”
Despite these successes, Stone said that expressing himself through music is more comfortable than acting.
“Music is easier for me. One piece of music sticks to one [emotional] element: sadness, friendship, love, encouragement, courage, etc. It is easy to put such emotions in a melody, rhythm or a pattern when writing songs. And one can relate to the emotions instantly. It’s musical power. You instantly get into the mood,” said Stone.
“But in a film, it’s complicated. It’s a mixture of lots of feelings; lots of emotions [in one story]. You can’t make a song that is really sad and really happy at the same time. But for a film, you have to make sure that there is a mixture of emotions. That’s very difficult for me.”
Explaining that he hopes to act out of his box, the musician-actor revealed his ambition to play a homosexual role in the future and hinted that he had wanted Richie Ren’s role in “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.”
“I want to break out of the boundary of myself. I want to explore something new. […] I am even writing stories and scripts for myself. had a concert tour for two years non-stop, and back stage I would write my feelings about the cities we were visiting or the people I met. [By writing,] I would create something about the cities, about a character, maybe a role that I want; when they are put together they become short stories, series of stories,” he said.
Stone said that, when considering an acting part, he most thoroughly evaluates the script and the offered role, before weighing up the director. “I don’t choose the director, they choose me,” he said. Stone said he has no confirmed current project, but explained that he is discussing a role in the next feature by “Zinnia Flower” director Lin.
He praised the as a platform through which audiences can better understand the cultural diversity of Asia.
“There are different races in Singapore; [the Singapore film festival] is a good opportunity for us to explore different points of views, and share different perspectives about films. It is [doing] a huge job to help us explore the whole Asian territory,” Stone said.
