Little Emperor, Pako Au, Gains Popularity
“Little Emperor” Pako Au’s (區珀豪) popularity rose since the broadcast of TVB drama, The Confidant <大太監>. With his credible performance as a smart, spoiled, playful, and arrogant Emperor Tongzhi, the 10 year old actor is becoming increasingly recognized by many people in Hong Kong. Accompanied by his mother, Pako spoke about acting and relationships with his costars in The Confidant in a recent interview.
Pako is not a newbie in the entertainment industry. Pako was already doing commercials since he was a 6-month old infant and has appeared in over half a dozen commercials. Since 2009, Pako has been cast in numerous TVB series such as 7 Days in Life <隔離七日情>, Grace Under Fire <女拳>, Only You <Only You只有你>, The Life and Times of a Sentinel <紫禁驚雷>, Three Kingdoms RPG <回到三國> and King Maker <造王者>. This year alone, Pako has filmed 5 TV dramas. The hard working Pako has even more acting experience than some leading actors.
Surprisingly, the mature and polite Pako is only a fifth grader attending a local elementary school. He goes to school during the day and afterward, he will film dramas. His mother and also manager, Mrs. Au, said filming has not affected his school work at all. Pako would do his homework while waiting for his turn to film his part. During the filming of The Confidant, he sometimes worked until 11 PM and still had to attend school the next morning. Mrs. Au said he has never been absent from school due to filming, and he still manages to earn good grades.
Mrs. Au is worried that it will be too strenuous for him to film such long hours. She said that Pako sometimes began filming as early as 6 AM and has no playtime during the weekends. However, Pako quickly explained that he is actually happy and not afraid of working these long hours.
Pako on His Adult Costars
Pako spoke highly of his costars in The Confidant, who took great care of him during filming. Pako shared the most scenes with Michelle Yim who plays his mother, Empress Cixi. He said Michelle taught him how to cry in one of the scenes. She told him to think of something very sad that might make him cry. Pako thought of the passing of his beloved dog, and he immediately started to bawl.
Wayne Lai (黎耀祥) was great teacher to Pako, who was having difficulty juggling the broomstick in one of the scenes. Wayne pretended to be the Monkey King and kicked the broomstick high into the air. Pako understood right away and finished filming the scene soon after.
Portraying the child version of Oscar Leung (梁烈唯) in The Confidant, Pako said, “Oscar Gor Gor takes good care of me. When he sees that I did not recite my lines properly, he will help me read the lines and go into the studio filming with me.”
Furthermore, Pako revealed that Power Chan (陳國邦) is also very considerate and friendly. On one occasion during filming in the winter, Pako and his mother were waiting at the entrance of TVB City early in the morning, and the security guard refused to let them inside without a notification from the production assistant. When Power saw them standing there freezing, he immediately drove his car out to take Pako and Mrs. Au inside the studio. He even blasted the heater to make sure they stayed warm. After filming, Power would sometimes even personally drive them to the nearest train station.
When he grows up, Pako hopes to become a singer. Although his singing talent remains to be seen, Pako’s hard work and strong work ethic will definitely help him be successful in any career that he chooses to pursue.
Source: Sudden Weekly #904 via ihktv.com
This article is written by Lance for JayneStars.com.
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Congrats to him
I really like the little Emperor! He’s good!
he’s so hardworking..im so ashamed to be slacking and procrastinate my time away 🙁
I found it quite touching to read how compassionate all the veteran actors were to him. On the other hand, Michelle, Wayne, Oscar, and Power are know for being incredibly generous and supportive artists.
Look like Power Chan do has some “status” to bypass the guard :p. Neat gesture.
This boy is going to be TVB biological son soon.
Not status. Just the guard can’t recognise the kid.
Fala Chen can learn from him.
A lot of people can learn from him.
Also a very handsome boy!
“Fala Chen can learn from him”
Hahaha…
Haha he’s so cute when he cries!
He’s simply adorable. Hopefully this stardom won’t ruin his childhood like it did to many other artists who stared young.
He is so adorable and hardworking at such a young age. Which roles did he play in the series above?? I watched most of them but do not remember him at all. Hopefully, he can be successful when he grows up since it is hard to be successful as an adult when you have started out as a child star.
He reminds me of child star actor Fung Chi Feng.. He was hardworking as well and was one of the hot favorites for child actors back in the 80s.
Pako was very cute in his role as the little emperor, as he has quite an ancient look. 😛
He looks like he’s from another era in modern dress.
http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/66d377ddjw1dyzj7rgab5j.jpg
this kid is adorable, smart and hard working…i hope TVB treats him well.
I don’t think the boy Wayne is carrying in this picture is Pako?
http://202.85.162.80/images/next-photos/SuddenWeekly/904/640pixfolder/A904_053_13884593.jpg
TVB’s male child stars are cuter than their female ones.
Nope, that’s the next emperor Guangxu, who will be younger than Pako when he ascends the throne.
TVB used to have really cute female actresses too. like Jenny Shing!
I just watched a rerun of Ups and Downs. Jenny Shing and her brother were adorable. 😀
Yiub, the little boy who played Raymond’s son in HAL, is also another cute child star.
YiuB! This boy is so cute and he acts not bad.
Jenny Shing was so good. Now they are promoting the small girl Suki Lam but I don’t think she did so good :).
I really like the little emperor as he has the makings of a good actor in future. I like his cute his face also and find that I look forward to seeing him in every scene.
Let us pray that there are always enough happy moments during filming to make him wanting to keep it up. Let’s have our fingers crossed that he won’t rebel in about 5 years and blame his mother for missing most of his childhood, fire her and end as a poor soul like so many Hollywood-bred child stars who couldn’t land one single hit after turning into an adult and waste their life away without a goal in life.
There were a number of child stars in Hong Kong in similar situations, too, in the past. A few succeeded when they became adult artistes, but not a lot.
In a way, I feel sorry for those child stars because they get mature too quickly in order to act different characters. They lose their happy and silly childhood days very fast. Child stars cannot be too silly in real life.
Acting might be a fun thing to do for these child stars and they are happy doing it.
I agree with Funn. It depends on the parents . Some child stars might not become successful actors when they grew up, but, they still live a respectable and responsible life.
Why pity them? Look at Daniel Radcliffe. So rich he doesn’t need to do a decent work anymore, the fact that he does because he is well brought up.
It all depends on the parents. Always look at Shirley Temple, the biggest child star ever and look at her life now.
He’s by far the best looking child star now. The rest are not so nice looking….lol…..