Director Gore Verbinski asked iconic Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat to shave his head for his role as the powerful Singapore buccaneer Capt. Sao Feng in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."
"He wanted to keep his hair for a while," recalls Verbinski. "But I said I think we should see this guy not having a head of hair. We have so many long-haired pirates."
The 52-year-old star of Ang Lee's Oscar-winning martial arts epic, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," agreed to go the bald pate route, but only if the filmmaker would shave him.
"I think as a director, he has a full vision of every single character in the movie," says Chow, a lanky charmer who is not above bussing a woman's hand.
"All the western pirates have the long hair, so I think it's a very wise idea. Sao Feng is more stunning with tattoos and scars."
In the third installment in the enormously successful franchise based on the Disneyland ride, Will (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) travel to Singapore to get charts and a ship to take them to world's end to rescue Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).
With his Fu Manchu mustache, macho swagger and talon-like fingernails, Chow seems to be channeling Toshiro Mifune and Yul Brynner.
"He's a praying mantis," Verbinski says of Sao Feng. "You are not quite sure if you love him or if you can trust him. He takes us through the entire journey."
"He's not an ordinary bad guy," echoes Chow. "He's not one straight line. He has so many faces. You can say he's a bad guy, but on the other hand he's a bad guy with a conscience."
For Verbinski, Chow was his only choice for the role.
"He is such an iconic character. So we called him, and I just knew he would dive into the part. He completely committed himself to his character."
Chow, who came to international fame in the 1980s in John Woo's acclaimed thrillers "Hard-Boiled," "A Better to Tomorrow" and "The Killer," brought a new and different vibe to the set.
He may be a superstar in Hong Kong, but he's happy being just one of the guys.
"If the grips were moving the dolly, he'd grab the dolly in his costume and move it," says Verbinski.
"It is like this socialistic filmmaking or something. He broke down all of those barriers [between the cast and the crew]. The crew loved him, just loved him. He came in late in the game but gave us a tremendous amount of energy."
