TAKESHI Kaneshiro has followed an unlikely path to becoming one of the most sought-after actors of his generation in Asia.
The star of Zhang Yimou's breathtaking House of Flying Daggers confesses to never having set out to become a celebrity while at school - only really deciding to 'give it a try' when someone suggested it to him.
"I just started because someone asked me to," he told me, during a recent interview at London's Dorchester Hotel.
"They said, 'you want to be a singer', and then I thought 'yeah, I'll try'. I don't know what this is. I'll just open the box and jump in."
Since 'jumping in', however, Takeshi has barely had time to look back.
"I think the very beginning was, I did some commercials as a model, and then started as a pop singer and then started acting," he laughed, turning to his translator to check that his English made sense.
His singing career encompassed some fairly sizeable pop hits but rather than pursuing a career within the music industry, he found himself becoming increasingly interested in films and the process of film-making.
"As I became attracted to the whole of the movie-making process, like acting and how it was all done, there seemed to be more and more opportunities for me," he continued. "So I haven't gone back to music."
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