The Jimmy Lin that everyone knows is the youthful singing and dancing sensation on stage? The pretty boy in movies and series? Or the daredevil on the race tracks? Jimmy was in 石家庄 taping a show for Hebei TV. Our reporter listened to him talk about the joy and disappointments in his 17 yrs in showbiz. Jimmy’s fans should not miss the show on Hebei TV on Sep 27, 2008 at 7:45pm. Inherited the acting genes. Jimmy is handsome and good-looking. He was always mistaken for a girl when he was a kid. “I never thought I was good-loonking. My mom gave my hair a bowl cut when I was young. When I went to the men’s room people gave me the weird look. I’d said loudly that I was a boy.” He was the most mischievous among the 5 kids in his family. “It took me 3 hrs to eat dinner. I went out to play after each bite.” His dad has an open mind. He told jimmy, “Whatever you do you must put in all your efforts. Men don’t cry. It is the experience that counts.” Jimmy said that he inherited the acting genes from his dad. “My dad was once the leading male in taiwan dramas. He started to act at 18. Later he decided that acting was not for him and became a businessman.” The joy and disappointment from shooting to stardom overnight In 1989 Jimmy enrolled in Hua Gang School of Performing Arts. He was often approached by agency scouts. “I didn’t want to become a movie star. He came on stage in the last 5 minutes during a performance in his 2nd yr of high school. An agent kept calling him and he was impressed by his persistance. He released his 1st album in his 3rd yr of school. “Not every love song has a fond memory” made him an overnite sensation throughout asia. There were fans waiting for him outside his school. There were 2 sisters from HK who waited for him outside his house for a yr just to see him. Hua Gang became famous too. Applicaions for enrollment shot up. Jimmy couldn’t believe it either. “I was still a student and didn’t know what it meant to be a star. I was so lucky. My song was hot and the people I worked with are all top-notch: Lin Qing Xia, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Jackie Cheung, I was 18 and they treated him like a kid. I asked for their autographs and pics too.” Fell in love with racing at the lowest point When he was at the peak of his career at 20 he had to serve compulsary military service. “I could have postponed it for a while, but I wanted to join the army ASAP. I released 3 albums a yr, made movies and commercials. I wanted to take a break, to escape.” After 2 yrs of military service he returned to showbiz but didn’t want to be an idol again. “I felt that I’ve matured a lot. In the album ‘Expect” I wore a suit and tie and sang mature songs like “Men are easily deceived”. Fans couldn’t accept how Jimmy Lin suddenly changed so much. Sales were not as good as expected.” He couldn’t understand why fans didn’t like the songs that he liked. He couldn’t find the direction so he turned to racing. There were lots of criticisms when he first started to race. People said that he raced because he couldn’t make it in showbiz. But Jimmy knew exactly what he was doing. “I love engines since I was young. I like the sensation of racing. I can put everything behind. Lots of people questioned my racing so I wanted to prove myself by winning 1st place. But I lost control of the car and broke 3 bones in my foot. The car was totaled. Then I finally realized I was at the lowest point of my life. “I rested for a while and returned to racing and got 1st place in a short time. In reality, when I was racing I was also waiting for the next opportunity in showbiz. Not that I didn’t feel defeated. Albums didn’t sell well and I had a racing accident. But I didn’t want to give up. Even though jimmy put it lightly, the pain and sufferings that he went thru to change from an artist to a pro racer are unimaginable. He had 4 steel rods in his foot after the accident. But he continued to race with a cast on his foot. His teammates complained that he is so handsome and famous. When he went on the tracks all the cameras were pointing at him and took away their moments of fame. However, jimmy’s audacity and outstanding racing records impressed them all. In a race at Zhuhai in June of this yr, Jimmy got three 1st places and one 2nd place. He brought his winner’s cup with him and said he’d auction it off for the quake victims in Sichuan. Re-entered showbiz with tv series The lesson he learned from 2 yrs of wating is “Never give up.” He finally found the next peak of his career – starring in the tv series “The Legendary Siblings”. This is his 1st tv series and he learned a lot from it. “I learned from Xiao YuEr. In fact I am just like him, optimistic and love to joke around. There is no need to force myself to grow up and be mature so fast. Just be myself..” Then he made Bao Lin Deng, Luo Xiao Feng, Tian Long Ba Bu, Liao Zhai, My Lucky Star. What impressed him most is still Tian Long Ba Bu. “It was my 1st experience to work with a Mainland China production team in Tian Long Ba Bu. It filmed for 6 months and was quite exciting. I became good friends with Hu Jun, Liu Yi Fei, and Gao Hu.” What surprised Gao Hu most was when jimmy came on location he moved his entire house with him: projector, computer, games and whatnot. He put a white bedsheet on the wall and showed movies. Jimmy is now concentrating on preparing for his personal concert in Shanghai in Oct. He turned down many movies and tv series. He also sang and performed “Not every love song has a fond memory” in the studio that brought the house down. Evaded questions about his love life It was reported in the media recently that he was going to marry the model Kelly Chen. He didn’t give a straight answer and didn’t talk about his former girlfriend Ruby Lin. Instead he talked about his puppy love in high school. It happened in Hua Gang. “She was a dancer. I gave her flowers after each performance.” Credit: http://ent.qianlong.com/4543/2008/09/26/3442@4679117.htm
omg 17 years eh... i remember...my sis had her walls full of his posters n bought all the shit she could find lol...n then he went into the army.... it was quite quiet for a while... he still has this bb face tho....
