Announcement
- Check out my new website! www.osricchau.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1859543/
Albums
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Calgary Trip
Friday, Nov 14, 2008 1:43PM / Standard Album / Members only
5 pictures / 512 viewsSome pictures from our road trip to Calgary. Mission: Bringing a friend home.
Stats
- An Actor based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has also done extensive training for Wushu as a competitor/performer/instructor and has worked in stunts....An Actor based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has also done extensive training for Wushu as a competitor/performer/instructor and has worked in stunts.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1859543/
Represented by Echelon Talent Management.
Agents: Kate Forrester, Joel Morrish and Andrew Ooi
Credits
2012 ("Farewell Atlantis") - Supporting
Director Roland Emmerich
Kung Fu Killer Part 2 - Supporting Lead
RHI, New York, Director Philip Spink
Kung Fu Killer Part 1 - Supporting Lead
RHI, New York, Director Philip Spink
Dragon Boys - Actor
CBC/Omni Films, Director Jerry Ciccoretti
Gangs: Breaking News - Lead
Global TV
Cold Squad - Principal
Alliance/Atlantis, CTV, director Julie Stewart
The Miracle - Lead
Shreerez Production, Director Afghar Massombagi
500 to 1 - Stunt man
Nexgen Productions, Director Bruce Fontaine
Honorary mention at Mighty Asian Movie Making Marathon
NBA Live - Motion Capture Stunts
EA Sports
G.I. Joe - Motion Capture Stunts
EA Games/Double Helix Games
Martial Arts Achievements
9th Overall - Canadian National Team Trials in Montreal, 2007
Canadian Pan-American Team Member
Gold Medal - Nanquan, Traditional Kung Fu Invitational, 2006
Silver Medal - Nandao, Traditional Kung Fu Invitational, 2006
Gold Medal - Nanquan, Tiger Balm Internationals 2006
Gold Medal - Ditang, Tiger Balm Internationals 2006
Grand champion - Adult soft weapons, 2006
Grand champion - Adult solf forms, 2006
Gold Medal - Nanquan, Can-Am Championships, 2006
Gold Medal - Double Broadsword, Can-Am Championships, 2006
Black Belt Grand Champion - Hand forms, 2006
Gold Medal - Nanquan, Traditional Kung Fu Invitational, 2005
Silver Medal - Pankration, Western Martial Arts Open, 2004
Gold Medal - Full Contact Sparring, Can-Am Championships, 2003
Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Fluent in English and French, look at bottom for details on the Chinese.
Wushu - Started in 2001, strayed for 2 years, back in it till now. 6 Months in Beijing Sports University. Also practice acrobatics and tumbling at open gymnastic gyms. Training/Coaching at West Coast Chinese Martial Arts in Vancouver.
I love observing people move and doing my best to imitating it.
Warning: This is basically my life story, so I've included the short version up there.
Acting:
My introduction into the world of acting were private lessons from a Hong Kong actress, Alannah Ong. I was probably still single digit age. But don't remember too clearly. Because I was young I never really understood what happened until now really. She introduced my mom to her agent and at some point I was part of the agency but I don't remember how exactly it happened.
Every now and then I'd have an audition to go to. I never knew why and for some reason I never questioned it. I just went as long as it didn't interfere with PE class. I did a lot of extra curricular courses and classes. Every two years maybe there'd be an acting class in the mix.
But not until my senior years at high school that I really remember meeting my agents and talking to them directly. I went out for auditions more often and got a few small roles. But nothing ever too exciting. A few close calls for some great roles I would have liked to do. In retrospect maybe better I didn't but I would be a different person today if I did get them.
After Beijing, my world changed. Spending all my time doing the same thing made me wonder what I was going to do when I got back. Spent a lot of time debating whether to go back to school, continue with Wushu or find a job. I landed an awesome role in the White Crane Chronicles, two months in Hengdian, and soon I'll have another demo out. So I've pretty much decided what I want to do with my life. I feel confident enough to call myself an actor now. And as long as everything in the next while goes well, I'll be able to keep writing stuff in this blog.
Martial Arts Background:
This one will be a long and arduous journey for those who like to read. I would like, milk and digestive cookies.
Middle child of 3 very aggressive boys watching power rangers, teenage mutant ninja turtles and professional wrestling (only thing my grandpa watches). In the playground and at home we'd get into fights over toys and territory which escalated in size as we did.
In the 2nd grade I remember seeing my first Jackie Chan movie, Rumble in the Bronx. After that me and my younger brother, Owen, would choreograph short fight scenes. I would imitate every move that I could, the first one I remember doing was the scissor kick and next was a jumping roundhouse. Our short scenes would sometimes go wrong and we'd then get into non choreographed fights, see first paragraph.
Shortly after I saw my first Dragon Ball Z movie. It was after that moment that I stopped wishing to be a power ranger after holding my breath through the tunnels, Goku just seemed so much cooler. Then came a Van Dam stage, I learned to do the jumping crescent kick, couldn't do the splits, but I considered that my trademark for a long time.
And long after we've given up on asking my parents for us to take a Karate or Tae Kwon Do class, my mom brings us to this old boys and girls club gym to see this guy in his 60s, just came from China and doesn't speak a word of English or Cantonese. I'm 14 years old, my mom just called it Chinese Martial Arts, I tried the first class, Owen watched. Owen saw a sword, he did the second class, I watched. I was very picky, I refused to join the class unless he taught me staff first (Donatello from turtles, loved him). My mom persuade him, and the first summer of my life that I didn't just watch TV started. We have been bothering my mom so much about how we would have wanted her to send us to a training camp as babies (as we heard Jackie Chan was raised) that we really wanted to train hard to make up for lost ground. We had class at 7:30 to 10 in the morning and then another class at 6:30 to 8:30 in the evenings. Everyday was the same, two classes, both at Queen Elizabeth Park. In the mornings there would be a hundred seniors doing Tai Chi and tourists in the area surrounding us, and in the evenings it was pretty much just our playground. Not too long after, the area which we would practice was closed, we were told they were going to close for two years to build something. Still haven't seen the site. My mom was proactive and found a place for us to practice that just happened to be a block away from my house (my mom's smart). The schedule thinned a bit to just 5 days a week with school. But the place was great, and eventually me and Owen got a key to the place and basically had a gym to ourselves whenever we wanted. After 2 years of dedicated training, I stopped attending regularly. My coach, after two years, never saying more than 快! to me. I was preoccupied with school matters, but never lost interest. I always dropped in an odd class to train for a bit.
Last year of high school, Owen and I started a Wushu club at the school and there would be people to teach sometimes, and other times it felt like it was just another practice session. That year we even got a chance to teach a few of the grade 8 gym classes. Even though I wasn't training, I always tried my best to promote the club and Wushu in general.
In the spring of 2005, Owen left the club. Problems with the coach, Owen was running most of the classes and the days I dropped in I would be teaching too. But there was no gratitude and he decided to look for another club. Owen trained at several different places, but joined with West Coast Chinese Martial Arts, run by Bruce Fontaine. First impression was, a big white guy that was in a Jackie Chan movie a long time ago. To my surprise he was still able to do a lot and quite impressively too. I decided to start taking classes with this new club. Finally learned the name of the sport I was doing, Wushu, much easier to say than Chinese Martial Arts, although the name of the club is still the description of what Wushu is. The summer time came and along with 2 other students, Owen went for the National team selections competition held in Edmonton that year. I went along for the ride. We were disappointed with the results, politics, rules and under prepared. That experience fired me up, and I decided during the 11 hour road trip back that I would completely dedicate myself to training the next 2 years and compete at the National level to reclaim some pride.
And that's what I did. I had some mistakes, was nervous and went very slow and I took some risks with no gain. But I did well all the same. Generally the competition has been dominated by the same large clubs in Canada. I averaged 4th in all 3 of my events, and 9th overall out of 44. So not great, but not bad for a first time, good enough to make Canada's Pan American Team and a good impression. Felt good knowing that so many of the competitors have been training since they were very young and had years of experience over me.
Between then and the competition was quite the adventure as well.
The end of 2005, 14 members of our club planned to go on a trip to China. Train with the best to improve was the general idea. Originally intended to be a 2 week trip during the Christmas break. When I left in January it was extended to be a 3 month duration for me and 5 others including my brother. Before the end of the 3 months, I decided to stay for the remainder of the semester at the Beijing Sports University where we were training. Training there was living a whole new life for me. I've never been out of the Country and away from my family for so long. Our life there was Wushu. Wake up at 6:30am, have breakfast, get to the stadium. Train till lunch, go to school cafeteria. Then it's open gym, I didn't have much else to do, so I'd usually end up in the gym, doing weights or continue training. Then for the first 2 months, a quick dinner and an evening class at 5-7. When we got back to the apartment, we'd watch Wushu videos. We improved a lot though.
I met 4 guys from France there that were film makers and had a stunt team, the Z-Team (www.Z-team.net). They've been living in Beijing for a number of years now and train at a gym not so far away. I had to make a short 30 second demo for an audition so I asked them to help me out. We were stressed for time because of my deadline and their own projects but it turned out pretty good (Still on Youtube, search Osric Chau audition tape).
That audition tape, kind of turned into a makeshift demo because they didn't have lines and asked for certain facial expressions I wrote out a little script (excuse the corn). Got an offer to go to Shanghai to perform on behalf of the company as a potential client of theirs for that project but I still hadn't completed my goal so training was still a priority, last I heard the project was postponed.
I went to Hong Kong and met some big producers and directors. I used the demo in the next audition I had and got the role. I'm back in training in Vancouver now, 6 days a week, more of a recreational mindset, but the journey continues from here.
My Chinese:
Well the Chinese speaking boxes I checked, but it is only marginal. Cantonese I've had around me my whole life. So I understand it minus any new slang I never hung around to learn, but speaking is a whole different story, comes out like a foreigner reading from the dictionary. Mandarin on the other hand, I can speak it decently well, as long as we don't delve into any deep discussions or I'll start guessing tones. But listening isn't too great, as Mandarin is always so different and a lot of the locals speak really fast and I can't tell the difference between them talking to me and spitting out a mouthful of sucked up sugar cane. - Occupation: Actor
- Age: 23
- Gender: Male
- Total visits: 50,537
