Van Ness Wu Interviews w/ Droku Mag

International pop super star Van Ness Wu (I swear I hear fan girls feinting at the very mention of his name) got to chatting with Droku Mag and the result is a pretty decent feature interview with the guy. He shares about his rapid rise to stardom and how he’s since adjusted and normalized since his early days – and discovering and focusing on what’s important to him now. The article offers some nice insight into Van Ness’s life, who seems a lot more humble and down to earth than most people in his position.

Read the interview in full after the break or over at Droku!

“I always tell people that my parents were driving towards the hospital when my mom was in labor.  They probably passed Van Ness street and just named me after that street,” says Van Ness Wu.

“I’d always get called Vanessa,” he remembers, “and kids are brutal these days.”

Nobody expected that, someday, Wu would turn that moniker – what was once a painful childhood memory – into a name known all over Taiwan and the rest of Asia.

Wu has certainly come a long way from his days as the long-haired playboy Mei Zhou Ling from “Meteor Garden” or the wildly popular youngest member of idol-boyband F4. Today, he’s sporting a simple shirt and vest, tailored jeans and a short, shaved haircut.

“It was definitely hard to shed the whole image, because that image was so strong,” he says.  In fact, after he did “Meteor Garden,” remakes of the drama with new F4’s were done in Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines.

“It just spawned a whole thing. I don’t even know how it became like that,” Wu says.  “And here I am trying to get rid of that.”

“I just try to be me and do whatever is the most real to who I am as a person and as a performer and entertainer,” he says.

Another exciting development for Wu is the opportunity to extend his music beyond Taiwan – to Korea and Japan.   In 2006, he collaborated with former Korean boyband member Kangta to produce the album, “Scandal,” and has since released his own Japanese album, “Reflections.”

Wu’s third Japanese single, “Reason,” debuted in the top ten of Japan’s Oricon charts, and his latest EP, “No More Tears” was released in July.  His success in Japan earned him an invite to perform live at the MTV Music Video Awards in Japan.

“I always dreamt that if I could work in Korea, that’d be so cool; if I could work in Japan, that’d be so cool.   And now it’s all actually happening,” says Wu. “I just have to really cherish it.”

Despite his considerable list of accomplishments in the musical arena, Wu is still on the quest for the perfect sound, and this time, he’ll record his new album in English.

“Honestly, up to today, I don’t feel like I still have done an album that has been what I wanted to do,” Wu confesses.  “So right now I feel really blessed to finally be out on my own and to find the producers that I want to work with.”

He spent the next several months moving from place to place, sleeping on friends’ couches or in empty apartments, until he was cast in “Meteor Garden.”  The drama garnered huge ratings and two sequels, launching Wu into the limelight.Wu’s popularity is not limited to music and dance alone.  His entrance into the entertainment world came in an unexpected form: Taiwanese television dramas.  At 22 years old, the Santa Monica-born, Orange County native decided to move to Taiwan to pursue his musical career.

“It was like instant fame.  Like ‘add water for fame.’  I probably didn’t handle it well.  I was like the textbook case of not handling it well,” says Wu.

With the success of the “Meteor Garden,” the four members remained together to release albums under their F4 name.  At first, Wu enjoyed the notoriety, basking in his new celebrity status.  But eventually, he realized that he wasn’t doing what he really wanted or loved to do.

“It really made me feel stuck.  And it was hard to break out of it,”

Wu says. “But slowly, I was able to find opportunities to express who I was as a person.  It was something where I had to really learn and teach myself how to deal with all these things.”

Since then, Wu has established his career as an actor in Asia.  In fact, he recently had a starring role in the 2009 drama, “Autumn’s Concerto,” which broke previous ratings records in Taiwan.

“That was five grueling months of shooting a really gut-wrenching TV drama.  It was really emotional – a roller coaster,” says Wu.  “That character really took so much out of me.  I didn’t even know how I was going to tackle it all.”

Not only did Wu have to challenge a wide range of emotions, he also faced a difficult script that included sections of Taiwan’s civil section code in Mandarin, which he had to write over and over to memorize.

In addition to his work in television dramas, Wu has had the opportunity to film several movies in Taiwan and Hong Kong, including “Star Runner,” “Kung Fu Chefs,” and more recently “Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon” with Andy Lau, Maggie Q and Sammo Hung.

“What I took away from it were the relationships that I built from it and the education that I got from learning how to grow as an actor in all these films,” he says.

Wu’s passion for film eventually led him to start his own production company with Jimmy Hung, Sammo Hung’s son.  This year, in fact, they will release their first movie project, “The Road Less Traveled,” chronicling the journey of five guys as they try to make it as a rock band.

“It was just us guys, going on set and having fun, even though the hours were crazy early.  We really just enjoyed working together.  Everyday it just seemed like we were joking on the set, having fun – really seeing how to help each other to pull through and create,” says Wu.

According to Wu, his experiences filming in Asia have served as good preparation for his next goal: to establish his acting career in America.

“My family and friends are all here,” says Wu, “so it’s always been a big dream of mine to be able to work in America.”

Wu is hoping that all of the challenges and learning experiences he’s gained in Asia will serve him well as he faces a much more cutthroat environment in the U.S.

“Back then it was a harder for an Asian to do work in America,” he says. “But God really blessed me with the opportunities I was able to have.  So now I’m able to come back and forth.  It’s just been a big blessing.”

Wu says that even though he can articulate himself better in English, it will be a new and exciting challenge to learn how to act in English as well.

“I just want to play different characters, very interesting characters, that are going to challenge my acting,” he says.

Along with acting, Wu’s production company allows him to produce and direct music videos, short films, and other projects that pique his interest.  And despite his steadily growing repertoire, he never stops trying to improve his own skills.  He even carves out time to take classes whenever he returns to L.A.

“I look at myself as always a student in life,” says Wu.  “I’m never going to be somebody who feels like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m at the top of it now.’  No matter what, we’re always learning.”

This attitude of humility and hard work comes from Wu’s belief that his past experiences have shaped who he is as an entertainer and artist.

“I believe that God was taking me through steps in my life where He was preparing my heart and my character to be able to accept all the things that were going to come.  Now I’m able to do all the things that I want to do with a better heart and a better mind for it,” says Wu.

Whether it’s music, film or fashion, in Asia or America, Wu’s perspective on his work is the same:

“Bottom line,” he says, is “where is the heart coming from and are you staying true to what you believe in?”