With his career shining brightly thanks to his recent Golden Horse Award nomination, the Hong Kong actor surges ahead with greater clarity and purpose.

From his <a href="https://www.hommessingapore.com/style/hudson-williams-milan-fashion-week-street-style-photos-tom-blyth-celebrity-heated-rivalry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">breakout</a> role in Drifting (2021) to his <a href="https://www.hommessingapore.com/style/legend-prince-best-stage-style-performance-fashion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stage</a> debut in Let Me Entertain You, and most recently his leading turn in the <a href="https://www.hommessingapore.com/style/celine-mens-fall-winter-2026-key-looks-fashion-menswear-michael-rider" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highly anticipated</a> 2025 film A Foggy Tale, Will Or has navigated multiple creative phases in his burgeoning career. The massive attention brought about by his Golden Horse Award nomination never went to his head; rather, it has crystallised the core values he wishes to uphold.&nbsp;
In this interview, the Hong Kong actor discusses how he prepares for a role, how language shapes his performance, his relationship with awards, and the ongoing balance between work and health. His idea of &ldquo;all in&rdquo; is not one of reckless abandon, but an honest, clear-eyed approach to life guided by ideals rather than emotions.

L'OFFICIEL HOMMES SINGAPORE — December/January 2026

You play Zhao Gongdao in A Foggy Tale, an extremely layered and complex character. How did you approach the role? I actually put a great deal of effort into it. The first challenge was the accent. Even now, looking back, I still feel that [Zhao&rsquo;s] Cantonese could have been more precise. I only realised later that Cantonese itself has many layers &mdash; the way my parents speak it is different from my grandmother&rsquo;s generation. And at the time, I didn&rsquo;t distinguish those nuances carefully enough, which is why I feel I could have spent more time refining it.
Are there any similarities between Zhao and yourself? Of all the roles I&rsquo;ve played, he&rsquo;s probably the least like me. But if I had to name one thing we have in common, it&rsquo;s being true to our words. Zhao believes that once he says something, he is responsible for seeing it through; I feel the same way. Beyond that, we&rsquo;re totally different.

Even though you didn&rsquo;t win the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor, your performance received a lot of praise online. How did that attention feel? Honestly, it was completely unexpected. The care and attention I received has been so overwhelming at times that I didn&rsquo;t quite know how to handle it. But over the past six months, I&rsquo;ve learned how to face that level of scrutiny while holding onto what matters most to me: my core values and my mental health. In the end, what I want to say most is: Thank you, everyone. And to those who wished me good health, please take care of yourselves too! [Laughs]
What&rsquo;s the greatest appeal of acting for you? Acting makes me feel alive. It always has, but I&rsquo;ve realised just how important it is to me over the past months. I can finally admit to myself that I love acting. Before, even simply writing &ldquo;actor&rdquo; on a casting form made me question whether I was worthy of the title. It was only after experiencing many failures that I told myself: Enough. It&rsquo;s time to seriously acknowledge that I am an actor, and then ask myself how I can become a better one.

&ldquo;I can finally admit to myself that I love acting.&rdquo;

Is there anything in life you&rsquo;d go all in on? For me, &ldquo;all in&rdquo; means living well, which I&rsquo;ve learned is not easy at all. As I understand it, &ldquo;all in&rdquo; is about being fair to myself and to others. That perspective has made me more positive. It&rsquo;s okay to feel emotions, but it&rsquo;s equally important to examine things rationally and break down where those emotions are coming from. That&rsquo;s perhaps the most valuable lesson I&rsquo;ve learned.
With this attitude, I&rsquo;m also less affected by past experiences. I even embraced a new mantra &mdash; &ldquo;Come on, let it flow!&rdquo; &mdash; choosing to face everything in life with it. Additionally, &ldquo;all in&rdquo; means keeping new habits that I&rsquo;ve developed, like waking up in the morning to watch the clouds before having breakfast. Yes, my current hobby is cloud-watching. [Laughs]

You were nominated Best Supporting Actor for Drifting in 2022, and Best Actor for A Foggy Tale last year. How different were the two experiences? The Golden Horse Awards has both a nominees&rsquo; reception and a farewell party. I barely knew anyone at that farewell party four years ago, but when I returned last year, so many people came up to greet me, including former collaborators. That was something I never expected. I never imagined people actually knew who I was, let alone cared about me.
Another surprise was how much my attitude towards winning and losing has changed. Back when I was nominated for Drifting, I had to quarantine for over twenty days after returning home. Watching the broadcast later, my emotions erupted like a delayed explosion &mdash; I had to cry it all out to truly release it. But this time, it was completely different. I actually felt relieved. The entire process had been so joyful that when it ended, I felt lighter rather than devastated.
Looking back, I&rsquo;m even a little grateful that I didn&rsquo;t win the first time. That experience helped me realise I&rsquo;d moved beyond a certain stage in life. Will that obsession with winning or losing return one day? I don&rsquo;t know. But right now, I&rsquo;m truly savouring this state of inner peace &mdash; which is rare and precious indeed.

What changed that caused you to feel so differently about winning and losing? It&rsquo;s related to my health issues I experienced earlier in the year, that&rsquo;s for sure. We all go through different things, and that was what I was dealing with at the time. Frankly, the pressure I faced then was on a completely different level. Only now do I have the capacity to slowly untangle it and understand what exactly caused such a profound emotional impact.&nbsp;
Looking back, there were three main sources: my illness, my stage debut, and the overwhelming public attention. It didn&rsquo;t matter if the attention was positive or negative &mdash; attention itself creates pressure. I realised at the time that I did not have the emotional capacity to receive all that &ldquo;love&rdquo;. But things are different now. I&rsquo;m slowly learning how to distinguish and process it properly.

Photography KUOHUANKAO Styling MATTHEW LEE Interview ANGEL FONG and GABRIELLE CHOU Words JOSHUA PANG Makeup WANYU Hair ISIAH Photography assistants OLIVER CHEN, WANG ZENG and AKIRA CHOU

Cover Story: Will Or Goes All In

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