A Hackney-born actor who grew up at a Chinese takeaway in Morning Lane is hoping to cause a stir with a TV series based on his childhood that premieres on Thursday.
Bruce Chong, whose family run the Sang Kee restaurant, took his experiences at the shop and served them up in the form of Wok.
Bruce, who starred in martial arts film 47 Ronin three years ago, said the show is “very much based on my own life in Hackney.”
“Growing up in a takeaway restaurant in Hackney has provided me with so many unique life experiences that I’ve never seen shared on screen,” he told the Gazette.
As a seven year old, Bruce recalls having to act as translator at times between his parents, who had only recently moved to the country, and the customers.
“Whenever there were specific orders I was called in to listen to the customer, feed the information back to my mum, and then give her response back to the customer,” he said.
“Since I was only about seven at the time I often got quite confused myself, so it was pretty chaotic!”
Working in the banking industry until his Hollywood break, Bruce says he’s always wanted to work in the industry, and is now trying to seize his chance.
“Whenever I used to have friends over when I was younger we used to borrow my Mum’s camera and film action or comedy movies in the takeaway,” he said.
“And my friends always got free Chinese food on the house afterwards, so I was quite popular at school!”
Bruce worked on the show with friend and director Chris Chung, who had his short film “Handuken” shortlisted for the Virgin Media Shorts competition in 2014.
You can view the trailer for the new show here: www.woktvshow.com
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