Vic Chou refuses stunt double for explosion scenes

Sources: UDN, 163 for photo
Written by: Zahra @ CpopAccess.com

After the disastrous accident for Selina during filming, many actors are becoming more cautious and using more stunt doubles. However, this is not the case with Vic Chou. For his newest drama "回家 (Returning Home)", Vic insisted on not using a stuntman even during a scene with explosives going off right under his feet. The crew were all impressed by his dedication, however, they admitted to breaking out in cold sweat over worrying for him.

With the Sino-Japanese War as the background for "Returning Home", there has already been five straight days of filming with explosives. As the filming location is fairly large, there were more than a hundred explosion points setup. One wrong step could set off the explosives and cause great damage. Despite this, whenever there was down time, Vic and Li Li-Ren (Vic's older brother in the series) chatted and laughed away.


According to Vic's manager, it's not that Vic doesn't understand the dangers as he was required to attend a class demonstrating the power of the explosives. It was because he wanted to be professional about it. Due to Selina's tragic accident, not only was Vic insured for up to NT$100million, an explosives expert was brought in to demonstrate the powers of the explosives to all the actors and every actors was tested multiple times about where the explosives were placed before actually turning the explosives on.

To create a realistic Chinese version of the "Normandy, France airdrop", the production went all out and bought multiple kinds of explosives. In one scene, Vic had loose soil at his feet that would be scattered as the explosives went off. But not to worry, it didn't hurt, it was just dirty.

Vic even joked that there was no need to act during the explosion scenes since there was a natural reaction of panic and desire to run away as soon as the sound of the explosion went off. It was completely instinct. Even the crew complimented him as they had originally pegged him as a "flower boy idol," and didn't expect him to personally "go into battle" or feel that the makeup artist didn't make him dirty enough. Before filming, Vic would take the dirt on the floor and smear it onto his face and neck, letting the dirt fill up even his fingernails for the sake of a realistic effect.