Winning Star Search in 2010 didn't give Jeffrey Xu a free pass to stardom.

Looking back on his 12-year career in showbiz, the new winner of Star Awards' Best Supporting Actor admitted that he's made mistakes in his early days, such as yelling at a director whom he felt had disrespected him, reported Lianhe Zaobao. 

The 33-year-old also shared that after filming the dramas Devotion and Bountiful Blessings in 2011, he experienced a lull period when he had no acting gigs for more than a year. His next project was Poetic Justice in 2012, where he played a supporting role. 

While it's not certain that one was a direct consequence of the other, his lull happened after his altercation with the director, Zaobao reported.

Jeffrey told the Chinese daily: "I have to admit, I had an attitude problem. I like to discuss scripts with directors, but Hong Kong directors are all about efficiency and I was still a newbie. But I felt [what I suggested] was reasonable, what I wanted to do was in line with the role, so why not do it?" 

"The director told me, 'You're playing a homebody, not an idiot, why do you have to add so many things? Just do as I tell you to.'" 

Unhappy about the director's comments, Jeffrey insisted on doing things his way during the shoot, which obviously left the director very upset. 

"He yelled 'cut', walked over to me, slammed the table and asked, 'Am I the director or are you the director? Do you know how to act? How did you win Star Search?'" Jeffrey recalled.

"I felt I was being disrespected, so I stood up and retorted, 'You say that again'. At that time I didn't know filming in Singapore was like this." 

Jeffrey said that he apologised to the director when the drama was completed, and the latter simply laughed.

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claudiatan@asiaone.com

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