"I won't ever encourage this temptress to grow.
I don't give her any opportunity in my life,
but I'm sure it's there. I understand her."
Q:There was one TV movie where you were playing the bad
woman fighting the good wife. Was that one of your favorites? A:Not really. That was just a fun part. You're having fun
playing somebody, the evil streak you suppress all your life--there's nowhere
for it to go. You can play bad characters and have great fun. Let this part of
yourself go wild and have fun. I think being an actress keeps me a better
person. I have outlets for my emotions and I study them so I'm aware of my
own jealousy, my own greed. So I'm in control, I'm in check. I know what is
good. I try to avoid what is bad and just dump all the bad things when I play
bad characters.
Q:What things do you want to dump in your next role? A:Actually I'm going back to work in China. Chinese movies
are getting very very strong now. I'm going back in December to work on a
movie based on a classical novel. I play a woman who loves decadence.
Q:Kind of like your Last Emperor role? A:No, she has a lot more fun than the Last Empress.
Q:She's a narcotic addict? A:No, mostly with men. She enjoys her life, she is extremely
decadent that way. If you say that my skill is being an actress, she knows
how to do things with men. If you know how to do a job very well, you keep
doing it. That's like her job, she enjoys it, it's a certain competence, until she
finds the person she really want to settle down with. She was actually a
married woman. She wanted to give up everything and be with this man and
didn't have to do her tricks any more, but the guy was very frightened
because she's a frightening woman. So the guy just leaves her. In the end
she learns that love actually exists and that it's much weightier than she
thought. So she learns, and later on has a very productive life when we meet
her again after 30 or 40 minutes.
Q:You said you aren't the kind of woman who threatens
other women, that you aren't the temptress type. Did that make this role
hard? A:I'm sure I have a temptress inside of me. I think it's how
you're raised. How I was raised is what I am today.
I won't ever encourage
this temptress to grow. I don't give her any opportunity in my life, but I'm
sure it's there. I understand her. If I can understand her, I can do it. So I
guess it's great, I have an outlet for that. I can have fun with that.
Q:When you were acting in China, the Chinese were making
propaganda films in which you were playing pure girls. Is the government
now letting decadence be shown? A:The story is a classical story about the 30s and 40s, maybe
that's why. It's also more open now. There is a certain struggle. A certain
movie is banned for a year and the next year they show it. There is a
struggle there, but it's not impossible.
Q:When you were seven you and your brother lost your
parents for 10 years. A:Less than 10 years.
Q:Were you and your brother Chase living in a household by
yourselves? A:We had some aunties. We had some other people came to
live in the house because they said we had too big a house. People moved in,
they literally moved all your furniture upstairs and stayed downstairs and
their children basically took our space. But kids don't know, we don't know
hatred. We'd make friends with these people so there is some kind of a
support system there.
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