Sunday, May 28, 2006
Highlights of interview between Maggie Cheung and Kent Jones
On what she learned by starring in so many action films: "I think it helps also with your physical appearance, even if it is not an action film. Even with walking, you are a bit more aware of your body. For me actually when I get into a part, I very often use the physical side first. I work on the body language before anything else. It is a strange way, but once I have that it takes me there. Once I walk or move in her way then it takes me into the character."
On what made her first interested in acting: "It went up to As Tears Go By, Wong Kar Wai’s first film, and that is where I thought “acting is kind of fun.” Wong Kar Wai was asking something from me that I didn’t think I could do and I didn’t think anyone would ask that of me...I remember there was an emotional scene where I was saying good-bye to Andy Lau at a bus stop. We had to retake that scene the next day because I was not very good. I thought I had been good because I had been crying and crying, but Wong Kar Wai said, “It is not about that. It is not about how many tears drop out of your eyes or how emotional you are.” I said, “No? But you ask me to cry and I am crying, why am I doing it wrong?” He said, “But when you cry you should try to hold back. Nobody cries just like that. The minute you feel the sting in your eyes your first reaction should be ‘I don’t want to cry,’ and to hold it back.” These are layers of acting and at that point I was beginning to be in touch with it. Because acting is acting, but when you are playing a part that is human, we have many dimensions and layers that are not that straightforward...When I was playing in Jackie Chan films, he said, “Be in pain because I just kick you down the stairs.” So I would be literally in pain. It’s not just that. You are sad, you are in pain, and you’re frustrated. There are many things when someone kicks you down the stairs. You are not just in pain."
On Tony Leung: "Funnily enough everyone thinks we have worked together so many times but I worked with him when I was 19 years old for a TV drama. We were both working for television at the time, but since then I had not worked with him again. We have been in the same films together but not the same scene. So actually In the Mood for Love was our first movie...I think because we were kids when we met and we were acting on a very different level and then we separately and went our ways. We both developed our own skills and learned our own things a long the way and to get together again after all these years was wonderful because he was just how I imagined him to be. In a way we haven’t changed since all those years, but we have just gotten better at what we are doing, at least I hope. At least a little bit better."
On advanced acting: "To completely let go and not to be nervous anymore when you hear, “Roll the camera!” It is very natural to have this feeling when you hear that because you know that thing, what ever that may be, will last forever. I never imagined we would be watching these clips. Now we know film will last forever. It’s going digital and it is going to last. But 10 or 15 years ago the idea that film is going to last forever was new and then at some point you realize that it is going to last forever now with video tapes and everything. People are going to watch these films after 50 years. I think I have always had this nervous thing about when they roll the camera, but now I am quite relaxed. I am completely the same before you roll and after you roll. Before I was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” There was a lot more going on in getting ready. But now I just know, “Okay, just go into it and just get into it.” Now I don’t even think about when am I going take a sip of water, when am I going to look that way, I just know if I react properly and if I focus, it will come. I don’t need to plan it."
On using this technique in Clean: "When I read the script that was the first feeling I had. It was the only way to do it. We have all seen a thousand times people playing a junkie and it is so hard not to go into that way to play a junkie, of all that physical stuff. I think that is all we think of when we think of a junkie. But in real life Olivier and I have a couple of friends who have been through this experience and they are nothing like that. WhenI read the script I knew I couldn’t not do it the normal way. So I said, “Okay, I am going to try this new way that I have always wanted to do and haven’t had the chance.” So I just put the script away and did not look at it again until I was on the set. That was one year’s time in between. That is quite unusual because you know this project is coming up and you are going play your part soon and maybe it is time to learn your lines, but I tried not to learn anything about her. I wanted to react to Nick and Béatrice and to other actors. I wanted to see what they were going to give me and I was going to react as Emily and that’s it and not think about what Emily should be."
On filming in sequence: "We did the film in sequence so it started out in Canada and I was “the bitch,” that hysterical woman. And then she calmed down and tried to get clean. So it helped a lot that we were doing it in sequence and to feel the whole thing building up and what she has been going through and where it has taking her. It really helps the character."
On what made her first interested in acting: "It went up to As Tears Go By, Wong Kar Wai’s first film, and that is where I thought “acting is kind of fun.” Wong Kar Wai was asking something from me that I didn’t think I could do and I didn’t think anyone would ask that of me...I remember there was an emotional scene where I was saying good-bye to Andy Lau at a bus stop. We had to retake that scene the next day because I was not very good. I thought I had been good because I had been crying and crying, but Wong Kar Wai said, “It is not about that. It is not about how many tears drop out of your eyes or how emotional you are.” I said, “No? But you ask me to cry and I am crying, why am I doing it wrong?” He said, “But when you cry you should try to hold back. Nobody cries just like that. The minute you feel the sting in your eyes your first reaction should be ‘I don’t want to cry,’ and to hold it back.” These are layers of acting and at that point I was beginning to be in touch with it. Because acting is acting, but when you are playing a part that is human, we have many dimensions and layers that are not that straightforward...When I was playing in Jackie Chan films, he said, “Be in pain because I just kick you down the stairs.” So I would be literally in pain. It’s not just that. You are sad, you are in pain, and you’re frustrated. There are many things when someone kicks you down the stairs. You are not just in pain."
On Tony Leung: "Funnily enough everyone thinks we have worked together so many times but I worked with him when I was 19 years old for a TV drama. We were both working for television at the time, but since then I had not worked with him again. We have been in the same films together but not the same scene. So actually In the Mood for Love was our first movie...I think because we were kids when we met and we were acting on a very different level and then we separately and went our ways. We both developed our own skills and learned our own things a long the way and to get together again after all these years was wonderful because he was just how I imagined him to be. In a way we haven’t changed since all those years, but we have just gotten better at what we are doing, at least I hope. At least a little bit better."
On advanced acting: "To completely let go and not to be nervous anymore when you hear, “Roll the camera!” It is very natural to have this feeling when you hear that because you know that thing, what ever that may be, will last forever. I never imagined we would be watching these clips. Now we know film will last forever. It’s going digital and it is going to last. But 10 or 15 years ago the idea that film is going to last forever was new and then at some point you realize that it is going to last forever now with video tapes and everything. People are going to watch these films after 50 years. I think I have always had this nervous thing about when they roll the camera, but now I am quite relaxed. I am completely the same before you roll and after you roll. Before I was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” There was a lot more going on in getting ready. But now I just know, “Okay, just go into it and just get into it.” Now I don’t even think about when am I going take a sip of water, when am I going to look that way, I just know if I react properly and if I focus, it will come. I don’t need to plan it."
On using this technique in Clean: "When I read the script that was the first feeling I had. It was the only way to do it. We have all seen a thousand times people playing a junkie and it is so hard not to go into that way to play a junkie, of all that physical stuff. I think that is all we think of when we think of a junkie. But in real life Olivier and I have a couple of friends who have been through this experience and they are nothing like that. WhenI read the script I knew I couldn’t not do it the normal way. So I said, “Okay, I am going to try this new way that I have always wanted to do and haven’t had the chance.” So I just put the script away and did not look at it again until I was on the set. That was one year’s time in between. That is quite unusual because you know this project is coming up and you are going play your part soon and maybe it is time to learn your lines, but I tried not to learn anything about her. I wanted to react to Nick and Béatrice and to other actors. I wanted to see what they were going to give me and I was going to react as Emily and that’s it and not think about what Emily should be."
On filming in sequence: "We did the film in sequence so it started out in Canada and I was “the bitch,” that hysterical woman. And then she calmed down and tried to get clean. So it helped a lot that we were doing it in sequence and to feel the whole thing building up and what she has been going through and where it has taking her. It really helps the character."
