Zhang Ziyi recalls being slapped by Gong Li

14 Dec – Zhang Ziyi recently shared her experience of working with Gong Li on the latest episode of the reality show, "The Birth of an Actor", and revealed that she was slapped at least seven times by the renowned actress for a scene in the movie, "Memoirs of a Geisha".

As reported on Epoch Times, the actress who commented on the contestants' performance, which involved a scene where a contestant is slapped in the face, recalled a scene in which Gong's character slapped Zhang in the face for insulting her.

In the aforementioned scene, Hatsumomo (Gong Li) came to Sayuri's (Zhang) room, slapped her in the face and pulled her hair before telling the latter that she will destroy her for insulting her in front of the customers.

Zhang said that she and Gong discussed how to perform the scene before they started shooting and the latter said that they should do it for real so not to make the scene look fake.

Zhang stated that although she agreed to it, even telling Gong that it doesn't matter how she does it "as long as it works", she was extremely nervous when it was time to shoot it.

"My lips were shaking, and my eyelids were trembling," she said.

In the end, said Zhang, she was slapped at least seven times before they had the best take.

"When I went back to remove my make-up, I realised that there were palm prints on my face. Although it was hard, I really benefitted a lot from working with a senior like Gong Li," she said.