Zhang Ziyi shares experience of working with Ang Lee
12 Sep – Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi recently admitted that despite the many awards and recognition she received for "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", it wasn't easy getting there at all in the first place.
As reported on Epoch Times, the actress who is one of the mentors for the Chinese reality show, "The Birth of Actors", shared on the show that director Ang Lee seemed to be unsure of her when he cast her as the rebellious Jen Yu.
"I was 19 at the time, and simply wasn't sure whether I wanted to be an actor for the rest of my life. Going to the shoot every day was like a sentence and seeing Ang was like torture," she said.
Zhang explained that while Ang would always encourage his other stars like Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh, he never gave her any compliments about her performance.
The actress admitted that she would work extra hard just to be able to get Ang to say something nice to her.
"Later, I discovered that the director was doing it on purpose. Since the character of Jen Yu is resilient, stubborn and not one to give up, he wanted to shape me into the character," she said.
Zhang also described Ang as the tiger Richard Parker from another one of his award winning movies, "Life of Pi".
"You will like him but also be afraid of him," she said.
