Li Bingbing
Bingbing Li joined forces with Russell Wonk and Archie Kao as well as director Wayne Wang for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which is out on DVD on Monday.
The film was a big screen adaptation of the 2005 novel of the same name by Lisa See.
- How did you get involved?
It’s very interesting. I was shooting a commercial in Taiwan, it was the end of the year, and everyone was preparing to have their Chinese New Year parties. I had spent the whole year working, and I wanted to have a long holiday during Chinese New Year.
But, suddenly, I got a call from [Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’s producer] Wendy Murdoch; we had never met before, so it was very sudden that she called me. She said, ‘Bingbing are you interested in working with me for a film?’ I was like ‘Oh my God!’ I didn’t even have one minute to figure out who Wendy was before she offered me a new job!
I politely answered her, and said, ‘Thanks for asking me, but I just need to read the script and then I can answer your question’. But she needed an answer very urgently, because she needed to find an actor very fast. So she said ‘I will call you in 15 minutes!’ How can I answer in 15 minutes? I said, ‘It’s not enough time’.
And she said ‘OK, I’ll call you in half an hour!’ So after half an hour she called me back, but I still said that I wanted to read the script first, because it was a big responsibility for both of us. So she said ‘OK, I’ll send you the script’.
I read the script and I loved the story. And Wendy was really persistent, and showed that she was very real. And she said the director Wayne Wang really wanted to work with me, so why not! I just accepted.
I didn’t know anything about the original novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan [but] after I read the script, I felt so strongly about the relationship between Lily and Nina. It was very touching, and very similar to my experience and my personality.
- You play both Lily and Nina, characters separated by hundreds of years. Was it a challenge to play these two different roles?
It would be a challenge for any actress. For me, it was like shooting two movies! Plus I needed to speak English and Chinese. When I was playing the historical character of Lily, I needed to speak Chinese, because it’s an old and ancient world.
And when I was playing the modern character of Nina, I needed to speak English. I invested a lot of my emotions in both of the characters. Both of them were connected, and separate. There are some very subtle things that connect the characters.
The modern character and the historical character, I think they love each other. Nina loves Lily very much. She doesn’t really want to be Lily, but the emotion in their hearts is the same. The emotion is very strong for Nina, as it was for Lily.
You can tell how much she loves her lao tong [friend for life] Sophia, how much she invests for her lao tong and how much she sacrificed for her. She wanted to fix everything.
- You seemed to switch between Chinese and English very easily. How challenging is it to act in a foreign language?
My English is very poor. I needed to speak Chinese, and that was no problem. I have a lot of experience in shooting historical movies. And it’s not the first time I’ve spoken English in a movie, but I still haven’t done that many movies where I speak in English.
So I felt tense and under pressure. I wanted to make my character very natural, and I didn’t want people to be able to tell that I have a language problem. That’s a little bit of pressure.
The script was bilingual, so I could read it and learn English from the script. I learnt a lot from the script. Every time that I spoke one line, I needed to recite all of them.
I didn’t want to have pressure about my lines. I wanted them to come from my heart not my head; I wanted them to be very automatic. I didn’t want to worry about every word. When people speak, they don’t have to think carefully about what words they are going to choose in that moment.
So I recited all of them, so when I spoke the line in the movie I didn’t need to worry about what I’m going to say. I just needed to worry about my acting. Fortunately there are not a lot of English lines in there!
- The film touches on some really difficult aspects of old China, such as foot binding and the subservient role of women. Were you pleased that the script dealt with them in honest, clear way and didn’t shy away from such controversial issues?
I didn’t know a lot about footbinding. And I think a lot of the Chinese people nowadays, those my age, they don’t know that much.
This movie can share Chinese history with every audience; not only the foreign audience but also the Chinese audience. Make them understand more about how deep Chinese history is. We can share the emotion, the feeling of the woman in that age, how strong they were and what exactly they were.
We can get a better impression of women and life at that time. Nüshu [Chinese script used exclusively by women] is a way of showing how strong women’s friendships were at the time, and how they dealt with their problems.
- Old China seemed very authentic in terms of the costumes and the locations etc. Did you have to do any research to play Lily, for example learning to walk as if you’d had your feet bound?
Getting this role was very sudden, so I don’t have that much time to research. But when I was drawn into this crew, I learnt a lot from Wayne Wang and Wendy [Murdoch]. They gave me the novel to read, and hired a Nüshu professor who told us how to sing write Nüshu.
It’s the most difficult thing to learn in this world! When I write the Nüshu, in the movie, I do not know what I am writing. There’s nothing that can help you remember. I just remembered them like painting a picture. But the writing is beautiful; it looks like ladies shapes. [These women] created these words by themselves; it’s a secret language between the girls.
The men don’t know how to read it, they couldn’t understand it. That’s the special thing, I think. Even Chinese people have never heard about Nüshu. Nüshu was only found in the Hunan province, in a small village. It’s protected by the government now, after this movie.
As for the foot binding, it was very hard. They created this shoe that had a tiny sole, with a high platform like modern heels.
The part of the shoe that was shown on screen was tiny; the rest of my foot was rising in the air. Nowadays, if we wear high heel shoes they would have a heel properly placed to support the weight. But on this shoe, there was no heel; you are standing on your toe. It can help you to feel how difficult it was for the women in that century.
I know the process about foot binding. I used to hear stories about my grandmother, and one of my neighbours is an old woman, and she had her feet bound. When we saw her feet we were always whispering, always wondering why her feet were so small. We used to talk about the feet, but nobody understood the history.
It’s many years ago, so we don’t know that much about it. It’s very mysterious and very interesting for modern people. I think after this movie, we can share the historical cultures with the audience.
- Essentially the film is all about the enduring power of friendships; did you draw on your own experiences?
Yes, I wanted to share my experiences. When I went on set, I went to speak to Wayne Wang and I said ‘Wayne, I used to have a very similar experience as Nina has’. I had a very good friend and I invested a lot in her. She made a lot of friends but, in my mind, if I have one friend that’s enough. One is enough for me.
But for her it was not. We had different concepts of friendship. I was always asking, ‘How come you have so many friends?’ And she was always getting close with one friend, then getting close with another.
She just didn’t understand why I can’t have these kinds of friends. It’s normal for her to divide her heart into several different pieces. But for me, I gave all of my heart to her. And I wanted to be her only friend, like she was my only friend.
When I played the role of Lily or Nina, I could really show my feelings. I could really show how deep and mysterious these relationships are [and] the emotions between the two girls both in the historical part and the modern part.
- Were you close with your co-star Gianna Jun, who plays both Lily’s best friend Snow Flower and Nina’s best friend Sophia?
Yes. I miss her very much. After this film, we got really close. I didn’t know her before! The first time that the crew introduced us, she was already wearing her costume and make up. I looked at her, and my first impression was that she was very cute, because she was made up to look like she was 16 years old!
From that moment, I told myself I would never look at her as Gianna. I would always look at her as my lao tong. I am an actor, so I was very deep in the feelings I had in the film. So I just looked at her as my lao tong from that moment.
I was already in love with her. I already looked at her as my best friend, like we already knew each other for a long time. I didn’t want to think too much, it’s just very pure emotion between us.
We actually cannot communicate very well. I speak Chinese and she speaks Korean and we both speak English, but not very perfect English. So it’s difficult for us to communicate. But we can communicate by our eyes, and our body language.
On the first day we met, we filmed the scene in which [my character] got married, and it was Gianna that walked me to the door and held my hand and gave the fan to me. The first time that I touched her, I felt like I touched a boy’s hand. I felt there was electricity through my whole body. We don’t have lines in that scene, but we communicate through our chemistry.
- Hugh Jackman also has a small role in the film, as Sophia’s boyfriend Arthur. What was it like working with him?
I love him so much! He’s perfect. He’s definitely a gentleman. I learned a lot from him. He doesn’t have a large part in the movie, but he’s very professional. In one scene, the camera was just looking at me.
He has been crying in that scene, but he didn’t need to cry behind me in that take, because the camera was just on my face. But he still cried, to create an atmosphere so that me and Gianna could have a very real reaction. And he sang the Chinese song perfectly.
- You will next be seen in Resident Evil, in which you star as Ada Wong. Are there big differences between making a film in China and making a Hollywood film?
Yes of course, they are very different. This is the first time that I am in an entirely foreign crew. Nobody speaks Chinese! The first time I spoke English in a movie was Forbidden Kingdom, and the second was Snow Flower.
But both of those two movies still had Chinese crew so even though I was speaking English in the movie, I didn’t need to totally speak English. But in this movie, no-one speaks Chinese. I can only speak English.
It’s difficult for me; I need to focus on them every single minute. And I can’t understand every word. To understand a line is easy, but to understand what’s behind the line, a whole culture, is difficult. Like when they are joking; can you tell it’s a joke? That’s the difficulty. But it’s all a very good experience for me, and a great way to learn language.
- Would you like to do more English-language movies?
Fate arranges everything for me. If the fates arrange things for you, you should cherish the chance to do it well, I think.
When I was cast in Resident Evil, I thought it was a good chance for me to learn English, and to learn a lot from the different people who are working on the movie, as well as the chance to play a different role.
- Was it difficult to come straight from the slow drama of Snow Flower to the fast-paced action of Resident Evil?
Of course! But I am someone who lives in two extremes. To play in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, that was the most mysterious kind of movie for me. I love to play in that kind of movie. You can invest all of your emotion in that role. I didn’t want to leave the character; I wanted to be the character forever!
I was so touched by the role and the story and the emotion. But in Resident Evil, I become another person. It’s totally different. And you have more energy and different abilities, and you can do a lot of things that you cannot do in your real life, like hold a big gun! You can flip in the air! You cannot imagine.
I want people to know that I can be totally different, because I am an actress and I am very attracted to very different personalities and I love to become them. You can be every person. I feel a little greedy to want to be all of these people, but I really love being exposed to them and learning from them.
What do you hope that audiences will take from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? I hope after watching the movie that people, whether men or women, will be able to cherish their emotions, and cherish the people that they meet. Thank God for giving you what they already have.
The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is released on DVD 14th May