 Eugenia Yuan Best Newcomer Eugenia Yuan's role in Peter Chan's film short, Three: Going Home sounds limited--playing a motionless corpse --but lying nude in a bathtub shoot after shoot is more difficult than it sounds. People will show their ignorance by saying, "I could have done that," but in the end Eugenia was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and won the Best Newcomer Award at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Awards. Exposed to the industry at a young age, Eugenia is the daughter of martial arts legend Cheng Pei Pei, who most know as Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. When she's not acting, Eugenia reads thriller novels and works on various personal projects. |
|
GR: What typically happens to someone who wins a Best Newcover Award like you did in Hong Kong? And what's happened for you so far? EY: I really don't know what typically happens to someone who wins the award. Though I think it's usually some pop star-turned-actor who wins, and is already extremely popular and happens to have five more movies coming out the following year. Since I'm here and don't have five more Hong Kong movies coming out, it's a little odd. What's happened to me so far? Because of SARS, I was unable to attend the awards or go to the many meetings that had been scheduled for me to meet other directors for other projects, etc., but I have a manager taking care of things over there. And, lucky for me, so is Peter Chan, who is really the one I want to work with again and again. GR: What kind of direction did you get from Christopher Doyle? And how about Peter Chan? EY: Christopher was so wonderful to me, such a good friend and supporter. Basically, he would just tell me to just stay as I was and he'd move things around like the light and, suddenly, I was gorgeous. He's amazing. And Peter, he was all about me being natural. He just trusted me so much to be able to play that role. There was no way I could let him down. I had met him auditioning for another project, Waiting, and he loved my audition which called for a breakdown that was held in but would cause everyone else to cry. I remember at the audition, all three of us--me, Peter, and the casting lady who was putting me on tape--were all just bawling. Afterwards, we needed a moment. When it came time to shoot the big scene, he just said, "Just do what you did to me in the audition." GR: What was it like sitting in a tub naked during the shooting of Three? EY: Cold. Scary. Itchy. It was my first time having to do a nude scene, which was a huge decision and risk. Especially in Hong Kong, where they don't really understand, respect, or care about art but are just into thinking, "Oooh, she's naked." It was a pain during publicity, since all I saw were pictures of me naked in the newspapers. It really sucked. Obviously, I would not have ever done it were it not for Peter Chan, who I trust completely. Still, you get on set, look at that tub everyone is around, and realize that you're about to have to strip down. People are going to see boobs and then I wonder, "What's my dad going to think?" But since I was playing a corpse, I had to make sure I wasn't self-conscious because it would show. I had to be totally immobile. The hardest shots were the ones underwater when I was not allowed to breathe through my nose. I just had to keep swallowing water for as long as I could, then I'd come up and nearly drown. By the end of that scene, I was all bloated and feeling gross. I thought I might really die. The itchiness came from the fake wig that I wore because Leon had to cut my hair and I didn't want my real hair to be chopped off. That shit itched like crazy and I have very sensitive skin, so I broke out in a major rash. The first day, they didn't know to use clean distilled mineral water so I broke out in a rash. We came back the next day prepared. Luckily, they made sure to use hot water or I would've really froze. GR: What's up with the Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger movie? EY: It was my first martial arts movie, and it tested me big time. I had to learn how to ride a horse in one day out in the middle of the desert. My weapons were the double knives, so of course they said I couldn't hold onto the horse's reins. It scared the shit out of me, and I had the worst bruises down both of my legs. It was so scary. Coming from the U.S. where you just think about Christopher Reeves, you just fear horses, but I did it! As far as the movie goes, it was bought by Miramax and has yet to be released. Who knows what will happen to it? But just so you know, it's not like a spoof on Crouching Tiger. It's actually one of the series of books that Crouching Tiger belonged to, but it's not even a tenth of the budget. Three guys holding the wire was called "wirework." |