The Banquet
Women We Love: Ziyi
By Reed Tucker, Esquire Magazine, January 2006
Ziyi Zhang (or Zhang Ziyi, as she's known in China) has just checked herself into a Beijing hospital. She is suffering from a mysterious respiratory ailment that she developed on the set of the Chinese film "The Banquet". We feel for her. But for the doctors on duty, the shift just got a lot more interesting. The five-foot-five, 26-year-old Zhang is among the most delicately beautiful women in the world, and roles in "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers," and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" have made her a superstar in her country.
Zhang grew up in Beijing, the daughter of an economist and a teacher, and was discovered by director Zhang Yimou at an audition for a shampoo commercial. This month, she stars in "Memoirs of a Geisha", her first role in English — a language she only began learning a few years ago at the suggestion of director Ang Lee.
Esquire: What are you doing in the hospital? And you better not say bird flu.
Ziyi: I feel sick for a couple of weeks. They think something wrong with — what's that called? — windpipe. The conditions are very bad in China. There is much pollution inside the studio. We build a whole palace inside the studio and they use very bad ... gas? [In the background, her translator says, "Fumes."] Fumes!
Esquire: You live in Beijing in an apartment with your parents, right?
Ziyi: Yes. When I was eleven, I went to boarding school. I left home to study on my own, so I didn't spend that much time with my parents. So now I have chance to spend time with them.
Esquire: Do they have lots of rules?
Ziyi: I have freedom. I'm big girl. They're pretty — how you say? — relaxed. But they're proud of me. My daddy always asks my autograph for his friends, his leaders.
Esquire: What was it like coming to America for the first time?
Ziyi: That was 1999, I think. I was 19. I only had one idea: I wanted to go to the "real" McDonald's.
Esquire: You and Yao Ming are supposedly the two most famous people in China. You should date.
Ziyi: "Nooo". He's such a big boy.
Esquire: How is being famous in China different from in America?
Ziyi: I think it's much relaxed here. The paparazzi is not so crazy. I'm happy to be here and have no — how you say? — stalker.
Esquire: Do you find it strange that Chinese actors were cast to play Japanese women in "Memoirs of a Geisha"?
Ziyi: I don't feel strange, because that's my job, to play different kind of people. It's really hard for us to learn how to be a — what's that word? I learn last night? Ah, yes. "Convincing." Convincing geisha.
Esquire: You were recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Ziyi: A big honor. I have chance to watch great movies.
Esquire: And some not so great.
Ziyi: Yes. But I think I can raise my — how you say? ["long burst of Mandarin to translator"] — level.
Esquire: What's the best Hollywood movie you've seen recently?
Ziyi: I like "Cinderella Man".
Esquire: Did you watch it in English or dubbed?
Ziyi: I got it in Mandarin. We don't have so many American movies showing in Beijing, in China. I think every year we only have ten American movies. Not that much. We have ["rapid-fire Mandarin to translator, then slowly"] censorship bureau. They have to give, uh, permission.
Esquire: The Chinese people and press didn't really embrace you earlier in your career. Is that changing?
Ziyi: Yeah, I think it's much better now, because people understand I don't just rely on my looks. Because when I get very famous very fast, at that time I was only like nineteen, and they just thought, She's nothing, she's just luck. Now I really don't care, because I know that I just do my movies, and if I do great job, you will see it. It's not easy to act.