The 10 -year production ‘The Grandmaster’ was finally released earlier this week in China. Lead actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai and lead actress Zhang Ziyi were willing to sacrifice their time and lose several jobs to shoot this film from beginning to end. In 2010, it was rumored Korean actress Song Hye Kyo “fussed” and was unwilling to take up extra time to re-shoot some scenes. After spending a year shooting, she only had 6 minutes of screen time in the 130 minute film, with lead actress Zhang Ziyi occupying 100 minutes!
Although Song Hye Kyo had little screen time and declined to participate in the promotions, lead actor Tony Leung still praised her professionalism despite having a language barrier with the crew and basically gave a lot of ‘face’. Leung said: “I totally understand her situation. In the past, I went to Taiwan to shoot Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s film not knowing any Mandarin. At the time, I felt as if I was mute and couldn’t speak. But, Song Hye Kyo was very professional, she was able to portray the elegant woman, she’s a very rare actress.” Wong Kar-wai’s production style is ‘patient work makes a good product’, and may not necessarily understand every artist. Leung works very closely with the director, asked if he tutored Song Hye Kyo? He laughed: “She’s very professional, it was not necessary.”
Tony Leung also praised Zhang Ziyi, he said: “I admire her. I don’t need to say much about her acting, but she trained her Kung Fu well. It’s amazing. I had a few action scenes with her, because we had to accommodate several things, I couldn’t hit her lightly. That night we were shooting the scene 50 times, so absolutely there was accidental hitting and stepping involved, I know she was in real pain due to her old injuries, but she held it all in. I really admire her, very rare!”
