Zhang Ziyi

Even though I've done Hollywood films, I still don't think of myself as a Hollywood actress.

There are films you see that only reach your eyes. Then there are films that you can watch... that reach down to your throat, or reach your heart. 'In the Mood for Love,' though, reached all the way to my belly.

There was one very special scene at the end of the film. My character, Zhao Di, has been sick. She wakes up and her mother tells her that the man she loves has come back from the city and had spent the day by her bedside.

They're not willing to admit that I've also shed blood and tears and often paid dearly for my success. This makes me feel extremely sad.

Today's China is not in the least shut out from the rest of the world. Trends come to us from all over the world. And the Internet is really developed in China. We get news from all over the world.

Wanting to be in a Western film won't get me very far. Unless the opportunity arose, it doesn't matter how much I want to be in one. But if an opportunity did arise, no actor would pass it up.

We're still working out the details, but I'd be delighted to do the film. The problem at the moment is my busy schedule. Shooting on this film has been extended by a month, but I need to be in the U.S. by Dec. 20.

When I watch a movie for the first few times I'm usually thinking about where I was in a given scene, who was next to me, what we were doing etc. But after I've gotten through all of this, when I'm really watching the film itself, then I get moved.

Zhang Yimou is always going to need young, pretty girls for his films. But I don't really concern myself with what Zhang Yimou's next starlet looks like.

Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.

Chinese women are much more modest than American women when it comes to clothes. We tend to show less flesh.

There are actors who spend 20 years working and still don't achieve what I've achieved so quickly. So I think my only course of action is to work as hard as I can, not just for the sake of the film, but also to prove to these people that I do have talent.

I always think it's really hard if you are Asian or Chinese to be really in Hollywood. There are not so many really great characters for you.

I really want to do something in Europe. With a small movie, it can be an interesting challenge. But I have to get the right project. I don't think it's so important to go to Hollywood. All that trash that comes out of there! I don't want to do that.

Working in Hollywood, it's clear the more money you have, the more technology you can get. So you can build a whole Japanese set. Only in Hollywood!

I want, through my roles, to express the parts in the hearts of Chinese women that they feel unable to let out.

I've discovered that I value simplicity above all in dressing. I don't like anything I wear to be too complicated or fussy.

There's nothing in Chinese culture that is an equivalent of the geisha. It's so different, so special to Japan.

I was really interested in geishas' work, and wanted to meet real geishas.

For myself I don't like the geisha look. It's like a mask.

My profession has helped me to grow up.

That whole environment was just incompatible with my beliefs and my personality. It was a dark time for me.

Most people spend their whole lives looking for the right job. There are others who never get an opportunity to do work that fulfils them.

Actually I ran away from school when I was 13. No one could find me, and the police were called. I was just hiding in a little thicket of grass at my school, and went to sleep.

After I learn more English, I'll work hard and make more films.