| Subject: Sexy Little Lady (2/7/03 Star, Malaysia) |
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Date Posted: 13:16:11 07/05/03 Sat
Seen in numerous slimming centre advertisements, singer-actress Vicki Zhao Wei is still flavour of the year as far as fans are concerned. MICHAEL CHEANG checks to see if there is any substance behind the phenomenon.
VICKI ZHAO WEI is in a playfully good mood despite talking with a slightly hoarse voice. Having asked for a cup of coffee while waiting for the interview to start, she is snapping her fingers while singing happily to herself, "Her ka fei... her ka fei" (drink coffee, drink coffee).
Speaking of her hoarse voice, she says: "No, I'm not ill. It's just that yesterday, in Singapore, I was talking non-stop from morning until night. I've never talked so much in my life!" she complains. "I'm so tired now. I haven't had a break in a long time. I'm glad that I'm now in Malaysia, so tomorrow I can go out and enjoy myself."
Most recently seen on blockbuster films [Shaolin Soccer] and [So Close], 27-year-old Zhao hails from Anwei, China, and began her showbiz career in television series in China and Taiwan. Her big break came when she played the character of Little Swallow in the series [My Fair Princess], a role that propelled her to stardom and set her up for a transition to movies. Since then, she has had roles in movies like [The Duel], [Chinese Odyssey 2002] and the aforementioned, working with megastars such as Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Stephen Chau, Faye Wong, Shu Qi and Karen Mok.
Also a promising singer, Zhao has also released several albums, although lately she has been rather quiet on this front, having no plans to release any material in the near future (however, she will be singing the title track for one of her movies this year).
The pretty lass was in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday to unveil the new advertisements for slimming centre Marie France Bodyline, with which she has just signed on as spokesman for the second year running.
Asia's sexiest?
To add to her growing list of achievements, Zhao was also voted Asia's Sexiest Female Star for 2002 in the reader's poll conducted by a Singaporean men's magazine. When ask about it, she narrows her eyes at my somewhat sceptical tone and glares at me.
"Why, you don't think I'm sexy?" she pouts playfully. "I didn't expect it as well. Maybe because I am sexy in a cute kind of way!"
Zhao admits that she had been pretty conservative before, always wearing less revealing clothes. Furthermore, her roles usually required her to wear baggier clothes because her scenes had a lot of action and fighting. Then, before the voting (for the poll) began, she became more confident of herself.
"I went through a phase where I was crazy about looking sexy all the time. I don't know why, I just felt prettier when dressing that way. I did a lot of magazine covers at the time, and when they asked me how I wanted to dress, I told them, 'As sexy as possible!' " she laughs.
"I think a lot of other stars were already on the list for a long time, but because of the 'sexy' phase I went through, I suddenly had a lot of sexy magazine covers coming out, so I guess (that's why) more people voted for me then."
Ever the professional, Zhao also attributed her award to her slimming programme. "Actually, it was also due to Marie-France that I had the confidence to wear such clothes. They helped me to slim down a lot, so I could wear all those tight, tight clothes," she smiles, stealing a glance at the stern Marie-France PR officer beside us, before breaking out into giggles again.
So, now that she is the sexiest woman in Asia, does she get more men walking up to her and telling her, "You look sexy," on the streets?
"Hey, you sound like (you think) no men would like me! You don't think that men like me?" again she pouts. "For your information, I have a lot of male fans, you know."
So what does she think being sexy actually means?
"To me, being sexy is not about how nice your nose, mouth of face looks, but more of an attitude. It's not just because of one body part, but involves feeling good about your entire body," she says, nodding her head.
"Sexiness also means being able to attract people but not offending them. Meaning they are attracted to you, but just don't know the reason. One may not have to look very pretty, but can still be sexy and attract people."
Busy Little Swallow
Anyway, it has been a while since we have had any news about Zhao, besides the usual paparazzi rumours. Upon hearing that, she exclaims happily:"No news? That's great! I'm very happy that there have been no news or rumours about me."
"I don't like it when there are rumours going around about me, because all of them are not true, and once it is written, everyone will misunderstand me. And, anyway, all the rumours are not true because I am still single, and don't even have a boyfriend," she says, feigning sadness.
Apparently, the reason why she has been out of the news lately is because she has been concentrating on shooting movies in Taipei. When asked about her future movies, she perks up once more. "I have four movies out this year. The first two will be love stories, [Jade Goddess] with Nicholas Tse, and the other one will be [My Dream Girl], with Ekin Cheng," she purrs happily.
Despite working with so many megastars, she was full of praise for one particular actor, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, whom she says is "such a good actor, and is very focused in his work."
"I feel I can learn a lot from him because he does a lot of very complicated roles. As a girl, I certainly can't be following (Stephen) Chau's style and make funny faces all the time!" she says.
"I also get along with Tony better. Chau is always very serious, and will always scold, scold, scold me if I don't act well enough," she adds, mockingly wagging her finger sternly at me.
Zhao also co-stars in two other movies, the upcoming historical martial arts epic, [Warriors of Heaven and Earth], as well as [Green Tea]. With so many movies coming out in the second half of the year, Zhao will be very busy.
"The next few months I will be very busy because, after finishing the movies, I will be doing a lot of promotion work for the movies and Marie-France as well. I hope it won't be too tiring or I won't look pretty anymore," she laments.
So what's her beauty secret? "Sleep more, drink more water, excercise more..." - glancing once more at the PR consultant beside her- "go to Marie France..." she laughs. Noticing the sceptical looks around her, she pouts again. "It's true! It's just that I said it in a joking way. Okay, I will try to say it more seriously: Sleep more (giggles), drink water (giggles), exercise more (giggles)..."
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