Grasping The Opportunity… Zhang Ziyi, Shu Qi, Tang Wei
Published October 2nd, 2007 in Success, Life, Films, Belief.
Today, Zhang Ziyi is a Hollywood superstar.
She has all the potentials to be one - beautiful, hard working, determined. And, one very crucial element for her success is she grasps every opportunities - or, in some cases, she creates her own opportunities.
One of the major turning point in her career is taking part in Lee Ang’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Best Director/Motion Picture, Golden Globes).
What happened was, she was not the first choice for the “Yu Long Jiao” role in the film… The truth was, Director Lee Ang has tried to invite Shu Qi (see photo below), the actress from Taiwan to play the role, who nevertheless turned down the offer (the golden opportunity, with hindsight).
While Shu Qi gave it up, Zhang Ziyi (still a new actress from Mainland China) tried her very best to get hold of the role.
You just never know…
Imagine if it was Shu Qi, instead of Zhang Ziyi who took the role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the history of Shu Qi, Zhang Ziyi and even Lee Ang would have been very different…
And this time, it is Tang Wei, another new actress from Mainland China who has seized the chance. Tang Wei is of the same age of Zhang Ziyi, and graduated from the same performing arts academy in Beijing.
The difference is, Tang Wei has been regarded as not beautiful enough. She has applied for places in the academy (acting) for 3 times but failed. Finally, she got her place in the school, but major in directing.
She acted in TV series after graduation and have been turned down for roles for being “not attractive enough”. She, nevertheless, didn’t give up.
She had temperate the night before casting for the leading role in Lust, Caution. “I looked like a panda on the casting day,” said Tang Wei. Lee Ang nevertheless, saw something special in her. Appointed Tang Wei for the role, Lee Ang devoted more than 8 months to train her up, to ensure that she performed seamlessly in the film set during the WWII Shanghai.
What if Tang Wei gave up after being turned down by the academy for the first time, or, the second time?
What if she didn’t show up for the casting for not feeling well?
You just never know.
Chances favour prepared minds.
Related posts:
- Success, Failure, Persistence - The Story Behind the Stories of Lee Ang
- Why You Should Do What You Love
- “What Is It You Were Unwilling To Do” Vs The Next Level - Inspired By The Interview Of Tony Leung of Lust, Caution
- Psychological Quality
- Film On Saturday - Ratatouille (Remy The Rat Who Becomes The Chef)
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6 Responses to “Grasping The Opportunity... Zhang Ziyi, Shu Qi, Tang Wei”
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Two subjects dear and close to my heart. Persistence and Zhang Ziyi. You wrote a very wonderful post. I know some one who, right now, this very instant, needs to read it! I am sending it to them right now.
Never forget that you are wonderful.
Jon,
I know, your celebrity crash… Most glad that you found the post useful - and also meaningful to your friend. Hope this is going to ignite sth deeper…
It does. It’s so important because I know that there have been times in my life when I haven’t been as persistent as I needed to be. Or have allowed myself to be discouraged by others, so it’s very meaningful. I’ve been thinking of this post since I read it.
Jon, we all go through periods like that - when we really wanna give up, when we feel running out of energy to carry on, when we have worked all day but only find different ways that fail the experiment…
Are we one step back or one step closer? According Edison, we are closer - we eliminate yet another way to fail. I perfer to bear this in mindas far as possible.
This post is indeed helpful. Surely, opens the eyes to a little background information about these three actresses but I’m surprised that Zhang Zi Yi was regarded as beautiful while Tang Wei was not… This standard is according to which race because from what I’ve known…the Chinese would say Zhang Ziyi was merely an average looking girl or little bit above average.
Sophia… respectfully, i think that it might be an over simplified way of looking at it. To reduce it to simply race and the standard by which they judge beauty might be considered unfair.
Beauty is not simply about the exterior but about how much of the interior appears to radiate outward as well. I’m fascinated when people refer to Zhang Ziyi (mostly women) as “average” … when that quality alone may very well be part of her allure.
Ziyi simply has that undefinable quality — a certain “je ne sais pas”, as the French refer to it — that seems to appeal to a great many people of all races.