Maggie Cheung (born 20 September 1964), also known as Cheung Man-yuk (張曼玉), is a Hong Kong actress. Raised in England and Hong Kong, she has over 70 films to her credit since starting her career in 1983. Some of her most commercially successful work was in the action genre, but Cheung once said in an interview that of all the work she has done, the films that really meant something to her are Song of Exile, Centre Stage, Comrades: Almost a Love Story and In the Mood for Love. As Emily Wang in Clean, her last starring role to date, she became the first Asian actress to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Cheung's native language is Cantonese, but she is multilingual, having learned to speak English, Mandarin and French.
I think it comes from far away inside me, to be strong to survive everything that comes my way. I think, going back to the beginning, feeling like an alien in an English school when I was eight, that set up my pride very early on. I think I'm very defensive, but I'm trying not to be like that any more.
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Because I've done so many different roles, I don't want to repeat myself. It's getting harder and harder to find something interesting.
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These two men, how they like their women to be is so different. The way Wong [Karwai]sees beauty, or women related to beauty, it has to be that sensual, perfect thing, whereas Olivier [Assayas] is more interested in something more internal and modern. But I feel happy to be able to fit into their desires of what they want to see on the screen. That's what interests me in my work, to transform according to different directors.
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Even though we can say the European or North American market is bigger, no, for me, I want Hong Kong to be my main market. They want to own me and I want to own them. It's out of willingness.
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I think I started to have thoughts to really want to be serious about my work when I was about twenty five and I just kind of started to look into that direction and moved into it. But it didn't seem as though it was going anywhere because, you know, films without action or comedy are rare to find in Hong Kong, especially if the main character is a woman. But along the way, I've had a few good breaks.
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It was heaven. We were in Los Angeles. And we could go anywhere. No one had any idea who I was.
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Words like 'fabulous,' 'wonderful,' 'great,' 'absolutely gorgeous,' they don't exist in Cantonese. It's good, or it's O.K. That's it. It's very blunt, Cantonese. I appreciate that there are no fake words, but it's hard to switch channels, sometimes, after I've spent time in France. I'm just learning to use more generous words myself, but you know, 'gorgeous,' I just can't go to that extreme.
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If I was drinking something [in my house], they said, 'Oh, she got dumped, she's so miserable she's turning to drink'. Or if my mother and sister came over, they said, 'She's so miserable she needs her family to support her through this hard time.'" [on her experience with the Hong Kong paparazzi]
9
...you experience a lot more pain than normal people, your mom dies, your dad dies, your boyfriend chucks you, you live in the street, and you're really going through these emotions. You're trying to know what it feels like to watch a man die in front of you, as if you've really lived it. Once that division is gone, it gets blurry, you look back at a shoot and think, was I really that sad because in the film my boyfriend didn't like me -- or was it something else, something real? [on being an actress]
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No matter where I'm going, I feel like I'm leaving something behind. Every time I get on a plane, I cry. The flight attendants on Cathay Pacific must think I'm mad.
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Fact
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Upper East Side, New York [August 2005]
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Resides in Beijing, China. [2009]
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Member of the jury at Marrakech International Film Festival 2010.
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In July 2011 Cheung was awarded the degree Doctor honoris causa at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
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In April 2010 Cheung was appointed as UNICEF's Ambassador to China.
Was offered a role in X2 (2003) but turned it down because "If I start making films like that, they won't be proud. I'd feel like I was cheating. And I don't want half the world, we have 1.3 billion people in China, to know I'm cheating. That matters to me. I have more pride than that."
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Wanted to be a hairdresser as a child.
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In Hong Kong, she has been handed every role she has played since she was 18 without an audition.
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Her parents are Shanghainese. While she cannot speak the dialect, she understands it.
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The first Chinese actress ever to win the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival (1992 - for Center Stage (1991)) and Cannes Film Festival (2004 - for Clean (2004)).
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Olivier Assayas wrote the characters of Maggie Cheung (in Irma Vep (1996)) and Emily Wang (in Clean (2004)) specifically with her in mind.
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Center Stage (1991) was turning point in her career. Before this film was made, she was only offered the roles of beautiful Asian women in Western films.
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Spokesperson of LUX shampoo in mid-late 1990's in Greater China.
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Guest model of Hermès during Paris Fashion Week in March 1998.
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First runner-up and Miss Photogenic in Miss Hong Kong and a semi-finalist in Miss World. [1983]
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Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1997.
$80 Million
