[Source: Bund Pictorial (Shanghai), 22 November 2007. Conducted for Bund by Zhang Yan]
After viewing "Tuya's Marriage" at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, Hollywood Reporter critic Kirk Honeycutt wrote that "Yu Nan's beauty radiates in every scene despite being bundled in thick coats with a red scarf obscuring half her head. She just has one of those amazing faces that contains multitudes." High praise followed, for both the picture and its lead actress.
Held in February, the Berlin festival is the first major such event every year. At the formal closing of this year's festival, the 57th, the Golden Bear award for Best Picture went to "Tuya's Marriage," directed by Wang Quan'an and starring Yu Nan. To date, Yu Nan has made 7 films in her 9 year career, and while 3 of these films have been entered at Berlin, with this one winning, her movies have had little exposure in mainstream Chinese theaters.
Now, recalling her trip to Berlin, what Yu Nan considers most exciting was not the award or the experience of holding the cup for a moment. Rather, it was the realization that one of her films had met with such approval from an audience drawn from a variety of nations worldwide. After the screening, the film's makers were invited to gather on stage and meet with the audience, but when Yu Nan tried to do so, one of the festival staff blocked her way: this young foreigner who had himself just watched the film could not believe that the erect and sexy young woman standing before him was the plain, thickly-coated and rugged Inner Mongolian woman he had just seen on screen, certainly not this Asian beauty addressing him in fluent French.
[left, on the red carpet at Berlin]
People are always misjudging Yu Nan this way. Whether it be her north Shaanxi woman in "The Story of Ermei" who would go for weeks without bathing, or her current totally simple grasslands woman on horseback, no one links her characters to this fashionable young actress. Yu Nan herself takes great delight in this situation, terming it a beautiful misunderstanding, as well as affirming her status as a good actress.
[below right, in character as 'Tuya'] 
Before 2006, Yu Nan made just 3 movies in 6 years, spending a leisurely and carefree life as an art film actress. Then in just the last year she: signed a contract with international management agency CAA; made a Hollywood film "Diamond Dogs;" filmed "Tuya's Marriage" with Wang Quan'an and went to Berlin; completed Wang Xiaoshuai's "In Love We Trust", which will be entered at Cannes; and just completed "My DNA Says I Love You," the second feature from Taiwan woman director Lee Yun-chan. With this wild burst of creativity she has turned out more movies in the past year than in the previous six. Now Yu Nan wants to set out on the path to being an international actress; she greatly admires Gong Li, and hopes to do as well in the future in Hollywood.
In the following interview transcript, B=Bund Pictorial and Y=Yu Nan
Tuya's Beauty Is a Kind of Flirtatiousness
B: People who have seen "Tuya's Marriage" all say Tuya is very beautiful; how did you bring out this kind of very primitive beauty?
Y: I feel that Tuya's beauty is a kind of flirtatiousness peculiar to the women of the Inner Mongolian grasslands. In love, she is like a tiger or a leopard viewing males warily, with a mutual attraction as well as a mutual confrontation. Some people find this kind of emotion very distressing, because its a very basic, life-and-death situation.
B: You previously portrayed a northern Shaanxi woman, a younger sister, in "The Story of Ermei." How do you compare your portrayal of Tuya with that of "Second Sister"? Which was more difficult?
Y: These are the only two roles I've acted that were rural characters, but they seem to be the ones everyone remembers. Where the two roles are most alike is in how opposite both of them are from me, but in a very short time they blended into me. Before "Ermei" began, I had just returned from shooting "Rage" in France, and director Wang Quan'an asked me if I really wanted to make "Ermei," because he also thought the contrast in characters might be too great since I had absolutely no experience with that sort of rural life. He said if I thought the part wasn't right for me, he would find a local non-professional to do the role.
B: But it took you only about one month to become just like a woman from rural northern Shaanxi?
Y: Actually, it took 20 days, and after that my landlord and other village people there forgot what my real name was. The landlord would tell me every day, "Second Sister, sweep the courtyard ... Second Sister, draw water...Second Sister, this and that..." I had really become a rural girl, a second sister of the good earth.
B: How do you accomplish that?
Y: I feel this is something a good professional actor should accomplish. I don't identify 100 percent with every role I play, but once I take on a role I try to blend myself into that role, and then I reach a stage where I become that person.
B: Do you have a sort of on-off switch, like when it's turned on you become the character, then when the acting is completed it's turned off and you become yourself again?
Y: If nothing's going right, I can't identify with the situation and I can't complete today's scene, I'm the kind of actor who just runs out to play. When I'm acting a character, I have to wear her clothes every day, and live in her situation. For example, if I'm adopting the behavior, manner and posture of a rural woman, there's a big difference between going without bathing for a month and just making up as if I hadn't.
B: Has there been a time you were tempted to do something else?
Y: When I had just finished "Tuya" a strange feeling came over me, like I was in a trance, and I wondered if it might be better to stay in the grasslands and live there, and I thought for a moment that sort of life could be very happy, very good. But it passed in an instant, and I quickly prompted myself to go back. (Laughs.) Because actually, I'm very afraid of animals, and in scenes where I've had to ride a horse or a camel or whatever, I had to force myself to do it. The only animal I've been able to care for and live with is a cat. (Laughs.)
B: In making "Tuya," did you have some apprehension that this was a theatrical film, and not an art film like you had been making?
Y: I feel that the three movies I've made with Wang Quan'an were not completely of the same type, and this last one was much more difficult than the others. In doing a scene in the earlier ones, we could just act a certain way and that would do; because in an artistic film, there is no special theatrical acting required. In a particular situation, you can just handle it as one would in real life. But in a theatrical film, the characters in a scene react to situations much more emotionally. For this reason, you can't use non-professional actors in theatrical scenes, otherwise they won't connect with what you are doing in the scene, and this can be a tense, sometimes stressful process for everyone concerned. Also the director's demands can be very detailed, very precise, and this is why "Tuya" was my most challenging role, but also the most satisfying.
B: The critical reviews of "Tuya" have been uniformly good, just like the audiences', and so much critical approval is very rare.
Y: Yes. Director Wang and I were guests on a Berlin radio program, and the host told us, "Whenever I've watched an Asian movie before, it was because your movies and ours are so completely different; but in watching this movie I felt that I fully understood the feelings of the main characters, and they were absolutely no different from us."
Becoming an International Actor
B: Since Wang Quan'an discovered you in a Beijing classroom, you have so far been his only leading lady. Is there some sort of tacit understanding between you that allows you to continue working together?
Y: I was really very lucky. I was still an undergraduate, and Wang Quan'an came to the Beijing Film Academy looking for an unknown actress for the lead in "Lunar Eclipse." As he told me afterwards, he entered the classroom and saw the teacher on the platform above the class, severely criticizing them, while nearly all the students had their heads down, looking very guilty. But there was this one girl sitting upright and glaring back at the teacher. So he summoned this girl, showed her the script, and asked if she was willing to work with him. I was that girl. (Laughs.)
B: But he hadn't made a film either at that time; how did you dare take the chance?
Y: Mainly it was that after making that initial contact, we realized we were both people who really liked movies, and while neither of us had made a film before, we strongly riveted our energies on making that first one. Fortunately, each of the three movies I've made with director Wang has been better than the one before, each more of an achievement, and this brings feelings of satisfaction and pleasure.
B: But the three films you've made together have not been exhibited in many theaters domestically, so you are probably relatively isolated among contemporary female stars.
Y: "Lunar Eclipse" was shown in art houses, but with very little scope. Because of the distribution method at that time, "The Story of Ermei" was sold to a TV station for copyright reasons, so while it did earn back its investment, there was no way of getting it into theaters. This time, "Tuya's Marriage" will definitely be in theaters, and may be seen here as soon as April.
I don't feel I'm isolated. I have a principle, namely that I basically will not do what I don't want to do. Everyone has their choices to make, for example I like to go to discos every weekend, because I very much like hip-hop, I really like that kind of music. I feel this is a very nice lifestyle. Actually, many people say that you work hard all your life until in the end you find some release from it all, but I really don't feel there is any hardship here. I hang out every day, and every year I make a movie. What's wrong with that?
B: You've made a Hollywood movie, "Diamond Dogs." Do you hope to expand into Hollywood in the future?
Y: Hollywood is a very exacting industry; some might say it is inflexible, but it is really effective. It makes very high demands of its actors, for example, the director might want your tears to flow in terror, and when he calls on you to do that at once, if it's not enough, or too much, then it's done over and over again until it's right and in this way the picture is finished very quickly. To make it in Hollywood requires that one's language, acting and image all be internationalized. Actually, I admire Gong Li so much, because she has been just extraordinary there, very accomplished, and I hope I can be like her. Because I don't want to sneak into Hollywood gingerly, furtively. I'm really someone who wants to be an international actor. And now, with Chinese and Asian culture influencing so many parts of the world, in things like traditional Chinese medicine, the cheongsam [qipao], and kungfu, opportunities for Chinese actors are increasing all the time.
