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Katie Leung recently spoke to The Telegraph about how much she enjoys acting on stage. She is currently acting in ‘Wild Swans’ as Jung Chang.
“I love theatre,” effuses Leung, as we huddle in a café on London’s grimy Holloway Road, near where she’s rehearsing. “It’s far more satisfying than film. Sometimes there’s a collective sigh from the audience, or it’s so quiet you can hear a pin drop. I couldn’t believe how easy acting was when there’s an audience; after a few previews I almost couldn’t do it without one.”
And has Wild Swans made Leung, who grew up in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, feel more in touch with her Chinese heritage? “Wild Swans showed me there are Chinese traditions that still affect my life,” she says. “For example, it’s not that women are inferior, exactly, but my dad and my brother are the most important men in my life and I would do anything for them. I feel like I should be the one cooking and looking after them.” And that’s a culturally inherited attitude? “Yes.”
She also talks about her role in Potter and how many of the roles she tries out for are similar, but her part in Wild Swans is different, a stronger character.
“Potter was such a safe environment,” she says. “You knew the next film would be round the corner and you would just go back to it. But afterwards I started to wonder if I was picked because I fitted the role physically; and was concerned that the character I played for the film wasn’t particularly difficult.”
She worries also about being typecast. “In general, the auditions I go up for are very sparse, I guess because of my ethnicity. And the characters are very similar: shy, innocent and naive; the connotations that come from the way that I look.”
Filed Under: Katie Leung |
