Zhang Ziyi Upset with Robot Prosthetics Makeup

By addy December 22, 2017

The judges of Chinese reality talent show The Birth of an Actor <演员的诞生> never go soft with their criticism, especially when those judges are Zhang Ziyi (章子怡), Liu Ye (刘烨), and Song Dandan (宋丹丹). The show, which has been airing on Zhejiang TV since October 2017, follows a coach-based format, where coaches train and grade the performances of young actors.

With the professional minds of Zhang Ziyi, Liu Ye, and Song Dandan, every episode thus far have been filled with discourse and challenges. When Eva Huang (黄圣依) reenacted a scene from the 1996 Hong Kong television drama I Have a Date with Spring <我和春天有個約會>, Ziyi completely knocked down Eva’s chances with this one simple feedback: “This is the most embarrassing scene I’ve ever seen in history.”

To challenge the Hollywood film Ex Machina, Ziyi tackled the role of the robot Ava, played by Alica Vikander in the film. Ziyi spent nearly 8 hours on the makeup chair to prepare for the role, but in the end, the actress was still not satisfied with the quality of the prosthetics. “This isn’t good. I can’t make do with this.” Upon seeing the poor quality of the props, she said, “This is unfilm-able.”