Jing Tian effusive in praise of director Zhang Yimou

BEIJING: Actress Jing Tian, who portrays a military leader in Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall, has been effusive in her praise of the award-winning director. On how she got a role in the movie, Jing recalled: “I first heard about the role through my management team and was unbelievably excited about the opportunity to play Lin Mae. I found both the character and story incredibly compelling. Also, working with Zhang Yimou may have been the best part of it all. He served as a teacher and director to me, and because of that, I was able to learn so much from him.” In the movie, Jing commands the Crane Corps, and gets involved with the “bungee jumping” style of fighting. As to how she managed to do the challenging scenes, Jing said: “The scenes where I had to take leaps off the wall were one of the most challenging parts of the film. Director Zhang Yimou was very particular about how he wanted the jumps to look, as it needed to be the right mix of gracefulness and power. I think my dance background helped a lot with this. The movements we did while moving through the air were very similar to dancing, which allowed me to feel a lot more comfortable performing the stunts.”

Jing is particularly pleased that her role was an inspiration to young women and girls.

Said Jing: “I think most of it was in the original script, but it was also my focus in playing the role. Women typically play the damsel in distress role in these films, which makes Lin Mae so unique. I found it so refreshing that in a movie full of strong male heroes, one of the most determined and powerful characters is a woman. As a general, she’s a great inspiration to women by showing that there is nothing that we can’t do.”