Director To not so scary, says Gao

Johnnie To Kei-fung is known as a demanding filmmaker, but mainland actress Gao Yuanyuan says her first collaboration with him wasn't that daunting.

Gao (right, with To) appears in Don't Go Breaking My Heart, a romcom directed by To and Wai Ka-fai, which recently wrapped up filming in Suzhou, Jiangsu.

'People keep asking if he is a harsh person. He may have been tense on set sometimes, but that's because he was worrying about the filming,' Gao said at a press event for the Fresh Wave 2010 International Short Film Festival.

Gao plays an office worker caught in a love triangle with two men played by Louis Koo Tin-lok and Daniel Wu Yin-cho.

Gao, 30, discovered the playful side of To while working on Don't Go Breaking My Heart. 'We were kind of intimidated by his reputation. In fact, he is a very funny person. Sometimes, he would play jokes with the crew. Sometimes, he was like a child, distracted by things that appealed to him,' she said.