Keep it real, says Zhou

Actress Zhou Xun doesn't need a sex-pheromone patch to attract men. Unlike the nerdy scientist she played in All About Women, Tsui Hark's latest romantic comedy, she said that being herself was the best way to make genuine friends.

'I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not,' said Zhou (right).

'I wasn't a people person - the easygoing type - at first. I can be very emotional and spontaneous sometimes.

'I think I was born like this, but it's been growing in me since my acting career started and I have to switch between different characters. My genuine friends always let me be myself.'

Zhou was in town recently for the film's Hong Kong premiere along with co-stars Kwai Lun-mei and Kitty Zhang Yuyi. The comedy centres on how a newly developed sex-pheromone patch changes the love lives of three different women.

Zhou claimed the best actress awards at both the Hong Kong Film Awards and Taiwan's Golden Horse prizefest for her performance in Perhaps Love, directed by Peter Chan Ho-sun in 2005. The martial-arts fantasy film Painted Skin, in which she co-starred, has been chosen from 40 films to represent Hong Kong in the foreign-language film category at next year's Academy Awards.