Recruited as an advertising model while still at high school, Gao Yuanyuan made her movie debut in Spicy Love Soup (1997) before graduating from university. The actress later appeared in several mainland drama series before starring in Shanghai Dreams, which won the Jury Prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and raised her international profile. Her performance in City of Life and Death (2009), director Lu Chuan's award-winning film about the Nanking massacre, further boosted her popularity on the mainland.
In Johnnie To Kei-fung's recently released romantic comedy, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Gao, 31, plays a Shanghai analyst working in Hong Kong who falls for a womanising business whiz (Louis Koo Tin-lok) but later gets into a love triangle with an architect (Daniel Wu).
Don't Go Breaking My Heart is your first leading role in a Hong Kong movie. How was it?
It's a new chapter for me as an actress. I've never played in a romantic comedy before. Most of the movies I made were more serious, so this opens a few doors.
I'm lucky to work with director To and two great Hong Kong actors. It's a very good start. Although I worked with Koo in Rob-B-Hood, we barely spoke one word to each other in that movie and didn't get to know each other after filming was over. Collaborating on this production, I feel more familiar with him.
Were there any memorable experiences when making the movie?