January 16, 2021
The Chinese actress has been slammed for playing a 15-year-old girl in a Chinese period drama series when she was 38 years old.
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Emma Thompson did it in Ang Lee’s 1995 screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility
, as did Dustin Hoffman in the movie classic
The Graduate in 1967. Actors taking on roles that are much younger than their real age – Thompson played a 19-year-old when she was 35 and Hoffman a college student at 30 – is nothing new.
But when Zhang Ziyi attempted such a feat recently, the Chinese superstar received a torrent of criticism from audience and critics alike.
Zhang Ziyi follows Jackie Chan, Tom Cruise in playing a character much younger than she is, but fans and critics are not impressed
Zhang’s performance in Monarch Industry, the most-watched TV series in China, was panned as unconvincing and embarrassing, but other stars regularly act young
‘I know I am turning 42 … I have tried my best …,’ the actress wrote in response to critics of her portrayal of a character who is 15 when the series begins