Gong Li's designs on the King

The story is set in the third century BC and I play Lady Zhao, the childhood lover of the ambitious King Of Qin, who hopes to unify all of China and become its first emperor. I orchestrate a fake assassination plot to persuade him to invade a neighbouring land that is preventing unification.

This was my third collaboration with director Chen Kaige, after Temptress Moon and Farewell My Concubine. We did a lot of preparation before the shooting started. It was like going to school from eight in the morning - everybody was present to discuss the characters, because you are going to deal with lots of different people. Then we had discussions and questions during the meetings. For The Emperor And The Assassin this session lasted longer than a month.

The production days were very long. You need to be on set three hours in advance, to do your hair, and you have to wear those costumes for more than ten hours. But because I have played in many movies like that, it doesn't really affect me. In China, period dramas are less troublesome than contemporary subjects. The censor is less likely to demand changes.

Chen Kaige... now that he's going to the States to make a movie, maybe it is a new direction for him. As for myself, I don't know how it will be. I look to play characters which I've never played before and look for more challenging characters. As a good artist, you shouldn't repeat yourself. Repetition means limitation, and art should have no limit.