Leung hearts run free

I was surprised when I won Best Actor in Cannes this year for In The Mood For Love. I lost out with Happy Together in 1997 when a lot of people said I would win, so this time I didn't expect anything. I'm never sure of my abilities because I always feel I can do better.

In the film I play Chow Mo-Wan, a newspaper editor from Hong Kong who begins a friendship with his neighbour Li-zhen (played by Maggie Cheung) after we both discover our partners are having an affair. My character is contradictory - he doesn't know why he gets close to Li-zhen. Mainly it's because he wants revenge on her husband.

I wanted the part because of the director, Wong Kar-Wai. I had worked with him on four films and like his way of making movies - with no script and improvising on set. Working this way helps you act by instinct, which is very freeing for an experienced actor. It took 15 months to shoot, and we had a lot of difficulties completing the film. We couldn't find outside locations that resembled Hong Kong during the Sixties. Kar-Wai had to go to hospital, because of too much pressure, while Maggie also got sick.

The film is set in the Sixties because Wong Kar-Wai has a great passion for that time. He moved to Hong Kong from China during that era, and it was an important time for him. I also have a good memory of my childhood there during that period ? before Hong Kong became an important financial centre and the economy took off we, like my character, lived in small, shared apartments where we never closed our doors to the neighbours.