MALAYSIAN actress Michelle Yeoh has never been keen on sexy roles, she told reporters at the Reign Of Assassins press conference last Friday.
That's despite the fact that much has been made of her svelte figure.
And, although her figure remains slender at age 48, she will never lean towards sexy scenes, she said.
"I don't think I need to add those to my resume," she joked. Indeed, Yeoh has made her name as a skilled stuntwoman.
Doing her own stunts - she performed 95 per cent of the stunts audiences will see her doing in Reign - still gives her "a very magical feeling", she said.
In fact, her gongfu moves have only improved with age, she said.
"When I was young, I didn't really know how to look after my body, nor did I have the staying power. Now I do," she said, adding that age has given her more experience, and has taught her to perform gongfu moves with more subtlety.
In Reign, Yeoh plays assassin Zeng Jing, who undergoes facial surgery for a new identity. The role required her to do many fighting scenes that involved a wire harness.
But her reputation precedes her - the movie's action director would goad his team with her fighting prowess.
"It was very challenging," the actress, who is engaged to French-born Jean Todt (president of the International Automobile Federation, the governing body for many car racing events), said with a laugh.
"Every time I stepped onto the set, (action director) Stephen Tung would tell his team of 20-year-old stunt people, 'You know, Michelle can do these (stunts)'."
However, the former beauty queen - who has starred in Hong Kong productions like In The Line Of Duty (1986) and Supercop (1992), as well as Hollywood ventures like Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005) - sees herself slowly growing out of her wuxia (Chinese martial-arts) roles.
She pointed out that her last wuxia role was in Lee Ang's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where she played the master warrior Yu Shu Lien. That was 10 years ago.
But, when asked if she thinks she will actively decline appearing in wuxia movies, she hedged.
She said: "I don't think about the time when I say 'no more martial-arts films for me'.
"When the time comes, it comes. It will come gradually. Right now, I'm having a great time."
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