Shu Qi, whose background is in soft-porn films, told Apple Daily she would strip if a movie script called for it. But she said she turned down the role as her schedule was full.
Director Wayne Wang is helming Snow Flower And The Secret Fan, which Zhang is producing with China-born Wendi Deng, wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Malaysian-Chinese Florence Sloan, wife of MGM chairman Harry Sloan.
In the film based on a novel by Lisa See, a community of women with bound feet in remote Hunan, China, communicate in a secret Nu Shu language. Shu Qi was to play Snow Flower, who develops a lifelong friendship with Lily (Zhang). In their nude scene, they write on each other's chests in the Nu Shu script.
Shu Qi famously rejected a role in 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which later went to Zhang and made her famous.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
