Charlene Choi wore 8kg breast prosthetics in movie, told director she ‘doesn’t know how to continue living’ if they were real
During the costume fitting for the new Hong Kong movie The Goldfinger, director-scriptwriter Felix Chong felt that something was missing from singer-actress Charlene Choi, who plays Zhang Jiawen in the crime thriller opposite Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung’s Cheng Yiyan.
“Jiawen is quite a mature character, but Charlene still has a sense of innocence. We tried a lot of different styles for her during the fitting but still found something missing,” the 54-year-old said in a recent interview for the movie with local media.
Felix, together with Tony and executive producer Ronald Wong, were in Singapore on Dec 21 to promote the movie which also stars Andy Lau.
“I decided to put some weight on Charlene, so that her character doesn’t seem so buoyant. After all, Jiawen is someone who had been to jail before and I wanted her to be someone who is more serious,” he shared.
So Charlene, 41, wore a 7 to 8kg breast prosthetics during the filming of the movie.
Felix, who added that the prosthetics was actually used to enhance Charlene’s performance tactics rather than to be visually enticing, said: “I realised when we put some weight on her, the way she walked, her actions and tone of voice were different. When I edited the film later, I realised that every time before she sat down, she would take a deep breath.
“Charlene told me it was because the prosthetics was really very heavy. She said if she really has a figure like this, she doesn’t know how she could continue living.”
He added that the costume designer tried out different materials for the prosthetics before settling on one that is durable and form-fitting.
Charlene also had to make a “huge sacrifice”, as she had to start work three hours earlier than others to have the prosthetics fitted on and do her makeup.
Felix said: “Charlene’s aura [in portraying Jiawen] was magnified, so the enhancement really helped in her performance.”
Tony, 61, was also asked about Charlene’s prosthetics in a separate interview, where he agreed that props really helped in an actor’s performance.
He said: “Just like when I was shooting the movie 2046, I insisted on having a small moustache. As actors, sometimes we really need to have these things to help us get into our characters better. When I saw Charlene in the movie during the premiere, I felt that it was really quite exaggerating, but during filming, I actually didn’t realise it at all.”
When asked if he appreciates women with this figure, he admitted with a laugh: “I am actually quite scared!”
Set in the 1980s, The Goldfinger centres around the rise and fall of con-man Cheng Yiyan, who builds his own international conglomerate through a series of bold investments, messing with stock markets and involvement in corruption and fraud, leading to a 15-year cat-and-mouse chase with Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) principal investigator Liu Qiyuan (Andy) to uncover the truth.
The movie, which also stars Simon Yam, Alex Fong, Phillip Keung, Catherine Chau and Carlos Chan, opens here on Dec 30.
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