Hong Kong star Deanie Ip adds another best actress award to her stash, but is enjoying her modest lifestyle and in no rush to star in another movie
Actress and singer Deanie Ip joined the ranks of Katharine Hepburn and Sophia Loren this year, winning the Volpi Cup for best actress at the 68th Venice Film Festival for her performance in Ann Hui’s A Simple Life, as Ah Tao, an elderly amah who has served one family for four generations. The movie will hit Hong Kong theatres in March.
Ip, whom the Chinese-language press in Hong Kong calls “sister Deanie”, has previously won best supporting actress gongs, twice at the Hong Kong Film Awards for My Name Ain’t Suzie and Dances with Dragon, and twice at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival for Cream Soda and Milk and Crying Heart.
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Unlike other excellent actors and actresses, however, Ip works brilliantly but scarcely - A Simple Life was Ip’s first movie in 10 years because she is highly selective about her projects.
A Hong Kong native, Ip entered show business after working as a modest ticketing agent for an airline. She knew acting was her vocation the first time she heard applause from an audience.
Ip arrives at the Caprice Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong, head to toe in black and radiates a youthful vitality. Her manner is direct, her posture perfect and she punctuates every other sentence with an infectious laugh. It’s hard to believe the award-winning actress is 63 when she could easily pass for 40.But Ip is modest about her recent win. “I myself am an old woman,” she says when asked how she prepared for the role of Ah Tao. “I didn’t actually need to do that much research. I just got lucky, that’s all. I just got lucky that I got this award.”
During her career, many things have changed in the Hong Kong film industry - shoots are now completed in weeks, not months as in the past. And she’s changed too. She said her stamina has declined as she ages, “Working on films is really, really tough. Especially when you have to work 16 hours a day, or sometimes 20. To me, now, it’s very difficult. Back in the old days, when I was younger, I didn’t mind working continuously for seven days. But now, no.”
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Ip clearly possesses a keen self-awareness. She sees herself as “a simple person” and
on the subject of her looks she is again modest, suggesting a simplistic approach is key, “I just wash my hair in the morning and use my fingers as a comb, and just go out.”
Ip maintains her health with a regimen of walking and hatha yoga. “Fast walking is the best sport, I think, for my age,” she says. Her favourite hiking spot is the Tai Tam Reservoir area, while she also enjoys a brisk jaunt from the Tsim Sha Tsui ferry terminal to the Hong Kong Coliseum and back.
With all her success, Ip maintains composed and patient. She has no immediate plans to release a new Cantopop album, no television or film commitments – and no intention of retiring soon.
As the interview draws to a close Ip shows no signs of tiring. She disappears with her styling team to prepare for the photo shoot. When she arrives on set, looking every bit the glamorous movie star, her energy level is even higher than before. She laughs and poses expertly, subtly changing her expression for every shot.