Wang Luodan sits quietly in the corner of a Beijing restaurant, playing with a pink stuffed toy. "My eyes are smaller than those of the toy but my dark eye circles are bigger than hers," she jokes as she prepares for our interview.
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Wang Luodan says she learned much about communication from her silent movie role.
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Wang's new movie, Twilight Dancing, had its splashy premiere at the 13th Pusan International Film Festival, and the actress did a red-carpet walk just a few days ago in a bright pink dress with a big black Chinese knot in the front.
But for the interview, she's dressed in a plain shirt and deep green skirt, and is eager to share her experiences at Pusan.
"Chinese films are really huge," she says. "When I stood outside the main venue, I saw lots of Chinese film posters hanging on the buildings and felt like I was in some city of China. Only when I entered the building did it hit me that I was in a foreign country because no one spoke Chinese."
Her warm smile is the same that made her the idol of countless boys and girls when it first flashed across the screen in the 2007 TV series Starting from Scratch. She portrayed a girl called Mi Lai from a rich family who is always chasing love but keeps an optimistic outlook on life.
"People think of me as a sweet little ingenue," she says. "But I am actually rebellious by nature.
"Those were the roles I played but now that I am an actress, people shouldn't be surprised if I branch out to do something else."
The 24-year-old finds herself typecast as the girl-next-door and is actively seeking edgier roles. Her pickiness with scripts has made her a rare young star who does not regularly appear in newspapers and magazines. Not until the recent Pusan International Film Festival, that is. "Obviously, this is different," she says.
Now she is promoting directors Tian Gao and Joshun Tong's Twilight Dancing, an edgy, experimental indie that has no conversation. Wearing a long wig and a loose-fitting white cotton blouse, Wang portrays Mei Mei, a girl who is associated with two men owing to an accident.
Since its debut at the Pusan International Film Festival, the movie has earned the actress positive reviews surpassing those for her previous work. During interviews at Pusan, audiences frequently questioned Wang about the role and the story.
