Actor brings tragic author back to life in docudrama
Nov 10, 2007 04:30 AM
Brett Popplewell
Staff Reporter
Edmonton-born Olivia Cheng plays the role of deceased author Iris Chang in the docudrama Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking. Filmed on location in China and the United States, the movie explores the real-life experiences of Chang as she researched the “forgotten holocaust” for her 1997 bestseller, The Rape of Nanking.
A former journalist with the Edmonton Journal and ET Canada, Cheng talks of her experiences as a professional actor walking in the footsteps of the tragic literary figure.
Q. What attracted you to the film?
A. I read the book and, as a writer myself, I was so appreciative and was just incredulous that, as a Chinese-Canadian, how I could not have known about this chapter in my (people’s) history. I was so moved I hopped on the Internet and looked up Iris Chang because I wanted to send her a fan letter – and that’s when I found out she had died a year earlier at that point. And I was like, “What happened? How does someone go from really changing the course of history and creating a legacy that really affects so many people to parking her car on the side of the road and putting a gun to her head?”
I phoned a number in San Jose and tracked down Iris Chang’s widower and said, “I’m an actor based out of Vancouver. I was in journalism and I really want to know about your wife because I think I want to write a screenplay about her one day. Could you help me?”
After I talked to her widower, I realized I barely knew how to act. How could I write a screenplay about a person people actually knew? So I put it away and I gave myself 10 years to finally get this out there. Nine months later, my agent sent me a breakdown for a documentary getting ready to film called Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking, and I couldn’t believe it.
Q. What was it like working with people who knew Iris?
A. It was a pretty incredible experience because, to go to Nanking, following in the footsteps of the woman whose work inspired me to learn about this city and its history, was very surreal. Especially when they put me in costume and did my hair like Iris and I would walk up to these people who knew her and watch them trip out.
Q. She seemed to be haunted by the people and the images she wrote about in the book. Did you feel the same way?
A. No, I think it’s very different, because the work Iris put into that project doesn’t compare to what I’ve done. She put in two to three years of her life going through atrocity story after atrocity story, hitting wall after wall after wall. I was researching Iris rather than the holocaust.
Q. How would you describe the genre of this film?
A. This is basically a documentary with dramatic elements. If Iris Chang were still alive today this would have been a straight documentary. We have clips of the real Iris Chang in the movie. But they kind of bring me in to show the emotional narrative of what she might have been going through.
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Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking premieres Monday at 7 p.m. at the
Bloor Cinema. Tickets $12 at the box office.
http://www.thestar.com/article/274846
