Chinese actress Yang Zi opens up about friendship, turning 30, her latest drama, Psychologist, and seeking weightier roles
- Yang Zi made her name as a child actress in China in the Home With Kids films, and moved into TV dramas, where she played young women looking for romance
- With her latest role, as the cool-headed He Dun in Psychologist, broadcast on Youku, she is stepping out of her comfort zone
Popular Chinese actress Yang Zi has won legions of fans playing beautiful and adorable ingénues in search of romantic love in TV dramas. But that is about to change – the 29-year-old plans to get out of her comfort zone and take on more serious roles.
“The roles I have played are always younger women with a lovely personality. I have never deliberately chosen these roles. [They are] just the scripts that I like and that I believe I can handle,” she tells the Post.
For her latest TV drama, Psychologist, which has been airing on Youku in China since November, she shed the girl-next-door image to portray a highly intelligent, cool-headed psychologist with a past.
“The role of He Dun is completely different from what I played in the past and I was quite worried whether the audience would accept this change,” Yang says, admitting to checking popular film and TV review site Douban, China’s equivalent of Rotten Tomatoes, to see how the show was received.
“Some say we are good. I try to find out why some people don’t like it … Their analyses and views are actually very good,” the actress says.
