Back in 1999, when director Steven Spielberg first announced intentions to shoot Arthur Golden's controversial, best-selling novel of the same name, it was reported that he had planned to cast Hong Kong movie darling Maggie Cheung as Mameha. Tokyo-born, New York-based dancer Rika Okamoto was to play Nitta Sayuri. But the project kept getting postponed.

Six years later, the movie, produced by Spielberg, is finally seeing the light of day although under a new director (Rob Marshall of Chicago fame) and cast. Zhang plays Sayuri while her China compatriot Gong takes on the role of Hatsumomo and Malaysian Yeoh, Mameha. (Memoirs of a Geisha will hit Malaysian cinemas on January 19th.)

Little has been reported about Cheung's reaction to Yeoh eventually landing the role of Mameha. Yeoh, on the other hand, when asked during promotions for Memoirs about Cheung's withdrawal from the project, replied that the latter was too busy. Cheung, she added, was the first person to congratulate her when she got the role.

Cheung finally broke her silence in a recent interview with the Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao. The 41-year-old award-winning actress explained that these days she only accepts one movie project a year, as she wants to maintain the pleasure I get from acting.

I had to refuse several offers, most notably among them Memoirs of a Geisha, because I do not want to bungle Western movies. And I don’t want to return to my homeland and have people say that because of money I sold our culture. So when I pick my films, they have to be based on three criteria ?the director, the script, and who the male lead is.