The past has come to haunt Tony Leung, 60, and Zhou Xun, 47.
The Chinese actress was recently announced the female lead of the new World War 2 film Anonymous, starring opposite Hong Kong leading man Tony Leung.
However, Chinese showbiz media didn’t just note that this is their first collaboration in six years. Old rumours of their alleged affair 10 years ago were also revived.
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In 2012, following the duo’s performances in The Great Magician (2011) and The Silent War (2012), rumours began that Tony and Zhou Xun were in an affair. He was at the time married to Hong Kong actress Carina Lau, now 56.
In an interview with Taiwan’s United Daily News that year, Zhou Xun gave a non-response when queried about their relationship, laughingly saying: “Is there such a thing? I heard that people wished I was in a relationship with (Taiwanese singer-actress) Mavis Fan.”
Tony and Zhou Xun were apparently so close that in 2013, he reportedly invited her to celebrate his 51st birthday together when his wife was away. However, their plans were scrambled when Carina allegedly caught wind of this and returned to Hong Kong.
Later that year, Carina wrote on her Weibo: “Jealousy of others will not benefit oneself, nor will it reduce the achievements of others.”
To make matters more complicated, Zhou Xun was also rumoured to be dating Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse then.
According to Taiwanese media, Zhou Xun and Nicholas, 41, became lovers in Beijing in 2011, although both quickly denied these claims.
Speaking to the media during an event for Overheard 3 in 2013, Zhou Xun calmly faced questions of her relationship with Nicholas and Tony.
“I knew that these questions would definitely be asked,” she said. “The truth is that [my response] can be summed up in two sentences.
“I am in Hong Kong not for Tony Leung, but to promote the new film. I will leave Hong Kong tomorrow, not to escape the scandal with Nicholas Tse, but to prepare for the next TV series.”
The rumours were quashed when she married Hollywood actor Archie Kao, now 52, in 2014. The couple, however, broke up in 2020.
Anonymous, now in post-production stage, is a spy film set in the World War 2 period and follows Chinese spies as they send intelligence to China.
Tony and Zhou Xun last acted together in Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait in 2016, a movie about men and women going deep into a forest to enjoy a few days of anonymity among themselves.
This article was first published on AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.
