Anita, the highly-anticipated biopic about iconic Cantopop diva Anita Mui, premiered on November 9 in Hongkong. While Anita’s close friend and stylist Eddie Lau was absent from the gala event, the 70-year-old did open up about their friendship in a rare interview.

The fashion designer reminisced about his time with Anita, recalling that he used to tell her off very harshly whenever he felt that she’d done something wrong.

Sometimes, Anita would even walk over to his house for dinner, where she would get scolded by Eddie. He described Anita as an “obedient student”, adding that she never talked back to him.

He also revealed that Anita was a very loyal friend, who would often lend money to friends in need.

However, there were too many people who would approach her for a loan, and Eddie said he would rebuke her for never saying no to them.

But Anita continued lending these friends money without telling Eddie.

“Of course I was very fierce to her. I told her ‘You started singing when you were four, and even though [you’re successful] now, you have to remember how tough it was when you were younger. You can’t just lend money to every friend who approaches you with a sob story about how their business isn’t doing well’. In the ‘80s, HK$1mil (S$173K) was not a small sum,” he said.

“I didn’t mean to be fierce to her, I just didn’t want people to take advantage of a good girl [like her]”, he said.

He went on to share that he was so ticked off by this issue that he ended up ignoring Anita for a while, but she eventually won him over again.

Eddie also features in the movie where he is played by Hongkong actor Louis Koo, 51.

“I only knew that Louis Koo was playing me when the movie started it's publicity cycle, said Eddie, who added that he watched the movie in Shenzhen, where he's based now. I don’t know him, and he doesn't know me either, so I cant act out his role, and he can’t act out my role either.”

However, this doesn’t mean that he’s dissatisfied with Louis’ performance. Eddie went on to say that this is just a character in a movie after all, and that as long as the actor is able to bring out the emotions of the character, it’s fine.

Eddie also joked that some parts of the movie weren’t exactly accurate.

“I didn’t cut out the design for the wedding dress [for Anita] by myself, and I don’t know how to nail beaded strips. With such a large factory, there would be workers doing it [instead],” he quipped.

When asked if there was anything he hopes to be able to say to Anita now, Eddie shared that there was one line in the movie that really touched him.

The line was said by Hongkong model-actress Louise Wong, 31, who plays Anita in the movie. Addressing Louis (or well, Eddie), she says: I hope that you’ll dote on me like this in our next lives too”.

Eddie explained why he was moved by this line, revealing that it’s not ‘cos he wants to reunite with Anita again.

“In this lifetime, we’ve already done everything that we wanted to do and we did it well. We’ve had this lifetime together, so there’s no need for the next. In this life, I’ve done right by you, and you’ve been good enough to me. There’s no need to meet again, we can’t meet again,” he said.

Anita started singing to support her family at the age of four, and was called the ‘Madonna of the East’. She announced that she had cervical cancer in 2003, and held a series of goodbye concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum during the same year. In her last show, she wore a wedding dress to symbolise her ‘marrying' the stage.

On Dec 30, 2003, Anita succumbed to her illness and passed away from respiratory complications that lead to lung failure. She was 40.

Photos: Eddie Lau/Instagram, Louise Wong/Instagram