Actress Carina Lau has bared all in an interview with Hong Kong novelist Eunice Lam.

For the first time in 18 years, she spoke about her traumatic experience in April 1990. She was kidnapped by triad members and photographed naked after she refused to act in a movie the triad was involved in.

Pictures taken during the incident were leaked in 2002 and one was published on the cover of a magazine, causing a sensation in Hong Kong’s showbiz scene.

In the interview, Lau revealed she was kidnapped as she was driving to actor Michael Miu Kiu Wai’s house at around 3 a.m. on April 25, 1990.

"A triad leader wanted me to act in a film. I refused, so they punished me," she said. "On my way to Miu’s house, they bundled me into a car and blindfolded me. I was very scared that they will kill me and leave my body in a remote area. I kept chanting ‘Namo Guanshiyin Pusa’ (a Buddhist prayer).

"Before that, I had already received threatening phone calls... I was so scared I did not even dare to close my eyes when shampooing my hair."

Reports later said she was assaulted, and there were rumours she was raped. East Week magazine, which printed a cover picture of her half-naked, was forced to fold after outraged protests from the showbiz community.

Lam said Lau was "easygoing, open-minded and confident," during the interview.

Asked why Lau decided to spill the beans to her, Lam, a socialite, said, "It was trust."

In the interview, Lau said she does not hate the four men who abducted her. "They did not assault me. They were only following orders. In my heart, I am grateful to them."

She said as their car tailed hers, she sped into the carpark and crashed the barrier. She was then nabbed.

She said her boyfriend, actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai, supported her through the crisis.

When she was released two hours later to Miu’s house, "Tony did not say a thing, he simply hugged me and asked, ‘Are you OK?’"

Leung later found out who ordered the kidnapping, but Lau still ended up shooting the film for free for her abductors.

Hong Kong triads were a powerful presence in the territory’s show business in the 1990s, with reports of an A-list actor being forced at gunpoint to act in a movie, and another actress being made to go nude in a film.

Talk had it then that Lau was offered a role in 1987 by a triad leader from Holland, Cai Ziming. Cai was shot dead in 1992 by a gunman in Hong Kong.

Lau said in the interview that she fell in love with Leung after meeting him while working together on a stage show.

They are planning to marry soon, after 19 years together.