Thursday September 10, 2009
Best of both worlds
By MICHAEL CHEANG
Joan Chen, who will be gracing the Sun Festival in Singapore next month, talks about her Asia-Hollywood experience.
THERE are only a handful of Asian actresses whose names are instantly recognisable in both Asia and Hollywood. Joan Chen is one of them.
The actress will be making an appearance in Singapore’s Sun Festival next month, where she will be the curator for the film segment of the festival, and highlighting eight of her all-time favourite films.
Rare breed: ‘I function perfectly and happily in Hollywood and in Asia,’ says Joan Chen. Inevitably, one of the films that she chose is Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, which won nine Academy Awards in 1987, including best picture and best director for Bertolucci.
Chen played the wife of Puyi, the last emperor (played by John Lone) and singled out The Last Emperor as the film that not only made her name and changed her life, but also inspired her to become a director.
“The Last Emperor was perhaps the best-made film I was ever in. It was exceptionally well-made, and I feel fortunate that I made that movie,” said Chen in a phone interview from San Francisco. “I can still picture it ... Bernardo talking in his walkie-talkie, walking me through the final scene in which I walk into the big hall, up a spiral of stairs to meet John (Lone)... I can still remember every detail of how it was put together.
“The experience was life changing for me. For the first time since I was 15, I was mesmerised by the process (of making a film) – the beauty, the romance and the chaos. It made me want to become a filmmaker.”
Chen, 49, began her career in Shanghai at age 14 in the film, Youth. When she was 19, she won best actress at China’s Hundred Flowers Awards for her role as the titular character in 1980’s Little Flower. The next year, Chen moved to California to study film, after which she began juggling a career that spanned both Hollywood and Asia.
She has since appeared in over 40 film and TV roles, including David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks and Oliver Stone’s Heaven And Earth. At the same time, she continued to make films in Asia, winning Best Actress Awards at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Critics Awards in 1994 for her role in the critically acclaimed Red Rose And White Rose; and most recently played a supporting role in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution.
Chen made her first foray behind the cameras in 1997, when she directed the critically acclaimed Mandarin movie, Xiu Xiu The Sent-down Girl. She followed that up with Autumn In New York starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder in 2000.
“I loved every minute of directing my two films, and I would love to do it again once I get the chance,” she said, adding that these days she is too busy taking care of her two young daughters.
“Acting is a little bit easier – it’s not as difficult as directing. I try to do it once a year just to keep my feet wet and to be on top of what is going on.”
Chen is a rare breed indeed – an Asian actress equally comfortable acting in Hollywood as well as in Asia. Although she has settled down in San Francisco, she still visits her parents in Shanghai, and to act as well. Anytime she gets tired of Hollywood, she has her Asian career to fall back on.
“I function perfectly and happily in Hollywood and in Asia. I went back to China recently to play roles that were just more interesting than those I got in Hollywood,” she said. “When I go back to Shanghai – I just fall back to Shanghainese. I work with people who knew me when I was 16, and talking to them in my mother tongue just feels really wonderful.”
One of those people she worked with in Asia recently was Ang Lee, another Asian who has made it good working in both Asia and Hollywood. Chen was involved in Lee’s controversial but critically-acclaimed Lust, Caution, playing a small but significant role as the wife of Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s character, the adulterous and treacherous Mr Yee.
“I’ve known him even before he made his first film, and I wish I had a bigger part in that film,” she mused. “I made three separate trips to Shanghai to film Lust, Caution, but every day I was there we had lunch together. It was amazing how little small talk we had – he is so immersed and focused in his work that not a second went by without him thinking about the film.”
While she has seen her fair share of stereotypical Asian roles in Hollywood, she brushed them off as an unavoidable situation.
“I think most roles for Asians are stereotypical not because they were done on purpose, but because there just aren’t enough screenplays written by Asians or people with an in depth understanding of who we are,” said Chen. “When I was younger I minded the stereotypical roles more, and was more critical about Hollywood portraying Asians in a stereotypical way. I even turned down a couple of the more cartoonish roles.”
On hindsight, she now reckons that it was unnecessary to turn them all down, because first and foremost, it was for entertainment.
“Of course there will always be stupid things they ask you to do, but this is not always about educating people about who you are. After all, there are very stereotypical roles of White Americans as well ... it’s just entertainment,” she explained.
Joan Chen will be attending the Sun Festival in Singapore from Oct 3 till 12. She will be involved in the film component of the festival, selecting and curating eight films depicting ‘The Art Of Living Well’, which is the theme of the Sun Festival. She will also be involved in an exclusive on-stage interview session called ‘In Conversation With Joan Chen’. For more information, visit singaporesunfestival.com.
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