WHEN Lucy Liu was nine years old she experienced a life-changing moment in a two-dollar shop. “I was with my mother and she was asking somebody a question who worked there. And he was very condescending and rude to my mother because she had a very strong accent,” Liu says. “And I remember being really angry — and as a child you don’t ever speak up — thinking, ‘My mother knows how to speak two languages and you only know how to speak one’.
“I remember I was angry and wanting to stand up for her and being so frustrated because I wanted them to see. She’s a biochemist. Yeah, she’s asking where the toothpaste is, and perhaps it’s not as clear as you’d like it to be but there was a certain respect that was missing that really angered me. So I stand up for things that I find are injustices.”
One of the leads in Darren Star’s new female-driven series Cashmere Mafia Liu is also a painter with a gallery showing in Munich in May, and is a devoted worker for UNICEF. Determination and industry is part of her heritage. She stood up to her parents when they objected to her being an actress, agreeing to earn her bachelor’s degree first.
“I think, in some ways, because I was not able to pursue acting until after I graduated college, it kind of made me bullet-proof to any rejection,” Liu says. “Because it didn’t matter … I didn’t know anyone in the business, didn’t know how to start. I just sort of went with completely innocent eyes, and I felt like I didn’t know what was out there. If I had known there were all these people that were going to be judging me … I had no idea. That naivete, I think, really helped to keep me going because the more you know the worse it is, honestly.”
Some of that resolve is apparent in her role as Mia Mason in Cashmere Mafia. Liu plays a no-nonsense publisher who’s no more willing to compromise than Liu is.
It wasn’t easy to maintain that principle when she began. Another Asian actor warned her that her roles would be limited.
“And I remember saying to myself, ‘That’s fine but I’m going to make a difference. I’m going to change that. I’m going to be a part of that change, for sure. You can’t just go along with everything that’s out there. I’m sure they thought that Einstein and Thomas Edison were crazy. Nothing comes easy; especially when you’re focused on something, people think you’re insane. But you can’t accomplish anything without having that focus, that belief … I didn’t know any better and I didn’t care. I felt if I wasn’t acting there was no point in living, it was that extreme.”
http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv–radio/btvb-lucy-liu-reflects-on-her-journey-to-icashmere-mafiai/2008/01/23/1201024972226.html
