Lucy Liu on Her More Than Three Decades in Hollywood

Even after over 30 years in front of the camera, actor Lucy Liu shared that she was scared no one would attend her fireside chat with Daniel Dae Kim, hosted at the Sunrise House during the 40th Sundance Film Festival. But she showed up to a packed house hosted by the Sunrise Collective, the line of people barred entry wrapping down the block. Starring in a psychological thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh, Liu graced the Sundance Film Festival crowd with her wisdom and honesty while chatting about the film, her approach to acting, and more.

Not that she needs an introduction, but Liu is known for her roles in the Charlie’s Angels films, “Kill Bill Vol. 1,” CBS’s Sherlock Holmes television series “Elementary,” and for directing an episode of Disney+’s “American Born Chinese.”

Lucy Liu: Actor, Director, Humanitarian, and a Person in Progress

In the no-holds-bar conversation, she reflected about being a child just shy of 5 who didn’t speak English when starting school. “I felt like I was always behind. I was missing the communication, which is such an important thing to connect [with].”

The shyness and introversion is something that Liu holds even as an adult, admitting that for public outings and community events, she really has to “pump herself up because it is so scary.” She shares that the push from the desire to connect and the pull of her introversion allows the entertainment industry to be a form of escapism, and that for her, she measures change in increments rather than dramatic transformations.

Calling herself “a person in progress,” Liu said “the quietest voice is the one that we need to listen to.” When you are starting out on a new project or a train of thought, she says, it is like discovery, but then at some point, it feels like you are back to square one, which can be a neutral space, and then you move forward again. 

Kim noted that Liu’s progression from actor to humanitarian to director has “defied restriction,” and asked if she saw herself in a specific light, particularly as an Asian American.

“When you use a word, there’s a definition for it, but is it applicable all the time? I don’t know. I think when you define something, [it] becomes too specific. It’s sort of saying, like, ‘Oh, what is your intention?’ I think when you have an intention, it’s too specific. It doesn’t allow for other things to happen because you’re just myopic about it,” the actress explained. “And then you know, other things are showing themselves to you, the quieter things, and you’re not listening, because you’re so set, dead set on what that other thing is.”

Five Lessons for Acting and Life

Transitioning from being in front of the camera to now sharing space behind the camera, the Hollywood veteran shared many tidbits of wisdom with the Sundance audience. Here are five highlights from Liu’s chat. 

1. Suspend certainty to allow for more fluidity.

With over a hundred credits to her name, Liu carries the philosophy of nonspecificity into her craft. She shared that in lieu of specificity, she considered the details involved, likening her acting skills to a toolbox, where a hammer can have many different uses. 

“It’s a Dallas philosophy of the meaning of names. If you don’t give something a name, or if you take that name away, it doesn’t lose its identification, but you gain so much more space,” she described to Kim. “Your name is not Daniel, so then I don’t know when I come in who you are, what gender you are, [etc.]. This is a chair. This is a shoe. When you come in, it is going to be what it is and you can come in with such an open mind. There’s an infinite amount of energy that you can create. When you come in, you can define it as you’re going — as you’re in the space, as we’re in this conversation. But if I come in knowing the questions, knowing the answers, there’s nothing there for anyone.”

2. Be present and make decisions based not on creating a past but building a future.

When asked to reflect on her past work as an actor, Liu honestly shared that she doesn’t remember being in the roles that made her famous. She recognizes that today, she is a different person, ever evolving, and more seasoned as time has gone on. 

“I think it’s so important to be present in the space and what you’re doing and it sounds a little hippy-dippy,” she told the audience. “A lot of people will remember that time and I don’t know what’s happening to my brain, but really, it’s because I’m so in that thing that I don’t remember it later, because now I’m in this thing, and I don’t know what that means for my future.”

She notes that this perspective is not about not appreciating the work but seeing it as more of a photo album, with hers being filled with the memories and experiences of being on set with a cast and crew and joking about someone who ripped their pants. Moments like that never make their way to the screen but are etched in Liu’s memory. 

3. You might not fit the part, but not for the reasons you think.

Any role in life can be limiting. Even acting and taking on different personas can become just a job. Liu admitted that she once was so afraid to get married and to feel like there was no room to change. “What if I wake up and I’m looking at you, and I’m, like, I’m done. I don’t love you,” she shared.

The relationships we have to one another — parent to child, wife to husband, sister to sibling, employee to employer — can feel one-dimensional and grow tiring. The dynamic is a unique kind of isolation and rejection that Liu likens to casting. 

“What we’re doing is you see so many people when they’re auditioning, and there’s so many talented people,” she explained. “Some of them are just too tall. Some of them are just too good-looking. Some of them are going to look better than the lead.

“And it’s not fair. Because I’m always, like, ‘Please tell them how great they were. It has nothing to do [with them personally], like they’re just too tall. The lead isn’t that tall, or whatever it is. Those things are helpful to know. It puts you at rest and it’s like, that is you — you cannot change that.” 

When you know there are aspects of your life that you cannot change, even if you have done everything you can, you can at least leave with satisfaction. Liu notes that rejection can eat away at oneself, but enduring and understanding why can help increase an ability to empathize and express oneself, whether it is about not getting your dream role or job to reconsidering a long-term relationship. 

4. Personal and character transformation is more realistic inch by inch rather than mile by mile.

“As a human being, you don’t need to have such a 180-degree change; you just need an eighth of an inch. You just need to move a little bit, and then the world looks a little bit different,” the actor shared. 

Most main characters in films, TV shows, and books undergo a complete transformation, but it is simply not realistic to think a person will change dramatically in a day or a year or a lifetime.  

“People often think I need to do this diet, I need to completely stop dairy, caffeine, wheat, whatever people think. It’s not the case,” Liu told Kim. “When you try [to] rip off the skin too quickly, you’re going to be exposed and even air is gonna burn like acid. So you have to be gentle with yourself.”

5. Know your lines!

Like a true Asian American, Liu shared that she works really hard to not let anyone on set down because she is just not that kind of person. But that she’s “been on sets where people don’t come out of their trailers and they don’t know their lines.”

For the actors she works with, she expects them to be ready with their lines. As a director, she shared, “The rest of it is my job to make it easy for them.”

She admitted that she learns a lot from people who are not brilliant and are terrible, especially those who are not professional or organized. It’s sometimes easier to learn what not to do when you are treated that way. 

Our parents would probably agree with this sentiment from Liu: “I always leave the place nicer than I came in. It’s just as a form of respect with the person who’s going to be coming in and cleaning. […] You can’t expect the best from yourself if you’re not willing to give it to others.”

Photos by Christine Chang.