Interview with Lucy Liu
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Lucy Liu
Actor, director and producer from Queens, New York, known for Ally McBeal, Charlie's Angels, Kill Bill and Elementary, and the lead and producer of Rosemead.
Source: SAG-AFTRA Foundation on YouTube
These answers are taken from Lucy Liu Career Retrospective | Conversations at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation on SAG-AFTRA Foundation's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with acting?
Somebody on the train gave me their business card. He said, "I think you have a good, interesting look. Give me a call if you're interested in acting." And I thought, "Oh my god, is this real?" Having grown up in this Asian family, you're not supposed to trust anything. So I remember calling the Better Business Bureau in the Yellow Pages. Literally the Yellow Pages. And he was a manager, in fact.
Then he sent me out for a few things, and one of them was a school commercial, and I got it. It was good improv. You'd go in there and improv, and I got the job. They actually offered me to get a SAG card then, but I could not afford it. I really couldn't. Years later the price went up exponentially for the membership, and I was like, "Oh my god, I should have got it then." But what could I have done? That was really my first gig. And then I went to college, and after that I just pursued acting.
When did you start acting?
When I graduated college, I just made the decision that this is my only life and I'm going to do it and nobody's going to stop me.
I auditioned for Miss Saigon. By the way, I don't sing. There were so few auditions. I saw it in a paper. At that point you would circle it in the paper and then you just show up, and you stand in line. I went up there, the bright lights, couldn't really see anybody behind the desk, and just sang something from A Chorus Line. I'm sure they were like, "Oh my god, what is going on here?" But I was like, "What have I got to lose? I don't have a job. The worst is rejection. I'm pretty used to that. So let's just do it."
I auditioned for and screen tested for a lot of soap operas, because that was a really big thing back then, and I didn't get any of them. Then one of the agents said, "Why don't you just go to LA?" I was still in my early 20s, and I said, "Okay, great. I'll go to LA."
What attracted you to begin a career as an actor?
I remember sitting in front of the TV when I wasn't supposed to be. We weren't allowed to watch. I remember watching Get Smart and I Dream of Jeannie and The Brady Bunch, and just really wanting that life. I wanted to have Alice as my housekeeper. I wanted a genie to come out. I just thought that was so fancy. And then when you went into the bottle, it was this pink, plush thing. And all of those things in Get Smart, the cone of silence, I wanted all those things.
I just thought, "Wow, what if I could just magically be in that television set?" It was a way of escaping, and I knew very young that this is what I wanted to do. But there was no way to even bring that up to my parents. How could I even explain that to them when I was trying to translate what the school forms were?
What do you enjoy most about acting?
I think that this business that we're in is magical, and I always remember that. Every single day I cannot believe that I am where I am. There's not a day that I don't love what I do. And if I ever feel that way, I might pivot and do something different.
It's that nomadic life and that kind of pretend world that you get to fall into. And then you meet so many wonderful people. You get to play. And I don't think that's something I got to do when I was a child. So this is the time for me to be a child again. I say that because it has given me so much life and energy, and that's why I have so much gratitude for what I do, because it's giving me a second chance. It's so much fun.
What was a great moment for you as an actor?
Often you go in and you hope for feedback so you can be better for the next audition. I went in and heard, "He really liked you. They're not going to go that way, but he'll write something for you in the future." My shoulders were slumped. I was feeling so defeated, because I'd heard that a lot and it never came true. And that was the first time it actually followed through. Later, they wrote the role.
And I almost didn't take it. I almost did theater instead, because I thought, "I'm going to do theater for three months for $100," and you want me to work on this show for eight days? My manager, Mary Ellen, who was my agent at the time and I'm with her 30-plus years later, said, "You're going to do this, and you're not going to do the regional theater gig, and you will not turn back. Trust me." My entire career is based on her intuition.
On Ally McBeal, it wasn't a real gig until after eight episodes, when David Kelley asked me to become a regular.
How did your acting career unfold?
I told my father that I was going to go to LA, and he was like, "You're never going to make it." And I was like, "Great. Got it." And then booked my plane ticket and just never looked back.
My first gig was catering. I was doing breakfast catering for a commercial. I did some extra work. And then I got an under five for Beverly Hills, 90210. I didn't even know what under five meant, and then I realized, "Oh, it's under five lines." And then I just started doing episodic work for television.
The first regular role was on Pearl, which is Rhea Perlman's show. It was about her going back to college, and I was one of the college students. It was my first understanding of what it was to have a regular job, and to show up in front of a live audience. We would record and they would rewrite it. James Burrows was the director, who is a legend. I learned so much from her and her family and that whole family of people.
But I also worked really hard outside of the auditions, which I got very rarely. I worked as a hostess. I was selling t-shirts on the street. I was catering.
What advice do you have for new actors?
I think it's important when you go into an audition to have memorized the whole thing, regardless of how long it is. And also have the paper in your hand. Don't just be like, "I memorized it, I'm good." Have it in your hand as a safety net, just in case, and you don't have to be perfect. If you start something and it's not the way it's going, just say, "I'm going to start over." You work so hard and you deserve to have it really be heard and seen the way you want it to be seen. Everyone comes out the gate stumbling sometimes, so don't judge yourself. Don't criticize yourself.
And don't wait for anyone. Somebody came up to Steven Soderbergh at Sundance and said, "I want to be a director." And he was like, "Do you have a phone? Then you go." You can create your own movies from a phone. Create the canvas yourself so that there is no bottom. Let the bottom be the canvas. When I started, there were very few auditions, but I wasn't waiting around. I was doing something constantly, and that's our job. Don't wait for the phone to ring.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as an actor?
Rosemead is really the first time I've been able to lead in any project. So it was just an honor to have that be the first thing that I'm leading in, as well as something that's close to my heart: a family and the love between a family, and what can happen when you're marginalized or you lack advocacy.
These are people that I know. They're in my family, they're my aunties, they're people that I've grown up with, and I really understand them from a very deep level. They're beautiful people that may not speak fluent English, but they just have hearts of gold, and they deserve to have their story not left behind.
I think it was hard to tell Asian stories 20 years ago, and I still think it's hard to tell Asian stories today. That's going to be a bit of an uphill climb, but I'm definitely not giving up. We've put it on the map now, and the greatest pride that I can have is this movie. Out of all the movies I've done, this is my most cherished one.
Have you progressed in your acting career as you have expected?
I don't think that in my career I've ever been able to relax. I feel like it's just been this constant fight. I wish that I could stop fighting, or stop struggling through it. It would be so nice to just be at ease and have everything float downstream. But it feels like I have to keep going upstream, and I don't know when that's going to end. Sometimes you just feel like maybe the water is just too much.
In my mind, I felt I'd arrived when I left home. It was such a big separation, and I had to really rip it off. That was when I was like, "I'm going to manifest this because I have no other way back. There's only one way forward." And making it was just living, and this is my career. I was going to be able to feed myself.
There's been a plural of rock bottoms. But I never thought of myself as being on the bottom. I just thought that was part of the process of what acting is.
How do you show your cast mates the importance of communication?
When I'm directing, I always send an email out, and I tell them, "I'm going to use two cameras. I'm going to do cross coverage, and that's the coverage." I always give people a heads-up, so everyone's on camera at all times, and believe me when I tell you that they come in and they know their lines. This is going to be a walk and talk scene. We're doing a oner, and that's it. Once you stumble, your confidence starts to get lower and lower, and it just starts to fall apart, and you don't want that for the actor. You want to protect them as much as you can.
You have to respect what everyone else does. You want to trust them. You want to create a very calm, friendly environment, and you want to have a good relationship with the DP, because they really can make or break the day. I think that works as an actress and also as a director, as a human being: the way forward and the way to success is through communication.
Of all the roles you have played in the past, which is your favorite?
My son did watch Red One, and he was thrilled, and it was exciting. It was so much fun. It is one of my favorite movies, especially since I can share it with him. It's the holiday spirit, and it's the magic of life.
With Kill Bill, I got a call from Quentin, and he said, "I've got this role. I'm writing it for you. I really loved your character in Shanghai Noon. I love Princess Pei Pei." When he was ready to present the script to me, I met him at this rock and roll Thai place on Sunset Boulevard, and he basically acted out the entire O-Ren Ishii role. He nailed it. He could have been O-Ren. He's magnetic. He's colorful. I've never met anyone this energetic from a pure place. And he was able to give O-Ren this real backstory. People would say, "Oh, but you play all these villains." I've never played a villain in my life. All of these characters have a history, and he really laid that out for her.
Describe your acting style.
I try not to think. I try to be in the moment. I try to think all of the things beforehand. When I first read anything, I write down the notes right away, because the second time I read it, it's just not the same. The first time is when it all comes to me. And then when I'm there doing the scene or an audition, I just try to be as present as possible.
There's not something I do every time, but what I do is I memorize my lines like you've never seen anyone memorize a line. I learn it when I'm standing, when I'm washing dishes, when I'm folding laundry, when I'm driving, when I'm in the subway. If you learn it when you're just sitting there, and they say, "Okay, we're going to do a walk and talk," you're going to do yourself in. You have to be really actively in your body when you learn your lines. I learn my lines in a way that's very, very slow. My friends will tell you that you have to have the patience of a saint to learn lines with me. But that's my process, and I do it every time that way, because that is my way through and my way in and my way out.
Tell me about a time where you had difficulty with a character. What was the role and why was it challenging?
On Rosemead I felt really prepared, and I feel like I was able to be the producer and be myself, and then just go and do the role. I knew it and understood it to the point where I didn't need to be left alone necessarily. I took the time that I needed before a scene. Sometimes I didn't even know I needed time until it happened, but it was very rare.
I've never been able to take the time away from my own life and just be that character only. I haven't had that privilege. But in some ways that lack of privilege has helped me be able to do exactly what I need to do in the time that I need to do it, and then move on to the next thing. I think that's probably a survival mechanism.
The preparation beforehand, understanding the dialogue and even the language, the Chinese language, really helped. When I was younger I spoke only Mandarin, but I've forgotten a lot of it.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your resume.
I started doing collage work when I was very, very young. During the pandemic I found these journals that I had when I was like seven, about what my hamster ate, things like that. Ridiculous. But there were some art things I had cut out, and it was really the beginning of the collages and the works I started to do later on. Then photography, and when I started to move away from photography, I started to explore different materials like paint and silk screen and sculpture. It was a form of expression I wasn't able to have because I wasn't an actress at the time. But it is something that I've relied on, and I really believe that it saved my life.
My mother gave me a manila envelope she had saved of my report cards from elementary school. All the comments said I didn't participate, I was too shy, I didn't talk in class. I got all these low grades for trying to be invisible. I found my voice through the expression of acting.
What are some of your professional goals for the future?
I just want to tell more stories that maybe are not as popular. I think there are so many stories that we have that are hidden gems. Maybe they won't be making as much capital gain at the market, but these are the things that I think are more impactful, and I'm good with that.
I've worked with UNICEF for 20 years, and I've seen a lot of despair. I've been to all different missions in the world, and I've learned so much from these people that I've met. They have gone through so much trauma and pain and warfare, and their stories deserve to be told. They're a column or two in the newspaper, but these are their lives. So there's a lot there to capture, so that you can keep their stories alive too, and their memories.
I'm not going to say no to Christopher Nolan. I really admire his work and I admire how he works.
Lucy Liu's Full Biography
Born in Queens, New York, to Chinese immigrants, Lucy Liu is an acclaimed actress, director, producer, and visual artist. Her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist, hails from Beijing, and her father, Tom Liu, a civil engineer, is from Shanghai. Raised in a bilingual household, Liu was drawn to the arts early on, but her initial path led her to academics.
She graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1986 and began her undergraduate studies at NYU. After her freshman year, she transferred to the University of Michigan, where she earned a degree in Asian Languages and Cultures. During her senior year, Liu auditioned on a whim for a campus production of Alice in Wonderland, adapted by André Gregory, and unexpectedly landed the lead. The transformative experience inspired her to pursue acting professionally.
After college, she moved to Los Angeles, balancing auditions with day jobs in food service. Her persistence paid off with a small role as a waitress on Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), followed by guest appearances on shows like NYPD Blue(1993), ER (1994), and The X-Files (1993). In 1996, she landed her first series regular role on the sitcom Pearl starring Rhea Perlman.
Liu gained widespread recognition for her breakout performance as the fiery Ling Woo on Ally McBeal (1997). Originally slated for just a few episodes, her scene-stealing presence earned her a permanent spot on the cast and a 1999 Primetime Emmy nomination. Around the same time, she appeared opposite Mel Gibson in Payback (1999), and shortly thereafter starred in Shanghai Noon (2000) alongside Jackie Chan and Charlie's Angels (2000) as Alex Munday-roles that launched her into international stardom.
Over the years, Liu has starred in major box office hits including Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Chicago(2002), Set It Up (2018), Kung Fu Panda, and Amazon's Red One (2024). Her filmography has grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide. Beyond acting, she has made her mark as a director and producer, championing meaningful stories through projects like the documentaries Freedom's Fury and Redlight, and the Emmy-nominated VR experience The Pirate Queen.
A passionate visual artist, Liu has exhibited her work in solo and group shows both in the United States and abroad. Her art explores themes of identity, memory, and cultural heritage through mixed media, painting, and sculpture. She is also a UNICEF Ambassador, a role she's held for over two decades, advocating for children's rights and global health.
In 2019, Liu made history as only the second Asian American woman to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, cementing her legacy as a trailblazer in entertainment and beyond.