Joan Chen
Joan Chen
Joan Chenis a Chinese-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In China she performed in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor. She is also known for her roles in Twin Peaks, Red Rose, White Rose, Saving Face and The Home Song Stories, and for directing the feature film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl...
NationalityChinese
ProfessionActress
Date of Birth26 April 1961
CountryChina
Now I have a family. I have a real home, a place I really want to come back to. I get really homesick before because there wasn't much to be missed.
I wanted to do pre-med. The first semester it really didn't matter because you took a lot of general education requirements. But right after the first semester I kind of knew I wasn't cut out for that. I had very good grades but I somehow wasn't satisfied. Just having good grades and having it all go to medical school didn't make me happy.
You want actors to give you the essence of drama-not only the gift of their instincts and knowledge but the greater gift of themselves. When that happens, it's gold-and when you want to catch that, you don't go through all sorts of fancy camera movements to play director.
I did somehow manage to get into a college in China that trains diplomats when I was 17, one year before my peers could go, which is very very difficult. I was very proud I did.
I don't believe beauty exists without suffering-that's just a tourist picture in a travel agency, which isn't beautiful to me.
Only when you poeticize something does it become universal. I believe when your experience is more crystallized through distance and time, you're more able to poeticize something.
I felt extremely comfortable and at home on the set and actually I did homework about breaking down the scenes and often had shot lists in a rough way, but it was actually extremely spontaneous. Working with David Lynch-he is so spontaneous.
There are only so many roles as empresses... but I've had a lot of offers to play vampires.
The factory that I work with, all the products are on the shelf, they are existing products. I can go and enhance it. The perfume is 60% mine.
All my girlfriends were learning musical instruments - forced to learn musical instruments because if they knew a musical instrument, they would be in the performance troupe. Even if they were sent down. Then they wouldn't be in the fields. Then they'd probably be treated a little better. That was the hope.
Dailies means every day you have 20 rolls, and here I was with 200 rolls of film.
I think a good sign is when you don't go to bed with people right away. I think you treasure it more. A lot of people, one date or third date or fourth date, you gotta go to bed. It's silly.
I submitted the script and they gave me a list of changes to make, and I did not agree with the changes.
I read a lot. On location that's all I do. I've been reading very many different books. I used to follow writers, and whatever book they wrote, I would go buy right away.