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
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.
If my publicist says you have to be a certain way, I say, Yeah, okay. That's the way the public likes to perceive me. It's all fine, that's part of the business.
I'm being more selective. I don't think I've made any sacrifices or anything.
I'm angry about stereotypes about Asians, but I'm not bitter about not getting enough roles. I do see myself as being very fortunate, and see the change in the industry.
Things had just happened to me, good things and bad things, and I took them.
If you don't talk about any commitment or a shared future in three months, I don't think you're sincere.
I am not the best girlfriend or lawyer or the reporter. I am the drama-queen type. You know. So it is somehow in my style, in my upbringing, in the way I look: I need to be the dramatic one.
I'm going back to work in China. Chinese movies are getting very very strong now. I'm going back in December to work on a movie based on a classical novel. I play a woman who loves decadence.
The mainstream welcomes kung fu films - martial art films, right? So that's one type of Chinese-ness that's welcome.
The lowest budget U.S. films are ten times times better than shooting in Tibet.
The young people, they don't knock on the door politely and say "May I come in?" They barge in, they take your seat, and you're obsolete unless you recreate and somehow find grace somewhere else. Another profession may not be like that.
I miss directing. I see stories in images and music more so than in dialogue.
I remember watching Swan Lake and everybody looking exactly the same, but being able to relate because they were the only company I had ever seen even on video that had Asian dancers. The Asian community in Hawaii is actually almost as dominant as the Caucasian community. I thought "I can relate to that company because they look like people that I see every day." They weren't all little stick-thin Russian ballerinas.
I went to the International Ballet competition when I was 15 or 16 and that was the first time I competed. I didn't get very far but it was the first time that I realized what I needed to do to become a dancer. I realized how hard it was.