While hongchau received her first Academy Award nomination last month for Best Supporting Actress, for playing Brendan Fraser’s caretaker in the drama Darren Aronofsky The whaleIt took him a while to assimilate the prize.
In 2017, after a leading role in little big lifeby Alexander Payne, was nominated for a nomination that never came, the kind of anticlimax that can make you want to completely isolate yourself from the noise of award season.
On this occasion, however, the result was better you still don’t know exactly how you feel about it. “My sincere reaction to the nomination was one of relief,” she said.
From writing to acting
Chau, 43, never dreamed of becoming an Oscar-nominated actress: born in a refugee camp to Vietnamese parents, raised in New Orleans and is a graduate of Boston University with degrees in creative writing and film studies.
After you subscribe to improv lessons to cure your shyness, her teacher encouraged her to pursue acting and Chau moved to Los Angeles in search of roles. Early on, however, success eluded her and skeptical casting directors told her that getting more than a one-day role was out of her league.
“After several years of trying, you think, ‘Is this really worth dedicating my life to?’ I liked it. I kept waiting for something to happen, and luckily it did.”
After his big screen debut in own viceby Paul Thomas Anderson, with Stuburbicon: Welcome to heaven Chau’s career skyrocketed: he hasn’t stopped stealing scenes since, in projects like Guardianof HBO, and the recent cooking comedy The menuin which he plays a cold and hostile maitre d’.
We will soon see Chau in a series of arthouse films such as revealing by Kelly Reichardt City of Asteroids by Wes Anderson e AND by Yorgos Lanthimos, but in the meantime the public continues to discover his work in The whalein which her character, Liz, lovingly cares for Fraser’s 300-pound inmate.
Praised by Brendan Fraser
Chau is “a force of nature: Spine made of titanium, doesn’t suffer for fools, has a memory like a bear,” Fraser said. “For those who edit their work, everything is an accumulation of richness in how varied and interesting it is. And they can say more between the lines of dialogue, in pauses and silences, than I can say with dialogue”.
Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.
-Now that the dust of your Oscar nomination has settled, how are you feeling?
-What moved me the most were the messages from people who have known me since before I wanted to be an actress. A friend from high school called me from work and said, “OMG I’m shaking! I’m hiding in the closet to talk to you because I can’t control my body right now.” I asked her why, and she started crying on the phone, and she got me emotional because she said. “I remember all those years ago when I went to your improv shows.”
I haven’t thought about it for so long and things like that are meaningful to me. The rest, I don’t know. My entire professional identity was about being an underdog and trying to work my way into roles.
-Do you mean that they perceived her as helpless or that she felt helpless?
-I felt like a loser, always very excited and grateful to be a part of something. Now I feel like I need to step it up a notch. I wonder, “Will they consider me a veteran now?” I still feel very new and still learning, so I hope that doesn’t mean people think I know what I’m doing. I really admire people who are professional, but at the same time I hope I never become one, if that makes sense.
The audition for “The Whale”
-She filmed “The Whale” in early 2021, shortly after giving birth to her first child. Was it an easy yes?
-I fully anticipated not working my first year as a mother, so I was surprised when my agent sent me the script for The Whale. I almost didn’t want to read it, because I didn’t want to get attached to it, and then when I read the script, I felt even more strongly that it wasn’t the right time in my life to go through something like that, because it would take a lot of work. Also, all he’d done was a specifically Asian character, and since this character wasn’t Asian, I thought the casting net for him must be very broad. I didn’t want to throw myself in the ring.
It’s been a week and my agent has come back and said, “They really want to see you. Is that something you want to let go?” During that time, I’d been like, “Oh my God, this is a really great story and script. I don’t know, can I do this?” They asked me to record three scenes for the audition. I told my agent, “Here’s a scene. That’s all I’ve had time for. I think after a scene, he should know if I’m the right girl for him or not.”
-That was very bold, Hong!
I told my agent, “I don’t have time for anything else! My baby is crying in the background.” But Darren called me as soon as he saw it, somehow my baby cooperated and we were able to shoot another scene very quickly.
-Once you accepted the role, how did you feel?
-Honestly, I wanted to puke. I was like, “Wow, I’m so tired. How can I be in the studio and say all these lines? My god, this is more dialogue than I’ve ever had in all the stuff I’ve done together.” Luckily, my husband took care of our baby while I worked and allowed me to. And he was the one who encouraged me to go out and told me that he would be there to support me.
Very restrictive tests
-Before filming, the actors had three weeks of rehearsals. Is this the sort of thing you unleash as an artist?
I found the evidence very restrictive and I don’t think Darren would care if I describe it that way. Obviously, he knew what he wanted to do, so a lot of the trials from the very beginning were dedicated to the block, and everything was so specific right from the start. This is what I was against, because in my opinion trying means feeling everything without knowing where you need to be.
By the second or third day I had kind of forgotten about him and was able to focus on Brendan and try to find those different moments with him. One of Liz’s roles in the script was to show the audience who Charlie was before we met him in that terrible state, and finding those moments of joy and levity had to be worked on in rehearsals, because once in the studio, you weren’t given the limitations of the wardrobe that Brendan wore. He was very hot in the silicone, so there wasn’t much time to tinker.
-How do you think Liz is out of the space where we see her throughout the film?
-When they cast me for the role, my agents mixed up other people’s names. None of them were Asian and the role was not specifically written as Asian. So when I was cast, writer Sam Hunter added the line that I was adopted. I think that was useful information to imagine what it was like for her growing up in Idaho, in a very conservative and religious family. This has influenced many of the decisions I have made.
I asked Darren if he could have tattoos and he said yes, even though you never see them on camera in the movie, because I was like, “Well, I think she was a raver girl.” I could imagine Liz of her going to some shack parties and rebelling against her super religious foster parents. But all of this was just for me, and I felt luxurious, thinking, “This only happens in a Darren Aronofsky movie.” No other production would let me spend the time or money on these tattoos.
-Maybe not, but in projects like “The Menu” or “Watchmen” I felt I had a lot to say about the look of those characters.
Even if they have little screen time, I want them to be interesting. For me, that’s part of the fun. I think a lot of people would look at it in a more deplorable light, like, “Why don’t you play the main characters? Why just the supporting characters?” But I love the supporting characters and I love making that work in a way that they feel really fulfilled; it’s a bit like a puzzle where you have to look for clues in the text. It’s not about competing for more screen time or more jokes or anything like that. I’m normally more amused or interested in what happens with a side character than the main character.
“I don’t feel like an actress”
-In previous interviews, you said that you don’t necessarily consider yourself an actress. After a year like the one you’ve had, has that changed?
-When I say I don’t feel like an actress, it’s because, normally, when you read an actor’s profile, that’s all they ever wanted to do. I don’t know if I could say the same, because I didn’t intend to be an actress. I didn’t go to school for it, and only took improv classes as a way to come out of my shell because I was so introverted. I thought I wanted to be a writer or editor, something a little more solitary, and it’s strange that I find myself in front of the camera.
-What do you get now from acting that is different from the beginning?
I don’t know if I ever wanted anything. I just wanted to be in the studio and hang out with people and see the finished product. I could be in the studio all day if I didn’t have a family to take care of. I love watching everyone at work, not just the actors: I love watching the technicians move the lights and the decorators adjust the curtains. I also feel more relaxed and confident in the studio. I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m on a red carpet.
-Red carpets are terrifying! It’s a tangle of flashes and people screaming your name.
-They don’t even call me; It’s more like the person I’m talking to is looking past me to see if someone more famous is coming along so he can quickly finish what he’s doing with me. This has been my experience.
-You said that before “The Whale” many of your roles were specifically written for an Asian actress. It is still so?
-In revealing (not yet used), no. Wes’ movie, no. In The menu of course not, because the character was written as a Scandinavian. But I never go with the idea of, “Come on, I’m going to flip the stereotype.”
I’m always trying to serve the script and I have no control over what people want to portray. Even with Elsa, inside The menu, I thought she was a very dominant character, but in an interview someone was asking a question about Asian stereotypes, and she was Asian too. She told me: “Your character reminds me of a waitress”. I was like, “Sorry, what are you talking about?”
It’s a shame, honestly, to always look at the world and look for it. You can always twist things like that if you want, but it’s not something I can spend too much energy trying to anticipate. But I also have my doubts when it comes to pronunciation. My goal is not to be president of the Asian-American student body; I just want to do a good job and leave it there.
Source: Clarin
