Renegades | Joan Chen on Chasing Your Destiny
Iconic actress and filmmaker Joan Chen talks to us about how leaning into her creative impulses led to her storied career spanning continents
Welcome to Renegades, Gold House’s newsletter series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week, we sat down with Joan Chen, the genre-spanning actress from iconic titles such as The Last Emperor, Lust Caution, Dìdi, and more. Joan discusses landing her first acting job in America, rehearsing Faye Dunaway’s lines from the movie Chinatown to practice her English, and drawing character inspiration from her own experience as an immigrant mother. See Dìdi in select theatres now and everywhere August 16!
Being discovered by director Jin Xie while still in school must have been a life-changing moment. Can you share a piece of advice you would have given to yourself back then?
Learn and master your craft. Surrender to your creative impulse. This is destiny calling. Don’t ever worry about finding a “real” job when you “grow up.” The only thing that will bring you true fulfillment is to always create—a character, a film, a dish or a wooden bar stool... Everything else is just passing clouds.
You came to the U.S. to attend college and had your first break in Hollywood when you were cast in "Tai-Pan." What was a particularly challenging aspect of that transition while breaking into Hollywood?
First of all, there were the cultural, ideological and language barriers. I found myself as a babe in the woods in America, having to relearn everything—mundane things like eating with a fork and knife, important things like auditioning, or basic but crucial things like moral norms. When I arrived in the US, I wasn’t sure if sexual harassment was an “American” thing to do, a part of being “Americanized,” or if it was as my instinct told me, wrong. Secondly, there were the dire lack of roles and role models, I hardly saw any meaningful Asian characters in films and television when I first started breaking into Hollywood.
Your directing efforts have been critically acclaimed, and you mentioned planning to direct more after your daughters were grown. What attracts you to directing, and can you share any exciting projects for the future?
With Janet Yang and a few others, I’m taking part in developing a TV series set in Shanghai during the first half of the 20th century. The stories and characters are inspired by real life events and people, whose paths cross in this very international city.
In your recent role in "Dìdi (弟弟)," you portray a mother in a deeply emotional and caring relationship. In what way did your personal life most influence how you believed this character should be portrayed?
My character Chunsing in Dìdi (弟弟) is very different from the stereotypical Asian helicopter moms, tiger moms or strict matriarchs in popular imagination. The writer/director Sean Wang wrote the script based on his sometimes fraught but ultimately tender relationship with his mom, who is a very gentle, warm, funny, and artistic person. I may have been a very different mother, but I could completely relate to the deeper emotional core of the character. Like her, I am also an immigrant mother who raised two American children.
Because of the cultural chasm within this most intimate relationship, there is a lot of confusion, uncertainty and misunderstanding about how to best love our children. To prepare for the role, I watched the interviews Sean did with his mother. I also had her record all of Chunsing’s lines. I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of her tone of speech and mannerisms into my performance. Sean and I worked out a detailed back story for Chunsing so in my heart she is a fuller and more complex character than on paper. With all of her scenes, I tried to show a different side of her, hinting at or revealing a richer inner world.
Is there a mentor or person who helped inspire you to pursue a career in entertainment?
When I auditioned for the female lead in Year of the Dragon, I was 22 with a little baby fat on the face and speaking bad English. In hindsight, there was no way I could have played the part, which is that of a sophisticated newscaster. But I was determined and passionate and spent every penny I earned from working in a restaurant to pay for a dialogue coach.
The casting director, Joanna Merlin, saw something special in me, and I was in every callback during the long casting process. Each time she would encourage me by telling me that I had made progress in my English. She gave me Faye Dunaway scenes from the film Chinatown and rehearsed them with me. She wanted me to show the director my dramatic ability, though my English wasn’t good enough. It’s unbelievable how she was willing to spend so much time and energy on a losing horse, but she did. I was one of the three finalists for screen tests with the male lead. The next day after the screen test, I received a huge bouquet of flowers from the director saying he’s sorry he could not work with me this time, but I was an exceptional actress. I was so crushed by the experience, believing hard work meant nothing in this profession.
About a year after the failed audition, I got a call from Joanna Merlin, telling me she’s found the perfect part for me. Bernardo Bertolucci was making The Last Emperor and had been looking for his empress all over the world. She said that Bernardo was coming to LA the next day and that I should meet him at Chateau Marmont. She added that she already told Bernardo to look no further, and that I was his empress. I consider Joanna Merlin one of the most important people in my career outside of China. She also made me see that sowing and laboring will eventually bring harvest, though it may not be the season that you expected.