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Lucy Alexis Liu (Liú Yùlíng, born
December 2, 1968) is an Emmy Award-nominated
Chinese-American actress. She became known after
starring in the television series Ally McBeal
(1998-2002) and has also appeared in several notable
film roles, including Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels.
Early life: Liu was born in New York City, and
was raised with her older brother, Alex Liu (Liú Yá Lì),
and older sister, Jenny Liu (Liu Jin Li), in Jackson
Heights, Queens, New York by Chinese immigrant parents.
Liu has said that she grew up in a "diverse"
neighborhood, her family spoke Chinese at home and she
did not learn English until she was five years old. Her
father worked as a civil engineer and her mother as a
biochemist in Taiwan, but they sacrificed to come to the
United States.
Liu, at her parents' insistence, devoted
her spare time to studying, and she attended New York
City's famous Stuyvesant High School. She attended New
York University for one year, before transferring to
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she joined
the Chi Omega sorority and graduated with a Bachelor of
Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures.At one
point, Liu worked as a waitress in Michigan.
Personal life: In 2004, Liu announced her
engagement to New York playwright Zach Helm. Their
relationship ended in 2005.
In a Jane interview, she indicated the possibility that
she was bisexual, but has not stated anything definite.
She is quoted as saying, "I think people sometimes
get the wrong impression when they're like, 'Oh, well,
so-and-so was straight and then she was gay, and now
she's straight again,' you know? But it's like, how many
times do I have to kiss a woman before I'm gay?
Everybody wants to label people.
Sometimes you just fall in love with
somebody, and you're really not thinking about what
gender or whatever they happen to be. I think that if I
happen to fall in love with a woman, everyone's going to
make a big deal out of it. But if I happen to fall in
love with a man, nobody cares."
With her parents' work ethic, Liu continued, "I'm
always multitasking, doing 10 things at once". She
is not really very fluent in Chinese (sounding broken in
several syllables, can be heard by native Chinese
speakers in her shows), and also speaks some Italian,
Spanish and Japanese, a language she learned in
preparation for her role in Kill Bill. She also rock
climbs, practices martial arts, skis, and plays the
accordion. Liu is also an artist in several media, and
has had three gallery shows showcasing her collage,
paintings, and photography".
In 2001, Liu was the spokesperson for the Lee National
Denim Day fund-raiser which raises millions of dollars
for breast cancer research and education. In 2005, Liu
was appointed a U.S. Fund for UNICEF Ambassador; in that
capacity, she has traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho,
among other countries. Early in 2006, Liu received an
"Asian Excellence Award" for Visibility, since
she is considered the most well-known and visible Asian
American in the media today.
She is also the first Asian-American
woman to host Saturday Night Live. Liu has said about
her background, "when you grow up Asian-American
it’s difficult because you don’t know if you’re
Asian or you’re American. You get confused" and
that "You need to recognize where your background
is from. I think it’s important. Just for yourself. It
makes you more whole. It does."
Liu has a tattoo of a tiger on her lower back. The
Minnesota band Dropping Daylight wrote a song entitled
"Lucy" about the lead singer, Sebastion
Davin's, passionate dream about Lucy Liu.
Career: Liu began acting in 1989, after
auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan's
production of Alice in Wonderland during her senior
year. Liu was cast in the lead role, although she had
originally only tried out for a supporting part. Liu had
small roles in films and TV (including the Hell Money
episode of The X-Files) before landing a role on Ally
McBeal. Liu originally auditioned for the role of 'Nelle
Porter' (played by Portia de Rossi), and the character
"Ling Woo" was later created specifically for
her. Liu's part on the series was originally not meant
to be regular but the enthusiastic audience response to
the actress' 'feisty' Ling Woo secured Liu as a
permanent cast member. It also earned her an Emmy
nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a
Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award
nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Liu
cemented her reputation playing bad girls by portraying
"Pearl" the sadistic dominatirix/hit woman for
the Chinese mafia in the film Payback (1999).
Liu became better known with her turn as Alex in the
Charlie's Angels movie, alongside established Hollywood
stars Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. The film became a
hit, earning more than $125 million in the U.S., and a
worldwide total of more than $258 million. The sequel,
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, opened to poor reviews
but was a box-office hit again, earning more than $252
million. In between the two films, Liu starred with
Antonio Banderas in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, a
critical and box-office failure.
Liu next played O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth), one of the
major villains in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film, Kill
Bill. She won an MTV Movie Award for "Best Movie
Villain" for the part. Subsequently, Liu appeared
on several episodes of Joey with Matt LeBlanc, who
played her love interest in the Charlie's Angels movies.
She also had smaller roles as Kitty Baxter in the smash
hit Chicago, and as a psychologist opposite Keira
Knightley in the thriller Domino. In 2006, she played
leading lady and love interest to Josh Hartnett in the
popular crime thriller Lucky Number Slevin. Other
appearances include a cameo on the animated show
Futurama and recently, The Simpsons.
Liu caused a stir when she posed for nude photos in the
April, 2002 German edition of GQ magazine. In April
2006, the documentary Freedom's Fury premiered, with Liu
as executive producer. The film dramatizes the 1956
Hungarian Revolution, climaxing with the infamous water
polo showdown between Hungary and the Soviet Union at
the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, known as the 'Blood In The
Water match'.
Her film 3 Needles was released on December 1, 2006. In
the film, she plays Jin Ping, an HIV-positive Chinese
woman. Liu agreed to star in the film for lower than
usual pay because she wanted to spread awareness about
the way AIDS is improperly treated in China and
Thailand. Liu's other recent roles include Code Name:
The Cleaner, an action comedy released January 5, 2007
and, Rise, a supernatural thriller co-starring Michael
Chiklis in which Liu plays an undead reporter, Watching
the Detectives, an independent romantic comedy
co-starring Cillian Murphy, and Kung Fu Panda, an
animated film scheduled for 2008 in which she will voice
a snake. Liu has also signed on to star in Beautiful
Asian Brides and a new version of Charlie Chan which has
been in pre-production since 2000; she will produce both
films. Liu has guest starred as lawyer Grace Chin on
Ugly Betty episode 16 Derailed and episode 17 Icing On
The Cake.
Best known to television audiences as Ling Woo, the
raging force of political incorrectness on Ally McBeal,
Lucy Alexis Liu has managed to cross over to the big
screen in such features as Payback , Play It to the Bone
, Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill Vol. 1-2 .
Born to Chinese parents in Jackson Heights, NY, on
December 2, 1968, Liu grew up speaking both English and
Mandarin. After graduating from Manhattan's Stuyvesant
High School, she earned a degree in Asian languages and
cultures from the University of Michigan, where she also
studied acting, dance, and voice.
Liu's first professional job was playing a waitress on
Beverly Hills 90210, something that led to more
substantial work on various TV shows, including a
regular part on the TV series Pearl.
Liu's biggest breakthrough came in 1998, when she was
cast as Ling Woo on Ally McBeal. She had originally
auditioned for the role of Nelle Porter, which
ultimately went to Australian actress Portia DeRossi.
David E. Kelley, the show's producer, was so impressed
with Liu's audition, however, that he created the role
of Ling Woo specifically for her. The character was
initially supposed to be included on only a few episodes
but proved so popular with the show's audience that Liu
was made into a regular cast member.
Unsurprisingly, the actress' increased exposure led to
greater opportunities on the screen and after playing
supporting roles in such films as Payback and Molly
(both 1999), she moved on to more substantial work in
Play It to the Bone and the Jackie Chan martial-arts
period comedy Shanghai Noon, which cast her as a
princess who has been kidnapped from her emperor father.
In 2000, she also was cast in perhaps her most
high-profile role to date, when she was chosen alongside
Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz as one of the titular
crime fighters in Charlie's Angels: The Movie.
With the exception of a small role as an inmate in the
Oscar-winning film Chicago, 2002 brought little
recognition for Liu -- Cypher, Ballistic: Ecks vs.
Sever, and Party Monster with former Home Alone star
Macaulay Culkin went virtually unseen by the general
public.
2003's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle placed Liu firmly
back inside the spotlight, though she was somewhat
overshadowed by the toothy blonde glint that is Cameron
Diaz. Luckily for Liu, she was given the chance to shine
quite independently when Quentin Tarantino cast her as
the deadly O-Ren Ishii, AKA Cottonmouth, in Kill Bill
Vol. 1 (2003). |
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