NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 The seemingly limitless range of Hong Chau is on display in three films this year, in roles so different that they hardly seem the work of one actor.
In she plays best friend and nurse to Brendan Fraser's obese shut-in professor, his most regular visitor and assertive caregiver. She desperately, unsentimentally prods him to get healthier, to care about himself.
In Chau plays the idle landlord and artist colleague of Michelle Williams' ceramics sculptor. She's the mellower, more successful envy of Williams' character, and yet kind of a regular companion.
In Chau plays the militant hostess at an exclusive restaurant who delivers some of the film's most deliciously scathing lines. In the ear of one customer she whispers, 鈥淵ou鈥檒l eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.鈥
Her performances 鈥 each a dazzling highlight in harmony within an ensemble 鈥 vary so much in appearance and manner that you can't help wonder: Who, exactly, is Hong Chau? Is she, herself, like any of these characters? Or none of them?
Even for Chau, it's not an easy question to answer.
鈥淢aybe my character in 鈥楽howing Up鈥 because she鈥檚 also an artist,鈥 says Chau. 鈥淭he feeling of: I鈥檓 not in competition with anybody even though the way that other people view it makes you feel this sense that there鈥檚 a race, or that you鈥檙e not where you鈥檙e supposed to be. I think with acting or with Hollywood, there鈥檚 always this feeling of being uneasy with where you are in life.鈥
Since starting out on the David Simon HBO series 鈥淭reme鈥 and in Paul Thomas Anderson's 鈥淚nherent Vice,鈥 43-year-old Chau has cut a unique, sometimes mysterious path through show business, choosing parts deliberately and seamlessly shape-shifting each time. 鈥淔or a long time, she was such an enigma to me,鈥 Mylod says.
But five years after her breakthrough performance in the cluster of films is bringing Chau into view better than ever before, even while she remains maddeningly hard to pin down.
鈥淓ven before I became more successful, I never really wanted to be amongst a group of actors or keep up with people and have that in my mind at all times," Chau said in a recent interview from New Orleans where she was shooting Yorgos Lanthimos' 鈥淎nd.鈥 鈥淚t was always about myself and what I wanted out of it, and how I could do things that felt right for me.鈥
Chau's performance in 鈥淭he Whale,鈥 which expanded in theaters nationwide Friday, has in particular been singled out for awards consideration. But part of the thrill of this season for Chau is how multidimensional it is, something that will continue into next year, too. Chau co-stars in Wes Anderson's 鈥淎steroid City," due out in June, adding to her enviable run with many of the top American filmmakers. 鈥淪howing Up,鈥 which premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival, will be released sometime in the spring.
For Chau, who was born to Vietnamese parents in a refugee camp in Thailand and grew up in New Orleans, it's a fate she never bargained on.
鈥淓ven to this day, I have trouble saying that I鈥檓 an actor because I struggle with talking about what my process is,鈥 Chau says. 鈥淭here are actor-actors out there who give these really in-depth, tremendous interviews about their process. They talk about it in such a way that makes me feel, 鈥楳aybe I鈥檓 not an actor.鈥 I just don鈥檛 think that way at all."
Chau didn't grow up acting; Hollywood was an unimaginable distance from her working-class upbringing in New Orleans East. Attending Boston University on a Pell Grant, she turned to film studies even though, up until then, her only real film education was watching the arthouse movies her brother rented.
鈥淚 definitely have an appreciation for exhibition. How could you not, growing up in a city with feathers and beads and all sorts of nonsense going on?鈥 Chau says, laughing. 鈥淏ut in terms of actually seeing movies, no. I grew up without a lot of money so my parents never took me to the movies. We never ate out. There was so much that I slowly came to discover once I left home, once I went off to college. When I was doing press for 鈥楾he Menu,鈥 people would ask about restaurant experiences and I'd think, 鈥極h my God, I was and I鈥檓 still such an awkward person at restaurants because that鈥檚 not something I was used to growing up.鈥"
Chau's first job out of college was an administrative assistant at PBS. A life behind the camera seemed more likely to her, a mentality that's translated to her acting.
鈥淲henever I look at a script, it鈥檚 more from the mindset of what the filmmaker is trying to accomplish,鈥 she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 really the only thing in my head. I don鈥檛 do it for me. I鈥檓 not trying to have an out-of-body experience when I do these roles. I guess I鈥檓 just a fan of the whole process.鈥
That was also Aronofsky's impression working with Chau, who landed the part after a self-taped audition she made a little reluctantly in the middle of the pandemic shortly after the birth of her first child. Aronofsky found that in each take while shooting 鈥淭he Whale,鈥 Chau would do something different, supplying him with an array of choices in editing.
鈥淏rendan joked to me the other day how at the end of a bunch of takes, I鈥檇 be like, 鈥楲et鈥檚 just do one more, Hong. Just surprise us, have some fun.鈥 Because she would always do something authentic and real but a different take on it,鈥 says Aronofsky. 鈥淚 do think if she wants to direct, she can direct. She thinks like a director.鈥
Chau describes her process uncertainly but better than she says she does. 鈥淚 guess I just start dreaming up a character,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 start to see flashes of something in my head as I鈥檓 reading a script in terms of their appearance, the cadence of their speech.鈥
Sometimes, she says, that's easy when the writing is good 鈥渁nd there's a music to it.鈥 鈥淒ownsizing,鈥 in which she played a Vietnamese dissident with a prosthetic leg, was like that. 鈥淭he Menu鈥 required more heavy lifting since her character was more thinly sketched. Mylod had written the role with a large Scandinavian woman in mind but decided to open up casting possibilities, seeking an 鈥淴 factor鈥 for his satire. 鈥淎nd she killed it,鈥 says Mylod.
鈥淚t was initially very jarring for Mark,鈥 says Chau, smiling. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 go as far as wanted to. I wanted to shave my eyebrows, and the compromise was that I鈥檇 just bleach my eyebrows. And he was like, 鈥楬ong, you鈥檙e a restaurant manager. Why would you look like that?鈥 Because she does!鈥
On 鈥淭he Whale,鈥 much has been made of Fraser's physical transformation, requiring daily hours of makeup and a large fat suit. Chau's metamorphosis was more subtle.
鈥淚 asked for certain things. I asked for tattoos for Liz. You don鈥檛 really see them in the movie at all,鈥 Chau says. 鈥淏ut every morning I would sit and get tattoos on both arms and the back of my neck. I don鈥檛 think another production would do that. And (Aronofsky) never asked me why. He just let me have it.鈥
More than anything, Chau seems to relish those interactions, piecing a character together bit by bit, from the ground up. 鈥淚 feel," she says, 鈥渓ike I鈥檓 really collaborating, you know?鈥
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AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr contributed to this report.
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