Appears star Hong Zhou can’t imagine making another film directly after the emotional roller coaster of The Whale, but she is Kudos to Kelly Reichardt for sticking with it no matter what.
In Reichardt’s latest film centered around the Portland art scene, Oscar-nominated Chau stars as Jo, an accomplished and extroverted artist whose famous installation Works have made her the pride and joy of the Oregon Institute of Arts and Crafts. Helping her mother (Marian Pronkett) run the school, Michelle Williams plays Liz, a former classmate of Jo who now lives in the shadow of both an artist and her tenant . Lizzy is a low-key sculptor, the polar opposite of Jo, quite withdrawn, but she is the character Chau most identifies with.
I’m more Lizzy than Jo,” Chau told The Hollywood Reporter . “She’s not really hiding Anything, and without being overly concerned about hurting people’s feelings or making them feel uncomfortable. In my own real life, this is completely foreign to me. “
Chau was recently featured on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast Downsizing 228). During the film’s release, many critics believed that when the film industry When finally starting to move away from such portrayals on screen, Stephen Chow portrayed caricatures that perpetuated Asian stereotypes. But now, as Chau explained to Maron, she feels her background and agency are never really taken into account, perhaps Most frustrating is her lack of support from her own community.
Since her March drama on WTF After the concentrated performance, Chau received a very grateful support call from someone she valued very much
“Sandra Oh reached out to me and wanted to talk Talk because she listened to that interview,” Chau shared. “She just wanted to talk, kind of like a big sister, and she felt sorry for me because she didn’t know it happened. She’s just really disappointed in how people react to the role. So it’s great that she reached out in this way. “
Below, in a recent conversation with THR), Chau also discusses longtime collaborators Reichardt and Williams A cozy environment created on the set of Showing Up.
so you have to go out for this, or is Kelly reaching out based on your work?
no , Kelly doesn’t know who I am. (laughs.)
Wow.
I’m sure she has no idea who I am. I think our Casting director Gayle Keller pestered her to see Driveways, a little indie film I made a few years ago. It was directed by Andrew Directed by Ann, I think Kelly finally got around to watching it. So that’s how I got invited.
At what point in the script did you find your way into Jo?
Pretty straight forward. I started with Loved the character from the start. Some characters and some scripts felt like you had to step up a little more. There was some heavy lifting to be done, but the script was simple and the role was easy for me. I appreciate it. When I was in While in New York, I got a call about Showing Up and was researching The Whale, we just started The Whale. So I can’t think about doing another movie right away, I guess I tried to say no and backed off. Thankfully, Kelly Reichardt kept the conversation going. So I came to Portland and we had a great time. 
Between the introverted Liz (Michelle Williams) and the extroverted Liz Jo, do you have more connections with Lizzy?
certainly. This is where it gets interesting. I’m totally more Lizzy than Joe. (laughs.) The way Kelly Reichardt explained the character to me is that Jo has a different pleasure center than Lizzy. She’s just more accessible, which is very apparent when you watch the movie. She is light on her feet and just expresses herself. She wasn’t really hiding anything, nor was she overly concerned about hurting people’s feelings or making them unhappy. In my own real life, this is completely foreign to me. So it was really fun to start playing Joe.
Jo went to art school with Lizzy (Michelle Williams) and now, Lizzy does Live in Joe’s shadow, both at work and in life, if you will. So what is the purpose of Jo’s negative influence on Lizzy? It’s not meant to be as extreme as psychological warfare, right?
I personally don’t deal with it that way. I don’t think this was intentional, or that there was an agenda behind it. I feel like I know a lot of Joss. I feel like I run into them a lot and they don’t mean to upset you, they just aren’t thinking of you. (laughs.) They are thinking about other things, and usually about themselves. So if you’re on the other side of it, you can’t take it personally. When someone like Jo does choose to follow you or respond to you, I’m sure it feels like the sun shines on you, and when she doesn’t, you’re literally left out. So I don’t think it’s psychological warfare. Maybe Lizzy feels that way, but I think a lot of it is self-invented, if I can make my own judgment about it.
Lizzy seems to want solitude and validation at the same time. Can a working actor achieve that contradictory balance?
This is hard. What Jo is good at is that she is a true artist, but she is also willing and aware that a game needs to be played in order for others to learn more about your art. Some people might look at it and say it’s selling themselves or selling themselves out, and then others will think it’s just smart or shrewd. So I think it just varies from person to person, not everyone defines success the same. This is a hard question to answer because I think you can be a successful actor just by doing community drama. You don’t necessarily have to be Tom Cruise to feel like a successful actor if you get fulfilled from it and it makes you happy. So there are various levels of success.
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Whether it’s tire swing installation or tying foam together, you have something on that front Some unique businesses. Have you taken some kind of tire wiggling class? This definitely changes the typical type of training that actors do, whether it’s voice or weapons.
I didn’t take a class on actual tires, but I did get some rope to go over and over again Practice knotting all over the place. It was very tricky, especially after they acted and had to be done correctly on camera. It can be a little stressful when everyone is watching you do it. When I was cast, our casting director, Gayle Keller, drove up to my rented house in the Hudson Valley and dropped off a box of art that Kelly wanted me to have supplies and books. In the box, there was a lot of brightly colored yarn, and Kelly wanted me to practice knitting because the artwork by Michel Segre [the real-life sculptor behind Joe’s art] used a lot of brightly colored yarn.
Originally, in the script, Kelly wanted to shoot close-ups of Jo’s hand knitting, but after I spent some time in Michelle Segre’s studio, we realized To Michelle Segre’s work is so real that you really want to see it in its entirety. She uses her body to create her art. She bends steel or metal pipe with only her feet, using her body and its counterweight to bend the pipe. She used the electric drill to climb up and down the ladder, and was already sweating when she reached the end of the ladder. So that’s what Kelly ended up putting in the movie. Jo wrestled with this foam and this wire, and I was trying to recreate Michelle Segre’s carrot with foam and wire and orange wax on the outside. I saw her do it from scratch, and then I tried to do it in the movie. It didn’t take long, and I was sweating profusely afterwards. Kelly went on to say some really interesting things. She said, “Well, I just filmed my first sex scene.” (Laughing.)
Michelle and Kelly have worked together three times, I think they should be very harmonious. Since movies or TV shows can sometimes be challenging for newcomers joining long-term partners, do they go out of their way to make everyone feel like they’re in their creative bubble?
I’m assuming the same as you, but without the bubble to type. I don’t feel like they’re doing anything different than how they usually interact in other movies. It didn’t feel isolated at all, and I didn’t feel like I was waiting to be accepted at any moment. The kind of thing you describe that tunes into each other and tunes into other people, that’s not who Kelly Reichardt is. She is someone who is very interested and curious about everyone. There are no hierarchies or circles on her set. It all feels very homely. Everyone is a friend or a friend of a friend or a family member. Our two characters, Lizzy and Jo, are named after the daughters of [co-writer] Jon Raymond, one of our producers, Neil [Kopp], and his daughter is one of the little girls in the gallery at the end of the movie. Even the overalls I was wearing belonged to one of Kelly’s friends, so I figured everything had to do with someone or something. It doesn’t feel like an environment where there can be any dividers or walls.
That early scene whale Where Liz (Chau) and Charlie (Brendan Fraser) are watching TV, I was blown away once we figured out what he wanted from her. “Liz, please.” Continuing the conflicting topic, have you reconciled the fact that she is both his enabler and his caretaker?
Yeah, I think it does feel very conflicted and weird to the viewer watching , but when I really think about it, every deep relationship or friendship I’ve ever had or witnessed involves some kind of weird interdependence. Sometimes, in certain elements or instances, someone can judge it and say, “That’s not healthy,” but it’s true to life. So, to be honest, when I read it in the script, it didn’t disappoint me.
As far as their dynamic is concerned, the part I struggled with was the moment when Liz got really frustrated with him and acted in a weak way. I especially think of the scene where Charlie almost suffocates, and then she gets so angry and frustrated that she ends up hitting him. This is a person or situation that often occurs in long-term caregiver relationships. This may be something that isn’t talked about very often, but it’s very real and accurate. Another difficulty is when she realizes that he has been keeping her secret, she has to reassess who she is from him. So these are things that require a bit more thought and are a little tricky to play.
So I have to tell you that I really feel for you during your eye opening
Damn . How is your reaction now about how you were treated during the Downsizing post? Has anyone reached out to acknowledge your feelings and/or apologize?
There was actually a man reaching out, a very great man. Sandra Oh reached out to me to talk because she listened to that interview. Whenever I do interviews, I never assume that anyone has actually read or heard them. So part of me was ashamed because she listened to my interview, but it was so kind of her to reach out. She just wanted to talk, kind of like a big sister, and she felt sorry for me because she didn’t know it happened. So that was the first time she heard it, and she was very disappointed with the reaction to the role. So it was great that she reached out in that way, and then it was great to meet her at the Oscars. One of the perks of working longer hours is how I feel at the event now, which is a little different than how I felt during Downsizing. I didn’t really know anyone at the time, and it was just a very uncomfortable experience.Every time I go to a cocktail party or something, I stand there, holding a glass, but at least this time, I get to know more faces in the crowd, and Sandra is one of them . So not having to do podcast interviews is a good thing.
Matt Damon has programmed the current
Yes, I’m working on The Agitators Now. We were just in Boston. We just started filming and it was a pleasure working with him again. It’s obviously a whole different story, with completely different characters and power dynamics and all that. So it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing the film worldwide.
6109Showing Up is playing in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. This interview has been edited for length and clarity .
