Hong Chau on Exhibiting Up, Significant Name After Her ‘WTF’ Interview – The Hollywood Reporter

Exhibiting Up star Hong Chau couldn’t think about taking pictures one other movie immediately after the emotional rollercoaster of The Whale, however she’s grateful that Kelly Reichardt endured anyway.

In Reichardt’s latest movie that revolves across the Portland artwork scene, the Oscar-nominated Chau performs Jo, an achieved, extroverted artist whose celebrated installations have made her the pleasure and pleasure of Oregon School of Artwork and Craft. Michelle Williams’ Lizzy, who helps her mom (Maryann Plunkett) run the varsity, is a former classmate of Jo’s and now lives in her shadow as each an artist and as her tenant. Lizzy, being extra a low-key sculptor, is the polar reverse of Jo in that she’s fairly introverted, however she’s truly the character who Chau may determine with most.

“That’s what’s so humorous. I’m completely extra of a Lizzy than I’m a Jo,” Chau tells The Hollywood Reporter. “She doesn’t actually maintain again something and isn’t overly involved about hurting folks’s emotions or upsetting them. And that’s so fully international to me in my very own actual life.”

Chau lately appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast the place she opened up in regards to the hurtful response to her Vietnamese activist character, Ngoc Lan Tran, in Alexander Payne’s Downsizing (2017). In the course of the movie’s launch, fairly a couple of critics believed that Chau portrayed a caricature who perpetuated Asian stereotypes at a time when the trade was lastly beginning to transfer away from such depictions on display screen. However now, as Chau defined to Maron, she looks like her personal background and company was by no means actually factored into the equation, and what was maybe most upsetting was the shortage of help she obtained from her personal group.

Since she put herself on the market in her March episode of WTF, Chau obtained a much-appreciated name of help from somebody she holds in very excessive regard.

“Sandra Oh reached out to me and wished to speak as a result of she listened to that interview,” Chau shares. “She simply wished to speak, form of as a giant sister, and she or he was bummed for me as a result of she wasn’t conscious that that occurred. She was simply actually upset within the response that individuals needed to the character. So it was simply very nice that she reached out in that approach.”

Under, throughout a current dialog with THR, Chau additionally discusses the welcoming atmosphere that long-time collaborators Reichardt and Williams created on the set of Exhibiting Up.

So did you need to exit for this, or did Kelly attain out primarily based in your physique of labor?

No, Kelly had no thought who I used to be. (Laughs.) 

Wow. 

I’m fairly positive she had no thought who I used to be. I believe Gayle Keller, our casting director, bugged her to look at Driveways, just a little indie that I did a pair years in the past. It was directed by Andrew Ahn, and I believe Kelly lastly acquired round to watching it. In order that’s how I used to be invited.

At what level within the script did you discover a approach into Jo?

It was fairly instant. I liked the character from the get-go. Some characters and a few scripts simply really feel like you need to muscle it just a little bit extra. There’s some heavy lifting that must be achieved, however this script was really easy and the character got here really easy to me. And I’m so grateful. I obtained the decision about Exhibiting Up whereas I used to be in New York, engaged on The Whale, and we had simply began on The Whale. So I couldn’t wrap my thoughts round doing one other movie proper afterwards, and I believe I attempted to say no and backpedal from it. And fortunately, Kelly Reichardt saved the dialog going. So I got here out to Portland and we simply had a variety of enjoyable. 

Between the introverted Lizzy (Michelle Williams) and the extra extroverted Jo, did you relate extra to Lizzy?

Completely. That’s what’s so humorous. I’m completely extra of a Lizzy than I’m a Jo. (Laughs.) And the best way that Kelly Reichardt defined the character to me was that Jo has a unique pleasure heart than Lizzy. It’s simply extra readily accessible to her, which could be very apparent if you watch the film. She’s very gentle on her toes and simply expresses herself. She doesn’t actually maintain again something and isn’t overly involved about hurting folks’s emotions or upsetting them. And that’s so fully international to me in my very own actual life. So it was actually enjoyable to get to play Jo.

Jo and Lizzy (Michelle Williams) went to artwork faculty collectively, and now, Lizzy fairly actually lives in Jo’s shadow, each professionally and residentially, if you’ll. So how purposeful is Jo’s adverse impact on Lizzy? It’s not meant to be as excessive as psychological warfare, proper? 

I personally didn’t method it that approach. I didn’t suppose that it was intentional or that it had an agenda behind it. I really feel like I do know a variety of Jos. I really feel like I encounter them on a regular basis the place it’s not that they’re purposely making an attempt to upset you, it’s simply that they’re not eager about you. (Laughs.) They’re eager about different issues, and it’s normally about themselves. So it’s simply one thing the place you’ll be able to’t take it personally for those who’re on the opposite finish of it. When an individual like Jo does select to bathe you with consideration or reply to you, I’m positive it feels just like the solar is shining on you, and when she doesn’t, you’re actually left within the chilly. So I didn’t suppose that it was psychological warfare. Possibly Lizzy felt that approach, however I believe a variety of it’s self-created, if I can move my very own judgment on that.

Lizzy appears to need each solitude and recognition on the similar time. Can a working actor ever obtain that contradictory stability?

It’s robust. What Jo does effectively is that she is a real artist, however she’s additionally keen and conscious that there’s a recreation that must be performed as a way to have extra consciousness from different folks about your artwork. And a few folks might take a look at it and say that it’s about promoting your self or promoting out, after which different folks take a look at it as simply being sensible or savvy. So I believe it simply is dependent upon the individual, and never all people’s definition of success seems the identical. It’s a tough query to reply as a result of I believe you is usually a profitable actor simply doing group theater. For those who really feel fulfilled by it and it’s making you content, then you definately don’t essentially should be Tom Cruise as a way to really feel such as you’re a profitable actor. So there’s all types of levels of success.

Whether or not it was the tire swing set up or tying foam collectively, you had some distinctive bits of enterprise on this one. Did you obtain a tire swing lesson of some kind? That would definitely be a change of tempo from the standard sorts of coaching that actors do, be it voice or weapons.

I didn’t get a lesson with the precise tire, however I did get some rope to follow tying knots again and again. It’s fairly tough, particularly having to do it appropriately on digicam after they name motion. There’s just a little little bit of strain when all people is watching you do it. Once I was solid, Gayle Keller, our casting director, drove over to the home that I used to be renting within the Hudson Valley and dropped off a field of artwork provides and books that Kelly wished me to have. And within the field, there was a variety of brightly coloured yarn that Kelly wished me to follow weaving as a result of Michelle Segre’s [the real-life sculptor behind Jo’s art] art work employs a variety of that brightly coloured yarn. 

Initially, within the script, Kelly wished to have this close-up shot of Jo’s palms weaving, however as soon as I spent a while with Michelle Segre in her workshop, we realized that Michelle Segre’s work is so bodily that you just actually wished to see it in full. She makes use of her physique to create her artwork. She bends metal pipes or metallic pipes with simply her toes, utilizing her physique and the counterweight of it as a way to bend the pipes. She climbs up and down a ladder with a drill, and she or he’s sweating by the top of it. And in order that’s what Kelly ended up placing within the movie. Jo wrestles with this foam and this hen wire, and I used to be making an attempt to recreate this carrot that Michelle Segre had achieved with foam and hen wire and orange wax on the skin. I acquired to see her do it from scratch, after which I attempted to do this within the movie. It took fairly some time, and I used to be additionally sweating afterwards. Kelly then mentioned one thing actually humorous. She was like, “Effectively, I simply filmed my first intercourse scene.” (Laughs.)

Michelle and Kelly had labored collectively 3 times already, and I presume they’re fairly simpatico. Since film or TV units can generally be difficult for the brand new one who’s becoming a member of long-time collaborators, did they exit of their solution to make all people really feel included of their artistic bubble?

I assumed the identical factor as you, however there was no bubble that wanted to be entered. I didn’t really feel like they have been doing something completely different from how they usually work together on different movies. It didn’t really feel insular in any respect, and I didn’t really feel like I used to be ready to be let in at any level. That factor that you just’re describing of being tuned into simply one another and tuning all people else out, it’s simply not who Kelly Reichardt is. She’s any individual who could be very taken with and interested by all folks. There’s no hierarchy or circles on her units. All of it feels very familial. Everyone is a good friend or a good friend of a good friend or a member of the family. Our two characters, Lizzy and Jo, are named after [co-writer] Jon Raymond’s daughters, and one in every of our producers, Neil [Kopp], his daughter is among the little women within the gallery on the finish of the film. Even the overalls I used to be sporting belonged to a good friend of Kelly’s, so all the things simply felt related to any individual or one thing else. It didn’t really feel like an atmosphere the place there could possibly be any divisions or partitions.

That early scene in The Whale the place Liz (Chau) and Charlie (Brendan Fraser) are watching TV simply rocked me as soon as we discovered what he wished from her. “Liz, please.” To remain on the subject of contradictions, have been you ever capable of reconcile the truth that she was each his enabler and his caretaker?

Yeah, for the viewers watching, I believe it does really feel very contradictory and odd, however after I actually give it some thought, each profound relationship or friendship that I’ve or have witnessed has some kind of unusual codependency concerned. Typically, there are parts or cases the place any individual can choose it and say, “That’s not wholesome,” however it’s true to life. In order that didn’t cling me up an excessive amount of after I learn it within the script, actually. 

The elements that I struggled with by way of their dynamic have been the moments when Liz was actually pissed off with him and behaved in a approach that was out of weak point. I’m considering particularly of the scene the place Charlie nearly chokes to demise, after which she’s simply so indignant and pissed off that she finally ends up hitting him. That’s one thing that incessantly happens with people who find themselves in long-term caregiver relationships or conditions. That’s perhaps one thing that’s not talked about usually, however it is vitally true to life and correct. One other tough one was when she realizes that he’s been retaining a secret from her, and she or he has to reevaluate who she is to him. So these have been the issues that took just a little bit extra thought and have been just a little trickier to play.

So I’ve to inform you that I actually felt for you throughout your eye-opening dialog with Marc Maron on WTF. What has the response been like now that you just’ve put your self on the market in regard to the way you have been handled throughout Downsizing’s launch? Has anyone reached out to acknowledge your emotions and/or apologize? 

Really, one individual did attain out, a really nice one individual. Sandra Oh reached out to me and wished to speak as a result of she listened to that interview. At any time when I do interviews, I by no means suppose that anyone truly reads or listens to them. So a part of me was mortified that she had listened to my interview, however it was so good that she reached out. She simply wished to speak, form of as a giant sister, and she or he was bummed for me as a result of she wasn’t conscious that that occurred. In order that was her first time listening to it, and she or he was simply actually upset within the response that individuals needed to the character. So it was simply very nice that she reached out in that approach, after which it was additionally so good to get to stumble upon her on the Oscars. One of many good issues about having labored for just a little longer is how I really feel at occasions now, and it’s just a little bit completely different from how I felt throughout Downsizing. I actually didn’t know anyone on the time, and it was only a very uncomfortable expertise. Each time I’d go to a cocktail social gathering or one thing, I’d simply form of stand there, holding a glass, however at the very least this time round, I knew a few extra faces within the crowd, with Sandra being one in every of them. In order that was a pleasant factor to get out of doing a podcast interview.

Did Matt Damon orchestrate the present Downsizing reunion between the 2 of you? 

Sure, I’m engaged on The Instigators proper now. We have been simply in Boston. We simply began filming, and it’s so good to get to work with him once more. It’s clearly a very completely different story with fully completely different characters and energy dynamics and all the things. So it’ll be enjoyable, and I’m wanting ahead to this film being on the market on the earth.

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Exhibiting Up is now taking part in in New York and Los Angeles film theaters. This interview was edited for size and readability.