As you get older, you reorient yourself as a person. For Hong Chau, whose eventful career took off with her memorable role as a six-inch Vietnamese refugee. Decrease and her villainous twist on HBO Guardianthe birth of a daughter in November 2020 was seen as the beginning of a slower pace of life.
“I’m a little older,” the 43-year-old says via video in a New York hotel room, “and I’ve been waiting a long time to get older. I wanted to enjoy and enjoy this time. I worked like me.” .
After the industry reopened and figured out how to keep going despite Covid-19, there were four films on Chau’s schedule in a short amount of time, most notably human-growth scripts with charming directors: Darren Aronofsky’s Oscar-winning film. WHALEKelly Reichhardt show yourself with Michelle Williams, Wes Anderson asteroid cityas well as Menua vicious black horror comedy starring Anya Taylor-Joy.
Taylor-Joy is Margo, who, along with her food-crazed partner Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), goes to an exclusive dinner at Hawthorne, a world-famous restaurant run by celebrity chef Julian Slovik (Ralph Fiennes). Food is a journey worth taking – exploring the paradise of molecular gastronomy – and shocking surprises await the wealthy patrons of the restaurant of more than a thousand people as night falls.
Margo is the only skeptic at the altar of food worship. But if Elsa, Slovik’s right hand and de facto Hostess and service manager Chau has the movie’s best line: “You eat less than you want,” she hisses, “and more than you deserve.”
When Chau first read the script MenuShe was in Portland, Oregon filming Reyhart’s film. “I knew [the film’s director] Mark Mylod van successorand I was only interested for that reason. But when I read it, I thought, “Oh my God, this script is so wild and there’s so much going on in it.” It was fun. It was really dark and unsettling, which I never worked on. So I had a lot to think about.”
At the beginning of the film, Elsa acts as a welcoming committee, showing Hawthorne’s guests around the island and showing them the ins and outs of this farm-to-table restaurant. She speaks in a soothing rhythm, her hair pulled back into a bun, her uniform paired with a bolo tie. “I came up with a kind of backstory for her,” Chau said, “and I was inspired by the crazy people I saw in Portland.”
She sent Mylod some inspiring photos, and he was torn at the thought that she was simply and undecipherable part of the background. “We had arguments about this where I was stubborn and adamant and luckily we have Amy Westcott as our costume designer who is also married to Mark in real life. She was happy to plot against Mark and came up with this amazing costume. I think it matched Elsa’s strictness.”
Menu he had three-star chef Dominic Krenn as a consultant to ensure Hawthorne was working accurately, and Krenn took Chau aside to talk about Elsa. “I love how graceful and completely controlled it is,” said the chef. “And I want you to come and work for me.
Chau laughs. “That seal of approval meant more to me than anything that came from our director.”
The rich hagiography that restaurants of this kind in the post-Bourdain, post-Chef’s table the world is condemned Menu.
There are even moments when shooting from above a lovingly cooked piece of meat with classical music seems like it’s about to happen. Chef’s table Anytime. But this world didn’t quite appeal to Chau: “I was very clumsy and uncomfortable when I went to restaurants when I finally left the house. I was very uncomfortable that people were doing things for me.”
When she thinks of her best food, she thinks of her mother, the Vietnamese refugee who raised her in New Orleans: “I didn’t grow up in restaurants. My mom is a great cook and loves to cook for us and this is her way of filling us with love.”
Such parental love was behind Chaus’ decision WHALE. She is a likely contender for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Liz, the nurse and girlfriend of reclusive 600-pound English teacher Brendan Fraser, who is locked in his house and yearns to be reunited with his daughter.
She initially turned down the script because she didn’t want to be separated from her young child. “When I was at work WHALEShe was eight weeks old and was not an easy baby. She is a wonderful child, but not an easy child. I switched between settings and they had a separate room for me in case I wanted to bring my child with me or needed some privacy. The first commercial, this beautiful Italian, said: “You are so brave that you starred in this film and separated from your child. You work so hard. It was so nice to hear.”
WHALE, due for a UK release early next year, has remained somewhat under wraps since its triumphant Venice premiere. Much criticism has been bubbling online over the film’s title, its treatment of fat people, and Fraser’s lack of an oddly fat personality to embody his character. “I know other people will talk about other things WHALEbecause they are very simple and bright,” says Chau, squinting, “but the heart of the story for me was the father and daughter and this love.
“I signed on to the film because I could connect so deeply with this character who was separated from his daughter. [for] years and was desperate to reconnect with her,” she says. As first parent at age 41: “I was so happy to have this beautiful little nugget in my hands, but I was already thinking and whining, ‘I’m not going to get to know you for as long as I want to.’ I could empathize with him and had such strong feelings about the plot of this film.
Emotions were enough for the premiere in Venice. Fraser, who despite online criticism is a hot favorite for the Best Actor Oscar, received a standing ovation. Chau was in tears. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve already seen this, I won’t cry,’” she recalls. “I was in total disarray. Then I was also very touched that Brendan put so much into this role and I was just really happy for him.
For Chau to work these days, the film has to be worthwhile. “It’s not that I don’t like movies very much,” she explains, “but my career is no longer a priority.”
But between Menu, WHALEand her upcoming roster, the job finds Chau just the way she should be – there’s a certain category of actors who exude intelligence and a roaring mind on screen, and Chau is one of those gems.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.