The star of the films Charlie’s Angels and Kill Bill and TV series including Ally McBeal and Elementary and more than 100 other projects, now insists that if she were a white woman, she would have been offered meatier and more important roles in her more than 30-year career.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Liu, 56, said finishing her new film, Rosemead, was a struggle, but even when it was finished, she experienced problems finding a distributor.
“But even after we made the movie, it was like, ‘Does anyone want to distribute it?’ Everyone’s like, ‘How is it going to fuel us? What’s our kickback?’ It does come down to finances,” she told the outlet.
She went on to say many of the roles she has been offered over the years are “not necessarily roles that would challenge me or tap into my potential.”
She pointed to the criticism she suffered after the 2003 film Kill Bill when many accused her of perpetuating the “dragon lady” stereotype with her role as a martial arts warrior, especially when the other women in the film faced no such criticism.
“Why isn’t anyone else perpetuating the stereotype when we’re all assassins?” she exclaimed. “Vivica Fox or Daryl Hannah or Uma Thurman were not. I don’t even know if they have a word in English for American people. Well, I’m American, but I look like this, so I cannot get away from it.”
She added, “Other characters that are strong, that are not Asian, are not Dragon ladies. They are strong lawyers or politicians or mothers or doctors. But if I’m a doctor, then I’m going to be categorized as a super smart, nerdy Asian woman. I can’t get away from it because it’s trailing me because they want to label me.”
She insisted that the lull she experienced in her career after Ally McBeal was a result of Hollywood’s racist treatment of Asian women.
“I remember being like, ‘Why isn’t there more happening?’” she told THR. “I didn’t want to participate in anything where I felt like they weren’t even taking me seriously. How am I being given these offers that are less than when I started in this business? It was a sign of disrespect to me, and I didn’t really want that. I didn’t want to acquiesce to that.”
She continued, “I haven’t gone out and changed my face; there’s only so much I can do. I cannot turn myself into somebody who looks Caucasian, but if I could, I would’ve had so many more opportunities.”
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