By Kurt Anthony Krug
Legal News
Throughout her acting career, Lucy Liu has been seen on television and in film, going back and forth between the two media.
Her reason? She enjoys doing both.
“There’s something wonderful about the immediacy of television. You know television will be on air pretty fast. I love working on films because it’s a very condensed amount of time and it’s very concentrated. You just don’t know if the experience of what you’ve done will be shared. It depends on who buys it, the distribution, etc. There’s an intimacy involved in television because you’re in somebody’s home. You get to engage on a different level with people in their homes because they see you every week and you get to develop a character in a different way than you normally would on a film. A film has a beginning, a middle, and an end. On television, things can change; they’re a little bit more unpredictable,” explained Liu, a 1990 University of Michigan alumna, who splits her time between her native New York and Los Angeles
Liu is perhaps best known for playing Alex Munday in the two “Charlie’s Angels” big-screen reboots in the early 21st century, as well as the ill-mannered attorney Ling Wood on the 1997-2002 legal dramedy “Ally McBeal,” the brainchild of attorney-turned-writer David E. Kelley that starred Calista Flockhart as the titular character.
“I would get a lot of shout-outs from people about how bitchy she was and how much they loved it. So it’s a dichotomy about how people just love that kind of flavor on television. When there’s a little bit of conflict, people find that interesting. I liked how dry she was. I was glad to be able to be a part of that. Rather than make her so bitchy, I found her to be more complicated and honest. And I think honesty sometimes comes off that way,” recalled Liu, laughing.
This fall, Liu and Jonny Lee Miller of “Eli Stone” fame will star in “Elementary,” a radically different interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous character Sherlock Holmes. Miller will portray Holmes, whereas Liu will portray Dr. Joan Watson – a female variation on Dr. John Watson.
This is the latest take on Holmes in the recent resurgence of movies and TV series starring the renowned detective: 2009’s “Sherlock Holmes” and its 2011 sequel, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson, respectively; and “Sherlock,” the British TV series set in contemporary London, which debuted in 2010.
What makes “Elementary” stand out from the other two aside from the fact that Watson’s a woman is that it’s set in modern-day New York City rather than London and Holmes is a brilliant yet tormented detective straight out of rehab.
Holmes’ affluent father forces him to live with a sober companion: Watson, an addiction specialist. According to Liu, Watson was a successful doctor until she lost a patient – and her medical license – three years ago. She sees Holmes as another opportunity to help people, as well as pay a penance. However, once Holmes resumes work as a consultant for New York’s finest, she joins him on his cases. He finds her medical background useful and she realizes she has a penchant for being an investigator.
Earlier this year, Liu had a recurring role on the fourth season of “Southland,” the TNT police drama that gives the audience a raw and authentic look at L.A. through the eyes of the police. For her performance as Office Jessica Tang, Liu won a Critic’s Choice Television Award for Best Drama Guest Actress. “Southland” Executive Producer John Wells – whom Liu worked with on “ER” when she was just starting out as an actress – asked her if she was interested in playing Jessica.
“Anything John touches turns to gold. I was so interested in coming back and working with him. I didn’t know what he had in mind to be honest. I had no idea. He’s been developing this character and I just went with it. It’s something different than what I’ve done before – it’s more along the lines of an independent movie.”
Asked what inspired her to become an actress, Liu had no easy answers.
“The inspiration really was when I was very young, I wanted to act. I wanted to, I didn’t know what it was; I just knew it was a form of expression. It’s funny my mother recently gave me an envelope of things. And I’m like, ‘What is this stuff?’ She said, ‘Things I’ve been saving since you’ve been younger.’ So I finally opened it up – it’s been sitting there for two weeks – and it was a series of report cards from elementary school, junior high school, and high school, a certificate of attendance. It’s so interesting because from the comments from the teachers were ‘She’s very quiet. She’s very shy. She needs to participate in class.’ That’s exactly how my family was. All of us were not very expressive in any way…”
She continued: “It’s so interesting that this is the field I chose because this is something that I don’t think my parents could’ve seen coming from a mile away. I was so surprised to see that. It was so touching because I do remember that being a child was so difficult because of the language barrier and the cultural barrier. I feel acting was such a different route to take. Even though I didn’t know exactly what it was or what I was going for when I was younger, it was what I ended up pursuing once I graduated. How I fell into it, it was a burning desire, a quiet, secret desire that I had.”
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