Kelly Hu has a history of success in Hollywood that includes everything from blockbuster movies like The Scorpion King to hit television series like BMF and East New York. Far more than an actor, she is an icon.
You have played a diverse range of characters, from film to television to animation. What attributes do you look for when deciding on a role?
Mostly, I’m looking to see who is going to pay me (laughing). Secondly, I like looking at the production to see who is involved, who’s directing, and who’s producing. That can give you a pretty good idea of what the production is going to be like. I think that’s pretty important.
Having found success in all three formats, do you have a preference?
I love doing animation because you can do it in your underwear or pajamas (laughing). It is so much easier to record. Film is fun because you are doing it for a short amount of time. You can move on to a different project and a different character. Television is good because it is stable with more long-running than film. Everything has its own pros and cons.
One of your most recent roles is Detective Veronica Jin on BMF. Describe what you like most about playing such a conflicted character.
She is such a fun character to play because she has the greatest backstory with her sister. She is certainly flawed. She is not a perfect cop who does everything by the book. She goes into the gray area with Brian willingly and crosses the line. I think it is so much more interesting to play that way because life is not always black and white. I think more often than not, life is just a lot of shades of gray. She is definitely in that gray area, going back and forth with what she does, legally and even morally. Even her relationship with Bryan is questionable.
Detective Jin is a hard-charging cop, but she has a strong moral code. How did you prepare for the role?
I love doing background stories. To me, the best way to prepare for a role—and my favorite part—is doing the backstory and taking what information I get from the script and figuring out the timeline of the events that happen in that city… In Detroit in the 80s, it was a very interesting time, especially for Asian Americans. The automotive industry was going downhill, and a lot of people were blaming the Japanese automotive industry. Asian Americans were being threatened and even killed. We were just coming off the heels of the Vincent Chin murder that happened in Detroit, where the men who killed him were never convicted. I think for me, doing all this kind of backstory feeds so much of the character. She has such a rich backstory too, with her sister and her parents.
Is it more difficult working on a show that takes place in the 80s compared to projects that are present day?
I think it is in a way because there are things that we take for granted now, like cellphones, navigation, or even things like the way we hold a gun or the kinds of weapons we are using. Things have evolved from that time. There’s a lot of detail that you have to research and think about before you put it up on screen because the audiences nowadays are so smart. They don’t let you get away with anything (laughing). If you don’t catch yourself, they will let you know (laughing).
I enjoy your role as political consultant Allison Cha on East New York. How would you like to see her story develop?
It seems as though she has a relationship going on with Jimmy. I hope that they bring me back and we can explore that a little bit more. It’s funny because he’s sort of running for chief of police and I’m playing a cop on BMF (laughing). There’s a little bit of overlap there. It would be great to be able to see how she could maybe sway him in a different direction. Maybe whether it be political or personal, I would love to see this character cause a little bit of trouble there.
Your acting is so believable. You seem fully immersed in the roles you play. Is it challenging keeping the characters from bleeding into your day-to-day persona?
I don’t think so. I feel like sometimes it is very difficult to sort of shake a character. I have had the experience before where I was so depressed after shooting a film, and it took me like three weeks to feel normal again. But with Detective Jin, I don’t feel as depressed. I don’t feel like she is the kind of character that I would have difficulty in shaking off even though I have been playing her for quite a while now because I work so intensely. I only have a few days of work per week. I get a lot more days off than I work. I think that really helps. I think that when you are working on an independent film, for instance, you are on a schedule that is super intense, where you are shooting a whole film in twelve days. You are working every single day and in every single scene, and you are immersed… I think it’s harder to shake off the character.
What would you say has been your most defining role to date?
I think a lot of people remember me from The Scorpion King because of “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson and it really being his first film, though he had a little appearance in The Mummy. Most people will remember me from that film. A lot of times people don’t recognize me because of makeup or the characters looking very different. I have been told by a lot of people that recognize my voice more than anything else. They say, “Oh, I didn’t know that was you, but when you talked, I knew that was you, for sure.”
How would you say you have grown both professionally and personally since the beginning of your career?
I started my career when I was just a teenager. I have grown tremendously. I think when I first started working as a teenager, I moved to Los Angeles when I was only 18 or 19 years old. I don’t think I took acting as seriously as I should have, because I started working right away. I booked jobs without ever having to really take classes. I didn’t hang out with a bunch of other actors or anybody else in the industry. It was really just kind of fun for me. It wasn’t until I started getting more regular work that I thought I better actually learn to do what these people have been paying me to do for the last ten years. That’s when I started getting more serious about the classes and really started to understand the craft. Ever since then, I really have had a new respect for the art, and I have been able to enjoy it on a whole different level.
Be’n Original
