Hong Chau

Hong Chau in 2016

Hong Chau (born 1979) is an American actress.

Quotes

• …When you have that sort of background, being an actor in Hollywood is like the wildest, most far-fetched occupation that you can think of and I kind of fell into acting because I was initially interested in writing when I was younger and I went to college initially thinking that I was gonna major in creative writing and that didn’t work out. I ended up studying film instead because I thought it was also another form of storytelling…
  • On how she landed into acting in “Hong Chau (‘Downsizing’): Challenge of character was ‘to be grounded but to also be a little bit larger than life’ [Complete Interview Transcript]” in GOLDDERBY (2018 Jan 1)

• … it is a character that is potentially provocative, but I don’t think that it was intended that way. That comes in with whatever baggage the audience brings in to the movie-viewing experience… There have been so many other movies where an Asian character has been under-served or just been sort of a background character…
  • On her character in the film Downsizing in “In Conversation: Hong Chau” in Clash (2018 Jul 2)

• …as an actor, I never am attracted to just playing a physicality or a bit – just having a disability or an accent or something isn’t attractive to be because it can kind of be like a party trick. When you’re dealing with a character who’s disabled, that’s somebody’s life. That’s somebody’s reality, so you need to treat it with a lot of respect and profundity and not to turn it in to a gimmick, like a ‘bit’...
  • On approaching and playing a character with respect and dignity in “In Conversation: Hong Chau” in Clash (2018 Jul 2)

• The most important thing was making sure she came across as a human being. We can all have many different sides, some that ask more of you in terms of identity than others. For me, I didn’t want her accent or her disability to be the most interesting things about her, but I did look into some real life female activists and took a lot of inspiration from those amazing women. I was also inspired by Flannery O’Connor; I grew up in Louisiana and you would always see pictures of her with her canes, as she suffered from Lupus, but continued doing amazing work. 
  • On how she prepared for her role in Downsizing in “Is Hong Chau the Year’s Breakout Movie Star?” in Town and Country Magazine (2017 Dec 21)