March 2007 - A few years ago, I used to see Kelly Hu everywhere. Whether she was promoting The Scorpion King, Cradle 2 the Grave or X2, or just hanging out on a red carpet, she was everywhere. Now it's been a while but she's back on the big screen, with some smaller, more intimate films. We can also see her every week on TV's In Case of Emergency, but more on that later.
You have a few movies coming out?
“I do, I have a movie called Shanghai Kiss that's going to be coming out, with Hayden Panettiere. She's in it. And Ken Leung. That I hear just got picked up for distribution. I have another, a short little tiny role that I did in a movie called The Air I Breathe where I did a scene with Brendan Fraser. That should be coming out soon, too.”
Who are these characters?
“Funny enough, the character that I play in The Air I Breathe is a madam in a strip joint. Not too far off from what I'm doing now. And also the character that I get to play in Shanghai Kiss is a woman from Shanghai, so I get to do the accent and everything, and it's a much softer character than I get cast in usually. And that was really nice to be able to show another side of myself.”
Do you speak Chinese?
“I have one line of Chinese.”
I mean in real life, are you fluent? Do you know it?
“No, I don't. Actually, that's my New Year's Resolution. I'm taking Mandarin because it's international. I'm actually Cantonese. But Mandarin only has four intonations and Cantonese has nine. So I'm going for the Mandarin.”
Are they studio or indie films?
“They're all indies.”
When you started acting, did you say you wanted to do action first?br] “I wanted anything. I just wanted to work, and I still feel that way. I don’t want to limit myself. The thing is, once you do martial arts as a girl, I think everybody remembers you for doing that. You beat up a couple of guys and then all of a sudden, you're the girl who kicks ass. But in this show, I don't really do any of that. It's all comedy. There is a lot of physical comedy and maybe getting to do all of the martial arts and stuff on film helps me with the physical comedy, not being afraid and awkward. But I think as an actor, you kind of, for me anyway, I'm happy just to be able to do anything and for me, the more different, the more new something is, the more I want to conquer it.”
Are you still tough?
“Yeah, I am. I've actually just started back into karate, into martial arts and I've got some bruises and stuff on my arms. But I love it. I enjoy it. I wear it like a badge of honor.”
Were guys afraid of you after the martial arts?
“You know, some guys I think were a bit intimidated but the ones that scare me are the ones who really like it. It's the ones that want to get beat up that are a little bit frightening.”
