Joan Chen
Joan Chen
Joan Chenis a Chinese-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In China she performed in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor. She is also known for her roles in Twin Peaks, Red Rose, White Rose, Saving Face and The Home Song Stories, and for directing the feature film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl...
NationalityChinese
ProfessionActress
Date of Birth26 April 1961
CountryChina
In order to dance professionally, you have to start at a young age. No matter what, your muscle structure and your bones have to be groomed from a very young age. Nobody wakes up at 17 and decides to become a ballet dancer. I'm saying that and someone's going to be born tomorrow who decides to do that and I'm going to have my foot in my mouth.
The lowest budget U.S. films are ten times times better than shooting in Tibet.
All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.
There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I'll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype.
I take class. I'm always ballet ready. I'm ready to go - got my tights and my shoes.
All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.
The difference between me and American-born actors is that I came here with the expectation of not being treated fairly.
There is no theoretical study of motherhood. You know, before I became a mother, I did play a mother, but I was like - I was more thinking of my own mother. I was doing my mother.
Acting is actually private.
I would never offer advice without the person asking for it. I, in general, don't believe in giving advice, actually, as a human being I don't.
I never went on an audition - when they were really looking at everybody.
I will always have a career. I believe in working. I don't believe that taking care of your house and children is enough for a woman. You don't feel complete.
Physical hunger and physical poverty is something I could only imagine. I've been poor when I was in China... As kids we never had to starve, but just didn't have enough meat, enough rice.
I danced in a Lifetime film. We shot in Canada and I got to work with a lot of the dancers who do So You Think You Can Dance, Canada.