Barbie Composition: Margot Robbie adds another layer of character to her versatile body of work

Margot Robbie wasn’t a huge Barbie lover growing up. The Australian actress who conquered Hollywood with seeming ease in her early 20s is unsure if she ever even had a Barbie doll. She spent a lot of time in Queensland, preparing mud pies with her cousin, playing with trucks and constructing forts.

The fashion sense came later; Robbie’s strong, glam femininity is currently being honoured in the Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion exhibition at Australia’s National Museum of Screen Culture, alongside other female screen icons who have taken creative control and shaped their own image. “The clothes are a huge part of this movie and a huge part of Barbie,” she says. “It’s super superficial – but it’s incredibly profound at the same time. Everything in this movie had to be authentically artificial.”

Also Read: Barbie at 60: We salute several of her more intriguing incarnations

Transformed into a fantasy comedy directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women), Barbie hits cinemas this month. The Barbie actress not only plays the lead Barbie character (opposite Ryan Gosling as the main Ken) but also pulls the production strings through her company, LuckyChap Entertainment.

The actress, who turns 33 this month, has already had a career filled with memorable movie roles and, in real Barbie fashion, red-carpet looks. She got her start on the popular Australian soap, Neighbours, then quickly relocated to Los Angeles to pursue her Hollywood ambitions. Her rapid rise continued, as she was able to share credits with a number of well-known actors and filmmakers during her first few years in the US, earning praise from both the public and critics.

Life is her creation

Straight away, Margot Robbie landed top billing beside Christina Ricci in the period TV series Pan Am (2011), then appeared in the time-travel romantic comedy About Time, and shone alongside Leonardo di Caprio in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). She won the hearts of the DC Comics faithful with her portrayal of villainess Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016), a role she reprised in 2020 for Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and again in The Suicide Squad the following year.

Also Read: How well do you know ‘The Suicide Squad’ actress Margot Robbie?

Robbie garnered her first Oscar nod for her complex portrayal of controversial US figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya (2018), and then regularly landed award-season nominations – including Bafta supporting actress shots for her performance as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and her work in Bombshell (2019). The latter also brought in a second Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe shout-out.

While taking home a top award still eludes her, there is no question that Robbie will dominate the big screen for years to come. Acting is not her only concern, though; through her behind-the-scenes work as a producer, she has become a powerful advocate for women in Hollywood.

Beyond the Barbie world

Co-founded by Robbie in 2014 with three friends – one of whom, Briton Tom Ackerley, became her husband – LuckyChap has been committed to producing compelling female tales and assembling teams of female artists. These include I, Tonya, and multi-Oscar nominee Promising Young Woman, written and directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Carey Mulligan. More doors are being opened for women in Hollywood by Robbie and co., and she is also promoting women’s rights in the industry on her own platform. She has been an outspoken proponent of the #MeToo movement and has pushed to make the film industry a safer place.

Reflecting on her own self-education about the prevalence of misogyny in the workplace, she says: “It horrified me just how that particular crime plays in the grey area. That’s where it really flourishes when a situation isn’t black and white, and that’s when insidious people like Roger Ailes [as depicted in Bombshell] or Harvey Weinstein take advantage of that grey area.”

She is passionate about getting women involved in action movies since that particular genre is where the big money is. “Also, the perception that women aren’t interested in action is ridiculous,” she adds.

With the industry on the precipice of great change, Robbie finds herself not in the position of the burgeoning film starlet that she was a decade ago, but an executive producer making tectonic shifts to break the patriarchal mould.

Never going out of style

And then there’s her influence through fashion, which is a way of expression but also a powerful key for change. Empowering women through fashion is something strong and possible.

Barbie makes her own statement by dressing with intention. She doesn’t dress for the day; she dresses for the task, which might involve a leisure activity or a form of employment. In the official movie trailer, one scene stands out as it pokes fun at the way the Barbie universe seems to blur such distinctions.

Stepping into the shoes of stereotypical Barbie, Robbie describes what makes her special beyond the many clothes she gets to wear: “[Wonder Woman actress] Gal Gadot is [the inspiration for] Barbie energy. Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. Yes, she can wear a short skirt, but because it’s fun and pink. Not because she wants you to see her butt.”

Also Read: Gal Power: Gal Gadot shatters superhero glass ceiling with Wonder Woman Debut

When the acclaimed actress is not in character, she is often checking the websites of train companies as travelling on the Orient Express was on her bucket list for a long time. “All I want to do is live on a train,” she says. “You literally wake up and you open the window, [you are in Switzerland] and it looks like The Sound of Music.”

Margot Robbie is at full speed and in the driver’s seat of her childhood dream of making it big in Hollywood. With Barbie, an intriguing cinematic take on a past childhood icon, it’s clear that the actress-producer won’t be hitting the brakes any time soon. Or as Barbie would say, live your dream.

Five things you need to know about the widely talented Michelle Yeoh

Over the past couple of decades, it seems the world has begun to covet slightly older, more worldly action stars. Think Liam Neeson’s hit Taken trilogy, which he began shooting at the tender age of 56. Then there’s The Expendables franchise, whose leading men’s ages range from their fifties (Jason Statham) to mid-seventies (Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger). Proof positive that global audiences have truly embraced cinematic silver foxes.

Yet the same cannot be said for the fairer sex. Indeed there seems to be a dearth of more mature leading ladies taking the lead in high-octane action thrillers, with the exception of one notable outlier – Michelle Yeoh. The Malaysian-born actress, who turns 60 later this year, remains one of Tinseltown’s most highly sought-after screen sirens. After already having forged a successful career in the Far East, she made her Western debut in the James Bond outing Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997 before being catapulted to Hollywood fame in Ang Lee’s smash hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon three years later.

Fast forward to today. While many of her counterparts are being sidelined in favour of more youthful thespians, Yeoh remains in hot demand. In fact, in the past few years, she’s added impressively to her portfolio. She’s won major roles in multi-million dollar productions such as 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians and kung fu film Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy, 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings, and more recently, in the critically acclaimed absurdist dramedy Everything Everywhere All at Once.

In an industry notorious for being perceived as being both ageist and racist, Yeoh’s reign at the top of the box office continues unabated. To celebrate the trailblazer’s decades of success, we delve into some lesser-known facts about this versatile actress.

1. Early Aspirations

Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng was born on 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Malaysia to Yeoh Kian-teik, a politician and lawyer, and Janet Yeoh. An all-rounder at school, she excelled at sports such as swimming and rugby, but even at an early age, she knew what she wanted to be – a ballet dancer. Having begun ballet lessons at just four, she continued to pursue her dream after moving to London with her family at age 15, eventually studying at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance.

However it was not to be, as a spinal injury sidelined her from the stage, causing her to switch her focus to choreography instead. A new calling emerged several years later, however, when her mother secretly entered her in a Miss Malaysia pageant in 1983. Once she nabbed the crown, film opportunities began trickling in, launching what would eventually be a decades-long career. Ballet’s loss was cinema’s gain.

2. Kung Fu Prowess

When Yeoh first got her big acting break back in the ’80s, she was often faced with sexism from her male colleagues when it came to preparing for action movies. Despite the obvious risks, in those early days, she almost exclusively performed all her own stunts as she “didn’t have help from CGI” back then. Recalling the antagonism she faced while training in local Hong Kong gyms, she recalls: “They literally folded their arms, stood back and watched me. ‘This little thing wants to do all this?’ But I followed them move for move. I was in that gym from 8.30am until sundown every day.”

3. Stunt Work

It wasn’t just the trainers that used to look at her sideways, however. The streak of male chauvinism also encompassed many of her co-stars as well, most notably with Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, whom she first collaborated with back in 1984 – her first acting gig – while shooting a watch commercial. The latter, who Yeoh has gone on record as saying believed women belonged in the kitchen rather than in action movies, tried to enforce his views on her. The result? In her own words, she “kicked his butt”.

4. Acting Hiatus

Although Michelle Yeoh has been with her long-time partner, French motor racing executive Jean Todt, for nearly 20 years, she was once married to successful Hong Kong entrepreneur, Dickson Poon, following her rise to prominence in the local film industry. At that time, the then-25-year-old decided to retire from acting to focus on her new husband and family.
Looking back, she says: “I’m in awe of women who can juggle an amazing career, motherhood and family. I cannot. At that point I realised that if I was getting married then that’s what I wanted to focus on. I’m a very, very committed person, and I knew I couldn’t be the best wife – and hopefully mother – if I was away months on end shooting. I didn’t know how to balance that. I wanted to be able to travel with my husband. I wanted to be a part of his life and make it our life.” Sadly, Yeoh was unable to have children, and the couple parted ways four years later.

5. Second Wind

After settling for playing the mother or other secondary characters for a few years, her renewed success on the big screen was as much a shock to Yeoh as it is for anyone else. In fact, she claims to being somewhat tickled at being introduced to a whole new generation of movie-goers as she nears 60. “These young kids don’t know me because they didn’t grow up watching Tomorrow Never Dies or Memoirs of a Geisha. Now I’m suddenly known by the younger generation, and they can relate to me suddenly, and I think that’s a great achievement,” she muses.

While the change may be as fortuitous as it was unexpected, there’s no sign of the momentum abating anytime soon. Next, the Crazy Rich Asians actress is set to act in James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar sequel, set to be released later this year. Then, there’s the as-yet unnamed Star Trek: Discovery spin-off rumoured to be in the works that will see her reprise her popular anti-protagonist character of Philippa Georgiou. After that, the future is less clear, but chances are we’ll be seeing her on the silver screen for many more years to come.

Awkwafina: The unexpected Hollywood star we didn’t know we need

To say that 2018 was a seminal year for Awkwafina would be putting things mildly. Having only been known in certain comedy and music circles until then, she suddenly found herself in the limelight with not one, but two breakthrough movies – Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians. Since then, she’s gone on to become a household name as an actor, creating her own TV show, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, and starring in several blockbusters. Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, in which she voiced Sisu, were among the quartet of movies she headlined last year.

Indeed, the talented 33-year-old is the very definition of a multi-hyphenate. Actor, comedian, rapper, writer – it seems that everything the New York City native touches turns to gold. But while her life may seem like a fairy tale today, it has been anything but easy…

Grandmotherly Love

Nora Lum – to give the actress her birth name – was born on 2 June 1988 in New York as the sole child of Wally, a Chinese-American, and Tia, a South Korean painter. Tragically, her mum passed away when she was just four, leaving her father and his parents to raise her. If the story sounds familiar, that’s because it closely mirrors the life of her eponymous character in Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, the hit TV series she created for Comedy Central.

Like her fictional role, Nora spent her formative years in the New York borough, and was particularly close to her paternal grandmother. An early role model, the latter signed her up for singing lessons as a child without her father ever knowing. Speaking of this close relationship, the star explains: “My grandmother is everything to me. She taught me that Asian women are strong. They’re not meek orchard-dwelling figures.”

Losing Home

Awkwafina in ‘Awkwafina is Nora from Queens’

Her grandparents ran a Chinese restaurant in the Flushing area of Queens, but when it began to fail, they had to file for bankruptcy, losing the business as well as their home. At this point, the entire family was forced to move into a tiny apartment, with Lum sharing the sole bedroom with her grandparents until she turned 12. Recalling these troubled times, she notes: “I remember staying up with my grandma at night and asking her, ‘What is the only thing you wish for that you could have right now?’ And she said, ‘To pay the bills.’”

Troubled Teen

akwafina shang chi — Athe premiere of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings

Having been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) as well as depression during her teens, Nora was anything but an A-plus pupil. Despite being accepted into the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School – an institution famed for churning out musical talents and thespians such as Al Pacino, Jennifer Aniston and Timothée Chalamet – she was, in her estimation, “a bad kid”. She says she would often skip class to drink or smoke with friends, and would always get caught. Thankfully, she managed to scrape together a C-minus average, eventually graduating and – after learning Mandarin in Beijing – making it to the University of Albany.

Also Read: First Asian superhero in a Marvel movie: Simu Liu as ‘Shang-Chi’

Alter Ego

akwafina Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy category — Awkwafina wins the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy category at the Golden Globes

Lum fell in love with music at an early age, learning to play the trumpet when she was in the fifth grade and training in both the jazz and classical traditions. However, it was rap that truly captivated her imagination. She began rapping when she was 13, often recording her own tunes into a boombox mixtape recorder, and three years later picked out her own stage name – Awkwafina.

It wasn’t until Nora was in college, however, that she would fully embrace Awkwafina as her alter ego. Having to temper and filter herself to fit the mould of a ‘proper’ university student, she used that outlandish persona to release the repressed side of her personality. “She’s the girl who’s high on sleepover energy, running around and dunking ice cream cones in her eyes,” shares Lum. “College was like prison reform where I learned to be quiet and more passive – so when Awkwafina comes out on stage, she’s that crazy high-school kid that doesn’t really care about anything. It’s an extra burst of confidence that Nora doesn’t have. There is a duality.”

Bad Rap

akwafina ocean's 8 — Awkwafina with co-stars Sarah Paulson, Sandra Bullock, Rihanna, and Cate Blanchett in Ocean’s 8

Awkwafina may have been rapping and producing her own songs since her teenage years, but her first big break came in 2012 when My Vag became a viral hit on her YouTube channel. Her song’s success – it garnered over three million views – galvanised her into a frenzy of songwriting, and she followed it with the 12-track Yellow Ranger album in 2014, then In Fina We Trust in 2018. She was featured in the rap documentary Bad Rap, an exposé on four Asian-American hip-hop artists, which debuted at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

Awkward Feelings

Akwafina nora lum crazy rich asians — Dolled up for the premiere of Crazy Rich Asians

Having long struggled with depression and her overall mental health, Awkwafina was not shielded from feelings of inadequacy and anxiety when she found fame. Indeed, she points to the summer of that seminal year – 2018 – as being particularly challenging. When Netflix film Dude, Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians were released in a rapid five-month span, the sudden attention and scrutiny caused her to feel displaced.

“That summer, it was a lot of people being like, ‘Just enjoy, dude, just have fun, live in the moment,’” she recalls. “All this stuff started to come up. I wondered at a certain point, when everything in my life was amazing, why I felt so low and with no sense of identity.” Thankfully, she’s now adjusted to her celebrity status.

Farewell Arrival

Not only has she successfully overcome stereotypes and mental health issues, she’s even made acting history. With her 2020 Golden Globe triumph, she became the first-ever performer of Asian descent to win in the Best Actress category (for her poignant portrayal of Billi in The Farewell).

So what’s next for Lum and her wildly successful alter ego? Well, next month sees the barrier-breaking talent lend her voice to animated film The Bad Guys as Ms Tarantula and then to the part of Scuttle the seagull in the 2023 live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

Also Read: Jess Unstopabble: Here’s what you didn’t know about actress Jessica Chastain

(Text: Tenzing Thondup)

Robert Pattinson – From child actor to Hollywood heavyweight

Robert Pattinson has been around for a while. Perhaps you discovered him in the 2005 fourth cinematic instalment of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter anthology as budding wizard Cedric Diggory. Maybe you swooned over his portrayal of brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series (2008-2013). Or perhaps you latterly stumbled over him in the most recent film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s unfinished horror novel The Lighthouse alongside Willem Dafoe.

Whatever your first exposure to the talented British thespian, chances are – barring role reprisals – you’ll never see the like from him again. Such is the chameleonic, ever-changing face of Robert Pattinson in a wide range of genres. And it is precisely this ability to switch mindsets and mannerisms with apparent ease that has won him such favour in Tinseltown and beyond.

Although the 35-year-old has gracefully transitioned from child actor to teen heartthrob to full-fledged leading man, given his slender frame and almost feminine features, few could have guessed that he would replace Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader in the upcoming The Batman film, beating out such other Hollywood heavy-hitters as Nicholas Hoult and Armie Hammer. Yet, the soon-to-air movie has already garnered much anticipation from DC Comics fans and is intended as the opening salvo in a new Batman trilogy. To celebrate Pattinson’s coup in landing the role, we delve into some of the lesser-known facts about the latest Dark Knight…

Schoolboy Porn

Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson – to give the actor his full name – was born in London on 13 May 1986 as the youngest of three children. His mother, Clare, was a booker at a modelling agency, and his father, Richard, a vintage car dealer. The family was wealthy enough to send their only son to the prestigious Tower House School, an independent prep school whose alumni include fellow thespian Tom Hardy, comedian Jack Whitehall and journalist Louis Theroux.
Pattinson was soon expelled, however, for a rather shocking misdemeanour; he was caught stealing pornographic magazines and then selling them to his schoolmates. “I used to go in [to the shop] and take, like, one or two, and then put them in my bag. I was in my school uniform when I was doing it, and it was kind of risky,” he recalls sheepishly. “At the end, I got so cocky that I would take the entire rack.” Naughty, naughty.

Magical Debut

robert-pattinson-the-batman (8) — Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The not-so-sweet 17-year-old had just three acting credits to his name when he landed the coveted role of Hufflepuff boy-wizard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was undoubtedly a coup for the budding actor, and arguably the role that put him on the map. Interestingly, due to delays in the filming schedule, he had to decide between accepting the part or attending university. “It went so far over schedule, I couldn’t go. It was supposed to be four months, but it ended up being 10 or 11,” he says. “I was 17 and I was the only person who wasn’t in school. I’d just hang about.”

First Cut is the Deepest

robert-pattinson-the-batman (4) — Robert Pattinson in Twilight

While Goblet of Fire is his first movie credit, the first part he landed was in an earlier film – 2004’s Vanity Fair. He acted alongside the star of the historical drama, Reese Witherspoon, playing her teenage son. Ultimately, though, his scenes vanished from the final cut of the movie – a decision he remained unaware of until attending its screening.

It was a huge shock for the young Pattinson, but it ultimately worked in his favour when he auditioned for the Harry Potter franchise. He recalls: “The casting director, Mary Selway, felt so guilty that no one had informed me that she basically gave me the first run at the part in Harry Potter, so I was quite glad I got cut in the end.”

Red Carpet Slip Up

In what may be the ultimate case of misjudgment, the Twilight star attempted to sneak quietly into the 2007 premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Los Angeles, even though he only appeared in a single flashback scene. His efforts to slip in unnoticed backfired as he was immediately swarmed by Cedric Diggory fans, and was soon ushered onto the red carpet with other members of the cast.

This embarrassing situation was exacerbated by Pattinson’s dishevelled appearance. “I’d just been walking through Hollywood and it was a long walk and it was boiling hot,” he later explained. “I’d been eating pizzas and drinking beer for the whole summer and I looked disgusting.” His agent was furious because he ‘looked like an unbelievable mess’ in photos taken by the press. “My agent still sends them to this day… I was just pouring with sweat, you can just see [from] the photos. I look horrendous…”

Sick for the Part

It’s not uncommon for actors to embrace a variety of pre-shooting rituals in order to make their portrayal truer to life. However, Pattinson is known for taking this to the extreme. To enter the dark emotional state needed to film The Lighthouse in 2019, he has admitted to spinning in circles and putting stones in his shoes to throw himself off-kilter so his performance in the psychological drama would seem disjointed. He even forced himself to throw up before critical scenes. When asked about the technique’s effectiveness, he answered: “I think everyone feels very emotional when they’re throwing up, and it’s quite a nice little trick to get there.”

Clamouring for the Cape

robert-pattinson-the-batman (7) — Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne in The Batman (2022)

It’s no secret that Pattinson has a penchant for quirky roles and often eschews parts in more ‘mass-market’ productions in favour of smaller, indie films. So, many would be surprised to hear that he’d toyed with becoming the Caped Crusader even prior to being cast in the upcoming Batman reboot. “I’d had Batman on my mind for a while… [though] it’s such an absurd thing to say,” he shared recently. “I sort of had an idea to do it, and I’d been prodding Matt [Reeves, the film’s director]. He didn’t accept any prods, so I kept asking to meet him.”
Clearly his persistence paid off, and Pattinson was the one chosen to don the cape. Judge for yourself if he does the role justice when The Batman hits the silver screen on 4 March.

Jess Unstopabble: Here’s what you didn’t know about actress Jessica Chastain

Redheads in Hollywood were once typecast as fiery temptresses or hot-blooded vixens. Yet, this stereotype has subsided somewhat thanks in no small part to the many varied onscreen performances of such talented ginger actresses as Jessica Chastain, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore.

Chastain, in particular, has found serious cinematic success across a wide array of genres, be it sci-fi (she played Commander Melissa Lewis in 2015’s The Martian), biographical (last year she was the titular character in The Eyes of Tammy Faye), thrillers (2012’s Zero Dark Thirty) or more. For her efforts, she has nabbed a Golden Globe and was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Baftas, in addition to being named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2012. With the talented screen siren set to grace cinemas this month in The 355 – an action-packed spy film with a star-studded cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Fan Bingbing – we take a look at some of the lesser-known facts about Jessica Chastain.

Estranged Relations
Jessica Michelle Chastain was born on 24 March 1977 in the Californian city of Sacramento. Her mum, Jerri Renee Chastain, and dad Michael Monasterio were extremely young parents, the latter being 20 and the former just 16 when Chastain entered the world. As an aspiring rock musician, her father abandoned his family a few years later, leaving Jerri to raise two young children by herself. Understandably, the Zero Dark Thirty star remained estranged from him for the rest of his life, and did not speak to him again before he passed away at the age of 55 in 2013.

Early Insecurity
As a single mother of four children, Jerri Chastain struggled to make ends meet. In one case, when they were living in North Carolina, the situation grew so dire that they were even evicted from their home. Recalling this turbulent period, the star has said: “Because my mom had us very young, many times we were in situations where we didn’t have stability. So, we moved around quite a bit when we were younger, and one time I came home from school, I was probably 13 years old, and there were people there locking the door…”

Acting Dreamcoat
Unlike many of her colleagues, Chastain was still a young child – seven years old, in fact – when she realised she wanted to become an actress. The seminal moment came when her grandmother took her to see a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. When she discovered the on-stage narrator was a scant three years older than her, she became determined to follow in her footsteps. Chastain never forgot her debt to the person who helped to spark her acting bug, and thanked her grandmother by taking her to the Oscars in 2012 and 2013 as her plus one.

From Dropout to Juilliard
Despite her obvious intellect, Chastain and school were not the best fit; she preferred to spend time reading Shakespeare rather than studying. Although she didn’t graduate from high school, she attended a local community college, and later, in 1999, was accepted at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York on a degree programme funded by a scholarship from Robin Williams.
“It was after my second year I found I got that scholarship, and it paid for not only all my schoolwork, but my apartment and my books, and my flight home to see my family for Christmas. It took care of all of that,” reminisced Chastain. “Each year I wrote him a letter about how significant that gift was to myself and to my family.”
Sadly, though, she never got to meet the comedian before his untimely death in 2014. The closest she came was at a restaurant when he was seated at a nearby table. She wanted to wait until he finished eating to introduce herself, but Williams slipped out the second he was done and she never saw him again.

Family Tragedy
Graduating from New York’s prestigious Julliard should have been one of the happiest days of Chastain’s life, but unfortunately a dark cloud hung over her. Just three days before, her sister Juliet had committed suicide at the age of 24, having struggled with drug abuse and depression for many years. Unlike Jessica, who was a year older, Juliet had reconciled with their estranged father and was living with him when she tragically ended her life.

Love in her Acts
After her sister’s suicide, Chastain took measures to raise awareness about depression, mental health and suicide, and began supporting the charity To Write Love on Her Arms. An animal lover, she also volunteers for the Humane Society of the United States, and used to spend Sundays at Los Angeles’s Animal Acres shovelling hay for horses.

Epic Success
Chastain’s career may have started slowly, but she blossomed into a major star. As well as Oscar-nominated movies, she has appeared in blockbuster hits, from the animated success of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted to the epic Interstellar and the horror giant It: Chapter Two. As of 2020, the domestic box-office takings from 23 of her movies raked in over US$1.4 billion and totalled US$3.65 billion worldwide.

Noble Match
The Zero Dark Thirty star has always been notoriously tight-lipped about her personal life, but she is, in fact, married to Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, an Italian count and scion of a revered noble family from the country’s Lombardy region. She and Preposulo – who is a fashion executive at Moncler – were married in 2017 in a private ceremony at his family’s Treviso estate, and share two children.

Help in the Dark
Since 2010, the actress has racked up more than 30 credits, most of them feature-length films. These include her Oscar-nominated performances in The Help and Zero Dark Thirty and acclaimed headlining roles in the likes of Miss Sloane and Molly’s Game, both of which earned her Golden Globe nominations. While The Help may have put Chastain on the map, it was Zero Dark Thirty that solidified her credentials and catapulted her into the big league.
But she nearly didn’t appear in the latter film at all. It wasn’t due to a lack of interest on her part – she accepted the lead role of CIA agent Maya Harris even before reading the screenplay – but because of scheduling conflicts due to a contractual obligation to co-star in Tom Cruise’s 2013 action film Oblivion. Thankfully, Cruise released her from that former commitment, and we now have a wide breadth of fantastic films from that one fateful decision.

The full version of this feature appears on Gafencu Magazine’s January 2022 print issue as ❝Double Digits❞ by Tenzing Thondup. Download the free app (iOS, Android) for digital editions of the magazine.

Strange Attractor: Unfolding the life and career of Benedict Cumberbatch

When Benedict Cumberbatch first donned the iconic deerstalker hat to become Sherlock Holmes in the eponymous BBC TV series 11 years ago, the British thespian probably had no idea how seminal the role would be for his career. Yet, his powerful modern-day portrayal of the mastermind detective mesmerised audiences around the globe, paving his way to juicier roles and, eventually, Hollywood superstardom.

Now a bona-fide leading man, Cumberbatch’s chameleonic acting abilities have seen him cinematically embody a series of other fictional and real-life characters to impressive success: he played superhuman villain Khan Noonien Singh in 2013’s Star Trek: Into the Darkness, Smaug the dragon in The Hobbit anthology, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate, code-cracker Alan Turing in the WWII movie The Imitation Game (2014) and – in perhaps his biggest role to date – multiple outings as Dr Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Having lived in the limelight for well over a decade now, pretty much every aspect of Cumberbatch’s life has received media attention. From the personal – much hubbub was made of the purportedly £300,000 engagement ring he bestowed upon now-wife, theatre director Sophie Hunter – to the professional – he was slammed for calling black actors ‘coloured’ in 2015 – you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s not much left to learn about the Sherlock Holmes star, but the following facts make intriguing reading…

Benedict the Barrister?

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born on 19 July 1976 in London’s Hammersmith district and seemed to be destined for the big screen. After all, his parents, Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, were established actors boasting countless television and stage production credits. Yet, their chosen calling encouraged the young Cumberbatch to seek a more stable profession. Speaking of his parents, who are now in their 80s, he shared: “[Acting is] a very odd, peripatetic, crazed, out-of-your-control work and social schedule. It’s very hard to plan a family life, let alone know where the next pay cheque is coming from, so they worked very, very hard as my parents, and actors, to afford me an education whereby I had the opportunity and the privilege to try and channel myself towards other goals.”

So, which profession did he have in mind? “For a while, I wanted to be a barrister because there’s definitely a crossover with criminal law,” he mused. “I would’ve loved the performance of court, the idea of persuading people, storytelling and all that. It parallels beautifully with acting, lots of frustrated, amateur dramatics going on in court all the time. I think lots of barristers literally perform in amateur dramatic societies and are very good actors. It’s a massive crossover.”

From Lama to Lamda

After graduating from Harrow public school and before studying drama at the University of Manchester and then the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda), the Dr Strange star decided to take a gap year. Unlike most of his peers, however, he chose to volunteer his time, teaching English at a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling, India. In return, he learnt a thing or two about meditation. “I’d always been fascinated by the idea of meditation and what it meant,” he once said. “In India, I went on a retreat with a lama – several days of incantation to clear and purify the mind. It was incredible and I kind of floated out of there after two weeks.”

Shy to be Sherlock

Although playing ‘the world’s greatest detective’ may have catapulted Cumberbatch to the big leagues, his first inclination was to reject the part. “I heard about it and thought that it sounds like an idea to [re-franchise] something to make money. It could be a bit cheap and cheesy,” he explained. “But then I found out who was involved… My mum had done a few episodes of Coupling with Steven Moffat, and Mark Gatiss was a huge hero of mine, so I knew the stable was good. I thought I would read it, and then I fell in love with it.”

Nearly the End?

While filming the 2005 miniseries, To the Ends of the Earth, in South Africa – about a young man sailing to Australia on his own gap year of sorts – the actor had a frightening near-death experience. During a production break, he and two co-stars headed out to learn how to scuba dive when they had a flat tyre. “The three of us were trying to change the tyre when these six [armed] men appeared suddenly from the eucalyptus. They said: ‘Put your hands on your head; don’t look at us,’ and were frisking us for drugs, money, weapons. Then they bundled us into the car and put me in the boot,” he recalls.

It was quick thinking on his part that probably saved his life. “I said: ‘There’s a problem with my heart and my brain. I will die, possibly have a fit, and it will be a problem for you. I will be a dead Englishman in your car. Not good.’” This impromptu warning deterred the felons from proceeding any further with their kidnapping plot. Cumberbatch and his colleagues were dumped by the roadside and left for locals to find.

Assange Harangue

Prior to filming The Fifth Estate, Bill Condon’s biopic about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the meticulous actor reached out to the man himself to prepare for the role. The response, though, was rather less welcoming than he might have hoped. While Assange stated that he would very much enjoy meeting him, the majority of his reply consisted of trying to convince the leading man not to do the movie. He said, “You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth.”

Thankfully, Assange’s designated portrayer was not deterred. Cumberbatch declared that he “wanted to create a three-dimensional portrait of a man far more maligned in the tabloid press than he is in our film to remind people that he is not just the weird, white-haired Australian dude wanted in Sweden, hiding in an embassy behind Harrods, but a true force to be reckoned with, [who] achieved the realisation of the great ideal.”

It’s this same dedication to his craft that has typified Cumberbatch’s past roles and captivated audiences the world over. And, hopefully, one of the profession’s most memorable names, and most skilled performers, will continue to bring that same commitment to his future works as well.

Salma Hayek: Her journey to landing Marvels ‘Eternals’

Following the long-awaited releases of Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings over recent months, the next instalment of the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is poised to enthral us. Slated to open on 18 November, Eternals depicts the travails of immortal beings who reunite after millennia of hiding on Earth to battle their archenemies, the Deviants – and it promises to be the most diverse to date.

Much has been made of the fact that its core superhero cast will feature the franchise’s first openly gay character (Phastos), that Pakistani-American actor Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo will be its first protagonist of South Asian descent, and Don Lee – of Train to Busan fame – the first South Korean superhero. What’s more, both director (Chloé Zhao) and lead (Gemma Chan) are Chinese. Rather less noise has resonated, however, over the casting of Mexican screen-siren Salma Hayek as Ajak, the Eternals’ spiritual leader. After all, the Desperado star will become the series’ first Arab actress (Hayek actually boasts Lebanese ethnicity through her father).

A 32-year veteran of the industry, Hayek is no stranger to breaking boundaries. She was one of the first Latina talents to make it big in Tinseltown, in no small part due to her versatility in the genres of drama, comedy, romance and action. But life hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the Frida thespian. We shine the spotlight on the soaring highs and challenging lows that she’s overcome…

Peace & Pesos
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez was born far away from the shining lights of Hollywood in the southern Mexican port city of Coatzacoalcos on 2 September 1966. Her mother, Diana, was an opera singer, while her Lebanese-Mexican father, Sami Hayek Dominguez, worked as an oil executive in addition to owning an industrial equipment company. Her Lebanese surname reflects her paternal roots, while her first name ‘Salma’ means ‘peace’ in Arabic. She was fortunate to be raised in a wealthy home, which afforded her the opportunity to go to boarding school in the United States at age 12.

Boarding School Blues
Salma’s schooldays weren’t always easy, as she was diagnosed with dyslexia at an early age. This didn’t stop her from pranking her fellow students, however. In one interview, she recalled that her roommates – American girls – would wake early to curl their hair and put on makeup, whereas she’d rather “sleep until the last minute”. One day, she decided to turn back the clocks by an hour to mess with them. She was given detention, and ultimately kicked out of the strict Catholic boarding school in Louisiana. Despite these early hiccups and a learning disability, her innate intelligence saw her graduate from high school at just 15.

Acting Initiative
Throughout her late teens and early 20s, her stunning looks prompted approaches from casting agents. So, halfway through pursuing a degree in international relations and political science at Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana, she dismayed her parents by dropping out to pursue a career in acting. At just 23, she had her big break, landing the starring role in Teresa, a telenovela that would catapult her to superstar status in her native land. Not content to rest on her laurels, she decided to move to Hollywood to pursue bigger roles. “I wanted to do films, and at that time in Mexico, a film industry didn’t really exist,” she explains. “So where do you go to do movies? You go to the mecca. I was already famous in Mexico by then, and they were laughing at me, asking ‘Why is she doing that?’”

Desperado Times
At first it seemed her critics were right since Hayek struggled for four years in California, unable to land a single role. In many cases, the reason cited by studios for her rejection was that she was too Latina. It wasn’t until 1995 that she got her chance to prove her mettle in Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado alongside fellow Spanish-speaker Antonio Banderas. Then, the floodgates opened, with the actress cast in a slew of major productions before the end of the decade – From Dusk till Dawn, Wild Wild West and Dogma, to name but three of her biggest hits.

Rosy Repertoire
In 1999, having established herself as an A-list leading lady, Hayek launched her own production company. Ventanarosa, which is Spanish for ‘rose-coloured window’, produced the acclaimed TV dramedy Ugly Betty, which would eventually garner two Golden Globes. It also helped her hit Hollywood-legend heights by producing the historic biopic Frida (2002). Hayek’s seminal portrayal of the surrealist artist Frida Kahlo saw her become only the second Latina actress to receive a Best Actress nod at the Academy Awards.

Charity Begins at Home
In addition to her achievements in film, she is a dedicated philanthropist and activist. Spurred by an awareness of her own fortunate circumstances and the precarious position of those in her homeland, the Salma Hayek Foundation not only raises aid and awareness for battered women in Mexico, but has branched out to help disadvantaged street children, too. Hayek has also been involved with several Unicef initiatives, including spearheading a campaign against neonatal and maternal tetanus, and was awarded the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award by the international charitable organisation in 2018.

Covid Survivor
The Eternals star was recently worryingly close to death. Laid low by Covid-19, she spent seven weeks isolated in a room of the house she shares with her husband, French billionaire François-Henri Pinault (CEO of luxury group Kering), and their 13-year-old daughter. She became so ill that she was put on oxygen. “My doctor begged me to go to the hospital because it was so bad,” she reveals, “but I said, ‘no, thank you. I’d rather die at home,’” adding that she still hasn’t regained her pre-pandemic energy levels.

“My doctor begged me to go to the hospital because it was so bad, but I said, ‘no, thank you. I’d rather die at home’”

Auteur Ego
In line with her go-getting spirit, though, this hasn’t stopped her from planning ambitious projects. Apart from Eternals, Hayek also appears in Ridley Scott’s biographical crime drama The House of Gucci, which was shot earlier this year, and hopes to direct a film based on a script she wrote 17 years ago. “It’s a very personal project and this is the right time. It couldn’t have gotten made two years ago or even last year [but] I don’t give up. I’ll get it made,” she says of the passion production. While she’s remained tight-lipped about any details, if her past CV is any indication, it will be an instant hit.

(Text: Tenzing Thondup)

The promise of Timothée Chalamet…

At the tender age of 22, when most of his contemporaries were just beginning their careers, US thespian Timothée Chalamet was fêted by Hollywood as the youngest actor in almost 80 years to be nominated for Best Actor at the 2018 Academy Awards. Yet, much like Cinderella when the clock struck midnight, the following day saw Chalamet hit with the realities of his everyday life in Manhattan with no credit card, no roof over his head, and barely a few dollars to his name.

Yet, his perseverance in the face of such adversity has yielded huge rewards. Subsequent performances in big-screen productions such as Beautiful Boy, filmed later that year, and Little Women (2019) went on to garner critical acclaim and cement his status as a rising star.

Despite being something of a staple at red-carpet events lately – he sported white sweatpants and sneakers to what was dubbed the biggest fashion event of the year, the Met Gala – his rather recent entry into the limelight means that for the most part, his personal life remains an enigma. As Chalamet returns to the silver screen this month in the long-awaited film adaptation of cult sci-fi novel Dune, we delve into some lesser-known facts about the Call Me by Your Name star…

French Connection
Timothée Hal Chalamet – to give the now 25-year-old his full name – was born in the Big Apple to real-estate broker Nicole Flender and Marc Chalamet, an editor for UNICEF. Given his French-American roots, young Timothée spent many summers in his father’s hometown of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and speaks fluent French.
Speaking to the duality of his upbringing, the actor explained: “Once I was there, I became the French version of myself. I was completely imbued in the culture and I even dreamed in French.” A talented linguist, Chalamet Jr also picked up a smattering of Italian prior to filming Call Me by Your Name, which was set in Lombardy.

High-School Posse
Bitten by the acting bug at an early age, Chalamet attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, one of the most prestigious such establishments in New York City – luminaries like Jennifer Aniston and Nicki Minaj are alumni. While there, he partnered for the first time with his Little Women co-star Ansel Elgort. Not only did the two prodigies share the stage there, they were also on the same basketball team. Remembering their personalities, their former drama teacher Harry Shifman said: “They were both like rock stars, in a school full of rock stars. Everybody recognised them as being particularly gifted.”
Elgort wasn’t Chalamet’s only high-profile schoolmate, though. He also met Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon while attending LaGuardia, and after years of speculation about their relationship, the latter admitted earlier this year that the two had been an item when they were students.

Rap Game
In addition to starring in various high-school productions, Chalamet also dabbled in rap while attending LaGuardia. Under the alias “Lil’ Timmy Tim”, he created a music video in which he waxed lyrical about how much he loved his statistics teacher, Ms Lawton. Although said teacher only gave him a D+ grade for his effort, the clip went viral after he shot to stardom, with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres even playing it during Chalamet’s guest spot on her show. Later, when he appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he lamented: “I am never going to live this down. This is going to follow me everywhere.”

Interstellar Dropout
After graduating from high school, teen Timothée was accepted at the prestigious Columbia University, where he studied cultural anthropology. However, his enrolment coincided with the launch of his career, and he dropped out in 2014 after his freshman year, just before the release of his feature-film debut in sci-fi hit, Interstellar. Recalling the struggles of managing his acting commitments with his academic schedule, he said: “I just couldn’t figure out the balance, so I left school after a year, got an apartment in the Bronx… and have since been getting a steady stream of work.”

Young & Gifted
As mentioned, when the Call Me by Your Name breakout star was nominated for an Academy Award, he became the youngest actor to be so honoured since 1939, when then 19-year-old Mickey Rooney got the nod for his role in Babe in Arms. The event also made him the third youngest Best Actor nominee in Oscar history. While Chalamet has yet to clinch a major award, he has racked up a host of nominations for his CV, including three BAFTAs, two Golden Globes and four Screen Actors’ Guild Awards.

Gaining Respect
When #MeToo garnered global support in 2018, director Woody Allen was among the many Hollywood giants who faced backlash for his questionable past treatment of women. Chalamet was working with Allen in A Rainy Day In New York at the time, and in solidarity with the movement, the young man announced that he would donate his entire salary from the film to a list of charities aiding sexual assault victims and championing equal rights, such as Time’s Up, the LGBT Centre in New York, and RAINN. Explaining the move, he posted on Instagram: “I want to be worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the brave artists who are fighting for all people to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.”

Dune Bug
Even before he was attached to the newly released Dune, Chalamet was so keen to work with its director, Denis Villeneuve, that he set up a Google alert to track the film’s production and began reading the novel on the off chance that he would be cast. “I was about halfway through the book when he asked if I could come out to meet him, so I quickly busted through the second half of the book… And then I had that meeting, and it was such a joy,” he recalls. He certainly aced the face-to-face, nabbing his dream role as protagonist Paul Atreides in what will be an epic, two-part space odyssey.

How well do you know ‘The Suicide Squad’ actress Margot Robbie?

There’s no denying that Australia churns out more than its fair share of A-list actresses. From the chameleonic charm of Cate Blanchett to the ephemeral elegance of Nicole Kidman, screen sirens from Down Under have found wider fame in Hollywood. Headlining among a new generation of Australian talent to make their mark on the red carpet of Tinseltown is Queensland-born Margot Robbie.

Having her start in showbiz with a three-year stint as Donna Freedman in the long-running Aussie soap, Neighbours – a show that catapulted other eventual stars like Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth to Hollywood – Robbie hit the big leagues with such blockbusters as The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Suicide Squad (2016) and I, Tonya (2017), for which she picked up an Oscar nomination. On her welcome return to the silver screen in a familiar role as DC Extended Universe supervillain Harley Quinn, we delve into some lesser-known facts about this talented thespian.

Father from her Mind
Until roughly five years ago, all that was known about Margot Robbie’s father publicly was that he was a ‘former farm-owner’. It wasn’t until 2016 that Aussie magazine New Idea revealed his true identity: sugarcane tycoon Doug Robbie. Perhaps this oversight was deliberate on the actress’s part; after all, he abandoned her and three siblings when she was still a toddler. The two remain estranged to this day – it was her mother who walked her down the aisle when she wed British film producer Tom Ackerley – and when asked in an interview about the qualities she’d inherited from her dad, she fired back, “None. Nothing. I’m not like him at all.”

Margot the Maggot
Despite her status as a gorgeous Hollywood star today, Margot Robbie’s childhood classmates notoriously christened her “Maggot”, a nickname that stuck for years. Recalling this uncomfortable moniker, she has lamented, “‘Maggot’ started when I was five, in Grade One, and I detested it. By the time I was eight, I realised it wasn’t going anywhere so I embraced it, but when I moved to Melbourne [to begin acting], people started calling me it and I hadn’t even told them it was my nickname!”

Slap in the Face
Playing the character of Naomi Lapaglia, wife of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, in The Wolf of Wall Street is undeniably the role that got Robbie noticed. But her method of landing the part was unusual, to say the least. It was her unscripted slapping of the Titanic leading man in an argument scene while auditioning that wowed director Martin Scorsese and landed her the role. Recalling her momentous decision, she said: “In my head I was like, ‘You have literally 30 seconds left in this room and if you don’t do something impressive nothing will ever come of it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, just take it.’”

No More Nudity
For that same role, Robbie – who until this point had maintained a sweet, girl-next-door image – performed a sex scene atop a pile of money that required full-frontal nudity. But appearing in the buff was so uncomfortable for her that she even lied to her parents about the graphic scenes. In order to avoid any awkward embarrassment, she convinced them that CGI had been used to fit her head to another actor’s body. It’s no surprise, then, that when Hugh Hefner reached out to her to appear nude on Playboy for a substantial amount of money, she turned him down. Interestingly, the scene led to ‘a million paper cuts’, with the star quipping afterwards: “If anyone is ever planning to have sex on top of a pile of cash: don’t.”

Trapeze Act
Whereas many young girls enjoy learning to dance, sing or play a musical instrument, fearless young Margot bucked the trend with a rather unusual passion – trapezing. At the age of just eight, she was enrolled by her mother in a circus school where she received a ‘trapeze certificate’. However, her love of acrobatics was soon replaced with an inclination towards acting. Years later, she began to have recurring dreams of flying through the air under the Big Top. “I couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid dream,” she recalled. “I feel like I missed my calling.” It was this sense of incompleteness that would eventually push Robbie to return to trapeze classes.

Drunk Tattooing
In addition to being a bona-fide trapeze artist, Robbie has also dabbled in tattooing. In fact, she even inked her Suicide Squad co-star Cara Delevingne and writer-director David Ayer. However, during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she revealed that she’d given up the hobby after drunkenly tattooing a friend during a bachelorette party. “She walked down the aisle as one of the maids of honour in a backless dress and had this red, raw, scabbing tattoo and her mum was filthy with me … she was so angry and I thought, I really shouldn’t do this anymore,” laughed Robbie.

Suicide Stunts
In a serendipitous coincidence, the actress’s circus skills would come in handy when she landed her now-iconic role as Harley Quinn. Always a competitive spirit, though, she took things even further by performing many of her own stunts when filming Suicide Squad, including an intense fight scene which required her to hold her breath for minutes on end. Ultimately, her record was a staggering five minutes, though only one minute’s worth was actually used in the final cut. Recalling the intense physical acting by one of his leads, Ayer commented: “She has ridiculous depth, and she’s never been coddled, so she’s very physically courageous. The things she was doing herself as stunts, you wouldn’t believe. There’s only a handful of actors who do that sort of work themselves.”

Quinn-tessential Mismatch
Interestingly, despite the role having cemented her status as one of Hollywood’s major players, Robbie was not enamoured with the character of Harley Quinn, particularly her psychopathic personality. “I thought, I have nothing in common with her. I hate her,” she later said. “It was a really tricky one to get my head around.” Thankfully, she bit the bullet and accepted the part. Not only did this lead to Suicide Squad raking in nearly US$750 million at the box office, it spawned a 2020 spin-off, Birds of Prey, focusing solely on Quinn. Building on this commercial success, she’s reprised the role for a third time in yet another standalone sequel – rather unimaginatively titled The Suicide Squad – which premiered last month. Clearly, regardless of whether she’s overcome her Harley ambivalence or not, Margot Robbie knows which side her bread is buttered on…

(Text: Tenzing Thondup)

First Asian superhero in a Marvel movie: Simu Liu as ‘Shang-Chi’

The tide is rising in the Marvel multiverse, and there’s never been a more appropriate time to be a socially progressive fan of the superhero world.

Simu Liu, the 32-year-old Chinese-Canadian newbie actor of Kim’s Convenience fame, is shaking things at the white boys’ club. As the first Asian lead of a Marvel superhero film, he’s on the cusp of becoming the face of diversity, representing a population which isn’t all white, whilst carving out a permanent place for himself amongst Hollywood A-listers.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, due for release on 3 September, showcases a predominantly Asian cast, and pits superhero Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) against the terrorist group, Ten Rings, that was introduced in Iron Man. Social media sensation and Crazy Rich Asians’ actor Awkwafina also stars.
We take a look at Liu’s rocky path to stardom, which mirrors the progress of the times.

Canada Bound
Born in Harbin in 1989, Liu was raised by his grandparents until the age of five. His parents had migrated to Ontario to complete their education at Queen’s University and “start a better life”. By 1995, they were financially secured for their son to join them, but the two generations of the family were complete strangers. In an open letter to his parents, Liu states, “I was excited to finally meet my real parents and start my life in Canada, but I had no recollection of you.” It was a period of resentment, tough adjustment and culture shock for the youngster. “We fought often… If I tripped on my laces, I was clumsy. If I scored below an A, I was stupid. If I wanted to hang out with my friends, I was wasting my time. I spoke dismissively about you, told you I hated you, and that I couldn’t wait to leave the house. But privately, I yearned for your love and affection.”

From Accounting to Acting
Like most Asian families, Liu’s highly qualified, aerospace-engineer parents raised him to pursue a career in the sciences. Little did they know destiny had other plans. After graduating from Western Ontario’s Ivey Business School by the skin of his teeth, he got an accounting job with Deloitte in its downtown Toronto office. It was crash and burn from the word go. Liu hated crunching numbers, Deloitte was not a fan, and after nine months, he was laid off. “The first round of cuts, and I was right out,” he recalls.

Ashamed and embarrassed, he considered leaping from the balcony to avoid facing his high-achieving parents. But the thing about hitting rock bottom is that you can only go up. A pink slip motivated him to try something new – performing arts – and he was instantly drawn to the world of acting.

Also Read: Five things you really need to know about Andrew Garfield

More than a Stunt
Liu’s leading man status has been hard-earned. He started out as a stunt artist; Hollywood expected an Asian man in the industry to know martial arts. As a side gig, he performed stunts at birthday parties for extra cash. Serendipitously, it was a Craigslist ad directed him to his first acting role – an extra “deep, deep in the background” in the 2013 sci-fi film, Pacific Rim.

The aspiring star has always showed drive. Not one to sit back and wait for the ideal role or the perfect opportunity, he grabbed whatever came his way and gave it his all – and that tactic has paid off, big time!

Plea to Marvel
The struggling actor was “handing out dog-food samples on the side of the road in Toronto” when he put out this 2014 tweet, “Hey @Marvel, great job with Cpt America and Thor. Now how about an Asian-American hero?” Seven years later, he has just become one.
Unbeknownst to him, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, often criticised for its affinity with conventionally handsome white males, was internally rebooting to stay socially and politically relevant in the #MeToo age. It was gearing up to unveil a swathe of diverse superheroes. Shang Chi, with its momentous Asian casting, promises to be one of this year’s marquee blockbuster releases. Simu Liu as a Chinese superhero has not only deepened the conversation around race and representation – the step up is also being seen as a huge leap for Hollywood – one that marks progress over profits and doesn’t reduce diversity to an act of tokenism, a stunt or a sidekick.

Happy Convenience
Years of toil on the acting fringes paid off in 2016 with a role in critically acclaimed Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience, the show about the day-to-day happenings of a Korean immigrant family. Liu plays one of the central characters, Jung Kim, in this smash hit; it quickly drew an avid following and was one of the most watched comedies on Netflix in 2018. Ironically, the show runs parallel to his own life and immigrant story.

Umma (Jean Yoon) and Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) are mellow, easy-going folk, who gradually begin to see the world beyond the prejudices that surface with each new customer. Much like Liu’s own experiences, the children in the show – Janet and Jung – learn to appreciate their parents’ struggle, live through their idiosyncrasies and find love, care and support in their largely affectionless home. In the end, despite all the ups and downs, everyone pretty much gets along. Similarly, as Liu matured, he came to see the world through his parents’ eyes. His open letter is a tribute to them: “In hindsight, I know that you were doing the best. Money was always tight. And so you worked hard and often. You pushed me as hard as you could so that I would never have to know the struggle of not knowing where my next meal would come from.”

Familiar Face
With more than 30 film, TV and ad credits to his name, including Fresh Off The Boat, Orphan Black, Slasher and Bad Blood, the actor is increasingly popular on both the big and small screen. But you might recognise him from somewhere else. In 2014, during his dog-food promoting days, Liu did a photoshoot for iStock images for US$120 – a quick cash solution that he, at the time, didn’t realise would be splashed all over the internet – for countless job advertisements, bus posters and even as the cover of accounting books. “That stock photo shoot always finds a way to come back and haunt me. LOL”, he shares with his fans on Instagram.

Turning Point?
The world in which we grew up could not imagine an Asian as the face of a Marvel movie. Representation matters when you have millions of eyeballs forming an image of what heroes look like. Simu Liu’s starring role sends a powerful message – that in 2021, race, gender and sexual orientation should not come in the way of being a hero. Hopefully, the tide will continue to rise from one studio to another until the day issues of diversity will no longer be magazine stories.

(Text: Nikita Mishra)

Also Read: Think you know all about Colin Firth? It could be you’ve got him all wrong…