![lucy liu](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/attends-the-photocall-for-red-one-at-potters-fields-park-on-news-photo-1732038592.jpg?crop=0.580xw:0.456xh;0.238xw,0.0361xh&resize=1120:* ""Red One" - Photocall")
Along with her fellow Red One castmates, Lucy Liu has been journeying around the world at a whirlwind pace—which feels pretty on theme for the Santa Claus-centric holiday movie, in theaters now.
“We have been like Santa,” says Liu, fresh from the film’s New York City premiere, in between press junkets and red carpets in Berlin and London.
In director Jake Kasdan’s high-octane, Marvel-esque take on a Christmas classic, Liu plays Zoe, a chic, pantsuit-clad director of a top secret supernatural surveillance outfit. To save a kidnapped—and very fit—Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), Zoe teams up with Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), a curmudgeonly hacker who lost his holiday spirit long ago, and Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), the head of an elite North Pole security unit.
“Frankly, I’m bursting with joy and pride because it’s really nice to be a part of this wonderful team of creatives,” Liu says.
During a climatic scene, she briefly busts out her proven action star skills, famously seen in Charlie’s Angels and precious moments as Dr. Watson on CBS’s Elementary. But her real flex is ordering Captain America and The Rock (or “DJ,” as she calls him) around. “Being a boss lady is not easy, but it’s just another day at the office,” Liu jokes.
But in all seriousness, Red One is another milestone on the actor-director-extraordinaire’s journey of continuously challenging herself and breaking new ground. “I’ve never done a holiday movie before,” Liu admits. Although, she checked “superhero franchise” off her to-do list last year, by starring alongside Rachel Zegler and Helen Mirren as the main antagonists in Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
Liu can now add a touch of festive cheer to her ongoing tally of endeavors, including joining Stuart Weitzman as a global brand ambassador this season, alongside fellow multi-hyphenates Aly Raisman, Christy Turlington Burns, Issa Rae, and Ming Xi. The campaign’s recently released short film, “How Lovely to Be a Woman,” set to a remixed version of the Bye Bye Birdie tune, celebrates each luminary’s layered persona, achievements, and advocacy—which feels especially profound during a time when reproductive rights are under significant threat.
“Women have so much power, and we juggle so much,” says Liu, whose 8-year-old son Rockwell finally saw her onscreen for the first time in Red One. “We are the center from which the circle extends.”
To underscore her tenacious and nonconformist approach to her life and career, Liu’s segment in the campaign showcases her various pursuits in the multidisciplinary arts. She contentedly settles into her airy, yet cozy Manhattan studio stocked with tools for creative exploration across sculpture, mixed media, and painting.
“Oftentimes I get the question, ‘Do you prefer being an actress or an artist?’ It’s like asking, ‘What do you prefer: your right or your left arm?’” Liu says. “I don’t know if you can separate them. It’s really all a form of expression.”
For Steven Soderbergh’s haunted house thriller Presence, out on Jan. 24, 2025, Liu might have fused both together to inhabit her complex character and the twisty story. Liu’s Rebecca is a commanding and devoted matriarch whose enabling relationship with her son, Tyler (Eddy Maday), heightens her fraught relationships with her traumatized teenage daughter, Chloe (Callina Liang), and husband Chris (Chris Sullivan). What Rebecca intimates but leaves unsaid reinforces the suspenseful supernatural mystery, doubling as a heart-wrenching family story.
Liu likens the experience of watching the film to viewing art in a museum. “That’s what keeps people curious,” she says. “When you see a still life that’s so plain and so obvious, you think, ‘What’s the shadow doing?’ It’s compelling your eye to move around the space. I think the script [by David Koepp] communicates that to the audience, and gives them space to move around in their own heads.”
But in the end, all credit goes to Liu for her nuanced and layered character work—especially because the Oscar-winning filmmaker reached out to her for the lead role. “When I got the call that Steven Soderbergh wanted to have a meeting with me, I almost fell over. He was so pivotal in my life,” says Liu, who still remembers the impact of watching his provocative, yet “intimate” 1989 indie Sex, Lies and Videotape for the first time.
“I really was curious what he was interested in me doing, and I would not have foreseen myself saying no to him, regardless of what his request was going to be,” she continues. “Because he’s somebody who’s willing to experiment, try, make mistakes, and fail. I like that because that’s what an artist is. An artist is somebody who takes chances and learns from their mistakes—or the mistake becomes something special. A lot of times it becomes much safer to stay in a formulaic genre.”
Liu could also be talking about herself. Throughout her three-decades-long career, which is going stronger than ever, she’s hustled, struggled, and trail-blazed for subsequent generations of AAPI talent—often a “lonely” experience. Liu refers back to criticism for perpetuating “dragon lady” stereotypes in roles which helped put her on the map—presumably Ally McBeal’s audacious attorney Ling Woo, which earned her an Emmy nod in 1999, and vengeful assassin O-Ren Ishii in 2003’s Kill Bill Vol. 1.
“When you make choices for yourself, you have to really look at them as what you, as an individual, want to do. And, somehow it makes an impact by inspiring and entertaining, or makes people laugh or cry. If you make choices for other people, because you want to please them, you’re going to go down the wrong path,” Liu says. “Luckily, you’ve enjoyed some of my work. Maybe there’s other work that you didn’t enjoy. But if I made choices based on what the community wanted, or what my parents wanted, I would be frozen in time.”
Both time and her choices have led to Rosemead, a six-year-long labor of love for Liu, who both stars in and produced the upcoming film. Based on Los Angeles Times journalist Frank Shyong’s award-winning article, “A Dying Mother’s Plan,” the movie follows Liu’s Irene, an immigrant mother with terminal cancer. Shedding light on the stigma around mental health within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, the story follows Irene as she confronts her son’s burgeoning fixation on mass shootings.
“For me, now more than ever, it’s not just [about] the enjoyment of the piece itself, but also to make sure that you’re doing work that’s important for your community. Frankly, I don’t think our story has been told in cinema, or at all,” Liu says, hoping to encourage support and enact positive change. “It has unfortunate and life-threatening results.”
The movie also features predominantly AAPI talent behind the scenes, like cinematographer Eric Lin, who’ll make his directorial feature debut, screenwriter Marilyn Fu, and costume designer Vera Chow.
In the fashion realm, Liu further uses her platform—and red carpet outings—to uplift AAPI talent. Last month, she accompanied Vietnamese American designer and two-time nominee Bach Mai to the CFDA Awards—and stunned on the red carpet in a black cropped pantsuit and a glittering vest with a plunging neckline. The duo graced the first-ever AAPI Emerging Designers Table, hosted by philanthropist Yao King, at what’s fondly referred to as “Fashion Prom.” For last year’s Shazam premiere in Los Angeles, Liu wore a custom draped and gold-skirted gown by wunderkind designer Andrew Kwon, who thanked her on his website, writing, “I’m so proud and honored to be able to dress someone that’s been a muse to me for so many years.”
Liu considers reaching the position where her support can boost the trajectories of up-and-coming talent as the culmination of her intentional career arc, too. “It’s just so transformational,” she says.
As we head into a new year, Liu isn’t stopping anytime soon—as an actor (she’ll be in Simon West’s Old Guy hitting theaters in the spring), a director of 10-plus years, a producer, a brand ambassador, an artist, and an influential red carpet star. She thinks back to advice shared by a wise colleague.
“I remember Helen Mirren said to me, ‘If somebody tells you to relax, just stay all fired up and ready to go. You’re perfect as you are.’ And she’s absolutely right,” says Liu. “I don’t need to change just because you want to see me relax or kick back my heels. I’m at my best when I’m the most activated.”
