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If
you're looking for a non-CGI movie with more drama and action
than dialogue, then "Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever" might be just
the ticket. As Lucy Liu says about her character, "Sever is
somebody who doesn't talk a lot. She has about 15 lines in
the whole movie and she's very intense." Words would just
get in the way of Liu's character who is basically a lean,
mean, fighting machine.
While at the 2002 San Diego Comic Con, Liu summed up Sever
by stating, "She basically has been betrayed and she goes
back out and she wants revenge. She doesn't want revenge in
any other way but with blood. She's an ex-agent of an agency
where she was adopted as a young child and trained to kill
people. There's no emotional value, no sensitivity, there's
nothing - you just kill. That's what she was brought up to
do. The whole movie is about her and her revenge. Antonio
[Banderas] gets in the way of that revenge. She has to get
through him to get to whatever else she needs to get to."
It was co-star Antonio Banderas who suggested Lucy Liu for
the role of Sever. Though the part was originally written
as a male character, director Kaos (a shortened version of
his last name - Kaosayananda) was able to convince the studio
to switch it to a female, to achieve a better dynamic between
the two adversaries. Changing the character into a woman had
little impact on the script as most of the dialogue and action
sequences worked equally well when delivered by Lucy Liu.
While at the 2002 San Diego Comic Con promoting "Ballistic:
Ecks vs Sever," the enthusiastic crowd put a few questions
to the actress. Here's some of the best questions and answers
to come out of the "Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever" session:
How
often did you accidentally get hit while filming "Ballistic:
Ecks vs Sever?"
Lucy Liu: You get hit a lot (laughing). No, Ray [Parks]
was great, he never laid a hand on me. When you work with
chains or any kind of weapons, or just when you're using hand-to-hand
combat, you are going to get hurt. You fall and there are
lots of things happening. I hurt my self pretty severely a
few months ago. It's just the way of this business - you just
get damaged. I don't think that anyone has gotten into a fight
and not gotten hurt.
Director
Kaos: Just to clarify, Lucy had wrapped by then - when
she got hurt.
How difficult is it for you to select your projects?
Lucy Liu: It's very difficult for each person; it's
about trying to have your work recognized in however way you
can when you first start out. It's a very difficult place
to be appreciated in. One of the things that you have to look
out for is becoming trapped in a place where people want to
see you all the time doing one thing. You have to slowly include
the audience and also make sure that your work is being appreciated.
I think that ultimately being Asian in this business is something
that you have to consider because sometimes people aren't
as open. They'll say, "I can't see you with a Caucasian person."
People are afraid and they don't think the public is smart
enough to understand that this is America and that there's
all kinds of people out there. The studios keep putting out
the Wonder Bread and what they think is safe. The audience
- including myself - when I go to see a film I'm a layman
and I think, "Do I enjoy this? Are they testing me? Are they
activating my brain in any way?" Sometimes I think they are
afraid the audience isn't going to be smart enough to figure
it out. It's like, "Give us a break. We're smart enough to
figure it out."
Are
you interested in any superhero type of roles?
Lucy Liu: I had some things that came up and again,
they were concerned about the racial issue. I think they were
possibly thinking about Electra but they thought it was not
a safe issue to go 'Asian,' unfortunately. I think that ultimately
they made good choices because the people that they chose
were really good and they are going to be excellent, and satisfy
the audience. You can't look back; you have to keep looking
forward. You have to hope that you don't have to wear a mask
and you don't have to put prosthetics on your face to make
yourself look believable. I think that you just have to appreciate
who you are and hopefully they can see what a superhero is
about. "Spider-Man" was an amazing movie. It was about someone
who was just a human being.
You're
working with Quentin Tarantino on "Kill Bill." What's that
shoot been like?
Lucy Liu: It's been really intense. We were shooting
in China a couple of few weeks ago, and we just got back.
We're at the studio in Beijing shooting the interiors. Basically
we were there [China] for sort of the history of Beijing and
all the movies that were shot there. Quentin is doing an unbelievable
job directing all these different styles of martial arts.
I think that the movie is going to be an homage to all the
martial arts movies and all the old school movies that are
out there combined, plus some modern day. I think it will
be unbelievable and pretty amazing. It's going to be Quentin
Tarantino-style so it's going to be pretty sweet.
Can
you talk about your infamous fight with Bill Murray?
Lucy Liu: The press really blew that whole thing out
of proportion. If it had been my decision to not have Bill
Murray be in the sequel that we are shooting right now - I
don't have that much power. I think he is very talented and
really fun. There was not a big thing that happened. It was
a creative difference about the script. This whole movie there
was some creative issues about the script and the writing.
They had a scene for me and they had written it in a certain
way. He came in and obviously he's a talented writer and he's
very smart, and he had a writer that he was working with as
well. On that day, production did not shut down because I
was there that day and I worked the entire day. It wasn't
that big of a deal. If I had punched him or anything, I would
have remembered.
"Ballistic:
Ecks vs Sever" is rated R by the MPAA for strong violence.
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