It even created the occasional traffic jam.
I still had to take public transportation and it would cause accidents, the star recalls toEntertainment Weekly.
Below, the screen icon looks back at some of her most memorable roles.
Joan Chen as Xiao Hua in ‘The Little Flower’.
It wasn’t anything complicated.
There were no tears.
Perhaps she was too young to recognize the weight of the moment.
Joan Chen as Wanrong in ‘The Last Emperor’.Courtesy Everett Collection
Plenty of other hardships, but no career hardship.
All of a sudden people were looking at you differently and treating you differently.
I felt it was such a strange and unreliable place to be, adds Chen.
Joan Chen as Hwei-lan in ‘Saving Face’.Sony Pictures Classics/Courtesy Everett Collection
I never trusted it.
They had no screen.
They didn’t even have a white sheet.
Joan Chen as Josie Packard on ‘Twin Peaks’.Spelling Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection
In the freezing cold, the soldiers [watched the movie] and were moved.
He told me that story and I was moved.
There was almost nothing for people of Asian descent.
Joan Chen as Yee Tai Tai in ‘Lust, Caution’.Focus Features/courtesy Everett Collection
As a result, I treasured every moment.
I said, ‘This is the one.
There will never be another one.’
Joan Chen as Rose Hong in ‘The Home Song Stories’.Dendy Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
So I tried really hard, she recalls.
I could barely speak English.
I paid for a dialogue coach.
I gave it every ounce of everything that I had and had many callbacks.
(It went to Ariane Koizumi.)
I told Bernardo, that’s it."
I became a director because I experienced that set and the men that I knew.
(It opened with just $75,104.)
It unfortunately never materialized.
Lynch never responded to Chens letter publicly, nor did he ever reach out privately, Chen shares.
Still, shes happy she was able to convince Lynch to let her play in the original world.
We would get a script, and every time Im surprised, she says of the rich source material.
Every time there is some new revelation.
Chen was stunned, though, when she noticed Josie veering more and more toward evil, she says.
In the beginning, I didn’t think she would be.
It may not have been the reason at all.
But for my own insecurity, I was wondering.
Many years passed before he could get funding, Chen recalls.
May Chin got the gig, but Chen and Lee kept in contact on and off for several years.
Then, one day we bumped into each other at a party in Shanghai, Chen shares.
I think that idea [of Yee Tai Tai] came to him right there in the elevator.
In that elevator, everything was decided.
Is there some redemption at the end of the film?
But he didnt have the answer she was hoping for.
Everything in the film that happened happened in real life."
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I had young children back then and I had to leave them for two months, Chen says.
So I related to that, the decision to be raising children and still take jobs.
That push and pull nourished my character during the whole process.
That was really satisfying for me.
