Lucy Liu Talks Stereotyping in Hollywood: ‘I Would’ve Had So Many More Opportunities’ as ‘Somebody Who Looks Caucasian’

NEED TO KNOW

• Lucy Liu spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about her career and new movie Rosemead

• “To think that I’ve been in this business for over 30 years and now have the first leading role like this is kind of crazy,” she said of the indie drama

• Liu also said she “would’ve had so many more opportunities” in Hollywood if she were “somebody who looks Caucasian”

Lucy Liu is opening up about landing her first dramatic leading role in a movie — despite decades of work as a mainstream Hollywood star.

Rosemead (in theaters Dec. 5) features Liu, 56, as both producer and lead actress, which is a rarity in her career, as she notes in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I started doing indies,” she said. “I was lucky enough to fall into the commercial world — but those are kind of more side-salad roles. They’re not necessarily roles that would challenge me or tap into my potential.”

Unlike the action-heavy roles Liu is known for — such as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill or the Charlie’s Angels movies — Rosemead casts the actress in a more intimate and dramatic light. In the Eric Lin-directed indie, based on a true story as told in a 2017 Los Angeles Times article, she plays Irene, a Chinese immigrant struggling in the wake of her son’s schizophrenia diagnosis.

“I feel like it’s always been in there,” Liu said of her performance, which has earned multiple festival awards since Rosemead’s 2025 Tribeca Film Festival premiere. “I just haven’t had any opportunities to tap into it. I mean, to think that I’ve been in this business for over 30 years and now have the first leading role like this is kind of crazy. I did not know that until somebody pointed it out on the team. I’ve never really looked at myself in that way.”

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The mother of one proceeded to speak with candor about biases in Hollywood, for example, being called out for perpetuating “Dragon Lady” stereotypes after playing a warrior in 2003’s Kill Bill.

“Why isn’t anyone else perpetuating the stereotype when we’re all assassins?” she asked. “Vivica Fox or Daryl Hannah or Uma Thurman were not. I don’t even know if they have a word in English for American people. Well, I’m American, but I look like this, so I cannot get away from it.”

Liu also recalled the “strange lull” after the success of her action movies and her award-winning run on the series Ally McBeal.

“I remember being like, ‘Why isn’t there more happening?’” she said. “I didn’t want to participate in anything where I felt like they weren’t even taking me seriously. How am I being given these offers that are less than when I started in this business? It was a sign of disrespect to me, and I didn’t really want that. I didn’t want to acquiesce to that.”

She continued, “I haven’t gone out and changed my face; there’s only so much I can do. I cannot turn myself into somebody who looks Caucasian, but if I could, I would’ve had so many more opportunities.”

Rosemead, costarring Lawrence Shou, Orion Lee, Jennifer Lim, Madison Hu, James Chen, is in theaters Dec. 5. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, a re-release of Tarantino’s two hits, arrives in theaters the same day.

“It’s a little bit of my own Barbenheimer moment, but very different,” Liu told THR with a laugh. “I don’t even know how to label that.”

Also among Liu’s upcoming projects is The Devil Wears Prada 2, in theaters May 1, 2026.

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