Joan Chen

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Birthday:

26 April 1961, Shanghai, China

Birth Name:

Chong Chen

Height:

163 cm

Born into a family of doctors and educated in China at the Shanghai Film Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, Joan Chen was discovered by veteran Chinese director Jin Xie while observing a filming with a school group. Her performance in Xiao hua (1979) (A.K.A. "The Little Flower") won China's Best Actress award, and resulted in the Chinese press dubbing her "The Elizabeth Taylor of China" for having achieved top stardom while still in her teen years. She came to the U.S. to attend college in 1981, first at the State University of New York at New Paltz, later at California State University at Northridge. She a succession of small parts in movies and T.V., with her first break coming in 1986 when, in true Hollywood legend, producer Dino De Laurentiis noticed her in the parking lot of Lorimar Studios and cast her in Tai-Pan (1986). The film bombed, but it led to her being cast as the ill-fated Empress in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987), which won critical acclaim. This, and her role as enigmatic mill owner Josie Packard in the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990), are her best-known roles in Europe and North America. However, Hollywood's practice of type-casting East Asians has led to a dearth of major roles for Chen since then, and in recent roles, she has often been cast as a villainess.After taking a few years off to start a family, Joan returned to the screen in important supporting roles playing women in early middle age, such as the mother of a principle adult character. As a result, her career is flourishing again on both sides of the Pacific. Her two directing efforts were well-received critically, and in a 2008 interview she revealed she planned to direct again but was putting that off until her daughters were grown, since directing took her away from them too much, whereas acting could be done on a part-time basis. Show less «

There are only so many roles as empresses . . . but I've had a lot of offers to play vampires.

My life is good. Often I look for someone to thank.

When you see me walking out here, wearing gorgeous clothes, remember these evening gowns are really just my work clothes, they go with hypin...Show more »

When you see me walking out here, wearing gorgeous clothes, remember these evening gowns are really just my work clothes, they go with hyping the movies. Show less «

On Sino-US relations - We need to be open-minded and farsighted. We need to make more friends than enemies.

I remember thinking how I had never seen a film like Edward Scissorhands (1990) when I first watched it in 1990. It was unique cinema that f...Show more »

I remember thinking how I had never seen a film like Edward Scissorhands (1990) when I first watched it in 1990. It was unique cinema that felt like pure magic. The bizarre beauty of the film and the gentle hero with his lethally sharp scissorhands stayed with me through out the years. Looking back, after almost 20 years, I now understand better the fierce longing and intense loneliness that the film had stirred in me. Like the protagonist, Edward, I was the shy, misunderstood outsider for a large part of my life in America, and again later in China. Having experienced the adulation of the millions in my late teens, I became a much reviled traitor, who brought shame to China after leaving for the US and later for playing the part of the mistress to the white man in Tai-Pan (1986). The capricious and precarious nature of the mob sentiments was a nightmare, which I knew well. I empathize with the conflicting desire of the artist to retreat to his lonely tower and to be loved by people who appreciate his talent. - (Singapore Sun Film Festival, October 2009) Show less «

[When asked if she did Judge Dredd (1995) for the paycheck] I may have. But you can always try to find something to do, even in a bad film, ...Show more »

[When asked if she did Judge Dredd (1995) for the paycheck] I may have. But you can always try to find something to do, even in a bad film, that you haven't done before. I did my own physical fighting in that film, which was fun. Millions of people work for a paycheck. Do actors do jobs for paychecks? Yes, they do. [The Arizona Republic, August 26, 2010] Show less «

All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.

All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.

Acting for me is not a bad habit like smoking that I must make an effort to quit. I love acting; I love directing.

There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one k...Show more »

There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I'll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype. Show less «

The romantic love we feel toward the opposite sex is probably one extra help from God to bring you together, but that's it. All the rest of ...Show more »

The romantic love we feel toward the opposite sex is probably one extra help from God to bring you together, but that's it. All the rest of it, the true love, is the test. Show less «

I know what actors fear, what they like; I know how to get things out of them and I listen to them better, since I've been there.

The lowest budget U.S. films are ten times times better than shooting in Tibet.

As an actress I find the most enjoyable part of acting is really just to please the director. I just want to please my director.

There are many ways you can make money. Certain ways will make you happy, certain other ways will make other people happy. But if you go in ...Show more »

There are many ways you can make money. Certain ways will make you happy, certain other ways will make other people happy. But if you go in because there's money in there, you're bound to fail, bound to fail! Show less «

Beauty is the result of having been through an experience all the way through to the end - therefore it has a poignancy. Beauty that is sing...Show more »

Beauty is the result of having been through an experience all the way through to the end - therefore it has a poignancy. Beauty that is singular always comes from following an experience to the point where you can go no further. Show less «

I never went on an audition - when they were really looking at everybody.

My fairy-tale life ended the moment I wanted to apply for a passport.

There is no theoretical study of motherhood. You know, before I became a mother, I did play a mother, but I was like - I was more thinking o...Show more »

There is no theoretical study of motherhood. You know, before I became a mother, I did play a mother, but I was like - I was more thinking of my own mother. I was doing my mother. Show less «

I don't find intimate scenes more difficult than other scenes.

I will always have a career. I believe in working. I don't believe that taking care of your house and children is enough for a woman. You do...Show more »

I will always have a career. I believe in working. I don't believe that taking care of your house and children is enough for a woman. You don't feel complete. Show less «

For the past few years, I was the more visible Asian performer, and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible t...Show more »

For the past few years, I was the more visible Asian performer, and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible to actually reach success doing movies. Show less «

Physical hunger and physical poverty is something I could only imagine. I've been poor when I was in China... As kids we never had to starve...Show more »

Physical hunger and physical poverty is something I could only imagine. I've been poor when I was in China... As kids we never had to starve, but just didn't have enough meat, enough rice. Show less «

Acting is actually private.

If you know how to do a job very well, you keep doing it.

I would never offer advice without the person asking for it. I, in general, don't believe in giving advice, actually, as a human being I don...Show more »

I would never offer advice without the person asking for it. I, in general, don't believe in giving advice, actually, as a human being I don't. Show less «

How do you explain certain physical qualities that somehow sell on screen? You're born with it... Certain people are just more watchable, an...Show more »

How do you explain certain physical qualities that somehow sell on screen? You're born with it... Certain people are just more watchable, and I was more watchable, but I don't think I understood acting or drama very well when I was a kid. Show less «

When you feel so strongly about something and other people feel equally strongly, you have to feel stronger about it in order to succeed.

How I was raised is what I am today.

The difference between me and American-born actors is that I came here with the expectation of not being treated fairly.

I don't want to tell people what I make. It's a lot more than I ever dreamed of as a kid. I never think about it.