Q&A with Eugenia Yuan: Not Your Typical Mail Order Bride

Charlotte Sometimes actress on upcoming roles in "Mail Order Wife" and "Memoirs of a Geisha"

By LYNDA LIN, Pacific Citizen

In Hollywood, promptness is overrated. Tantrums, award shows and excuses run on infinitely. But when the office phone rang at 10:45 a.m. on a rainy Los Angeles day, her voice tinkled disarmingly: “Hi, it’s Eugenia. I’m sorry I’m calling a little early.”

Eugenia Yuan’s voice matches her onscreen presence. It’s breathy, low but jingly and somehow so heavy with depth. When she speaks, it’s like you’re the only person in the world. We saw these characteristics in “Charlotte Sometimes” where she quietly cuts down her “loser” boyfriend with a whisper and sliding ebony hair.

So when talking about her love for acting (“I really want to do artsy stuff. I want the hurt … the pain”), her voice is so shaded with yearning that you feel like rescuing her.  The men in “Charlotte” loved her character for all those reasons and more (her bone structure and pretty face may have also been factors), but she’s no delicate blossom.

In fact, she can probably knock any well-intentioned white knight onto his backside, what with her former Olympic training and all. It also helps to inherit good butt-kicking genes from Hong Kong’s premier kung fu actress Cheng Pei Pei.

But this month, Yuan arrives first class as Lichi in “Mail Order Wife,” a dark comedy shot documentary style about some lonely American men and their yen for subservient Eastern women.

Pacific Citizen: Did coming from a showbiz family influence you to become an actor?

Eugenia Yuan: No. I fought for my own identity. My mom is amazing with this long career, but I wanted to have my style, do it my way and be myself. I’ve danced since I was four. And in rhythmic gymnastics, there are elements of performing … getting the audience to feel something with the routine. Eventually, I admitted to myself that I loved acting.

PC: Speaking of gymnastics, I found some old newspaper articles from the 80s about how you were working to bring U.S. rhythmic gymnastics back from obscurity.

EY: (laughs) I competed in the Olympic trials and did some professional shows. In the Olympics, the girls are way too thin and young. To make that sport grow, they need to have older and more mature, voluptuous women to make it more beautiful.

PC: Was it empowering for you to grow up watching your mom kick butt in those martial arts films?

EY: My mom taught me dance. She empowered me as a person and a mom, not as an actress. But I’ve been watching her films because they’re coming out again and it is awesome what she did. She didn’t use stunt doubles and didn’t have all these takes. It’s just one long take … and her kicking ass.

PC: What was it about this film and this character Lichi that attracted you?

EY: I always wanted to do dark comedy. I met the director Andrew Gurland first and found that he had a horrible sense of humor that matches my horrible sense of humor. We just cliqued. I loved her character because it seems like she’s stepped all over, but she’s actually the one who comes out on top.

PC: Your character radiates sexual power. Do you think you have that power in real life?

EY: I wish!PC: None of the film’s characters are very likeable. Do you think they have any redeeming qualities?

EY: I think [Lichi’s] a survivor. They’re all doing the best to be on top and I think they all get confused. I think it also demonstrates men and their weakness with women. That’s what’s so great about Lichi. That’s what’s so great about the film, it makes fun of all that and everything else.

PC: The scene where you’re screaming about wanting a child is emotionally raw, which I have to think is difficult to capture in itself, but how much more complicated was it to do with an accent?

EY: First of all, when ‘Charlotte‘ came out and was classified as an Asian American film, I didn’t understand why there was this grouping … I’m not into that … I think that by naming yourself then you’re trying to segregate yourself.

Some people were saying, ‘Why are you doing an accent when you don’t have one?’ It’s a character. As I was growing up and playing with my cousins, I would do the accent. It was so easy and so fun. I had the best time!

PC: Have you come across more scripts as dynamic as “Mail Order Wife” that gives APA actors more dimension?

EY: I can’t say yes. There are maybe more, but anytime you see any Asians in the movies now, they’re the ones from Asia. It’d be really nice for them to realize what we have here. Not that those actors from Asia lack talent, but we don’t have to learn English.

PC: Are you choosy with the roles you take?

EY: I try to be selective, but to be honest, I’m not at that point in my career where I have three thousand offers and I can choose one. I would love to get to that point. But I want to maintain my morals and feel good about myself when I go to sleep. I’m proud that I can speak Chinese and when I go back I feel comfortable, but I don’t completely fit in there just like I don’t completely fit in here.

PC: Your next project isn’t an independent film, but a huge movie called ‘Memoirs of a Geisha.’

EY: I play a girl named Korin, who is Hatsumomo’s (Gong Li) friend, but it’s not a lead or anything. The best thing is that I got to be best friends with Gong Li. She’s gorgeous. She’s class.

PC: Did Gong Li offer you any advice?

EY: She just said if you love it, do it.

Other Readings of Interest

• Race, Sex and the Charlotte Sometimes Controversy
  By Eric Byler, Filmmaker
  Charlotte Sometimes director on the APA/hapa schisms surrounding his film
• Find Eugenia's Bio, FAQ, Photos and Other Materials at the Charlotte Sometimes web site