EXCLUSIVE: Lucy Liu Talks Starring in New Holiday Movie, ‘Red One’
Lucy Liu stars in Amazon MGM Studios’ new Holiday movie, Red One. Now in theaters, we got a chance to celebrate the release with Liu.
During the chat, Liu talked prepping to play her character, Zoe Harlow and her Christmas traditions. Check out what she had to say below.
On how she prepared to play Zoe Harlow:
“Well, it was impromptu. I had spoken to Jake [Kasdan]. I said, ‘Is there any training, or do you need me to prep anything?’ and he said, ‘No, I think maybe she’s going to throw a kick and maybe a punch, maybe. That’s it, that’s it. You’re just the boss lady and then that’s all it’s going to be.’ And I said, ‘Okay, great. No problem.’ I show up to the set, we’re doing the costume fittings and everything, and then the stunt coordinator comes in and he says, ‘I just want to give you a little bit of a previs of what we’re going to do.’ He shows me this entire action scene and my face just turned white. And then I was like, ‘Okay, let’s do this,’ and as soon as I got the sticks in my hands, it was like muscle memory kicked in and it was like I was alive again.
I hadn’t done it in a long time, but it just came back to me. I love watching action movies. I grew up watching them, and actually being on the screen doing action is so exciting, and I think that it gets kids excited, it gets girls excited, it gets women excited, so it’s nice that you still got it.”
On her Christmas traditions:
“We didn’t grow up with any traditions, and so it was sort of a free-for-all. But I have a child now and I realize that you can start your own traditions, you can create them. And I give him a gift, of course, he gets gifts, but the most important thing now is I always take him on an experience as a gift,. I think learning that being together and doing something together, even if it’s simple, like going to the Empire State Building or going to see the Rockettes, something like that. I didn’t think he would really remember because kids really want things, you know? But he said to me last year, he said, ‘Oh, remember we went to the Empire State Building for that experience that you gave me?’ and it really made me feel like, ‘Oh, this really works.’ It’s like when you try to teach sign language to babies, you’re like, ‘Do you want more?’ and it just never works, and then one day, out of nowhere, they just do this and you’re like, ‘Whoa,’ the light bulb went off.
So to me, Christmas is about togetherness. Even if you didn’t grow up with a tradition or with a faith, you can create that wherever you are and at any moment in your life.”
If you are looking to get into the Holiday spirits, and have no expectations, go check this movie out!
*This interview has been edited for length anc clarity