The Joy Luck Club star Kieu Chinh, 87, on her rocky road to stardom and new roles
Kieu Chinh is a little pressed for time.
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It is a Sunday afternoon and the 87-year-old Vietnamese-American actress is preparing for a trip the next day from her home in Huntington Beach in California to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. There she would be doing filming for Chrysalis, a feature film based on the life of the Vietnamese-American artist and sculptor Daniel K Winn.
'I wish we had more time,' Chinh says. 'There is so much to talk about.'
The past several months have been a whirlwind for the actress, during which she has come off production on the TV series
Dope Thief , on Apple TV+, and the film Control Freak, which debuted on Hulu and is now streaming on Disney+. Both came out in mid-March, a day apart.
Chinh is a still from Control Freak (2025). Photo: Hulu
Directed by Ridley Scott, Dope Thief is a crime drama starring Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as two friends in Philadelphia who pose as federal agents to rob drug dealers. Chinh plays the criminal-matriarch grandma of a character named Pham (played by Dustin Nguyen), a drug trafficker.
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In Shal Ngo's body horror thriller Control Freak, she plays the aunt of Valerie (Kelly Marie Tran), a motivational speaker who develops a demonic body itch. Chinh sports over-the-top make-up and exaggerated lashes, and constantly has a cigarette in hand.
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