Inside Lucy Liu's 7-Year Journey to ‘Rosemead': ‘Gut-Wrenching From a Cellular Level'

Yahoo

2 days ago

Lucy Liu has been in Rosemead for years. No, she hasn't taken up residence in the SoCal city – but the community within L.A. County's San Gabriel Valley has left an indelible mark on the actor as both the setting and title of her latest film, 'Rosemead,' a passion project that's taken hold of her for over seven years.
The film (which was actually produced largely in New York) dramatizes the tragic true story revealed in a 2017 Los Angeles Times article by Frank Shyong about a terminally ill mother and her schizophrenic teenage son.
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'I don't know that anyone really would believe it if it wasn't a true story,' Liu, who also serves as a producer, tells Variety over Zoom ahead of the 'Rosemead' world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on Friday. 'It resonates with me because we're missing this. We don't have this story. And I think a lot of the time, people are very excited about action movies, or how wealthy Asians are – but we don't have a story that talks about our community in a more realistic manner.'
It wasn't an easy journey bringing the film to the big screen over the last seven years (which 'felt like 100 years,' Liu quips with a laugh). 'I really think that the reason why it's taken so long is because it's not a sexy idea,' she says. 'What people want is, 'What's going to bring in the money? What's going to go viral?' What's important to me, and has always been important to me, is a true story about something that's dramatic and emotional. This story resonates on a universal level.'
Many words come to mind when thinking of Liu's impressive career spanning four decades: badass, trailblazing, charismatic, alluring. But the world has never seen her quite like this. In 'Rosemead,' the actor lays it all bare in a tour-de-force performance as Irene, a cancer-stricken mother grappling with her own mortality as her 17-year-old son, Joe, begins experiencing the delusions and paranoia associated with schizophrenia. Overwhelming fears about Joe's well-being after her terminal diagnosis ultimately lead Irene to take drastic measures (which we wouldn't dare spoil).
'It feels like there's a responsibility behind playing that character to make sure that people don't tune out,' Liu says. 'She has to be seen in a light that is coming from love. I just don't want people to think that she's a monster.'
To tap into Irene, a soft-spoken, widowed business owner, Liu drew inspiration from her own family and Chinese-American community. 'I really borrowed from relatives and family members in my own life: physicalities, the way the slang would be, and the customs, the culture, the sequestering of what really happened because of the 'saving face' culture,' she says.
That notion of 'saving face' is crucial to understanding 'Rosemead.' When acquaintances learn that Joe is taking medication to treat his condition, they're quick to pass judgment on Irene as a mother. Each time Irene is confronted with Joe's worsening mental health, she refuses to meaningfully engage with those trying to help, be it a kind-hearted psychologist or concerned friends at school. 'The story is something that, in our community, especially, is not projected as a positive conversation. 'Oh, this person's on medication? There must be something really wrong with them.' It's not something that's embraced or supported,' she says with a sigh.
But that idea of projecting only the positives and concealing one's struggles isn't unique to the Chinese community, Liu says. 'It's kind of what social media is in some ways globally now: 'Look at my great life! Look how shiny everything is!' But the reality is, there's a lot going on behind the scenes that nobody's talking about.'
Getting that behind-the-scenes look at how schizophrenia affects Joe, and pushing back on the assumptions made about those who suffer from the disorder, was of paramount importance to Liu as a producer. She recalls staple-gunning audition pamphlets during a broad search for the right actor before finally discovering newcomer Lawrence Shou, who expertly tackles the challenging character in his first-ever film role. 'There was something incredibly special about his choices, and I think that he's really a great talent. He did an excellent job with a very difficult subject matter,' Liu says, beaming with pride.
Joe's episodes in 'Rosemead' are characterized by whispered thoughts, hallucinations and chaotic drawings of spiders and other dark imagery – all of which frighten Irene, despite reassurance from Joe's doctor that he will not become violent.
'We really wanted to make sure that we were truthful to what that is. People who have schizophrenia might have these discussions and these obsessions, but they don't act on them. They don't have that violence factor. That's the stigma: 'They're going to be the ones that are going to pull the trigger,'' Liu says. 'The reality is something quite different. And when you're afraid of something, that's when you step away, when you really should be stepping in.'
It's her greatest hope that a film like 'Rosemead' will encourage viewers to speak more openly about mental health, to prevent a tragedy like Irene's. 'If it's not talked about or understood, that lack of education creates these extreme results,' she says. 'There are so many people struggling. Statistically, we know that it's teenage Asian American boys that are committing suicide. That's the highest rate. That is something to be that we need to be terrified by, so that we can actually act on it, and we can support our community and have this out there so that people know that they shouldn't feel alone.'
'Rosemead' will surely stick with audiences long after credits roll, but the film's most profound impact was perhaps on Liu herself, who's had trouble shaking Irene's story after all these years. 'It was so gut-wrenching from a cellular level that I haven't actually done anything since then, because it was just so intense,' she says of the transformative role. 'I really needed to take a break after that and just reset, because I think it did something for me, on a much deeper level than I thought it would. It changed me.'
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