Plucky Duckling

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     That career has been as hardscrabble as any. It began in 1986 when she landed an LA Law walk-on. The next 14 years saw her in two dozen TV bit parts. She went to Hong Kong for her first film role in a melodrama called Rhythm and Destiny (Ban wo zhong heng) (1992). Her first American film role was in Protozoa (1993), a zero-budget student film. In 1995 she first used the Lucy Lui alias for her role as a hooker in the indie Bang (aka Big-Bang Theory). She reused it in several more of the 16 small, often demeaning, film parts that preceded the first Charlie's Angels. For roles she deemed less embarrassing, Liu tried out Lucy Alexis Liu. More recently, as she gained a measure of respectability and success, she has shortened it to Lucy Liu.

     Fifteen-odd years of toiling in obscurity and poverty seem to have taken a toll on Liu's image. The internet is sprinkled with porn sites advertising "Lucy Liu Nudes". Some even claim to offer "Lucy Liu Hardcore". Many such offerings appear to be stills taken from her various film scenes depicting sex or stripping, but a few sites claim to offer images from other sources. The front pages of some display photos of Liu in the nude or wearing see-through lingerie. Liu has declined to comment on these and other issues despite repeated requests through her publicist.

     Liu's big break came in the form of her Ling Woo role in the Sep 21, 1998 episode of Fox's Ally McBeal series. Ironically, this opportunity seems to have materialized in large part because of her spiciest -- not to say seediest -- earlier film roles. Initially Liu had auditioned for the bit part of the lawyer Nelle Porter. She didn't get it, but series creator David Kelley saw something else in the struggling Asian actress -- a chance to juice up the series by introducing a character exuding the unbridled sexuality Liu had exhibited as a leather-fetish dominatrix in City of Industry (1997). Liu seized on the small TV role with do-or-die determination. Her rendering of a maneater of voracious appetites was titillating enough to boost the show's ratings and turn her into one of its more noticed regulars.

     Time and again an actor who comes to embody sexual fantasy has become as good as gold in Hollywood's economy. Liu was no exception.

Liu strikes the stiletto-kick pose that helped the first Charlie's Angels movie hit paydirt with a $40 million opening weekend.

     As Ling Woo she was given dragonlady lines like, “A woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick,” and, ”There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them.” The character is a self-described “tramp” addicted to casual sex. She also uses sex as a tool to get her way with men.

     Before long rumors were flying about Liu's real-life sexual habits, her supposed fondness for casual sex and disinterest in settling into longterm relationships. Fantasy and reality seem to have had little connection with each other. Liu has suggested that she wasn't dating during that period.

     From the Asian American perspective, the most controversial aspect of Lucy Liu's love life has been the rumor that she doesn't date Asian men. That's hardly surprising. As a girl Lucy received no positive attention from Asian boys. Even after she became a Charlie's Angel, Asian males were heard disparaging her looks as simply not fitting Asian standards of beauty. And as mentioned, for most of her adult life, Liu simply wasn't dating anyone. PAGE 3

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