Interview: With ‘Dìdi,’ Joan Chen is Finally Getting Her Coming of Age Story
Legendary actress Joan Chen didn’t have a typical coming-of-age story. Born in China during the Cultural Revolution, she was plucked out of the crowd at just fourteen years old to join an actors’ training program at Shanghai Film Studio. By nineteen, she had won Best Actress at the Hundred Flowers Awards (China’s equivalent to the Oscars) and was dubbed the “Elizabeth Taylor of China.” Chen is perhaps best known to American audiences for her roles in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning epic The Last Emperor. But despite the success of the latter, Hollywood didn’t seem ready to embrace Chen, often boxing her into roles that perpetuated stereotypes of Asian women or sidelining her in favor of white actresses who were already established in America. Now at 63, Chen is finally getting the rapturous response she deserves; this time, for her warm, vulnerable performance in the Sundance breakout hit, Dìdi.
Sean Wang’s (Academy Award nominee for Nai Nai & Wài Pó) semi-autobiographical film, Dìdi, follows Chris (Izac Wang), a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American boy growing up in California in the early aughts. Chris faces all of the usual perils of early teenage years (friendship breakups, crushes, a love-hate relationship with his mother) while also coming to terms with his identity as an Asian American. But like the best coming-of-age films, Wang subtly shifts the film’s focus, revealing that while Chris is going through his social and emotional growing pains, his mother, Chungsing (Chen), is the film’s true center. As Chungsing, Chen beautifully depicts a woman who desperately wants to create a better life for her children (no matter how unappreciative they are) while exploring what it means to give up one dream in pursuit of another.
I was thrilled to speak to Chen via Zoom about her deep connection to Chungsing, the films that inspired her when she moved to America, and how Dìdi’s strongest scene provided an intense, personal catharsis.
Sophia Ciminello: Hi Joan. Thank you so much for speaking with me today! I absolutely loved Dìdi.
Joan Chen: Oh, I’m so glad to hear. Thank you for having me.
SC: Of course. You’ve had such a long, fascinating career, and because Dìdi is a coming-of-age film, I wanted to start with your coming-of-age story. When did you first learn that you wanted to become an artist and an actor?
JC: You know, I didn’t realize that until much later in life after many years of doing films already. When I first started–when I was picked out of high school at age 14–I had no idea that I would be an actor before that. And even after that, I didn’t think it would be a real profession. It was just something you did. It was fun, and back then, most children (some middle school children and some high school children) were sent down to remote areas from the cities. And so for me, being recruited by Shanghai Film Studio meant that I could stay in Shanghai. So that was the only good that my entire family saw in this thing. They didn’t think that I would be acting all my life. So, not until my late 20s did I realize that this was my passion and that this was going to be my life. So it was very late and I never really got to have any coming of age at all. I just started working at fourteen and never had the chance to rebel or question authority. I didn’t have the luxury to question authority. So then I did make a coming-of-age movie called Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl in the ‘90s because that would be our version of a coming-of-age movie. It’s extremely different from Dìdi, which is just as poignant but very different.
SC: It’s great that Xiu Xiu was able to be that coming-of-age movie for you that you didn’t have. And I know you weren’t acting right away when you moved to the U.S. What were some of the films that inspired you to get back into acting and filmmaking?
JC: I remember the very first film that I saw here. Well, the first two: one is Body Heat and the other is Chariots of Fire. They were both strong and so new to me, especially Body Heat. I never knew that such characters existed. I mean, I came from China, and most films then were propaganda films with heroes and villains, all black and white. And to have these grey characters and a villain actually as a lead in the film was completely revolutionary in my mind. I also love the noir genre.
SC: That’s what I love about Body Heat too. Kathleen Turner is perfect in that role. So many of my favorite women in film are in film noir.
JC: Yes! Me too. I love the femme fatale. And she’s so good in it. But when I was watching these movies, I had no idea that I would be making movies in America. I didn’t think that was a viable thing to do at all. You know, you didn’t see any Asian characters in films or television back then or now. So it wasn’t something I thought of doing when I first began to perform, like in any little parts in Los Angeles. It was just because the pay was much more efficient than working in a restaurant. I was working in a restaurant to support myself through school, and when I found out that performing one day on a movie set would give me so much more money than doing a day’s work in a restaurant, that became my main motivation. I didn’t think it would lead anywhere. I was just going to support myself through school (laughs).
SC: (Laughs) And now you’ve really worn so many hats–actor, director, producer. What was it about Sean Wang’s script for Dìdi that inspired you to sign on and take this part?
JC: It was a very well-written script. I mean, he spent years on it, years of his young life on this. You know, I do read quite a lot of scripts, and that was one of the strongest ones that came my way. Also, the character of Chungsing is someone that I sympathize with deeply. I read it and it felt like, wow, I have a chance to express that side of my motherhood that I’ve lived through. It’s so refreshing to see a Taiwanese American mother who’s not a strict matriarchal tiger mom. She is playful, artistic, and gentler; she’s confused and unsure. So, all of that spoke to me. Sean also wrote me a beautiful letter. I showed it to him and he was laughing at the first sentence where he said, “I am a 29-year-old filmmaker.” He said, “Why would I put my age on it as the first sentence?” and I just said, “I don’t know!” (Laughs).
SC: (Laughs) Oh, that’s amazing. It hooked you!
JC: (Laughs) Yes! But it really was a beautifully written letter about his relationship with his mom and his vision for the film as a coming-of-age film and a love letter to his own mother. So that was very moving. Just based on our conversation, the script, the letter, and his lookbook, I instinctively felt it would be a really good film that I could relate to and one that I would want to see in a theater. But I really did not expect the response that we’re getting now. I totally never dreamed of it and the attention that I’m getting for playing her. That was a happy surprise.
SC: I love how much you connected with her. And did your experience as a mom raising first-generation American children help you understand Chungsing a bit more as a character?
JC: Definitely. You know, it was in the little examples when the children were little, like when we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. We didn’t do it when they were little, but when my daughter went to preschool, she told the principal that everybody was talking about Thanksgiving and that we didn’t have one. And so, the principal had a really serious talk with me and said not to have your kids miss out on this beautiful tradition with her peers. Everybody was talking about Thanksgiving and enjoying it and that it was a wonderful American tradition. I felt so ashamed, and that I deprived her. During her first three years in school, she didn’t have Thanksgiving. That’s just a tiny example. And then, with Christmas, I also ruined Santa (laughs).
SC: (Laughs) Oh, I need to hear this.
JC: I think she was six or something like that, and I finally felt like, oh, what nonsense, you know? I didn’t grow up with any Christmas, so I had no attachment or sentimental feelings. So I just sat her down and told her, “It’s okay. It’s just a story. It’s a myth.” I thought, why lie to a child? And that really broke her heart. I was so surprised how heartbroken she was. She cried the whole morning saying, “It’s all a lie!” She thought her whole life was a lie. I tried so hard to resurrect it. Over the next day I said, “Oh, Angela, I did find something in the fireplace. Maybe you should go take a look? I just didn’t know there was a Santa.” I left a note there. I was trying so hard to make up for it and resurrect Santa. These are small little stories that I could tell right now but all along during their upbringing, there were things that I just wish I didn’t do. The character Chungsing feels as if every little bad thing that happened in the house was her fault and that somehow she didn’t do it right and I feel the same way. Like any little unhappiness your children experience, it’s all because I did something wrong. I can relate to that feeling very, very well in the character.
SC: I’ve heard from so many mothers that they feel that way in taking on the pain of their children. Did you also connect with Chungsing’s identity as an artist?
JC: Yes, it was also her being an artist. She couldn’t realize her own dreams because she was the only caretaker raising children and taking care of her mother-in-law by herself. You know, just being isolated and not assimilated into society. I am better off. I’m a little more assimilated, but I could understand the sense of loss when you can’t do what you love to do. She wanted to be a painter, and when my children were much younger, I stopped working. I understood what kind of loss that was because this was a job that gave me so much fulfillment. It was during the years that I didn’t work as much that I realized that it is an essential part of my fulfillment. It’s an essential part of my life, and as they got older, I returned to work now and then and on summer breaks when I went to work, I took them with me. Chungsing was basically just the full-time caretaker and I could relate to that feeling very well. And ultimately, I could also relate to the gratification of having brought up solid children. And as Chungsing says, she realized that they were her dreams and that she was so proud of them. That touched me because that’s also how I feel.
SC: That’s so beautiful. And I want to talk about that monologue from Chungsing near the end of the film where you really show us a new depiction of how parents can communicate with their children and share those deeper feelings about their dreams. How do you prepare for an emotional scene like that where the camera is also in close-up?
JC: Yeah, it was pouring out of me. I mean, it is the conversation I never had with my children that I wish I had. And my younger daughter Audrey was having her summer break from university and she was working as a PA on set. She was actually my stand-in for that scene that they lit. She was sitting there for my lighting and knowing that she was there listening to it and knowing that she was there in front of the monitor and seeing me like that for the first time; that was, to me, a very emotional moment, knowing my own daughter. There was so much that I wish I said. There’s so much that I wish I never said, all of these regrets raising children. At that moment, it was so cathartic for me. And through making Dìdi, I did get closer to Audrey.
SC: Wow, I’m so glad you got to have that experience with her. That makes me think a bit of Chris and Chungsing and how it’s never explicitly shown that Chungsing’s work as a painter isn’t explicitly shown as an influence on his skating videos, but it still feels like Sean is hinting how parents can have that effect on their children or how artists from one generation can influence future generations.
JC: I think so too.
SC: How have you seen the industry and opportunities for Asian and Asian American artists change over the course of your career?
JC: Yeah, so I’ve been acting on and off in Hollywood for over 40 years, and I can see that we’ve changed a great deal and that we’ve made great strides forward in terms of inclusion. And many thanks to people like Sean and so many more Asian storytellers, writers, and directors who carry their desire to express their world, their culture, and their backgrounds. Now, it seems like a completely viable thing for Hollywood to do this because it does business. So when you have genuine inclusion, like people telling authentic stories of people, though culturally specific, they are actually very universal, so people can enjoy them, you know? People go see them and relate to them. Back when I first started, we hardly saw any Asian faces, so it’s great that I didn’t quit. I’m still here, so I’m catching this train.
SC: We’re all so glad you’re still making movies and that you can add Dìdi to that list. Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Joan.
JC: Thank you! Thank you, Sophia.
Dìdi is currently available to stream on Peacock and to rent or buy on Prime Video.
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