JuJu Chan happy to gain place in Hollywood
16 Dec – JuJu Chan recently admitted that she is elated to be the second Hong Kong-based female martial arts star to enter Hollywood following Michelle Yeoh, the Malaysian actress who rose to fame starring in 1990s Hong Kong films prior to breaking into Hollywood.
As reported on Mingpao, the actress, whose new movie "Jiu Jitsu" co-starring Nicholas Cage and Tony Jaa is set to be released soon, admitted that it was not easy for an Asian actress to enter the Hollywood market in the past and that one had to pass several stages of auditions and cuts before one could finally make it.
"It's better nowadays and there are more opportunities. In the past, an action movie would only need a few Asian actors, and they mostly use male actors instead," she said.
JuJu, who has been in the industry for nine years, has recently worked on several Hollywood projects, including playing one of the main roles in the Netflix US series, "Wu Assassins".
"Of course, there had been six years of non-stop auditioning failures. But it doesn't mean that I am no good. It's just that there are too many people auditioning for the one place and competition was stiff," she said, adding that getting a role after so many auditions felt like winning the lottery.
However, the actress stated that she never gave up, all because she loves martial arts and would like to continue promoting Chinese martial arts through movies.
When asked how it was working with Cage, the actress - dubbed 'female Bruce Lee' by the US media - praised the Hollywood actor for his hard work and humility, saying that Cage was always eager to learn jiu-jitsu and martial arts from the action choreographer.
"We saw each other on the first day and he came to introduce himself. On the other hand, Tony Jaa - who seemed to have a tough image - was actually very sweet and loves to meditate," she said.
(Photo Source: Mingpao)
