Lucy Liu:

Panda’s “Viper”

by Lynn Barker

We know actress Lucy Liu as a feisty “Charlie’s Angel” and a really scary mobster battling Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Lovely Lucy continues her Kung Fu fighting in the fun animated film Kung Fu Panda as the voice of Viper, a sleek, slithering snake-gal and part of the crack martial arts team the legendary Furious Five.

Lucy told us that she was able to draw on her martial arts skills to get into Viper’s vibe and used a certain breathlessness in her voice to indicate a fight in progress. It’s all fun and games when you are on a good guy team with Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan. Then there is Jack Black as the Panda Po who would love to join the fearless martial artists. Of course, Lucy was in a sound booth recording all alone and believing it would all mesh together beautifully.

We sat down to chat with the actress recently in Beverly Hills and were immediately struck by her killer outfit…

AGW: What are you wearing?

Lucy: Galliano sweater and the skirt is Juicy Couture and Dior shoes and giant pearls. They’re costume but they’re great. No oysters were injured.

AGW: Looks gorgeous. Did the filmmakers show you pictures of the Viper character? How did you get into playing her? And, do you see yourself in the character because they video record you while you are doing the voice?

Lucy: When we first had a meeting together, they had pictures of Viper already and they also had a really small, short computerized video [a test] version of what she would look like when she moved because her movement is very different. It’s something that they hadn’t worked on before; how a snake moves. It was really fantastic and it didn’t take a lot for me to say ‘yes’ and for them to hopefully say that I was onboard as well. I think we did do a lot of video but she has a very specific face so I don’t know if they put me in. Maybe with the eyes and the expressions of the mouth. I loved the lotus flowers in her “hair”.

AGW: How did you feel when you finally saw the finished film?

Lucy: I was so enjoying the movie when I first saw it that I forgot that I was participating in it. I forgot why I was there. Then I heard my voice and I was like ‘oh, my God, that’s right. It’s so great’. Because, you get sucked into the movie. It’s been a long process. It’s been like five years.

AGW: Did Viper or the story change a lot over those years?

Lucy: It was quite different every time I went in for a [recording] session. Originally, Viper was a little more comedic, really broad and everybody was kind of coming down on Panda a little bit being difficult and pushing him around. But I think you really had to go through all those changes to find where you were going. It’s a free-for-all!

AGW: Can you talk about the voice recording process?

Lucy: It’s different from anything that you normally would do because you are working on your own basically. You don’t have other actors in the room. You are going based on trusting exactly what the directors are telling you. So, they are creating this visual field for you. You could be overacting beyond your wildest dreams and it actually will work or it needs to be pushed further. You can improvise. I think that’s a nice feeling of freedom. As we experimented more and more, they wanted to keep our voices really close to what they normally sound like. Otherwise it would be very cartoony and that’s not what they were going for.

AGW: You’ve done a lot of voices for television’s “King of the Hill” and “Futurama”. Can you give us a rundown of who you voiced on those shows and what that was like?

Lucy: I found that TV and the movies are completely different for voice-overs because in T.V., they already have it set and they have a deadline as well. For “Futurama”, I was playing myself so they wanted me to sound like myself but for “The Simpsons” and other things, I was playing like a Communist [laughs]. You can have more fun with that and for “King of the Hill” too. It’s nice to sort of be incognito sometimes. You can go on and do something that’s fun and you get to work with such smart and creative people that you normally wouldn’t bump into.

AGW: As a Chinese woman, is it extra-special to play a Chinese super-hero and also do you possess the same bravery as Viper?

Lucy: And more! Well, it’s funny because I don’t see Viper as a Chinese super-hero but she is in this monumental film where the backdrop is the landscape of China and it’s gorgeous and I know that my mom is going to come to the premiere and she’s going to be so impressed and blown away. That is something that is really impressive to be around, to have that history and have that culture. I’m first-generation so I grew up with all of those things. So, to see that and be a part of it, in such a fantastic world, I can check that off my list.

AGW: Do you think it's getting easier to be an Asian actress in Hollywood?

Lucy: I think it's something that is slowly becoming more accepted and there is the idea of doing roles that weren't originally slated for somebody that was Asian, which is great. But I think slowly they'll start processing the idea of the daughter that's Asian and the mother that's not, going into that color blind casting. I think that the more open we look at things, the more open things are going to be. It's how we generate that energy.

AGW: Did any of the martial arts you did for Kill Bill or Charlie’s Angels help you get in the right headspace for Viper when you can only use your voice?

Lucy: Well, I was jumping around and doing some movements [while recording]. On Kill Bill I was doing mainly Samurai work but from doing all the other action, like in Charlie’s Angels, I just understood the idea of breath and how important it was to add that to the [voice] performance.

AGW: Are you okay with doing martial arts projects or movies that are heavy in that sort of action?

Lucy: I love it. I grew up watching it, all the movies. The thing is, I don't know the English names because they're all in Chinese, but I love doing kung fu movies. I love doing action movies. I think that going and watching a movie that has action in it, especially for kids, it's thrilling. It's exciting. It gets you pumped up. You want to go out and start kung fu fighting! You go into another world and you can get lost in that.

AGW: Which kind of animal would you be if you could choose?

Lucy: I don't know. It's hard to say, because I love animals so much. My sister's a veterinarian. I enjoy all of them. I'm already the year of the monkey, so I always think of myself as a monkey, because in Chinese, the year you're born you have an animal. And I'm obviously playing a snake in this, so I guess those are the two different possibilities for me right now.

AGW: Will you go to China for the Olympics?

Lucy: I'm actually going to be working, so I won't be traveling to Asia for the Olympics, sadly.

Pictures courtesy of and copyright Dreamworks Animation, 2008, and Columbia Pictures, 2008

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