Viet Nam News
HCM CITY— Vietnamese movie star and music producer Ngo Thanh Van, known as Veronica Ngo in English, plays the role of a killer named Tien in a US film starring Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and Noomi Rapace.
Van, who is fluent in English, arrived in Los Angeles late last year to begin filming her scenes in the US$90 million Bright, a production directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis.
The two men were involved in the hits End of Watch in 2012, Fury in 2014 and Suicide Squad last year.
Van competed against many Asian candidates for the role.
The fantasy thriller is about a policeman, played by American actor Smith, and a humanoid called Orc, played by Australian actor Edgerton, who work together to protect a magic wand from evil forces.
Distributed by Netflix, the film will be in cinemas later this year.
Bright is the second US film in which Van has appeared.
In 2015, she played one of the supporting roles in a sequel to the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: The Green Legend.
The film, directed by Yuen Woo-ping and written by John Fusco, starred Michelle Yeoh, who performed in Ang Lee’s 2000 edition Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Donnie Yen.
Produced by The Weinstein Company, the film was based on the fifth and final novel in the pentalogy, known in China as the Crane Iron Pentalogy by Wang Dulu.
Van learned kung fu with experienced martial artists before filming her scenes in New Zealand and China.
Career
"I’m confident of my ability to work beside foreign colleagues," said the 39-year-old Van.
Returning home from Norway to Viet Nam, Van began her career on the catwalk in 2000, becoming one of HCM City’s top fashion models. Three years later, she became involved in the music industry as a pop singer.
In 2004, Van played one of four leading roles in Rouge, a 13-part TV series by renowned Singaporean director Jonathan Foo. She was selected from 400 candidates from Asian countries.
The work was broadcast on MTV Asia, a cable TV channel broadcasting international music. It opened the door for her to become a movie star in the region.
In 2006, she played a leading role in Dong Mau Anh Hung (The Rebel), a kung-fu film directed by Vietnamese-American Charlie Nguyen.
The film won the Grand Jury Award in 2007 Sharing Visions, a biennial international film festival for Vietnamese filmmakers, held in Los Angeles.
She has also performed in quality films by Vietnamese and Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) directors.
In 2015, she developed her talent as a movie producer in the comedy film Ngay Nay Ngay Nay (Once Upon A Time), a co-production between Van and her partner, Canadian-Vietnamese director Cuong Ngo.
Last year, she directed her first film, Tam Cam-Chuyen Chua Ke (Tam Cam-The Untold Story), a fantasy work based on a fairy tale best known as the Vietnamese version of Cinderella.
She invested a big sum of more than VND20 billion (nearly U$900,000) in filming.
Tam Cam-Chuyen Chua Ke was released in 37 cinema complexes in Ha Noi, HCM City and provinces, earning more than VND70 billion ($3.1 million) in ticket sales.— VNS