Actress Minh Chau is a familiar face on the big and small screens. Vietnamese cinema lovers may recognise her as the woman with a double identity in Song Nu (The Two Women) or Ms Nhan in the Berlin Film Festival award-winning Ben Khong Chong (Wharf of Widows).
She spoke to Culture Vulture about the importance of a work ethic in acting and her latest role in the television series Bi Thu Tinh Uy (The Provincial Party Committee Secretary).
Tell us about your role in Bi Thu Tinh Uy ?
My character is named Thuong, and she's got a lot of personality. As soon as I accepted the role from director Quoc Trong, I studied her life, from her childhood through her last days. The character is based on a real person named Dong. She was born in Bac Ninh and later moved to Vinh Phuc. Before 1954, Dong was a revolutionary activist in Viet Bac base with Kim Ngoc. They were very young and their lives were intertwined. When Kim Ngoc moved back to Vinh Phuc to become the provincial Party committee secretary, Dong went with him. He appointed her a position as head of the Vinh Phuc Party inspection board. The further I went into the script, the more I liked Thuong for her straightforwardness, hot-headedness yet she is knowledgeable and decisive.
How did you land this role?
When it comes to casting, the crew was really worried about the role of Thuong. Trong then revealed that he already had someone in mind who would be perfect for the role. As soon as my name came up, screenwriter Thuy Linh instantly agreed. For a while, Trong had been telling me that he had a very interesting role for me.
Is it true that you first rejected the part?
No. The story is that, when I accepted this role, my hair was curly and died strawberry blonde, while my character was a peasant living in the country in the 1960s. I expressed my concerns to Trong, and he promised me a hairdresser who could help me get into character. But when I arrived at the location, there was no hairdresser. Trong had misunderstood that I didn't want to have my hair straightened, but, in truth, it couldn't have been done. I had asked a number of professional hairdressers and was told that if I had it straightened, I would look like a girl in a shampoo ad, which wouldn't be consistent with the character at all. I threw a diva-scale fit and said that I would no longer play this part.
After I returned to Ha Noi and finally calmed down, a sense of responsibility took over. Then I asked a make-up artist friend of mine to make a custom wig for me. It's funny that a little thing could cause such a conflagration, but things happen. As soon as I tried on the wig, I found the peace of mind to play the role and everything was fine. When I play a role, everything must be perfect. You must ask for perfection, first of all in yourself, in order to really get into a role.
Can you share some of your memories of shooting the film?
Thuong is addicted to black tobacco, she walks around with a bamboo hubble-bubble pipe with her all the time. The pipe is her security blanket, with which she shares all her ups and downs. At first, everyone in my family told me horrible stories about pipe tobacco.
One even told the tale of a man who was high on tobacco and dove head first into a burning stove and burned his face off. I was a bit intimidated but knew that I had to make the sacrifice as it was my character's thing. So I got creative because I had no idea how to smoke a pipe.
First, I took a puff of cigarette and held the smoke in my mouth. Then, I placed my mouth on the pipe and we started shooting. But then I thought it wouldn't look real, so I knew I have to practice smoking a pipe. It was definitely no piece-of-cake. Practice makes perfect, and on one lovely day, everyone saw me smoking the pipe like an addict.
You once said you wanted to play a rebel. Have you gotten your dream role?
The national film and television industry hasn't been able yet to produce such a role for an actress my age. I would love to someday play that type of character, someone who is ambitious but with a bit of a dark side. — VNS