Lucy Liu was taken aback by how different ‘Presence’ filmmaker Steven Soderbergh’s approach to directing was compared to Quentin Tarantino on ‘Kill Bill’.
Lucy Liu says there is a huge contrast between the directing styles of Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino.
The 56-year-old actress features in Soderbergh’s supernatural horror movie ‘Presence’ and revealed that his approach behind the camera is the polar opposite to Tarantino – who she worked with on ‘Kill Bill’.
Speaking to MovieWeb, Liu said: “It’s not even apples and oranges. It’s like meat and fruit… they’re so different.”
The ‘Charlie’s Angels’ actress plays work-distracted matriarch Rebecca in the haunted house flick but explained how she was given little guidance by the ‘Erin Brokovich’ director about how to approach the role.
Liu recalled: “Steven talked to me, but there was nothing about the project until later in the meeting. Then, later, he sent me the script, but didn’t tell me which character (I’d be playing).
“He didn’t say that he was going to shoot it this way. I said, ‘Yes’, and then I showed up to the set. Then he said nothing to me, other than, you know, ‘Should we move to the left or to the right,’ or, ‘Let’s do it again?’ You know, ‘What do you think?’ That was it.”
The star reflected on how Tarantino is far more talkative during the making of his movies.
Liu said: “Steven and Quentin are obviously such auteurs, and they work very differently. Quentin has more energy than the sun, and that says a lot, you know? He talks, and he just has an imagination that he puts out there readily.
“He acted out the entire scene (in ‘Kill Bill’), all of our end screens, and all the different characters to me at a restaurant.”
She added: “Their styles are so different. I think the experimentation that Steven is willing to take is more like a painter who isn’t afraid to scrape and then add or put on top.”
There is scant dialogue or backstory in ‘Presence’ and Liu was intrigued by the picture originating from a “very clear place of curiosity”.
Liu said: “I feel like it is coming from a very clear place of curiosity, which I enjoy, because that is artistic freedom, isn’t it? You’re not doing it for ‘the Man’. It’s something you are curious about so then you just try it. It’s almost childlike.”
The actress also explained that she never felt desperate to maintain a commercial movie career after the success she enjoyed with ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and ‘Kill Bill’ in the early 2000s.
She said: “I’m interested in working with people that I like, and I think that’s happened more and more.
“(Being an Asian American actor has) never been an incoming-call business. Sometimes it has been, but it’s very rare, so it’s still a journey where you have to look at the project, see what makes sense.”
‘It’s like meat and fruit’: Lucy Liu shocked by contrasting approaches of Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino
