Lucy Liu

And here I was sitting in a classroom, you know, I guess, repeating these vowels and these tones.

I just didn't – it wasn't my interest.

And I think that also I was trying to get away from – you know, I was struggling with, like, am I Chinese?

Am I American?

Where am I?

And so here I am trying to be American and try to find a voice, but then I'm stuck in Chinese school.

And so –

I think when I got to college, I was like, I can choose this now.

And it was a choice.

And that's a very different feeling to make that decision for yourself.

So I was taking all these courses that were interesting to me.

And then all of a sudden, they're like, you need to have a major.

And I thought, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do?

And all the things that I was learning, like Chinese philosophy and the language itself and art, I then saw, okay, these are the most credits I have.

I better just

I better find something that's going to get me out of this school in time.

So that's how Asian Languages and Cultures came to be.

Okay, so your breakout role came in 1998.

You had smaller roles before then, but Ling Wu on Ally McBeal, sharp-tongued, that's how she's described, a lawyer who made no apologies.

And I actually want to play a scene because I want to familiarize the audience to this character.