Full Plate Alice Wu and Lynn Chen Discuss Making ëSaving Faceí by Ky N. Nguyen The independent film ìSaving Faceî features a young Chinese-American lesbian physician (Michelle Krusiec) coping with a new girlfriend (Lynn Chen) and the unexpected pregnancy of her single mother (Joan Chen), a big no-no in their traditional Chinese culture. At the Fairmont Hotel, The Washington Diplomat talked to rookie writer-director Alice Wu and budding actress Lynn Chen. Wu said, ìWe ate so much last nightóyou have no ideaówhich was just like our shoot. Toward maybe the third or fourth week, the costume designer came to me: ëYouíre going to have to get the actors to stop eating. We have so little budget that we only have one of everything. Joan is not fitting in her wedding dress. Iím too scared to tell her.í ìIn the passive-aggressive way of shoots, we kept moving the craft service table further and further away from the set. I donít know if you noticed.î ìI did notice!î Chen said and laughed. Wu continued: ìBy the end of the shoot, it was like two blocks away. What was hilarious was it still didnít deter the actors. Every time we had to start, they would breathlessly run back from the table.î With the limited budget, Wu wasnít able to get many takes, but she was helped by her training as an editor. ìFor directors, itís really good to be an editor first,î she said. A former software developer for Microsoft, Wu left in 1998 at the height of the tech boom. ìWhen I left, my boss said, ëYou are crazy. Do you know how much money youíre giving up?í But I just wanted to make this film so badly. ìIím a child of immigrant Chinese parents. Thereís something extremely unpragmatic about wanting to make a filmÖ. If you had told that 14-year-old that someday she would be directing her own film, I never would have believed you. Those 27 days were probably the best days of my life. I never felt more alive.î She added: ìI do feel like there is a tremendous amount of untapped talent out there, and it has nothing to do with your perception of yourself. Iím asked, ëHow did you know you could make this film?í And honestly, I didnít. I just knew that I wanted to try. ìIf youíd really asked me, I thought the odds were so slim. Itís got Chinese characters. Thereís a lesbian theme. Thereís Mandarin in it,î she continued. ìI personally have more radical politics than I directly write about in my film. I prefer to be more quietly subversive. Whatís interesting is to mold people into loving characters and identifying with them. Itís not so much that I want to say, ëAsians are underrepresented, so Iím making this film.í ìItís more that Iím making a film that matters to me. And yes, almost all of the characters are Asian, but so many people have come up afterward and said, ëThis is just like my Jewish familyí or ëItís just like my Italian family.íî Of finding the right actors for her film, Wu said, ìI auditioned over 1,000 people for this film. I had actors flying themselves in from everywhere. First of all, I donít think there are many good roles of women. There are even fewer if you say Asian-American women. Literally, every Asian actor was sending us a head shot.î Wu described Lynn Chen: ìThereís this incredible, natural talent. I totally think sheís going to be a star. I think she has star power. Thatís not something you can learn. It comes out in the film. I think you might be someone who might help break through certain images.î Chen said, ìI hope so.î Chen, who has had frequent appearances on ìAll My Childrenî and ìLaw and Order,î recalled, ìThis [film] was the first time that I had access to an entire script. When I read it, I thought it was amazingÖ. Iím writing a couple of scripts, taking a page out of Aliceís book. She serves as a wonderful inspiration for that.î Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.