'Elementary' Star Lucy Liu: “I Can Easily Be Enticed Into Some Terrible Relationship"

see my mother cut all of my hair off. I had no hair: Picture Sinéad O’Connor

with a two-week grow-out. I was not considered feminine at all, and boys did

not look at me. I was a toothpick.”

On not looking at herself as a feminine person

“I’ll show you pictures, and you’ll see I’m not lying. I never looked at

myself as a feminine person. My thing was, “I’m going to be casual and be

able to talk to people because I’m hanging out with the guys.” In college, I

suddenly felt like I under¬stood more about myself and started making

choices on my own. I started doing things that I wanted to do and

understanding what my place was in the world, and I think part of that was

also embracing myself as a woman. I was smart, I could hang with the guys—I

could fall into my own niche category.... But I find that if somebody finds

me beautiful, it melts my heart because it’s not something I heard most of

“To really be able to listen. When I first met him, we went to Toi, this

rock ’n’ roll Thai restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. We sat down at the

table, and he started describing the character of O-Ren Ishii from Kill

Bill, acting out all the parts, the fake laughs, the sound effects... If

somebody is that excited to tell you something, it really is incredible how

much you can learn from him or her. You can’t replicate that kind of

passion.”

On her career and what it means to be an actor

“Number one, you really have to risk everything—you have to take chances and

take on projects that are pretty diverse. Just because you do film, don’t

limit yourself… The more flexible you are, the more the longevity of your

career is going to sustain itself. That’s what actors want. We don’t want to

blow up for two years or five years and then be done.”