[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/international\/dare-to-dream-lydia-look-hollywood-character-actress\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/international\/dare-to-dream-lydia-look-hollywood-character-actress\/","headline":"Dare to Dream: Lydia Look, Hollywood character actress","name":"Dare to Dream: Lydia Look, Hollywood character actress","description":"Many Singaporean women have big movie star dreams when they were young, but Lydia Look managed to take that extra stride and has made hers a reality.\u00a0 \u201cI was a hundred percent sure I wanted to be a Hollywood actress from the start. I hate to be so \u2018cocksure\u2019 about it, I was!\u201d exclaims the […]","datePublished":"2022-01-13","dateModified":"2022-04-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/#Person","name":"Rachel Teng","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/","identifier":367,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/ICW-Lydia-Look-_-Lydia-Look.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/ICW-Lydia-Look-_-Lydia-Look.jpg","height":900,"width":1600},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/international\/dare-to-dream-lydia-look-hollywood-character-actress\/","video":[{"@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/i.vimeocdn.com\/video\/1051903101-954657cba15665ddb68be1aa7d357f6c99930a45a0f8694df437f2409c27285f-d_295x166?region=us","name":"Lydia Look - Drama Showreel","description":"2021","thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.vimeocdn.com\/video\/1051903101-954657cba15665ddb68be1aa7d357f6c99930a45a0f8694df437f2409c27285f-d_295x166?region=us","uploadDate":"2021-02-03T21:48:59+00:00","duration":"P0DT0H4M27S"},{"@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/i.vimeocdn.com\/video\/711676281-f417ced976d355d494619f7f2e2f3fcf40afe48b20477da0cd0db8f89352159f-d_640?region=us","name":"Lydia+Look+-+Comedy+Reel+v4+-+Final","description":"Comedy Showreel","thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.vimeocdn.com\/video\/711676281-f417ced976d355d494619f7f2e2f3fcf40afe48b20477da0cd0db8f89352159f-d_640?region=us","uploadDate":"2018-07-05T19:50:02+00:00","duration":"P0DT0H2M19S"},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws","name":"GH 12-09-21 Britt and Ms. Wu","description":"Videobeschreibung Mein Film 1","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/jrCnkkM-7Ws\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/jrCnkkM-7Ws\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/jrCnkkM-7Ws\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/jrCnkkM-7Ws\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/jrCnkkM-7Ws\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2021-12-09T21:26:47+00:00","duration":"PT2M7S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jrCnkkM-7Ws","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCOKzrXU2F3p3IBrn7XBGZCA#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCOKzrXU2F3p3IBrn7XBGZCA","name":"Amanda HDX","description":"","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_mfBVjuYKi0DjxlEWSeyeEGDioohoRPj_QBDPTnrqc=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":3314}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jrCnkkM-7Ws#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":45}]}],"about":["Asia","Community","Features","International"],"wordCount":2422,"keywords":["character actress","dare to dream","general hospital","hollywood","Katong convent","lydia look","patriotism","singaporean","soap opera","victoria junior college"],"articleBody":"Many Singaporean women have big movie star dreams when they were young, but Lydia Look managed to take that extra stride and has made hers a reality.\u00a0\u201cI was a hundred percent sure I wanted to be a Hollywood actress from the start. I hate to be so \u2018cocksure\u2019 about it, I was!\u201d exclaims the loud and proud CHIJ Katong Convent alumnus.Handpicked by the Convent nuns and dubbed \u201cthe girl with the gift of the gab\u201d since she was eight, Ms Look was a natural and the it-girl for the Convent\u2019s notable Speech and Drama programme.\u00a0She rode the snowballing wave of opportunities that came her way, and eventually went on to study acting in the United States at the age of 18, under a scholarship from the National Arts Council \u2014 and the rest was history.\u00a0Ms Look\u2019s most notable role to date is Madame Selena Wu, a badass gang leader, on ABC daytime drama, General Hospital.In the face of all the glamour, this shapeshifter of an actress asserts that \u201ca lot goes into making a scene beautiful or truthful\u201d. And it is evident that Ms Look is deeply Singaporean and misses home dearly.\u00a0\u201cI like to call Singapore a strange paradise. I think people who live here on a long-term basis sometimes forget the many things we take for granted. But when we\u2019re overseas, we really miss Singapore,\u201d says Ms Look, who drops a Cantonese or Singlish word into every other sentence\u00a0 and still tries to identify a Singaporean accent amid the busy streets of Los Angeles (LA), where she now lives and works.\u00a0TheHomeGround Asia speaks to the animated Ms Look to learn about her \u201cjourney to the West\u201d, her adventures in Hollywood, and how she navigates her patriotism from across the globe.\u00a0Video courtesy of Lydia Look.\u00a0TheHomeGround Asia (THG): When did you know that you really wanted to become an actress?\u00a0Lydia Look (LL): My career in acting started when I was four, and it really had a lot to do with my mother. I credit her for everything that I am today. She was a phenomenal woman, very ahead of her time, but a \u2018failed actress\u2019 of sorts herself. She was a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital for 55 years, but prior to becoming a nurse, she wanted to be an actress. She was really quite beautiful in her youth. She was a World War 2 baby, and she was one of eight children. So she had to look after her brothers and didn\u2019t get to study, but she was very intelligent.\u00a0She pushed me to do acting since I was young, and put me in the right schools too. I went to Katong Convent, which was known for its Speech and Drama programme. I was handpicked by the Convent nuns to complete the Guildhall School of Music and Drama certifications, and I was very good at it. I was just a natural, being a chatterbox. They gave me a good moniker that I still use today. When they picked me since when I was in primary one, they told my mother, \u201cthis girl has the gift of the gab\u201d.\u00a0I was very good at mimicking accents. I grew up with many seniors who ended up being legends in the media and theatre industries, like Glenda Chong and Suzanne Ho, so I got a lot of exposure. At the same time, I started to do semi-professional work outside. I was part of the first batch of girls picked by Samuel Chong to dub hundreds of Chinese series into English. In secondary school, I started to work very seriously with Theatre Works, and even more so when I did theatre studies for my \u201cA\u201d levels.\u00a0\u00a0THG: When and how did things start getting serious for you?\u00a0LL: I went to Los Angeles after my \u201cA\u201d levels, and I got a [partial] scholarship under the National Arts Council (NAC) to the University of Southern California (USC) School of Film & Television and the USC School of Theater for acting. I had a very unique double major combination \u2014 I was doing film studies with an emphasis on screenwriting, and I was also simultaneously an acting major.I had already started working since my first semester in school. Being in acting school, acting outside for credit really counts for something because it\u2019s practical work.\u00a0 I was booked for my first acting job with the East West Players, the United States\u2019 first professional Asian American theatre organisation, and it was for an absurdist play called Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello. From then on, I was barely acting in school and was doing shows outside of school, and so I ended up graduating with one degree instead of two. I didn\u2019t have enough money to fund my two degrees as well.\u00a0THG: That must have been hard. How did you survive financially, especially when you first started out in Hollywood?\u00a0LL: When I was starting out, I didn\u2019t often make enough money as an Asian actress in my early 20s. So, I started writing at a very young age. I used to write all the plays that we did in primary and secondary schools. When I was in film school, my emphasis was also on screenwriting, and in my second year, I actually sold a script to a TV station and I joined the union. So I had another life as a writer too. I still write for the Disney Channel, I wrote Wendy Wu: Wuhancoming Warrior. So I have a whole legion of Asian American young girls who grew up watching all the stuff that I wrote. That helped me get by alongside my acting gigs.\u00a0THG: What kind of actress would you say you are?\u00a0LL: I\u2019m a character actress in Hollywood. I\u2019m not what you would call your typical leading lady. So I shapeshift a lot \u2014 sometimes I play powerful women, other times I play \u201cpoor thing\u201d characters, and there are times I even played animals. Actually, a character actress has a longevity that usually extends way past that of an ingenue.\u00a0The very first thing I ever saw on television was \u795e\u96d5\u4fa0\u4fa3 (The Legend of the Condor Heroes). I didn\u2019t want to be the demure female protagonist, Xiao Long Nu (\u5c0f\u9f99\u5973).\u00a0 I wanted to be all the other characters, and usually the guys too!\u00a0I\u2019m not really a leading actress either \u2014\u00a0I\u2019m not traditionally beautiful.\u00a0THG: No way.\u00a0LL: No, seriously. Beautiful is like Gemma Chan. I am not that. I was always a bit quirky, and I have a scar on my lip, that sort of thing. I can play the demure leading actress if you want me to (for a price), but I was always more attracted to the other roles. I play anything, no role is too small for me.\u00a0THG: So I guess it worked out well for you?\u00a0LL: You know what? I don\u2019t think I really had a choice one way or the other. Because when you come into town, people pigeonhole you pretty fast. I was always known as the dependable professional who showed up, did her work, and was good. In the industry, the actors run the gamut. There are those who really take their craft very seriously and show up and bang it out and get the job done over and over again. And there are those who just come because they want to be famous, and those don\u2019t last very long.\u00a0THG: Is there something that people seldom know about your job?\u00a0LL: That it requires a lot of work. What you see, we make it look very easy for you. But actually, a lot goes into making a scene beautiful or truthful. Being an actress is very san fu (Cantonese for gruelling). You\u2019ve got to really want it. Glamorous is only what you see on the screen. There\u2019s a lot of prep that goes behind the scenes that is totally unglamorous.\u00a0THG: What kind of characters do you like to play the most?\u00a0LL: I like characters that are not who they seem to be, characters who will surprise you. In other words, I like very human characters. People that we know in everyday life that you think are one way, but when you talk to them, you realise they have many more layers. They may seem like they have their sh*t together, but in reality, they\u2019re just trying to juggle everything. Like everybody else, they\u2019re people like you and me \u2014 flawed.\u00a0Video courtesy of Lydia Look.\u00a0THG: Is there one in particular that stands out to you?\u00a0LL: I\u2019ll tell you something. The character that I\u2019m playing on General Hospital right now? I love her. Her name is Selena Wu. Among the five families that have a lot of dealings with the hospital, there\u2019s a Chinese triad, and I play its boss lady. I\u2019m the only woman across the five families, so I boss the men around all the time. In this season (spoiler alert!), I actually killed two of them in a car bomb to usurp power.\u00a0So it sounds like my character is very hou ngok (Cantonese for fierce), right? but I\u2019m also a very complex woman. The writers didn\u2019t tell me that she\u2019s a Harvard graduate, but when I got the material for the character, I just made her one, because the stuff she says is so unbelievable. (Her England very powerful.) I knew that I wanted to make her very yin and yang \u2014 a real gangster who would take out a knife and slash you, but also extremely well-educated and smart \u2014 someone who can track both worlds.\u00a0I\u2019ve been playing Selena since 2015, but I only used to come in once a year when there was a big mafia meeting on the show. But this year, my character suddenly became much bigger, so I\u2019m really loving playing her right now.\u00a0THG: Was there any particular reason why your character grew, or was it just fate?\u00a0LL: I think the fans asked for it, and also I think I was in the right place at the right time. After the #MeTooMovement and #BLM, as well as the premiere of Crazy Rich Asians, the audience demanded a more diverse cast and better representation. This year, they have really made strides to introduce a lot more diversity on the show, and I am part of that diversity.\u00a0THG: That is great! But what about the early days of your career? Was it hard trying to make it as an Asian woman in Hollywood?\u00a0LL: If I wasn\u2019t so crazy and knew that that was what I wanted to do, I think I would have come home a long time ago. Aiya, living in Singapore is so nice! All my friends are there and anywhere I walk I can makan (Malay for eat). Everytime I leave Singapore, I cry at the airport. All my family is there. My mum is now 87 and very frail, so it\u2019s getting harder and harder to leave every time.\u00a0Because even though I have very good friends now, life in Los Angeles is a lot harder than in Singapore. There are no helpers, you have to do everything yourself. And it\u2019s not like Singapore, where everybody is your auntie and every corner is your neighbourhood.\u00a0THG: It sounds like you do miss Singapore a lot. Was it hard for you to leave at eighteen?\u00a0LL: Yes, very much so. I think patriotism runs the gamut. When kind of a patriot am I? I think I\u2019m a lover of the people. That\u2019s what makes Singapore so special. I do love them. I really do. I love my friends, my family, and of course, I love the food. You can take the girl out of Singapore, but you\u2019ll never take these things out of her.You know, we take a lot of stuff for granted in Singapore, even though we complain a lot about how strict it is here and everything. But with that also comes a lot of beautiful things. I think people who live there on a long-term basis sometimes forget that. When we\u2019re in Singapore, we grumble a lot about it, but when we\u2019re overseas, we really miss Singapore. It is sort of a strange paradise, as I call it.THG: So even though you love Singapore deeply, you felt like it was a necessary step in your career to go to Hollywood?\u00a0LL: Yes, absolutely \u2014 for me. I can\u2019t answer for every other actor or actress. Some people find great fulfilment being professional actors in Singapore, and they are wonderful actors (like Siti K \u2014 she\u2019s such a good actress!). We have such talented people.\u00a0But for me, at the age of eighteen after \u201cA\u201d levels, I felt like I had hit the ceiling. And back then, the acting industry was much, much scarcer than it is now. I really felt like I needed to find myself, and went to USC because I knew I wanted to be in Hollywood from the beginning.\u00a0THG: What would you like to tell budding Singaporean actors and actresses today?\u00a0LL: Never be fearful. Don\u2019t ask yourself, \u201cwhat should I do for my career?\u201d, because that brings in a lot of negativity and thinking you\u2019re not doing enough. Don\u2019t let that inner, Singaporean critic voice (which we are all born with) get in the way of your dreams \u2014 that can sometimes be very damaging. I still catch myself saying it in my head sometimes too.\u00a0I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as simple as asking yourself what you should do for your career, because if that\u2019s the primary question, I doubt you\u2019ll ever be fulfilled. I think that if you\u2019re really an actor and lover of the craft, it\u2019s a lifelong pursuit, you\u2019ll never be where you want to be as an actor.\u00a0Instead, I think the question is, \u201cwhat can I do for myself on a day-to-day basis to enrich my acting world?\u201d If it means going away for small stretches of time, or taking a vow of silence for six days to find your inner world, do it.\u00a0Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"International","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/international\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dare to Dream: Lydia Look, Hollywood character actress","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/international\/dare-to-dream-lydia-look-hollywood-character-actress\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]