By Christina Radish
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Lucy Liu. Photo By Christina Radish/ Agency Photos. |
No matter where you live on the planet, you can see the effect of the deadly AIDS epidemic. Told as a triptych, the new Wolfe Releasing film 3 Needles explores how people all over the world struggle to sustain their spirits in the face of such tragedy and devastation.
In China, Jin Ping (Lucy Liu) sets up her mobile blood collection service in a tiny farming village while the local peasants rejoice and prosper. When one farmer, Tong Sam, is barred from selling his blood because he has the flue, he lies about his daughter’s age so she can sell blood twice a month in his stead, so that he can use the money to improve his humble farm. By the time his abundant crop is ready for harvest, his wife and daughter are both mysteriously dead, and Sam sets out on a journey across the province to find out why.
In Canada, Denys (Shawn Ashmore) is a second-rate porn actor who loves to pretend to be anybody but himself. When Denys gets caught cheating on his blood tests, his poverty-striken family is thrown into turmoil and his weary waitress mother (Stockard Channing) hatches a fraud scheme to solve their money problems forever.
In South Africa, novice missionary Clara (Chloe Sevigny) sets out to urge the dying Africans to accept Jesus before it’s too late. Naive and optimistic, Clara strays from her mission and struggles to help raise a family of orphaned children. When one of her charges falls victim to a folk cure, she makes a bargain with a wealthy Afrikaans plantation owner, which aids the children but risks her own salvation.
{quote_top}The daughter of Chinese parents, Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu says that the character of Ping felt more at home to her than any of the other roles she’s played. “I was born in New York, but my parents spoke Chinese at home so I didn’t speak English until I was five,” the 38-year-old tells MediaBlvd. Magazine. “The combination of cultures is what makes America so great. My mother came with me to the set and we worked together. It was wonderful.”
Admittedly, Liu was a bit rusty with her Chinese when she took on the role, especially with so much medical terminology to learn. “We don’t have everyday conversations like, ‘Pass the soy sauce, and let’s talk about the research on the lobotomy in 1984.’ It was very difficult talking about transfusions, and all those different things. I’m more colloquial with my language, in terms of people things that are more user-friendly, so to speak. But, it is an absolute privilege to be able to speak another language, and have it be something you grew up with. Everywhere else in the world, people speak more than one language. People speak Asian languages or European romantic languages, and English. English is a secondary language for most people.”
{quote_middle}X-Men star Shawn Ashmore says that he wanted to be a part of the project because he had worked with the film’s director/writer/producer Thom Fitzgerald before and he understood his work ethic. “I really like the way that he tells stories, specifically something like this,” he tells MediaBlvd. “Knowing Thom from the past, I could see him in each of these stories. They seemed very specifically from his point of view, which I really liked. And, I felt like this film would not only be a challenge, as an actor, but would also have something to say. Coming off something like X-Men, which I loved and had so much fun doing, this just felt like it had a little more relevance in real life. And, it was exciting to work with Thom again, playing this character that was a huge challenge for me. Hopefully, people will get something out of the film, even if it just raises awareness.”
Another aspect that attracted Ashmore to the role was the opportunity to work with film veteran Stockard Channing. “It was amazing,” says the 27-year-old Canadian. “The really interesting thing about the dynamic between the characters is that, although they’re obviously mother and son, I didn’t realize until I watched the film that there’s really not that much dialogue between the two of us. But, I think that’s how families are. When you’re really comfortable with somebody, and you really know and understand them, you don’t have to explain why you’re upset. It just takes a look, or a moment. Stockard has a very nurturing way about her.”
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Shawn Ashmore at the Hollywood Film Festival Movie Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on October 23, 2006. |
Even though the spotlight that has shone on AIDS over the years is no longer quite as bright as it once was, it’s still an ever-present issue, all over the world. “Growing up, AIDS is something I was hyper-aware of in school because of the media,” says Ashmore. “And, I had friends of friends that had been affected by the disease. We’ve been aware of this disease for so long, and there’s been money sent over to help countries and people, but it’s not getting better. There’s more people affected now than there’s ever been.”
Liu says that she has always studied the effect of AIDS, but now her work with UNICEF has given her an even better understanding of the epidemic. “The last few years, I’ve been working as an ambassador, so I’ve gone out into the field and met children and spoken to families, and we’ve gone to orphanages and hospitals, and you can see the situations in its more pure form. It’s very raw to see kids who are 5 and 7 being taken care of by their grandparents because their parents have died of AIDS. The population between the ages of 25 and 40 is almost non-existent in some places, so it’s a very tragic situation that can be sorted out over time. Right now, the most important things are to educate people, and get health services to children because children can get through things easier than a lot of elderly people.”
Acting since the age of 10, Ashmore says that things really took off for him after the release of X2: X-Men United. “All of a sudden, people were saying, ‘Hey, aren’t you that guy?’ Nobody knows my name. They call me ‘the ice guy.’ It also made a lot of people within the industry aware of who I am.”
{quote_bottom}Up next for Ashmore is a thriller called Solstice, directed by Dan Myrick (The Blair Witch Project) and starring Elisabeth Harnois (Point Pleasant), Amanda Seyfried (Big Love) and Hilarie Burton (One Tree Hill). “It’s a psychological thriller with a bit of a supernatural twist to it. It’s not a ghost story, and it’s not a slasher flick. It will be out sometime in the middle of next year.”
Liu also has a supernatural thriller called Rise, written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, and starring Michael Chiklis (The Shield). The film follows a female reporter who wakes up in a morgue to find herself a member of the undead, vowing revenge against the vampire sect that put her there.
“It’s a horror movie. It’s a whole different thing for me. I love the director, too. It’s about mixing it up for myself. If you open a box of Crayola crayons, you don’t just want black. You want to have the choice of all the colors, even if you don’t decide to use them.”
