Latest Joan Chen Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• America and China need to understand each other.

  Joan Chen

  America, Needs, China

  Source: thefilmexperience.net

• In my life I do look up to actors, at my age I ask myself, who else is playing interesting parts at my age which is very difficult for a female actor. On top of it, being a minority, having come from China makes it harder.

  Joan Chen

  Interesting, Age, Female

  Source: thefilmexperience.net

• I would say it's like a meditative process, to have everything done for you every morning.

  Joan Chen

  Morning, Done, Process

  Source: thefilmexperience.net

• If the costumes are wrong, you feel awful in them and it lessens your acting.

  Joan Chen

  Acting, Awful, Costumes

  Source: thefilmexperience.net

• If you have the right costumes you feel more confident as the character, they really help you act.

  Joan Chen

  Character, Costumes, Helping

  Source: thefilmexperience.net

• Historically and culturally the Mongol women were very strong, they contributed as much as the men to their society, their community. Other than upper body strength, I think they were equal to the men. To compensate for the lesser upper body strength they had to be smarter, they had to think more, they had to consider things more carefully.

  Joan Chen

  Strong, Men, Thinking

  Source: thefilmexperience.net

• The young people, they don't knock on the door politely and say "May I come in?" They barge in, they take your seat, and you're obsolete unless you recreate and somehow find grace somewhere else. Another profession may not be like that.

  Joan Chen

  Doors, Somewhere Else, People

  "Joan Chen and Amanda Schull Interview MAO’S LAST DANCER". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. August 18, 2010.

• It's a very obsessive profession that you need to stay obsessed to get anywhere, and it's very easy for us to get obsessed and then nothing else matters. I was reading Somerset Maugham's novella, Moon and Sixpense, about this artist based on Gauguin's life. It was so beautifully written. You must be first rate because second rate you might not survive. If you're an accountant, you'll survive second rate. If you chance it big, you may not get anywhere.

  Joan Chen

  Reading, Artist, Moon

  "Joan Chen and Amanda Schull Interview MAO’S LAST DANCER". collider.com. August 18, 2010.

• It's the sacrifice I'm not willing to make right now to leave my children because I felt it wasn't only my choice.

  Joan Chen

  Children, Sacrifice, Choices

  "Joan Chen and Amanda Schull Interview MAO’S LAST DANCER". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. August 18, 2010.

• I went to Indiana University for college for a couple of years where I double majored in dance and journalism, and after my sophomore year there, I went to the San Francisco Ballet school for the summer, but then they offered me a scholarship to stay for the year. That's where I danced after the year they offered me a contract with the company.

  Joan Chen

  Summer, Couple, School

  Source: collider.com

• I went to the International Ballet competition when I was 15 or 16 and that was the first time I competed. I didn't get very far but it was the first time that I realized what I needed to do to become a dancer. I realized how hard it was.

  Joan Chen

  Dancer, Competition, Ballet

  Source: collider.com

• I remember watching Swan Lake and everybody looking exactly the same, but being able to relate because they were the only company I had ever seen even on video that had Asian dancers. The Asian community in Hawaii is actually almost as dominant as the Caucasian community. I thought "I can relate to that company because they look like people that I see every day." They weren't all little stick-thin Russian ballerinas.

  Joan Chen

  Lakes, Swans, People

  Source: collider.com

• Not very many companies go through Hawaii on their way to anywhere. San Francisco Ballet was the only company I remember, and Bolshoi, coming through Hawaii when I was younger.

  Joan Chen

  San Francisco, Ballet, Way

  Source: collider.com

• I grew up in Honolulu. It's not the ballet cultural mecca by any stretch of the imagination. People are much more familiar with hula than they are with ballet.

  Joan Chen

  Imagination, People, Ballet

  Source: collider.com

• I love any opportunity to be able to dance. It's in my blood. I mean, I need to do it as an artist. I need to always do it.

  Joan Chen

  Mean, Opportunity, Artist

  Source: collider.com

• Since my mom is the President of Ballet Hawaii, I'm always in touch with stuff going on.

  Joan Chen

  Mom, Ballet, President

  Source: collider.com

• I danced in a Lifetime film. We shot in Canada and I got to work with a lot of the dancers who do So You Think You Can Dance, Canada.

  Joan Chen

  Thinking, Dancer, Canada

  Source: collider.com

• I take class. I'm always ballet ready. I'm ready to go - got my tights and my shoes.

  Joan Chen

  Class, Shoes, Ballet

  Source: collider.com

• In order to dance professionally, you have to start at a young age. No matter what, your muscle structure and your bones have to be groomed from a very young age. Nobody wakes up at 17 and decides to become a ballet dancer. I'm saying that and someone's going to be born tomorrow who decides to do that and I'm going to have my foot in my mouth.

  Joan Chen

  Order, Feet, Dancer

  Source: collider.com

• I'm more interested in...I'm more of a descendent. I'm more critical. It comes from a different place and nowadays the young people know how to make just light entertainment.

  Joan Chen

  Light, People, Different

  "Joan Chen and Amanda Schull Interview MAO’S LAST DANCER". collider.com. August 18, 2010.

• I miss directing. I see stories in images and music more so than in dialogue.

  Joan Chen

  Missing, Stories, Dialogue

  "Joan Chen and Amanda Schull Interview MAO’S LAST DANCER". collider.com. August 18, 2010.

• I enjoy going back to work now because cinema is going through an exciting period because young people are now going back to the movie theaters. But things are different though.

  Joan Chen

  People, Different, Cinema

  "Joan Chen and Amanda Schull Interview MAO’S LAST DANCER". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. August 18, 2010.