Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 10, 1 October 2011 — TV audience [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TV audience

superstar Kelly Hu get knocked off in last season's finale o Five-0, but like a cat with nine lives, Hu will be back and s the silver screen as she takes the lead in Ahnost Perfect. Premiering in the Islands at the Hawai'i International Fih onOct. 16 at 3 p.m. and Oct. 17 at 9:30 p.m Ahnost Perfei story of a New York career woman "finding puppy love at ; words of the movie's Facebook page. "Bertha had this amazing script," said Hu, a Kamehameh graduate of Hawaiian, Chinese and English descent, re writer-director and award-winning filmmaker Bertha Bay-Ī "I read it and it really spoke to me. I saw a lot of mys character, dealing with family issues and the fear of eon I've been with my boyfriend for about eight years and we'r( now talking about moving in together. Like my character ii I'm still on the fence about the whole marriage thing too." Hu was also happy with the fact that her character's Asian and her character's father is Caucasian. "There are n mixed Asian and White couples of that generation depicted she says. In the romantic comedy, Vanessa Lee (Kelly Hu) runs a and meets up with Dwayne (Ivan Shaw), who could be tl man for her. As romance blossoms, Vanessa is monopoliz somewhat dysfunctional family to the point that there may i room for her perfect man. "The casting was perfect," recall couldn't have been better. We had such a great rapport." Hu, who's movies have included The Scorpion Kin : fellow Hawai'i actor Dwayne Johnson, X2: X-Men Unitet Tournament, a British indie film with Ving Rhames, wele departure from the action genre. "It was a really fun role for me," she says. "Lirst of a' play the lead in the film, and I

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was in every single scene of the movie. So, it was nonstop and I got to work with some really fun actors, people that I still have great relationships with now. It was a great experience being able to shoot

īn New York. New York is a long ways from "performing in plays and dance shows at Kamehameha," whieh she says probably helped her "get more comfortable in front of an audience." "But truthfully speaking, I am more nervous about performing live now than when I was in school. Perhaps that comes with the fear of being judged more now than when no one knew who I was." Hu has been in more than 25 films and in dozens of television series. "I love the whole art of it," she says. "I love to travel as well, being able to go to different locations all the time, meeting and working

with different people." As mueh as she loves her career, she has a warning for the faint of heart who are considering pursuing acting: "If you ean do anything else, do it. It's a really, really hard career. It's one of those things you absolutely have to love because there's so mueh rejection I and there's so mueh negativity in the business. Despite all of that, you still have to be willing to just plow through it." Hu looks for the positive in things and says she's been fortunate, but she still finds every role ehallenaina because

she approaches eaeh role she plays as something new. "I never get to a point ' where I feel like this is so easy I ean do this with my eyes closed," she says. Hu recently shot an episode of CSI: Crime

Scene Investieation, whieh will likely air on CBS

Wednesday, Oct. 5. The episode is called"Bitter Sweet," and she plays the CEO of a chocolate factory, whieh is fitting because she is a huge fan of chocolate. "I have an obsession for chocolate, but only dark chocolate. I eat it almost every day," she confesses. "I was so upset when I found out we weren't actually shooting in a real chocolate factory." The show couldn't find a chocolate factory in Los Angeles that worked, so the episode was shot in a jam factory. Speaking of sweet deals, voice-over work has heeome like a second job for Hu in animated films and television series like Green Lanlem and Young Justice. "They say that it (voice-over work) is a whole different animal," she says. "But I love doing it, because it so freeing. All you are doing is using your voice. You don't have to worry about how you look, where you are standing, the lights or if your facial expressions are too mueh. You just get caught up in one thing, your voice." And, she says, it gives you the ehanee to play roles that you might never be cast in normally. Hu also has a recurring role on Phineas and Ferb, the animated Disney Channel hit series about two savvy yet mischievous boys who want to make every day of their summer an adventure. Candace, their older sister, thinks it's her job to report on what monkey business Phineas and Ferb are up to. Stacy, played by Hu, is Candace's hip best friend and usually points out what's hot, and what's not. "Phineas and Ferb The Movie eame out in August and broke all kinds of numbers," shared Hu. According to the Nielsen ratings, the premiere of Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb The Movie ranked as cable's No. 1 entertainment telecast of 201 1, and heeame cable's No. 5 movie of all time. "It was the most watched movie on eahle, whieh

is funny because when I did Lana, in The Librarian, that was the most watched movie on eahle. So, I guess I'm breaking my own record." Hu, a former fashion model, also confesses to having a "design side

ot me that f ve aiways sort ot wanted to expiore. And with her creative nature and edgy-casual style, she started a clothing line fittingly named 33 Edge. "It's not how a lot other

actors do it, where everybody else does the work and they just bring their name. I'm actually funding this myself, designing, doing production, all of it," she says. Currently the line is only available in a few U.S. boutiques and in Japan, with a web site planned to launeh next year. "I think that it's a great way for me to branch out and be creative," says Hu, 43. "It is exciting, but it is a lot of hard work. It's a full-time job, between that and my acting I have no time for anything else." A Pepperdine University graduate, Hu is not only intelligent and stunningly beautiful - she's a former Miss Teen USA and Miss Hawai'i - but she is a bit of a daredevil and loves animals. On the set of The Scorpion King, "the trainer or animal wrangler for the show used to eall me 'The Monkey' because I used to elimh up on anything," Hu said, laughing as she recalled that the trainer would ask her, "Do you want to ride this elephant? And I'd say, sure. Do you want to ride this giant buffalo? I'm like, sure!" There were snakes, scorpions, exotic birds, a lion and a tiger on set. "I had so mueh fun with it. I love animals. I loved working on the Scorpion King because it was just a fun, campy film and of course working with Dwayne Johnson, another Hawai'i boy, was great. It was the kind of role where you didn't take yourself seriously." Speaking of Hawai'i, Hu says: "I still have very close ties to Hawai'i. My best friend and family are in Hawai'i. Some of my best friends here in Los Angeles are from Hawai'i. There's something about the spirit of the Islands, when you grow up in Hawai'i it's hard to leave that behind. You take that with you in all aspects of your life." ■

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Kelly Hu takes a star turn in "Almost Perfect," a romantic eomedy that the Kamehameha graduate says hits close to home. Image: courtesy of HIFF Top, Hu is a former fashion model. -Photo: Courtesy ofKelly Hu