It looks like Lucy Liu is finally getting her flowers. It’s hard to believe, but during her rich and expansive 30-year career, Liu has never had a leading dramatic role. That is, until now. And, boy is it ever a heavy one. “Rosemead” chronicles the life of Irene, a 49-year-old, deeply devoted immigrant mother from Taipei, Taiwan, living with cancer, caretaking her schizophrenic son, George (Lawrence Shou), 17.
“Rosemead” premiered at the Tribeca Festival on June 6, 2025.
The Oscar-buzz is already pouring in for Liu’s performance.
Film critic, Stacy Smith of Under the Radar, gives Liu critical acclaim, saying,
“Lucy Liu delivers a career-defining performance, bringing a depth and emotional range that carries the film.”
Al Alexander, of Movies Thru the Spectrum, writes, “Lucy Liu seeks to shift the focus from her looks to legitimize her bona fide acting chops and does not disappoint, completely disappearing into the role of a mother charging a hundred miles per hour toward an abyss from which there’s no escape.”
Liu told Variety, “It resonates with me because we’re missing this. We don’t have this story. And I think a lot of the time, people are very excited about action movies, or how wealthy Asians are—but we don’t have a story that talks about our community in a more realistic manner.”
The film largely produced in New York by Picture Tree International, dramatizes the tragic true story revealed in a 2017 Los Angeles Times article by Frank Shyong.
Liu used Mandarin and adopted a specific dialect to capture the cultural nuances, drawing from her own upbringing in Queens, NY.
Liu told NPR, “In a lot of immigrant families, we don’t necessarily unpack our feelings in real time,” said Liu, who was raised by Chinese American parents and who learned to speak English when she was five. “There’s a sense of protection by being quiet and that silence can feel loving, but it’s also very heavy.”
From Trailblazer to Superstar: Lucy Liu Redefines the Asian Leading Role
As SW Newsmagazine explored before, with fellow Asian American actor, John Cho, Liu has charted a trailblazing path for Asian American representation in Hollywood for years—from “Charlie’s Angels” to the adventurous “Kill Bill” saga. However, despite all those successes, “Rosemead” is her first dramatic starring role.
Eric Lin directed this moody drama, centered around a small set of characters, written by Marilyn Fu. The title is the name of a neighborhood in California’s San Gabriel Valley, home to a vibrant Chinese American community.
Speaking to Variety, Liu explains, “It wasn’t an easy journey bringing the film to the big screen over the last seven years (which felt like 100 years, Liu quips with a laugh). I really think that the reason why it’s taken so long is because it’s not a sexy idea,” she says. “What people want is, ‘What’s going to bring in the money? What’s going to go viral?’ What’s important to me, and has always been important to me, is a true story about something that’s dramatic and emotional. This story resonates on a universal level.”
Mental Health: Still Taboo in the Asian Community
Liu, who also produced the film, alongside Andrew D. Corkin and Mynette Louie, hopes “Rosemead” will prompt more discussion about mental health and lift taboos on the issue.
“The story is something that, in our community, especially, is not projected as a positive conversation. ‘Oh, this person’s on medication? There must be something really wrong with them.’ It’s not something that’s embraced or supported,” she says with a sigh.
But that idea of projecting only the positives and hiding one’s struggles isn’t unique to the Chinese community, Liu says. “It’s kind of what social media is in some ways globally now: ‘Look at my great life! Look how shiny everything is!’ But the reality is, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that nobody’s talking about.”
For Irene, and her mentally ill son, George, their isolation ultimately leads to a catastrophic end.
Speaking to NPR, Liu says, “It’s a very big cultural shift to ask her to do, especially when she’s doing it on her own and trying to run a business and then, you know, at the same time grieve,” Liu said.
“People seem to highlight excellence, not so much anything else, and that’s what people brag about,” Liu told NPR. “So I think that there has to be a lot more discussion about just everything. There should be more visibility about just living and surviving, and not so much just excelling only.”
Liu, a single mother to a 10-year-old son, acknowledges that parenting can be “really terrifying.”
Children, she said, “have to fall and they have to feel a sense of agency, even from a very young place. So that’s when you give them choice.”
She continued: “Hopefully, they make good choices at some point on their own, but they have to learn by kind of falling down.”
Liu Joins Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman in Producing to Expand Opportunities for Women in Hollywood
Liu stepped into the producer’s chair for the film, joining a growing wave of female stars taking the reins in Hollywood’s still male-dominated landscape. Following in the footsteps of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films, Liu is using her behind-the-scenes role to carve out new opportunities—not just for herself, but for women across the industry—proving that creative control is the ultimate power move.
It’s her greatest hope that a film like “Rosemead” will encourage viewers to speak more openly about mental health, to prevent a tragedy like Irene’s. “If it’s not talked about or understood, that lack of education creates these extreme results,” she says.
“There are so many people struggling,” Liu tells Variety. “Statistically, we know that it’s teenage Asian American boys that are committing suicide. That’s the highest rate. That is something we need to be terrified by, so that we can actually act on it, and we can support our community and have this out there so that people know that they shouldn’t feel alone.”
The metamorphosis audiences will undergo while watching the film, will surely be a powerful one. Nevertheless, none more transformative than the one “Rosemead” had on Liu herself.
Liu reveals to Variety, “It was so gut-wrenching from a cellular level that I haven’t actually done anything since then, because it was just so intense,” she says of the impactful role. “I really needed to take a break after that and just reset, because I think it did something for me, on a much deeper level than I thought it would. It changed me.”
Where to Watch Rosemead
Theaters: Check AMC Theatres or Fandango for potential local showtimes, as it had a limited run in December 2025.
Streaming Platforms: Look for it on platforms like:
Purchasing or renting it from the Apple TV app.
Pre-ordering or buying it on Fandango at Home.
Pre-ordering it via Prime Video.
Lead cast: Lucy Liu (Kill Bill) as Irene and Lawrence Shou (Generation CII) as Joe
Director: Eric Lin (The Sound of Silence)
Screenplay: Marilyn Fu
Producers: Lucy Liu, Andrew D. Corkin, and Mynette Louie – Picture Tree International
Distribution: Vertical Entertainment
“Rosemead” is in theaters nationwide now.
Main image: Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
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