LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Lucy Liu: Ling Woo
built 213 days ago
On the big screen, Liu grabbed audiences’ attention with her turn as a leather-clad dominatrix in the poorly reviewed thriller Payback (1999), starring Mel Gibson. Her other film efforts released that year, including the independent feature The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, Play it to the Bone, with Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas, and Molly, starring Elisabeth Shue, quickly disappeared from view. Liu had a good deal more luck in 2000, starring in the hit comedy-Western Shanghai Noon as a rebellious Chinese princess who is kidnapped and taken to America’s Wild West, only to be rescued by bumbling heroes played by Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson.
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Ally McBeal show creator David E. Kelley develops a new character specifically for Liu. She plays Ling Woo, a combative client who becomes the firm's most politically incorrect lawyer, and earns an Emmy nomination and a shared SAG Award for the best ensemble. But Liu is criticized for perpetuating the Asian "dragon lady" stereotype. "This role has been liberating for me. I can bring who I am into it," Liu tells Newsweek. When she leaves the show in 2001 to pursue film, Liu thanks Kelley for giving her a role that "taught me about myself and helped me grow as a person."
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With her stock rising, Lucy was in demand and made several motion pictures. In 1999, she played a dominatrix in Payback with Mel Gibson, and appeared in Clint Eastwood's True Crime, Molly, The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (with Carmen Electra), and the sports comedy Play It to the Bone, starring Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.
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Such comments make the soft-spoken Liu livid. "It's not just Asian groups," she says. "A lot of groups have gotten so limiting and politically correct. Ling is just a person with this personality. If you do an immigrant with an accent, that's no good. If you do something that's a strong woman, that's no good, either."
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Ling Woo