Poppy Liu
When we heard actor, activist, artist and mother Poppy Liu was swinging into NYC for the premiere of her latest fun project Space Cadet we cleared our schedule to hang with her at her hotel with her bestie artist Coco Layne. The best friend energy was a refreshing delight. Poppy shared some thoughts on her beloved craft, being a tired parent, favorite designers, her taste for ancient earthy herbal medicinal drinks, bare essentials and shows us how she conceals a zit by by turning it into a mole then strategically placing a few more on her gorgeous face. thanks Poppy and Coco we loved spacing out with you.
appying moles and cover zits
The Bare Magazine: thanks for squeezing us into your busy press and premiere day. can you walk us through that whirlwind NYC day?
Poppy Liu: So I flew in from LA the previous night at like 10pm, said goodbye to my toddler earlier in the day before I left. I didn’t bring them with me because I knew it would be a crazy trip. I woke up for premiere day on Thursday morning, glammed myself for a TV appearance, did that, and then came back to the hotel to meet you for our photoshoot which we did with my best friend Coco. Then I got glammed and ready for the premiere, and then did the red carpet and afterparty. Then Friday morning, I shouldn’t have scheduled this for myself in retrospect, I had a 9:45am Ketamine therapy session. Which was…the wrong idea. I was incredibly hungover and really tired and it just made everything worse.
coco appying gloss and snacking on red vines
Bare: are you feeling good to be part of a feel good film? lifting spirits everywhere!
PL: I really am. I don’t think I realized until I watched the screener that I had been craving something nostalgic like this. There was an era of feel good, underdogs achieving their dreams kind of movies. We haven’t had that in a while. Things are bleak in the world and sometimes we deserve a little laugh. Even doing the press tour for it brings me back. I‘ve had a lot of friends say that this is their favorite thing I’ve been in.
Bare: we are pretty impressed with your character Nadine's glam - how long were you in the makeup chair? any products you loved? what was your skincare routine during filming?
PL: So I was pregnant during filming, so I sent this list of pregnancy safe skincare and makeup to every set I was on. It has almost every brand and if it’s safe for pregnancy and while breastfeeding. So I referred to that. Nadine’s makeup is very camp, very Florida housewives makeup which was fun to play around with. I think it’s sometimes harder to do nuanced subtle makeup. But for her it was all about long lashes, neon eyeshadow, lip liner, everything. She had a lot of great hats.
The scenes that stand out to me are when Nadine is doing fake reference calls at the gym, pretending to be all these different people. We shot it all in one day because we only had the location for that day - so I was doing quick changes with lots of different glam looks. Nadine has crazy nails so they even had to redo the nail color for each look.
Bare: when did you know you must be an actor? has comedy always been what you're most passionate about?
PL: I actually did not start out doing comedy at all. I happened into comedy by chance, but I’ve been performing and acting for a long time. I started dancing when I was five years old living in Minnesota. I did traditional Chinese dance from ages five through fourteen. I did a lot of theater - it was always a lot of absurdist experimental theater. When I graduated college, I didn’t try to audition for tv and film right away. I didn’t go to school with the expectation that I would continue acting. But I kept finding my way back to it, because it’s maybe the thing I was meant to do in this lifetime.
So i spent in years in NYC doing indie produced theater. My first pilot season - I drove to LA from San Diego because my reps wanted me to squeeze in some generals and auditions. The very first casting I did was with Alison Jones for a show called Sunnyside - and then I got cast in that. Alison Jones is kind of the godmother of comedy casting, she’s such a legend. That was my first big TV job, I met some really great people. And then I think once you do a certain kind of role, you get more of that. So I’ve been doing a lot of comedy stuff. But I’m excited to do some weird dark stuff eventually, since that’s what I was doing before.
Bare: can you share how you've dealt with being a working mom? how do you create balance, and get some self care time too? do you have a great support system?
PL: [Laughs] I feel like I’m still kind of figuring that out a little bit. I’m much better at balance and self care now that my child has been born. Before I had my child, I think I was really burned out. I was really new to the industry, and then I had a couple of exciting and busy years, especially after Hacks came out I was really working non-stop. I was so excited for the opportunities and i wanted to learn and experience different sets, so I said yes to a lot of stuff. I also said no to some stuff. I think in a year in a half I did 12 projects. And that’s a lot to do, it’s not really sustainable.
And then I was pregnant for 7 or 8 of those months, up until I got no fly orders from my doctor. It’s hard to be burned out in any job, but it’s really hard to be burned out in a creative job. Creativity is the last thing on your mind when you’re that tired. I took a pretty long break after my child was born. Having a child really puts things in perspective. I have this person who depends on me, and I can’t drop the ball ever.
I think that being the center of gravity for me put everything else in my life in perspective. Then in the middle of my maternity break, the strike happened. I just needed to rest and figure out my personal life and recover from giving birth and just spend time with my baby. The only thing I came out of my break to do was Hacks - 35 days after birth, we shot my season 3 scene in one day. They were really nice about it, but it was bananas.
Bare: if you were to put all your favorite foods together for a meal what would it consist of?
PL: Hm my dream meal - ok let me think. Gorgeous little appetizers - like sashimi with yummy and fun wine pairing tp start with. This would never be on a menu because this stuff isn’t good together, but for the main course I’d love some Indian food - some Saag Paneer, Korma, Mango Lassi, more alcohol. Then afterwards, I would love to have some really really bitter apertifs. I’m really into alcohol that tastes like medicine. Not like Robotussin medicine, but ancient earthy herbal medicinal drinks.
Bare: you threw on some cute pieces from your wardrobe for our shoot. describe your current style...who are your favorite brands/designers? do you like vintage?
PL: I do love vintage - I love upcycled fashion because I’m so tired and busy being a parent right now. I do like one or two big shopping hauls a year and that’s what I wear for the entire year. My last big shopping haul was at the Los Feliz Flea which is a really big vintage flea market - I got a gazillion things. Designers I really like.. I love Kim Shui, she’s really great and cool. I love Miaou. I love Heaven by Marc Jacobs. My friend Shawna Wu - she does really incredible knitting and knot work. In terms of skincare and makeup - most of my skincare is K Beauty, I love Huda beauty, I love a MakeupForever lipliner. For jewelry.. My everyday jewelry is Sayran jewelry. I also love Mondo Mondo. I recently tried to exchange something there but it was final sale so I just ended up buying 10 more things.
Bare: please list your 5 bare essentials. (they can be anything)
PL:
SPF - I would never leave my house without it. The spf I’m currently using is Beauty of Joseon, with SPF 50++.
Chapstick - I would also never leave the house without chapstick or a lipgloss that can act as a chapstick
Jewelry - It just makes me feel put together, especially rings - it helps me feel like my energy is contained and I’m ready to meet the world. So a bunch of Mondo Mondo rings which I love, and this garnet ring that I bought for myself when I was feeling a little cunty.
Water bottle - I bring my gigantic water bottle with me everywhere I go because I fear being dehydrated
Makeup - my essentials for makeup if I’m doing bare minimum - a tiny bit of concealer on blemishes, blush- always blush, and then I would say eye brows. And then I like my eyes a little smudgy - like when you sleep in your makeup, I like that look, so I like some smudge. But those are my essentials.