Vietnamese movie star and music producer Ngo Thanh Van performs in Bright, a 90 million USD Hollywood production directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis (Photo courtesy of Ngo Thanh Van’s facebook) HCM City (VNA) - Vietnamese movie star and music producer Ngo ThanhVan, known as Veronica Ngo in English, plays the role of a killer named Tien ina US film starring Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and Noomi Rapace.
Van, who is fluent in English, arrived in Los Angeles late last year to beginfilming her scenes in the 90 million USD Bright, a production directed by David Ayer andwritten by Max Landis.
The two men were involved in the hits End of Watch in 2012, Fury in 2014 and Suicide Squad last year.
Van competed against many Asian candidates for the role.
The fantasy thriller is about a policeman, played by American actor Smith, anda humanoid called Orc, played by Australian actor Edgerton, who work togetherto protect a magic wand from evil forces.
Distributed by Netflix, the film will be in cinemas later this year.
Bright is the second US film in which Van has appeared.
In 2015, she played one of the supporting roles in a sequel to the 2000Hollywood blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, called Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon II: The Green Legend.
The film, directed by Yuen Woo-ping andwritten by John Fusco, starred MichelleYeoh, who performed in Ang Lee’s 2000 edition Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon, and Donnie Yen.
Produced by The Weinstein Company, the film was based on the fifth and finalnovel in the pentalogy, known in China as the Crane Iron Pentalogy by WangDulu.
Van learned kung fu with experienced martial artists before filming her scenesin New Zealand and China.
"I’m confident of my ability towork beside foreign colleagues," said the 39-year-old actress.
Returning home from Norway to Vietnam, Van began her career on the catwalk in2000, becoming one of HCM City’s top fashion models. Three years later, shebecame involved in the music industry as a pop singer.
In 2004, Van played one offour leading roles in Rouge,a 13-part TV series by renowned Singaporean director Jonathan Foo. She wasselected from 400 candidates from Asian countries.
The work was broadcast on MTV Asia, a cable TV channel broadcastinginternational music. It opened the door for her to become a movie star in theregion.
In 2006, she played a leading role in Dong Mau Anh Hung (The Rebel), a kung-fu film directedby Vietnamese-American Charlie Nguyen.
The film won the Grand Jury Award in 2007 Sharing Visions, a biennial international film festivalfor Vietnamese filmmakers, held in Los Angeles.
She has also performed in quality films byVietnamese and Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) directors.
In 2015, she developed hertalent as a movie producer in the comedy film Ngay Nay NgayNay (Once Upon ATime), a co-production between Van and her partner, Canadian-Vietnamesedirector Cuong Ngo.
Last year, she directed her first film, Tam Cam-Chuyen Chua Ke (Tam Cam-The Untold Story), a fantasy work based on a fairytale best known as the Vietnamese version of Cinderella.
She invested a big sum of more than 20 billion VND (nearly 900,000 USD) infilming.
TamCam-Chuyen Chua Ke was released in 37 cinema complexes in Hanoi,HCM City and provinces, earning more than 70 billion VND (3.1 million USD) inticket sales.-VNA
VNA
