She speaks straight to our hearts in 2019’s The Farewell – not giving the audience a chance to pigeonhole her as a comic relief in movies. In the comedy-drama film, a story based on the director Lulu Wang’s life experiences, Awkwafina takes on the leading role as Billi, an aspiring Chinese American writer in her 30s. Billi has a close-knit relationship with her grandmother, although the latter lives miles away in China. Later in the story, her grandmother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and predicted to have only a few months to live. Billi struggles in a constant debate with her family and also herself whether to disclose the results or hide the medical condition from her grandmother – a Chinese cultural belief in which they believe what kills is not cancer but the fear of dying.
Her emotionally poignant interaction with her Chinese grandmother throughout the film not only earned her the Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) award at the 2020 Golden Globes, but brought us to tears – at least for me! The film, which lays out the typical Chinese family belief of hiding from its matriarch the news of her impending death, also hit home for the Asian American actress as she was raised by her Chinese American father and grandmother after the passing of her South Korean immigrant mother. No wonder the star is such a natural at playing Billi.
EMBRACING DUALITY
This story is from the March - April 2020 edition of Her World Malaysia.
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This story is from the March - April 2020 edition of Her World Malaysia.
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