Press
Going Down named as one of the 10 best theatre shows on Melbourne stages in 2018, thanks to Tim Byrne and Timeout Melbourne.
"Michele Lee is such an exciting voice in Australian drama right now, and this co-production with STC and Malthouse helped spread a love for her that will no doubt continue to grow. A riotously funny satire on cultural expectations and the limits of identity politics, it was also a poignant and profound commentary on ancestry and the debts we owe."
"...literary darling Lu Lu Jayard, is masterfully portrayed by Jenny Wu..." - Scene Point Blank
"Wu makes an infuriatingly calm and self-possessed foil for her..." - The Age
"Jenny Wu is also to be commended for her versatility in playing multiple roles that are distinctive" - The Joy House
Jenny Wu chameleons as the naive, rather likeable Lu Lu, all the more convincingly when she embodies the too-fleeting character of Natalie's mother. - The Music
"Wu does sensitive, warm work here..." - Time Out
"Jenny Wu, as Lu Lu and also Natalie’s mum, is sweetly subversive in both roles, as her characters deal with Natalie’s excesses." - The Australian
Foxtel's article regarding Australia Day: Five reasons you need to see it in December 2017.
It takes you on an exhilarating, wild ride
“It’s a fast-paced, relentless journey that doesn’t let down,” previews Wu. “You’re on a ride with the three characters – you start off with them running and you’re chasing their stories.”
It’s Foxtel’s first film
Australia Day marks Foxtel’s debut original film offering. It was officially unveiled during the 2017 Sydney Film Festival, before being screened in Dendy cinemas across the country.
"Run Lola Run meets Gran Torino in Kriv Stenders’s breathtakingly fast-moving Australia Day, a very well-made thriller set in Brisbane on January 26... An excellent ensemble cast brings the characters vividly to life..." - The Weekend Australian
"Sincere, ambitious, and truthful, this is an Aussie film worth celebrating." - FilmInk
"Australia Day is a gruelling journey through the streets of Brisbane and subterranean national prejudices, but it does have a lot of heart and features some excellent performances." - The Adelaide Review
Thank you to Annelies Gartner for interviewing me for The West Australian.
“You look at Lan and Terry; he is the old Australian meeting the new Australian because she just came to Australia and is trying to redefine her identity in a new country,” she explains.
“What does that mean for her, what does the national holiday mean to these other Australians or what does the Australian identity mean?
“Obviously race is a huge part of that because there are a lot of different races." Read Article
Upcoming Foxtel feature Australia Day will have a cinema release on September 21 ahead of its availability through the Foxtel Store and Dendy Direct on September 27.
The Brisbane film by Kriv Stenders (Red Dog) is a new strategy being trialled by Foxtel, in conjunction with Dendy Cinemas.
The Hoodlum film written by Stephen M. Irwin (Secrets & Lies) has already featured at the Sydney and Melbourne film festivals, CinefestOZ and will feature at the Brisbane International Film Festival on Saturday. Read Article
Film review of 'Australia Day' in Variety.
An ambitious and powerful, if necessarily convenient, multi-character drama in the mold of 2006 Oscar-winner “Crash,” “Australia Day” is a meditation on cultural diversity and the questioning of national identity. Read Article
"Jenny Wu is the floating, exquisite animus." - Lisa Thatcher
"Jenny Wu is radiant as The Girl." - The Daily Telegraph
"...while Jenny Wu is a perfectly ethereal presence as the girl who lives across the corridor from the young man." - Daily Review
"Guided by his beautiful ghostly alter ego (Jenny Wu, in a luminous performance) the Young Man becomes caught up in Mrs Lusty’s attempts to seduce him." - Arts Hub
Thanks to Fairfax and Heather McNab from Central Sydney magazine's write up about my involvement in Patrick White's The Ham Funeral, directed by Kate Gaul, playing at Griffin Theatre.
Dealing with love, life and death, the play looks at the young man's attempts to 'combine the body and the mind, the intellect and flesh, thinking and feeling into one', Wu said. Read Article
Australia Day will have its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival.
Written by Stephen M Irwin’s (Secrets & Lies) and directed by Kriv Stenders (Red Dog) in Brisbane, Australia Day takes place over 12 hours and interweaves the stories of three Australians from diverse backgrounds: those of April Tucker (Miah Madden), a 14-year-old Indigenous girl, Sami Ghaznavi (Elias Anton), a 17-year-old Persian boy, and Lan (Jenny Wu), a 19-year-old Chinese woman. Each is alone, each is terrified for their life… Read Article
The Hollywood Reporter review on Lady Bloodfight.
Chris Nahon’s action film effectively lives up to its title. It features sexy ladies fighting in bloody fashion, and on its own limited terms provides the sort of violent entertainment geared to fans who enjoy watching movies like, well, Lady Bloodfight. Read Article
A fascinating discussion about the epic thriller Chimerica, and the challenges in staging this ambitious production.
Listen to Artistic Director Kip Williams and cast members Charles Wu and Jenny Wu talk to Michael Cathcart, host of Radio National's Books and Arts Daily.
The interview is peppered with archive audio from June 1989 as the Tiananmen protests were reported in Australia, including a moving clip of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke's national address. Listen to Interview
Hello Asia editor Johnny Au and I had a very insightful chat regarding Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica; the opening night reception; and the role and function of Liuli.
"Shakespeare compared women to roses, Lord Byron compared women to heaven, Kirkwood compared Liuli to a fridge, so it’s unusual. I mean in a way she is the fridge. The fridge is the symbolic Liuli. And the metaphor works on several levels, the fridge is electric, Liuli is electric, and Zhang Lin is also being electrocuted / tortured by this memory.
I mean it’s like Zhang Lin is defrosting this memory of Liuli, and the more alive she becomes, the more guilt ridden he gets, and that prompts him into action. And what a great imagery that he carried her home in a fridge, despite the fact that the fridge would be very heavy, but what a very unique way of falling in love." Read Article
"Chimerica arrived in Sydney laden with expectation and glittering prizes. And this director, company and production have delivered a scintillating version of it." - Stage Noise
"Two of the most crucial roles in Chimerica are Zhang Lin as a young man (played by Charles Wu) and his fiancé, Liuli (Jenny Wu), and each performer is impeccable, helping the audience to appreciate the human toll of Tiananmen Square and its lasting scar on both the nation and the world." - Theatre People
"This production is a triumph for everyone involved in it." - The Australian
Elissa Blake interviews Anthony Brandon Wong and myself on the changing nature of Australia's major theatre companies.
Actor and dancer Jenny Wu is making her Sydney Theatre Company debut in Chimerica, which is having its Australian premiere season. She says she never thought it would happen.
"I was doing a playwriting workshop at STC and a colleague walked by and she said: 'don't even think about working here, they never stage anything that's diverse'."
'Chimerica', Wu says, will hopefully change that perception for good. Read Article
Thank you to Simon Foster for tracking my career so far, from NIDA to the Gobi Desert, to the snow in Northern China, streets of Hong Kong, and the up-coming mainstage Sydney Theatre Company's production of Chimerica.
"When I approached them as characters, I did so by embracing their humanity, their vulnerabilities and insecurities, not as symbols for social change. My job as an actor is to make sure they live truthfully within the world provided for them." Read Article
Many thanks to Melissa Yeo at Parramatta Advertiser for the write up corresponding to the Chinese theatrical release of the film "The Promise I Made to You". Read Article
Here is an update from Sydney Morning Herald as director Kriv Stenders divulges some of the issues that are explored in Australia Day the movie.
Kriv Stenders is shooting a provocative new film that takes place over 12 hours on Australia Day. Read Article
I’m excited to announce my next project, a ‘Babel’, ‘Crash’, ‘Traffic’, styled feature film called ‘Australia Day’, set on Australia Day, interweaving the stories of three non-white Australians and their experiences on this national holiday. Read More
Amazing coverage across an array of Chinese online broadcasting medium regarding my involvement in the film, ‘The Promise I Made to You’. If you can read mandarin, the article talks about my transformation into to a fiery mouthed teenager. Read More
A very fun interview thanks to Brad Curran at Kung-fu Kingdom. We chatted about so many wonderful things from Chris Nahon’s shooting style, and doing martial arts alongside Amy Johnston to workout routines and supplements, favourite martial artists/movies.
"...so every now and then, he would spontaneously rotate around the action at 360 degrees. And it was funny, because the whole crew followed behind Chris like a massive fish tale, and every time the camera moved, there was this delayed domino effect of the fish tale running to keep up with Chris and stay behind the camera..." Read Article
Thanks to Jocelle Koh and Johnny Au from Hello Asia AU for allowing me to discuss differences in Chinese and Western film industries, working with John Cusack and Jackie Chan in blockbuster Dragon Blade and my latest work in Australian TV drama Secret City.
"There must be a group of us, that has one foot in each door, somewhat caught in between, doesn’t fully identify with either Australian or Chinese. It’s easy to see it as displacement, being lost, in search of an identity, but you really have to turn all that into an asset, not a liability." Read Article
Thank you to Karen Keith at TDM English News Macau for interviewing me at the Gold Aries Macau International Film Festival, alongside industry veteran Gary Dartnall, producer and ex-chairman of BAFTA, British Academy of Film and Television Arts. View Photos
What an honour to be interviewed by FilmInk, Australia’s best movie magazine, mapping my career journey so far.
A graduate of Sydney’s National Institute Of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), the Shanghai-born and Sydney-raised Jenny Wu has hardly taken the usual route of Hollywood via Neighbours or Home And Away, instead decamping to China, where she worked as a translator and assistant director on the blockbusting epic, Dragon Blade (2015), starring Jackie Chan, John Cusack, and Adrien Brody. Topping that, Wu now has a major on-screen role in the upcoming feature film, Lady Bloodfight. Read Article
Lee Golden, a loyal martial arts movie critic, with a keen eye on the progress of Lady Bloodfight, recently posted an article of my attendance at the inaugural Gold Aries Macau International Film Festival.
“It’s a very exciting time in the film industry because we are seeing dominant forces shifting, there are so many great platforms and opportunities offered across the world, something that was never viable for Chinese Australian actors a decade ago,” explains Jenny Wu. Read Article
Jay Johnstone of Scifi Fantasy Network was enthralled with pictures I posted on my social media. One of me and John Cusack on his last day shooting Dragon Blade, and another of me and Adrien Brody singing in the Gobi Desert. From there an interview was born where I discuss all things Chinawood.
"I remember Adrien Brody saying to me that he’s usually the last choice when it comes to casting for most of his films. I thought, “Wow, no way! Here is the history’s youngest academy award winner in his category, telling me he has trouble with casting…” It’s like my god, he has the same problem as I’ve got … that’s nuts." Read Article
My first interview thanks to Dan’s Movie Report where I chat all about action films Lady Bloodfight and Dragon Blade.
"The first time I saw Jackie was the first day of shooting, and I was very star struck, I was like OMG that is Jackie Chan!!!! Then before I knew it, I was sharing a lift with Jackie, I was in the same hotel as Jackie, I was invited to dinner by Jackie, Jackie was talking to me… huh? Yeah he was talking to me. I was riding in Jackie’s car. I was in Jackie’s trailer, I was giving Jackie advice on script and dialogue, he was asking for my opinions….. oh wait…. what had the world become? The world had just turned upside down!!!! Jackie Chan was asking for my opinions on script and characterization???? That’s unreal. The world had turned upside down!!!" Read Article