In that vein, this Sunday, Lifetime will be premiering List of a Lifetime, starring Kelly Hu as Brenda Lee, who has not only been diagnosed with breast cancer, but is also informed by her doctor that she has the BRCA gene and should inform her children. We learn that Brenda gave up a daughter for adoption decades earlier, and her diagnosis spurs her to search for the young woman. It is subject matter that hits close to home for Hu, who has a family history of cancer. She lost an aunt, her grandmother, and then when her mother was only 38, she was diagnosed with cancer. As a result, it is a concern of the actress, who has gotten regular checkups since she was 18 and has been tested for the BRCA gene. “When this project came up, I was still hiding away from COVID, not wanting to leave my house or do anything,” Hu told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “My manager called me and told me I got this offer. I said, ‘You know I’m not ready to work.’ And he said, ‘I know. Just read the script and then we can pass if you don’t like it.’ And I said, ‘Well, I hope it’s crappy.’ And it wasn’t. I got through the first 10 pages, and I was already bawling, and I just thought, ‘I have to do this. This is something that I cannot pass up on.’” So, Hu put on her big-girl pants and braved COVID in order to tell this story, which continues Brenda’s journey as she locates her biological daughter Talia (Sylvia Kwan) and develops a relationship with her as the two women spend time together crossing off things on Brenda’s bucket list. Eventually, time spent with her daughter leads her to find a reason to fight for her life. Following is more of the conversation with The Scorpion King star about why she took the role, how she hopes it inspires other women to get mammograms, and what it was like working with Shannen Doherty, who is living with stage IV breast cancer. You normally play such strong, driven women. Brenda Lee is 180 degrees from that. It was so opposite of what I get asked to do. It was such a great acting challenge for me, because she is also nothing like me personally. I’m so loud and boisterous. She comes alive later, especially when they TP the house, but I felt like it was also something that I had to do, not just because of the subject matter, but because it was something that I never get asked to do. It wasn’t just her attitude; you caught the physicality. The way you carried your body, there was no confidence in that. You could tell she was someone who was afraid she was going to be whipped or something. When you learn later on in the movie about her background, having lost her parents at such a young age, growing up in foster care, having had a child at 18 who she had to give up for adoption, you just wonder how could this woman have had any kind of security or confidence or support system at all growing up? I felt like it would show in her body how she carried herself and what her confidence was like. She had no guidance. And doing all the research for foster care, and women who give their babies up for adoption, and kids losing their parents—I only had three weeks to do all of this research, but it was tremendous and so eye-opening when you learn how broken our foster care system is. The scene where she fights with her boyfriend Mike, and we realized that she delayed her mammogram because she wasn’t about self-care. That seemed like a key moment, where the film tells women to not take their health for granted. I think so. I think that was her moment of power. After I had shot that scene with Chad Lindberg, who played Mike, I realized that that is really where her turn comes, where she decides to take charge of her life, and where she decides that she is not going to let anybody else walk all over her. He was blaming her for her putting it off, but it really was her making the choice of not wanting to live. You said this was offered to you. Was the story originally written for an Asian woman, or did they cast colorblind? Yes, it was originally written to be Asian, which was an unusual choice when you think about it, but I’m glad that it was thought out that way. Because in the Asian community, for some reason, there’s a misconception that Asian women don’t get breast cancer. So, a lot of Asian women don’t get checked and don’t get their mammograms. And I only know this because I was asked to do a PSA about it a couple of years ago, but I didn’t. I thought it was ridiculous coming from my experience of having so many women in my family having had breast cancer. But, apparently, it is a real thing that women in the Asian community don’t often get checked because of that. You don’t have a lot of scenes with Shannen Doherty, but what it was like working with her? She directed the special content as well as played the role. I did get to do a couple of scenes with her. You would never know that Shannen was still battling stage IV breast cancer. She is such a survivor, and she still has the most amazing charisma. She fills the room every time she walks in it, and she is just so generous as an actress but also as a person and somebody who is really trying to get the message out there. In the special content, she sat down with us. She was supposed to be asking us questions, but I said, “Well, who’s going to be interviewing you?” She says, “Well, you can ask me questions.” So, I did. I was asking her all kinds of questions about her treatment and what she went through, and she was very, very open about it because she really wants people to understand about the importance of getting checkups and that cancer is not a death sentence, that you can still thrive and live a full life even with stage IV. Did you do that special content before or after you filmed the movie? Did those discussions help you with your character? No, we actually did it afterward. But I had a lot of people to talk to. Of course, our film, we were working with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. So, I was able to call there and ask questions. Coincidentally, I was going through my own little scare during the preparation for this, right after I got the call that I had the offer, I had my first irregular mammogram. And so, I had to go back for a couple of other mammograms, and I had to get the ultrasound and the biopsy. I got the lab results the day before we started shooting. So, I had a lot of doctors to ask questions, and got it right from the doctors about the diagnosis, and what would happen, and what the realities were. Luckily, I was fine, and I was able to go through filming without having to worry. When you do a film like List of a Lifetime, does it change you somehow? Do you walk away feeling different? Absolutely. I couldn’t shake this character for weeks. It took me weeks to feel back to normal, because doing all the research and then knowing what I know, what I learned from the character, from foster care, about women who give their children up for adoption, all of that, it was so eye-opening. I almost had sort of a survivor’s guilt, where I would be dwelling on it after work, after shooting. I would be driving home sometimes in tears just bawling and bawling. Maybe releasing some of what we had shot early that day, but just feeling guilty for having such a wonderful life when there’s so many people out there who are suffering needlessly. There’s so many kids in foster care who are aging out, who are left with no tools, with no emotional connections, with not a lot of education, and we kick them out thinking, “Well, that’s the age where they should become adults and be responsible.” And as we know, at 18, it’s rare to find anybody who’s got their s**t together, who can raise themselves, and live on their own. So, I was just thinking about all of these poor kids and young women who have had to go through so much, giving up children for adoption, it really stuck with me for such a long time. Brenda’s bucket list is pretty modest. What are a few things that are on your bucket list, because we all have one, right? I have literally had a bucket list for decades, probably about three decades, over 30 years now. And of course, it’s ever evolving. Because, hopefully, you cross things off. Tons. I’m a firm believer in bucket lists, actually writing something out or typing it out on your computer. Because I feel like you can manifest it that way. If you put it out there, you write it down, and you make it concrete, then you attract it. I feel that there’s more ability to be able to attract it, or at least I found it’s been that way personally with me. And so, things that are still on my bucket: I have all kinds of crazy, abstract things as well. I want to learn to paint. I want to be able to paint a painting of something that I would be proud enough to display. I want to save a life. So, I actually became a donor, and so on my license, I’ve got that little sticker that says I’m a donor. Wow! I thought that you were going say that you took a Red Cross class, so you knew how to do CPR. But being a donor is definitely several steps above that. That’s actually on my bucket list, too. I wanted to take CPR. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, but, of course, during COVID that wasn’t a possibility. But that is definitely on my list. Of course, most everything that I want to do pertains to travel, all these amazing places that I want to go to. I’m a big sucker for UNESCO World Heritage sites. List of a Lifetime premieres Sunday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime. Next, The Complete Lifetime Christmas Movie Schedule for It’s a Wonderful Lifetime 2021
