{"id":57397,"date":"2018-12-07T01:21:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T01:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=57397"},"modified":"2018-12-07T01:21:51","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T01:21:51","slug":"crazy-rich-asians-star-gemma-chan-heats-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=57397","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Crazy Rich Asians\u2019 star Gemma Chan heats up Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a difference four months makes.<\/p>\n

Up till mid-August, Gemma Chan was an oft-working British actress, not yet an A-list celeb or boldface name. Crazy beautiful, she\u2019d done a modeling stint; crazy brainy, she graduated from Oxford with a law degree in 2004. Then the overachiever skipped off to study performance at London\u2019s renowned Drama Centre and very briskly started working on the British stage and in television, playing everything from a feisty girlfriend in playwright David Henry Hwang\u2019s acclaimed \u201cYellow Face\u201d to a sexy synth on the sci-fi series \u201cHumans.\u201d She also scored a series of small roles in big movies like \u201cJack Ryan: Shadow Recruit\u201d and \u201cFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.\u201d And her six-year-long, live-in relationship \u2014 and 2017 breakup \u2014 with handsome co-star Jack Whitehall (of BBC\u2019s campus comedy \u201cFresh Meat\u201d) made news in the UK.<\/p>\n

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But what a difference an international blockbuster makes. Chan stunned as wealthy-but-heartbroken cousin Astrid in the groundbreaking \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d \u2014 Hollywood\u2019s first film in 25 years to feature an all-Asian cast \u2014 which has racked up more than $238 million worldwide and countless great reviews. Thanks to her poignant portrayal of the ultraglamorous heiress, the 36-year-old artist has now emerged as a potential marquee star, action star, fashion star and likely star of CRA\u2019s swiftly green-lighted sequel.<\/p>\n

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Not that the modest British-Chinese rose is letting the hoopla go to her head. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I have my pick of things,\u201d Chan tells Alexa. \u201cPeople are more aware of me, but I\u2019m just continuing to do what I did before \u2014 reading scripts, waiting for the right thing. I\u2019m not sure what next year will hold, but I hope it\u2019s diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s certainly looking that way. Chan will appear in a slew of high-profile projects, including the costume drama \u201cMary Queen of Scots,\u201d opening Dec. 7, and the superhero flick \u201cCaptain Marvel,\u201d out March 8, 2019. She also appears to be crazy in love with Dominic Cooper, her equally alluring British co-star of 2017\u2019s action thriller \u201cStratton.\u201d The new twosome were snapped vacationing on the Spanish island of Formentera last summer, then moving things into his London apartment.<\/p>\n

Chan giggles at his name, but that\u2019s it. \u201cUm, on the whole, it\u2019s something I don\u2019t talk about in interviews \u2014 for my own sanity. Though I\u2019m aware it comes with the territory. Believe it or not, it\u2019s very normal and boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Normal, perhaps. Boring \u2014 not. However, her newish paramour\u2019s only a side note to what\u2019s a verge-of-exploding career.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I don\u2019t feel that different,\u201d Chan proclaims of her post-CRA uptick. \u201cBut other people are treating me differently. The response was beyond what any of us would have hoped. I\u2019m glad the door\u2019s been kicked open for more Asian stories \u2014 I hope it\u2019s not a passing trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

er Bros. asked the creative team to move forward with the adaptation of \u201cChina Rich Girlfriend,\u201d Kevin Kwan\u2019s second book in the hit trilogy. Luckily for Chan, this one also moves Astrid front and center. \u201cThe character has great potential,\u201d she says. \u201cThey can go into Kevin\u2019s depiction of her past \u2014 her year in Paris, how she met her husband \u2014 she had only a short cameo in the first film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which means Chan\u2019s billing will be higher, particularly after her next big-screen releases. In \u201cMary,\u201d she plays Bess of Hardwick, a real-life 16th-century aristocrat and trusted confidante of Queen Elizabeth (Margot Robbie) who was tasked with \u201chosting\u201d Mary (Saoirse Ronan) in prison for more than 15 years. \u201cBess was a powerful figure in a man\u2019s world,\u201d Chan notes. \u201cShe outlived four husbands. She was the second-richest woman in England. She built beautiful homes in Derbyshire, which we actually shot in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n