Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#84
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Lucy Liu represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Lucy is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Lucy Liu appears in 51 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Lucy. Disney 100: Remember That is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, drama, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with David Frankel, Eric Lin, Jake Kasdan and others, Lucy Liu helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Disney 100: Remember That (2023) as Self · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) as O-Ren Ishii · Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) as O-Ren Ishii 'Cottonmouth'
Career snapshot
Ranked #84 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
51
1996–2026
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
Disney 100: Remember That
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
Disney 100: Remember That
Most frequent director
Quentin Tarantino
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Quentin Tarantino
Most common genre
Comedy
22 titles
Average runtime
1h 35m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.7
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2010s
6.8 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. QT8: The First Eight, Set It Up, Future World — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.8
Across 15 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. True Crime, Payback, Play It to the Bone.
Most productive era
2000s
18 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.55 films | 6.84 films | 7.61 film | 6.64 films |
| Action | 6.81 film | 6.311 films | 6.84 films | 6.43 films |
| Thriller | 6.72 films | 6.36 films | — | 6.11 film |
| Comedy | 6.33 films | 6.38 films | 7.05 films | 6.46 films |
| Crime | 6.63 films | 7.06 films | 7.81 film | 5.61 film |
| Romance | 7.01 film | 6.31 film | 6.91 film | — |
| Horror | — | 5.31 film | — | 6.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1996Jerry Maguire
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Former girlfriend.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 10.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026The Pirate Queen: No Safe Waters
The current state of the argument, as Cheng Shih.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
51 of 51 films
as O-Ren Ishii
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as O-Ren Ishii 'Cottonmouth'
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Dr. Doris Parker
Directed by Tony Kaye
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Self
Disney 100: Remember That (2023)
Performance score9.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self gives Lucy Liu a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
O-Ren Ishii
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Performance score8.4
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. O-Ren Ishii is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth)
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)
Performance score8.1
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
O-Ren Ishii 'Cottonmouth'
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Performance score7.8
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. O-Ren Ishii 'Cottonmouth' is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Self
Start here. Disney 100: Remember That is the clearest statement of what Lucy Liu does — accessible, 36 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Lucy at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
A deliberate change of key after Disney 100: Remember That — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Same director as Kill Bill: Vol. 1, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)
Same director as Kill Bill: Vol. 2, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Detachment (2011)
A deliberate change of key after Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Bradley Raymond
Director
3 films together
Notably Pixie Hollow Games
Quentin Tarantino
Director
3 films together
Notably Kill Bill: Vol. 1
McG
Director
2 films together
Notably Charlie's Angels
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
2 films together
Notably Kung Fu Panda 2
Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Jerry Maguire
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Gridlock'd
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Play It to the Bone
Brian Helgeland
Director
1 film together
Notably Payback
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably True Crime
Vincenzo Natali
Director
1 film together
Notably Cypher
Rob Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Chicago
Lynne Southerland
Director
1 film together
Notably Mulan II
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Domino
Paul McGuigan
Director
1 film together
Notably Lucky Number Slevin
Les Mayfield
Director
1 film together
Notably Code Name: The Cleaner
Mark Osborne
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda
Fuminori Kizaki
Director
1 film together
Notably Afro Samurai: Resurrection
Klay Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
Tim Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Kung Fu Panda Holiday
Tony Kaye
Director
1 film together
Notably Detachment
RZA
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man with the Iron Fists
Steve Loter
Director
1 film together
Notably Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast
James Franco
Director
1 film together
Notably Future World
Claire Scanlon
Director
1 film together
Notably Set It Up
Josh Ruben
Director
1 film together
Notably Death to 2021
Don Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Strange World
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably Old Guy
Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Red One
Eric Lin
Director
1 film together
Notably Rosemead
David Frankel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Devil Wears Prada 2
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Quentin Tarantino
Director
3 films together · 8.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Kill Bill: Vol. 1Bradley Raymond
Director
3 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pixie Hollow GamesJennifer Yuh Nelson
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Kung Fu Panda 2McG
Director
2 films together · 5.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Charlie's AngelsTony Kaye
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DetachmentMark Osborne
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu PandaPaul McGuigan
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lucky Number SlevinSteve Loter
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeastDavid Frankel
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Devil Wears Prada 2Jake Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red OneRob Marshall
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ChicagoTim Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kung Fu Panda HolidayCameron Crowe
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jerry MaguireClaire Scanlon
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Set It UpFuminori Kizaki
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Afro Samurai: ResurrectionKlay Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tinker Bell and the Lost TreasureBrian Helgeland
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaybackEric Lin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RosemeadVincenzo Natali
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CypherVondie Curtis-Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gridlock'dLynne Southerland
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mulan IIClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
True CrimeDon Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Strange WorldJosh Ruben
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death to 2021Tony Scott
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DominoSimon West
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Old GuyRZA
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Man with the Iron FistsRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Play It to the BoneLes Mayfield
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Code Name: The CleanerJames Franco
Director
1 film together · 4.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Future WorldSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Jerry Maguire
as Former girlfriend
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Lucy Liu has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
30 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
22 catalogue titles in comedy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Tiger's Apprentice
as Nua Kua / Cynthia (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Lucky Number Slevin
as Lindsey
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Disney 100: Remember That
as Self
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Red One
as Zoe
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Kung Fu Panda 3
as Viper (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
as O-Ren Ishii 'Cottonmouth'
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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