Rosalind Chao on being despicable in Sweet Tooth and learning to drive during AfterMASH

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

The actor: Rosalind Chao started her career as a child actor, sharing a scene with both Lucille Ball and James Hong in her first TV gig, but at the time, she wasn’t even sure that she wanted a career in acting. At some point in the ’80s, however, Chao changed her mind, and since then she’s become a familiar face in film, including notable roles in The Joy Luck Club and Freaky Friday, while also continuing to rack up a plethora of roles on the small screen. Most recently she’s found herself a bit of a fixture on Netflix, having played key roles in two of the streaming service’s most notable series: Sweet Tooth and 3 Body Problem.

But let’s put the caveat up front: because of a deep back catalog of work and a hard out because of her theater work in What Became Of Us, our conversation with Chao reached a point at the end where The A.V. Club was forced to choose between asking about her work within the Star Trek franchise or asking about M*A*S*H and, inevitably, AfterMASH. We opted to ask about the latter, rationalizing that you could read her Star Trek stories in virtually any other interview, whereas we needed to save our precious time to ask about The Mysterious Island Of Beautiful Women because that’s our goddamned job.

Sweet Tooth (2023-2024)—“Zhang”

3 Body Problem (2024)—“Ye Wenjie”

The A.V. Club: How did you find your way into Sweet Tooth in the first place? Did they just reach out to you?

Rosalind Chao: Yeah, Carmen Cuba, the casting director, texted me on a weekend and said, “You know, I’m about to go pitch people for this role. I know you don’t do series…” Now that’s not true anymore! [Laughs.] “But this is just a little bit of the second season and then the third season, and I promise you they’re not doing any more after that.” So she sent me all of the material, and I watched it, and I was so moved by season one of Sweet Tooth that there was no way I was gonna say “no.” And to say “no” to six months in New Zealand? What an adventure! And everything Carmen casts is really top-notch anyway. So that was an automatic “yes.” And I knew season three was coming up. Season two I was supposed to do more episodes, but then 3 Body Problem overlapped, so… I’m now somebody who does do series!

AVC: How much did you know about the original source material before taking on Sweet Tooth?

RC: You know, I didn’t know much, but here’s what happened. I actually am very much in contact with the writer of the play that I did in England… I did a play at the National, and there’s a writer called Francis Turnly, and he is very into the Sweet Tooth and Jeff Lemire and everything. So I asked him about it, and he said… [Breathlessly.] “Rosalind, this is a big deal!” He went on and on. He was so excited. That’s all I knew. But Francis Turnly, somebody who I respect so much, loves it. So then I loved it.

AVC: Not that you haven’t played evil characters before, but you got to play full-on despicable. 

RC: I think she’s probably… [Hesitates.] Well, I don’t know. I did a thing called Laundromat, and in that, I was pretty awful! But this one… Yeah, she’s pretty awful. She’s terrible. And it’s delicious. It was really fun. But one thing is the way people react to you while you’re in the get-up. She’s scary! So the second they say, “Cut!” it takes people a few minutes to realize I’m not that lady. I have to be extra nice. [Laughs.] I think that’s the only down side to it. Normally I’m just very up front and talk the way I talk, but when they say, “Cut!” I am conscious of being extra soft-spoken afterwards, so I don’t scare people!

AVC: Not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen the series yet, but is there a particular moment that you’d consider to be your most despicable?

RC: [Hesitates.] It’s all pretty despicable. Oh, gosh… She’s awful! I mean, when I look back on it, of course while I’m playing her, I understand exactly what she’s about, and I have to empathize with her while I’m playing her. But now, watching it back, probably… [Hesitates again.] When she does the gun thing, she actually doesn’t do it to him, so… I guess I wouldn’t count that as extra-horrible. Delivering the cow… I don’t know. The way she talks about animals beget animals and… Yeah, she’s just awful. [Laughs.] But she’s saving humanity. In her mind, she’s saving humanity. She really is on a mission. She doesn’t see them as humans.

AVC: Which, in a sense, she shares that general attribute with your character in 3 Body Problem. Sort of.

RC: Well, 3 Body Problem, here’s how I see her. I think Yeh went through extreme trauma and was raised in an environment of persecution followed by isolation. I think it was really all about survival for her. And she lost all faith in humanity. So I do have an excuse for her. I think in that moment, just about anybody would kind of understand how you could just press that button. Later on, the thing with her daughter, that I have a harder time understanding, because I have a daughter, and I would never be able to hold that much back from her and put her in harm’s way like that. But, yeah, I think her attempt to rectify things in the end saves her. I do. I think she makes a genuine attempt to fix what went wrong. So I think that makes her a little more redeemable than Zhang. She does not feel bad about anything. I think she’s gonna make her way out of there and wreak more havoc.

Here’s Lucy (1970)—“Linda Chang Wong”

The Mysterious Island Of Beautiful Women (1979)—“Flower”

AVC: We try to go as far back in an actor’s filmography as we possibly can, and if IMDb is any judge, it looks like your first appearance was on an episode of Here’s Lucy.

RC: [Hesitatingly.] Oh, yeah. Why do you have to go back so far?

AVC: Because it’s fun.

RC: Yeah, I was a kid, and I remember just sneaking up and looking in the window and… [Suddenly horrified.] Oh, my God, what else do you have in there? I’m scared. What else is in there?

AVC: Let’s do this one first.

RC: No, no, I want to get through it. Tell me! List them!

AVC: Okay, I’ll tell you what’s probably going to be the worst. I had several people who wanted to know everything there is to know about The Mysterious Island Of Beautiful Women.

RC: I KNEW IT! I knew it! Okay, let’s get that done with, so it’s not hovering over me, okay?

AVC: Okay, okay…

RC: I knew it was gonna be that! [Laughs.] Can I tell you, that was my nightmare for years! Because they used to show that on CBS after the basketball finals every time. And you can imagine, being in high school and having kids laugh at you… Yeah, not fun. I was a baby when we did that, so much so that they drew my boobs in. So if you watch it, you can see shading. I had no breasts!

That’s the problem with starting as a kid. You don’t realize that these things are gonna follow you around. But, yeah, that thing keeps coming back to haunt me! I can’t believe how many people have seen that thing. Oh, my God… Peter Lawford! I mean, to act with Peter Lawford…

AVC: You can’t go wrong with a member of the Rat Pack. 

RC: [Laughs.] I know! Oh, my God, now I’m scared. Now I’m running through roles in my head. What else?

AVC: Well, just to circle back, do you remember anything about working with Lucille Ball?

RC: I was a kid, I don’t really remember that much. But Island Of Beautiful Women I remember more, because it was in Hawaii, and my parents were there and stopping all my fun. [Laughs.] And I do remember the shading. I remember that very well. It was so embarrassing. And everybody else was older, so they could do things. They could go have dinner and go to a bar and dance or whatever…and I had to go home with my parents. So not as much fun for me.

The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981)—“Hotel Clerk”

RC: I don’t remember much about that, either. That was, I think, a quickie. If I remember correctly, I ended up doing that because… I think the head of NBC—or was it the head of NBC casting?—called. Because I’d said “no” because I had a test or something, and I remember they called up and kind of made me feel like I didn’t have a choice. That was back in the day when I hadn’t learned that you could say “no.”

AVC: I won’t say it’s a classic, but Martin Landau legitimately did enjoy doing it.

RC: Oh, that’s the thing I did with him? Okay, then I do remember something else! I remember getting in a van with him, and he introduced me to his wife [Barbara Bain], who was also there. And what I remember most is that he was an acting teacher, too… and he was trying to get me to sign up for his acting class. [Laughs.] Because at the time, I didn’t think I was going to be an actor. I thought, “I want to be a journalist or something.” I didn’t know. But I definitely didn’t think I was going to be an actor, because of things like missing tests and being forced to do things like that. But it was quick money. And I remember he was trying to to talk me into taking his acting class and telling me why it’s such a wonderful career. He was a lovely man. Okay, come on, get to some of the good stuff!

The Joy Luck Club (1993)—“Rose – The Daughter”

RC: I was six months pregnant when I was cast in that one, and we thought I was going to have the baby long before we started shooting. They still weren’t sure who I was going to play at the time, but I was pretty pregnant, and I was supposed to do a dual role. I was going to play Rose and also her grandmother in China. And then I gave birth to the baby late. Two weeks late. And basically I went from the hospital—I still had my hospital band on!—straight to the production office for makeup tests for them to check the hair and all that. And I remember the shirt I had, it had, like, breast milk on it. [Laughs.] I had given birth wearing that! And the producer then took off her shirt and swapped shirts with me for the makeup test, because that was going to the studio.

So I started very early on after giving birth, and my baby… was not an easy baby. He’s a grown man now, and he’s a lovely man, but… not an easy baby. [Laughs.] And I basically needed to drop out of the part of playing Rose’s grandmother, who was a concubine, because I felt like it wasn’t good for my baby or my husband, who were locked in a hotel room or my trailer while we were filming. So Wayne [Wang] kindly let me back out two weeks before I was supposed to film all the Chinese stuff. So that’s kind of an interesting tidbit for you. Wayne is a lovely man to have done that, because they’d already fit me for costumes and everything. But they were very nice about it. And I think it turned out great! Everything happens for a reason.

AVC: And you and the other members of the Club have obviously stayed tight over the years.

RC: Oh, yeah. There’s a group text, and… they tease me about it, because I have them muted. [Laughs.] I’m fully on the group text, but they’re definitely muted. Because there’s a lot of chat, and I’m not on my phone that much. Isn’t that terrible?

AVC: My wife is on a group text with her coworkers, and she often has to mute it as well.

RC: Yeah, it’s funny. They’re very cute. You know, the chat goes to everything from… Well, there’s very little career talk. It’s usually health things—“Have you guys ever had this or that?”—or logistics if we have to go someplace or, “What are you wearing?” That kind of thing.

The Man From Elysian Fields (2001)—“Female Customer”

RC: Oh, that’s the Andy Garcia movie? With Julianna Margulies! Yeah, they were very nice. Julianna Margulies is lovely. When you do a small part like that and you’re sitting at the lunch table, sitting by yourself, it brings back all the childhood trauma of sitting by yourself in middle school or whatever. And she came over and sat with me every day. She’s lovely. And Andy Garcia was nice, and I really enjoyed the director (George Hickenlooper). Yeah, it was a tiny role, but I had fun.

AVC: I know Mick Jagger was in the film, but given the size of your role, I don’t suppose you had any interaction with him.

RC: I wanted to! [Laughs.] I ended up doing that because the casting director, Heidi Levitt, was the same casting director as The Joy Luck Club. So that was basically one of those “do you want to do this?” things. And who wouldn’t want to be in the same movie as Mick Jagger? I never got to meet him, though.

Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 (2012)—“Pastor Jin”

RC: Oh, that was fun! That was really fun. And you know, a lot of people have issues if you do an accent, but I have no issue with it, because my parents have an accent, many people I love have an accent… and I’ve done a British accent. Why can’t I do a Chinese accent? Or a Korean accent? That was really fun. Nahnatchka Khan was a very fun director to work for. And the writing… I thought it was hilarious! Did you think it was fun?

AVC: Oh, I loved it. I interviewed Krysten Ritter for this feature when the series premiered, so I was a fan from the get-go to the cancellation.

RC: She’s delicious. And so positive. That whole group, they were very positive. And there were so many times… That was a really hard one for me to not crack up in the middle of a scene. Because they were so good!

Freaky Friday (2003)—“Pei Pei”

RC: Oh, yeah! Okay, you’re not bringing up too many scaries.

AVC: Well, there’s still more.

RC: I’m not encouraging. [Laughs.] So Mark Waters, that was the first time I worked with him, and—speaking of accents!—I remember I had laryngitis while we were filming that, and I said, “What about if I turn and suddenly you find out I don’t have an accent, that I’m faking it? Can I just do one take like that?” And I can’t remember if they discussed it or not, but it was, like, “Well, your voice is going, it’s the end of the day, I don’t think we have time.” So I was, like, “Okay, whatever.”

And I got a call as I was driving right past Universal Studios, and he said, “Ros, I’m doing some last-minute ADR. Do you want to swing by here and try that American accent thing?” And I said, “YES!” [Laughs.] And I pulled over and drove in and… I don’t even think I got paid for it! But I drove in, and we tried it, and it just didn’t fit with my body language. And the one thing that I will brag about is that I’m very good at ADR, but I couldn’t make that work. It just couldn’t fit. So we scrapped that.

But then you know that last wedding scene? I wasn’t available when they were shooting that scene, so I originally wasn’t in it, but I got a call… I’ll do anything for Mark. I think he’s such a fun director. I did Just Like Heaven with him, too, and then I did a small part in another movie (Magic Camp)… Anyway, he’s so much fun to work for. And again I got a call… “We’re gonna be filming in Malibu, we’re doing some added scenes and reshoots. Do you wanna come out and just spend the day with us?” I had no idea what I was doing. And I don’t know if you’ve seen the viral scene on TikTok where the stunt kid… I think I pushed the stunt kid? Anyway, that’s the one we filmed that day. I think that was another freebie. [Laughs.] My agent’s gonna cry when she hears this. I give away so many freebies! But if I like the people, I’m just, like, “Oh, give me that top I wore in that scene, and I’ll come in and do it.”

What Dreams May Come (1998)—“Leona”

RC: Oh, so that’s with Robin Williams, and Robin… He was such a lovely person. I got to know him really well, because we did two weeks of rehearsal before we started. Again, that was the casting director for The Joy Luck Club! But he would make me laugh and cry within a sentence. I spent a lot of time with him, because they would push us out on the boat and do all the special effects, and we’d wait basically all day. So I got to know what he was like when people weren’t around. And I can honestly tell you that he’s one of the most thoughtful, kindest, philosophical people. And very open about his demons. Just a lovely, lovely human. I really treasure that time I had with him.

Also, Vincent Ward, who was the director, who was known as an enfant terrible, he’s a New Zealand director. And I spent so much time in New Zealand recently, doing Mulan, and with Sweet Tooth I was there for two months, and then another six months, so I spent a lot of time with Vincent. We’re still in touch. He makes me laugh. He cooked me dinner one night. He’s hilarious. And I still think he’s brilliant. I think that movie was brilliant in so many ways. He was ahead of his time. He was crazy on set. I mean, like, crazy meticulous. You know, in that way that old-fashioned directors are kind of famous for. I can just remember watching him go through one of his moments and just looking over at him and… I wanted to laugh so hard sometimes. But you can’t do it right at that moment! Now I’ll laugh at him overtly. [Laughs.] He gets so much grief from me. It’s even on my Instagram. I tease him all the time.

Slam Dance (1987)—“Mrs. Margaret Bell”

RC: Oh, yes! So that was for Wayne Wang, who later did The Joy Luck Club, and…was that one of my first movies? All I remember is Tom Hulce, and we were behind a fence, and I was wearing high heels and had to balance. [Laughs.] But I don’t remember anything about the character. Who was I playing? I don’t remember!

AVC: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. I think I revisited it when I interviewed Virginia Madsen, but that’s been awhile.

RC: Yeah, and… See, I don’t watch anything I’m in. So that’s my other excuse, too. Unless I’m not in it much, but even then I go like this. [Covers eyes.]

The Big Brawl (1980)—“Mae”

RC: Oh, yeah! So that was Jackie Chan, and I think I played his… 13-year-old niece who gets kidnapped, right? And she runs off with Jose Ferrer. I just remember that [Jackie] would drive us to Chinese food sometimes, with all his stunt guys in the car, and I’d be in back, and the thing that I thought was so cute is that when he was driving, he couldn’t see through the back because the stunt guys, they’re not small, right? And their heads are all big. And he’d say in Chinese, “Dī tóu!” Which means, “Lower your head!” And everybody would simultaneously lower their heads so that he could see back. He was so nice. A lovely, lovely man. Lovely.

The Neighbors (2014)—“Barb Hartley”

RC: Oh, well, that was my husband’s show! My husband played Larry Bird. It was actually a question on Jeopardy! I’m such a Jeopardy! fan. That made my husband so much hotter to me. [Laughs.] I think that was something… Oh, I remember I was at Disneyland with my kids, and I got a call saying, “Somebody dropped out of playing the therapist.” Because my husband and I don’t act together. We didn’t even run lines together prior to that.

But I think it was the producer or somebody who called up and said, “Ros, can you just do us a favor? Can you just do this? It’s a little recurring [role.]” And I was, like, “Yeah, but I’m staying at Disneyland. I’m not coming back for it. It’s not today, right?” [Right.] And it wasn’t, so… that was how that worked. And that was the first time my husband and I ever acted together, so it was kind of funny. I almost can’t look at him when I’m acting with him! Because he’s so good in that show. Isn’t he good in that show?

AVC: He was fantastic. I adored that show.

RC: I think that show was ahead of its time, and I think Dan Fogelman needs to bring that back. I just loved that show, and everybody involved in it, I’m still quite friendly with them all. It was really fun. They had George Takei on The Neighbors, they had Mark Hamill… They had so many cool elements on that show. I think it really was ahead of its time. I feel like if it had another shot, it would have a new life.

M*A*S*H (1983) / AfterMASH (1983-1985)—“Soon-Lee Klinger”

RC: Well, M*A*S*H, that’s kind of one of my first real things, and I think that’s one of the reasons people on the internet think I’m, like, 80 years old. [Laughs.] Because I got hired, and then I got fired—unbeknownst to me—when my paperwork came in. They basically said that I needed to be 10 years older than I actually was to be able to keep the part. And I obviously wanted a job, so I said whatever they needed me to say to be able to regain that role, so that’s why I’m 80 or however old people think I am! My lawyer just asked if I wanted to have it changed, and I was, like, “You know, I think I wouldn’t have gotten up for 3 Body Problem. Would they have considered me for 3 Body Problem if they had known that I’m not really an old lady?” So there’s a part of my that doesn’t want to jinx it, y’know?

AVC: With AfterMASH, I’ve heard that it was pitched as being a series with a tone resembling the film The Best Years Of Our Lives.

RC: Oh, yes! I didn’t know what that meant then, but yes, it was. Look, I had fun on it. I learned how to drive while we were doing that. And my biggest memory was that nobody wanted the parking spot next to me on the 20th Century Fox lot. [Laughs.] So they kept moving me. First I was parked next to Harry Morgan, and when I first drove there… I remember his face when I said, “Oh, I’m parked next to you…and, look, I did a really good parking job!” His face was just, like, horror. And later that day, I got a note saying, “You’re parking next to Jamie [Farr] tomorrow.” And Jamie lasted, like, a week. And then the next thing I knew, I was parked next to someone I didn’t know at all!