Rosalind Chao Is Ready to Fight About ‘3 Body Problem’ (2025)

At precisely three o’clock, Rosalind Chao bounds into a chic hotel restaurant a block from Carnegie Hall. “I didn’t have time to change,” she apologizes, gesturing to the belted orange-vermillion shirt dress that’s nearly as bright as her smile. “This,” she says, gesturing to her hair and makeup, “is because I was on Good Morning America.” Then she holds up a much more mass-market backpack. “This is Roz.”

Chao has been on a publicity march for nearly two weeks, hyping the release of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, in which she plays Ye Wenjie—a genius Chinese scientist now living in England who, depending on your point of view, either rescues humanity or condemns us all to our doom. The series is the first substantial work from showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss since the end of Game of Thrones. (There is a third showrunner for this production as well: True Blood and The Terror alum Alexander Woo.) Promotion is not something Chao is too accustomed to; she’s spent much of her career parachuting in for short stints in memorable projects, as her IMDb page will attest.

“I got a phobia of talk shows when Johnny Carson invited me back five times,” she says, reflecting on her breakout during the M*A*S*H and AfterMASH years. “I was in an acting class with people like Sean Penn, and it was considered really uncool to go on the Johnny Carson show. Then someone slipped a note to me while I was peeing and asked me to sign it. And I remember thinking, I don’t know if I like this.”

Double-fisting an oat milk latte and a green tea (it’s been a long day), Chao digs into the long arc of her career, from Star Trek and The Joy Luck Club to Freaky Friday.

Vanity Fair: You grew up in Southern California, and your parents owned a restaurant, right?

Rosalind Chao: In the mornings it was a pancake house, and it became a Chinese restaurant at night.

Was the food good?

The pancakes were amazing. The Chinese food was for the palette of somebody in Orange County. It was right outside of Disneyland and I never got to go. That’s probably why I love Disneyland so much now. My parents were immigrants who were working hard, and I was in the booth doing my homework and I’d see families come in all excited. Then when I was old enough I was waiting tables or washing dishes.

And talent scouts came to the restaurant?

Theater producers that my parents knew, and then an agent asked if I could audition for a commercial. My dad said so long as it doesn’t interfere with school, one time. Then I did many commercials, but small parts.

Your first T.V. credit is incredible, as James Hong’s daughter on Lucille Ball’s Here’s Lucy.

Lucille Ball was quite lovely to me. I used to sneak over to where they were doing her hair and hide, then watch the whole process.

Lots of television shows followed that, but the biggie was the final run of M*A*S*H, including the most-watched television episode in history, playing Jaime Farr’s wife. But you nearly lost the gig for being too young.

I met with Alan Alda and everyone, and was told I was cast. Then I was at the supermarket and I saw a tabloid featuring another woman in her 30s saying she had the part. So my mother gets on the phone and, basically, I was told I was being let go unless I was a certain age. Which was 10 years older than my real age. I was asked “are you that age?” and I said “yes, I am.”

So you lied.

Ohhhh, it’s terrible.

How young were you really?

I feel so bad. Younger than my internet age, let’s put it that way. I wouldn’t have been on their radar.

But then they put you with Jamie Farr and there was a connection.

A little creepy, right? He was in his 40s. They were all gentlemen, though. And Alan Alda, who directed those episodes, he taught me how to do ADR [automated dialogue replacement]. To this day I am great at ADR. I would never say I’m a great actress or great at anything else except playing gin rummy and doing ADR.

Time moves on. Then comes Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

I met with them and they wanted me to come back and screen test [for the role of Tasha Yar], and I was visiting my now-husband in London. I said “oh my God, Star Trek? It’s been done.” So they cast someone else. Then they brought me back for the role of Keiko.

You’re Chinese-American, but on M*A*S*H you played a Korean character. On Star Trek Keiko is Japanese.

It shouldn’t make a difference. Ethnicity shouldn’t make a difference, though race should. When I was on Star Trek they said they would change it to Chinese and I said “why?” I’m the same color, and the storyline has her as Japanese. Keep it the same.

It’s still a bit of an issue. Asians are already limited in the business, so if on top of that you say only Chinese can play Chinese? On Joy Luck Club we had Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and it all worked beautifully. So long as we’re not painting our faces yellow or anything. I get a bee in my bonnet about this. Not everyone on The Bear is Italian.

All reports say that Star Trek: The Next Generation, especially by the time you came aboard in season four, was just a party.

The biggest laughs I’ve ever had. Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner making fun of Patrick Stewart. They are ruthless. So many great moments.

And you worked with Whoopi Goldberg.

Yes, I was breastfeeding at the time and she gave me some terrific advice. I remember we were sitting on the, the little spaceship. I was so nervous because I was like “my baby will be hungry,” and she just calmly said “he’ll be fine.”

You also gave birth on Star Trek, and the mighty Klingon warrior Worf was your midwife.

Yes, that’s how Michael Dorn and I got close. He stood between my legs for eight hours.

Joy Luck Club was a phenomenon. I rewatched it last night—was it annoying that you had to do your big speech with Andrew McCarthy in the pouring rain?

When we rehearsed that scene it wasn’t working. [Director] Wayne Wang comes into my trailer, almost scared, and says “Rosalind, it’s pouring rain. How do you feel about doing the scene in the rain?” I shout, “oh my God, yes!” He said “you’re as crazy as I am.” It was a stroke of luck, it fueled it.

That wasn’t stage rain?

It was real rain. If it died down they got a hose.

You’ve worked with so many amazing people. You worked with Angela Landsbury on Murder, She Wrote.

What a nice lady!

You were in the cinematic masterpiece Freaky Friday with Jaime Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.

That was fun. With director Mark Waters, I’ve worked with him three times [also in Just Like Heaven and Magic Camp]. I got some heat for that because I did a Chinese accent. But my parents had Chinese accents! Unless you are doing it with buck teeth. . .

The character in Freaky Friday was how my dad would greet customers. He would say “oh, you got new shoes? I like your new shoes!” Everybody knew him. I was channeling him, so I was a little hurt when people pushed back on that.

I remember you climbing a weird pyramid with Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come.

Those were real steps. Robin was behind me, teasing like I was being presented in a beauty contest. He was such a wonderful human being. We had a scene on a boat, which took a long time to film, and it was the only time with just he and I, without lots of people on him. He just talked about how much he loved his daughter.

I remember then the boat came back to shore, and he took a breath, got out, and then went back to being what people wanted him to be. He really did brighten everyone's day. It’s just so wrong that he’s gone.

Let’s jump ahead to 3 Body Problem. I understand you’ve since recorded an audiobook version of the first in the trilogy.

It took six days. It’s very dense. There’s one chapter that’s like, all science.

It’s also different from the show, which kinda mixes stuff from book one and book three. The books are also pretty violent.

More violent than the show, you think?

More violent except for that one scene in the show that is crazy violent.

I rewound that so many times. It really exceeded my imagination. The way they melded the different stories and expanded it to make it universal—I knew Dan [Weiss], David [Benioff], and Alex [Woo] were great writers and producers. And then when I did the audiobook I wrote them a love letter … which I never sent.

After Game of Thrones, there are many people on the internet with very strong opinions of Benioff and Weiss.

I will fight those people to the death. I feel very protective of them. If I ever read anything negative about them, I am so tempted to answer. They take such care of us. I’ll give you an example. When Ye gets her big reveal and has that speech, it was my second day. I’m presented kinda like the Hall of Presidents at Disneyland. I’m with Ben Kingsley’s son [Edmund], and I forgot I was miked and I muttered something like “I feel like a robot.” Both of them came running out: “wait, Roz, you wanna redo this?” And they took the time to explain the vision. They are like that all the way through.

Were you a Game of Thrones fan?

No. I watch I Love Lucy over and over. My kids and everyone I know is obsessed with Game of Thrones. I’m tempted, but I have such a great relationship with them. I’m afraid if I watch it I’ll be in awe of them. But that’s a stupid reason. I’m going to watch it.

In 3 Body Problem, your character is a victim of the Cultural Revolution in China. Is that something that touched your family?

A lot of my family remained in China after my parents left. There are no remnants of the past. No photos of my mother. But nobody talks about it. If you ask somebody about it, they really don't want to. It's very Chinese to say if something bad happens, okay, it’s over now. That's kind of the way I was raised. There’s a cover on the emotions from people of that period. And Ye is like that.

Like the scenes we shot in the prison, I kept having to hold back. Which was tough opposite Benedict Wong, because he’s so good it’s hard not to react. If I was Roz instead of Ye, I would have blabbed everything.

Ye is a fascinating character. We’re conditioned to assume that she’s the good guy, especially how she’s introduced. But … is she?

She’s trying to save the world and in the process, she’s looking at it as there must be sacrifices. The trauma she’s had in her history, she can rationalize things. Me, Rosalind? I can’t kill a bug. I chase after them with a cup and set them outside. Ye, though, thinks of people as bugs, and sets out a roach motel.

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