From China with love, actress Bai Ling plots her own revolution

Photography by Jason Nocito To get into her role as an exotic dancer in the upcoming film Edmond, Bai Ling headed to a strip club. The result was the hottest “Who’s On First?” routine ever: “One of the dancers asked, ‘Are you bi?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m Bai.’ They said, ‘Are you really bi?’ I said, ‘Of course I’m Bai!’ And then they said, ‘Ahhh, you’re bi...’” The comical exchange led her to question how she ended up in that situation. “It’s all twisted in my mind,” says Ling. “I come from communist China!”

Ling’s journey from Shanghai to the champagne room has been marked by politics and turmoil. Born to university professors, she served three years as a singer and dancer in a Chinese army performance troop and witnessed history when soldiers and students clashed in Tiananmen Square in 1989. “When the tanks started coming, I froze. Which side was I standing by?” recalls Ling. “The soldiers were my family, but the student movement was so exciting.” Two years later, she moved to the U.S., where she soon found acting work in the The Crow and opposite Richard Gere in Red Corner. The political thriller was seen as a critique of Red China and got Ling blacklisted in her homeland. “I didn’t know where I belonged,” she says.

All these difficulties, Ling contends, have honed her sensitivity as an actress. Along with Edmond, due in December, she stars this year in The Beautiful Country, a drama about the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and Man About Town, in which she plays a journalist trying to take down a Hollywood agent played by Ben Affleck. “I love that part!” Ling says. “She’s extremely intelligent, sassy, sexy, modern, and she’s not afraid. She has spice.” From what we’ve learned, the role doesn’t sound like much of a stretch.—Patrick Carone

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