Name: Haley Lu Richardson
Notable past credits: Richardson is known for her portrayal of Portia in the second season of “The White Lotus,” as well as the new series “Ponies” opposite Emilia Clarke.
Sundance project: Richardson re-teams with director Kogonada, who she worked with on the 2017 film “Columbus” and the 2021 film “After Yang,” for “Zi.” The film tells the story of a violist haunted by visions of her future self.
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“Everything about this project has been different,” Richardson says. “Kogonada called me up and was like, ‘are you down to fly yourself to Hong Kong for two-and-a-half weeks and do this experiment and maybe a movie will come from it? Or maybe it’ll just be a creative exercise.’ And I was like, ‘duh,’” she says. “And we did that at the end of October, and now we’re here.”
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A week after they finished shooting, Kogonada had an edit he submitted to Sundance. The film’s cast, which call themselves the “Hong Kong Seven,” have been on weekly Zoom calls since wrapping in October, making decisions about the film as a group. Kogonada has given each of them equal equity in the film, so should it sell they are splitting the profit.
“It’s an extremely unique experience,” Richardson says. “I’ve had very vastly opposite experiences, where I feel like a puppet that’s like a cog in the machine or something. I mean, I’ve had some collaborative great experiences where I’ve felt like I’ve been a part of something artful and beautiful. But even then, there’s a lot to the machine of it.”
Richardson had been eager to work with Kogonada again, whatever the project was.
“He’s one of my favorite people in the world, and I trust him in every department that you could trust a person,” she says. “We’ve been talking over the last decade since we met and made this first movie ‘Columbus’ together, about how we both crave pure collaboration. It’s such a machine, this industry, there’s so many cooks in the kitchen. There’s so many people to answer to. And so much of that can take away from the core of why I like to do this. So we really just got away from all that.”
It’s been a busy few weeks for the actress, who has been promoting her show “Ponies,” jumping on a plane to Park City and then immediately is expected in New York for another upcoming movie, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.” It’s no wonder then that she’s nursing a cup of ginger tea, willing her body to shake a cold.
“Everything that I’ve done in the last two-and-a-half years is coming out in one month. And that’s why I’m sick,” she says.