Interview: Actress Celia Au

Born in Hong Kong & raised in Brooklyn, Celia grew up playing sports and having a huge imagination. Film and television consistently inspired her childhood career aspirations- first, she wanted to become a lawyer, then a police officer, then a marine, then a Kung Fu master. . . and then even a Power Ranger!

It wasn't long before Celia realized that it would be impossible for her to have all these professions. The only way to bring these professions to life was to go onscreen and become the best Actor she could be. You may have seen actress Celia Au kicking ass on Netflix’s Wu Assassins, living out her Power Ranger dreams! You can also her on the High Herstory series playing legendary warrior Hua Mulan.

Celia exudes creative energy and the glowing goodness of a person who walks the walk and leads the way! Celia let us know how she uses her superpowers to stop bullying, the value of representation, and what she’s working on now.

High Herstory: Tell us about yourself,  what are your passions? 

Celia Au: Hi, Sup! My name is Celia Au. I am an actress/producer. I feel that as storytellers we have a superpower to tell stories that can help change people’s perception of the world. So I want to use this superpower to tell inspiring stories that will promote love and empathy in the world. I feel like we are living in a time where there is so much hater-ade right now. If we can show people what it is like walking in the other person’s shoes so we have a better understanding towards one another. You check out some of my work on Netflix’s Wu Assassins, AMC’s Lodge 49 and I have a movie coming out this month called Shoplifters of the World!

High Herstory: What was it like to play Mulan in High Herstory Season One? Did the story of Mulan have any personal meaning to you? 

Celia Au: Playing Mulan was a ton of fun! It was so nice to be working with my friends. The High Herstory set  was a very friendly and fun environment to be in. Mulan is definitely personal to me because she is the FIRST ASIAN DISNEY PRINCESS!!!! Seeing an Asian on screen kicking butt was amazing! This is why representation  matters so we can see and relate to characters that look like ourselves.

High Herstory: What was the funniest moment on set? 

Celia Au: Man it’s been a while….. I think the fight scene. We were all bloody, laughing and cracking jokes but trying to keep a straight face once the camera rolls. Good times!

High Herstory: You brought the action to Mulan with such style!  What form of martial arts do you study?  Do you enjoy the action side of acting? 

Celia Au: Thank you! I like this being known as the stylish Mulan! 😉 I do love the action side of acting cause it is a lot of fun. It’s definitely a way to force me to workout and make my Sifu proud. As for the form of martial arts….I studied Chinese kung-fu, Tiger forms and Shaolin forms.

High Herstory: This year, we have seen an increase in prejudice & hate crimes against the Asian community. Do you want to speak to that?

Celia Au: STOP ASIAN HATE! For the last year, I’ve been part of different campaigns to raise awareness about asian hate incidents and why it is not okay. Ultimately, we are all Americans. Why are we discriminating against each other? We should learn from history and know that we work better together.

High Herstory: You do a lot of work to bring awareness to systematic hate and promote anti bullying. Tell us about the PSA video you made last year #washthehate? 

Celia Au: In the beginning of the Covid, I tweeted a video that I saw of an asian guy on the subway getting sprayed with a can or aerosol and getting called names. That video went viral on my platform and a lot of news outlets were reaching out to me about the video but I was telling them that I didn’t shoot it and redirect them to the owner of the video. Then a PR company that I am friends with the IW group reached out saying that my tweet inspired them to start a campaign to raise awareness and asked me to join them.  Literally the day they announced the campaign was the same day where our ex-president coined the term “Chinese Virus”.

High Herstory: How can representation and the elevation of Asian storytellers help in this current instance and beyond?

Celia Au: Tell more asian stories, make our stories into film and tv shows. If our stories are being seen and being heard we can fight against the term “model minority”. So the world doesn’t see us as these perfect ideals. We share the same struggles, experiences and face discriminations as well.

High Herstory: Who is an important woman to you that we would all benefit from knowing more about? 

Celia Au: I don’t think this woman is important to me per say. But she is important in Chinatown. Her name was Sister Ping, she was the “snakehead” of Chinatown. To the outside the story is that she is the ruthless head of the underground human trafficking ring. But when I heard her story from some of the people in Chinatown they said that she took them out of China when times were bad and gave them an opportunity in American and gave them an opportunity that they can’t have in China. So I think her story is pretty fascinating.

Follow Celia on instagram @itsceliaau and see her on Netflix’s Wu Assassins, AMC’s Lodge 49 and her new movie, Shoplifters of the World.