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This Woman Crush Wednesday, we’re celebrating our favorite Aussie turned religious guru for the hit show The Society, which Netflix just announced will be returning for a second season. While she hasn’t been around Hollywood for long, she’s definitely made a splash. Give it up for Natasha Liu Bordizzo!
WHO’S THAT GAL: Natasha Liu Bordizzo
WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: Let’s be clear… Bordizzo as Helena, the de facto spiritual advisor in West Ham, has got to be one of the only voices of reason among the teens on The Society. After watching Helena command and calm a room, she quickly became one of our favorite characters. While we’re never quite sure where her allegiances lie, we are certain of one thing: just as everyone and everything else is seemingly falling apart, Helena is steadfast. Bordizzo has said that she deliberately played her character stable and composed, though she thinks Helena will soon come to a “breaking point,” stating, “She was kind of getting there toward the end of season one, but I want her to snap for season two because I think it would be fun.” Give us the meltdown!
Though it may not look like it on screen, it wasn’t easy for Bordizzo to slide into this role. Having nothing in common with her character, Bordizzo had to do her homework, like reading up on Helena’s favorite biblical passages. She called this preparation a “hustle” that “requires highlighters and Gmail folders and Excel documents.” For a girl that admits she once had stage fright, Bordizzo certainly knows how to put in work to get ahead in this industry.
But the Chinese-Italian actress hasn’t always considered a career in acting – just the opposite. She wanted to be a lawyer and was studying at The University of Technology Sydney a few years ago when her now-manager found her on Instagram and accidentally, ahem, “bumped” into her at Sydney Central Station. After convincing Bordizzo to try out modeling, her manager then encouraged her to audition for the 2016 sequel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. It was Bordizzo’s first audition ever.
And if that isn’t already insanely impressive, you should know that while this girl went out for a supporting role, she landed the lead instead. Bordizzo told W Magazine about the experience, stating, “I had no idea what I was doing. I googled female monologues and set up an iPhone. I taped myself reading the scene from Brokeback Mountain – with no reading partner, because I didn’t know anything – where Michelle Williams is accusing Heath Ledger’s character of cheating on her. To this day, I don’t know why I chose this scene.” Bordizzo speculates that she was quick to be cast because of her ethnicity and her Taekwondo training. Oh yeah, she’s a black belt, too.
WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Though her part as Helena in Netflix’s teen mystery drama was certainly Bordizzo’s breakout role, she isn’t new to the screen by any means. Like we said, her first acting role was in the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where she played the lead, Snow Vase. After achieving success in her first major feature film – and first experience acting period – Bordizzo snagged a small part in the critically acclaimed musical The Greatest Showman as Deng Yan, an acrobat and swords-woman. Then, in 2018, Bordizzo starred in the Chinese film Detective Chinatown 2, now China’s fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. It seems this girl’s career has only angled up because following these few appearances she scored the role of Bree in the big budget thriller Hotel Mumbai, alongside stars Dev Patel and Armie Hammer. While there is no one path into Hollywood, Bordizzo’s story of being cast in major film after major film is certainly unique, and certainly indicative of her talent.
WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: Bordizzo as Helena will be preaching to us once more in Season 2 of The Society, set to launch on Netflix in 2020. But if you’re like us and can’t wait that long to see her, you can also catch the young actress in the lead role in the upcoming romantic comedy The Naked Wanderer, which follows a newly dumped Jake (Angus McLaren) as he walks almost-naked up the Australian coast for charity in hopes that he will win back his ex, until, of course, he meets backpacker Valerie (Bordizzo). Bordizzo has a few other projects in the works, including the Chinese animated film Wish Dragon and the action-comedy Guns Akimbo, where she will star alongside Daniel Radcliffe.
