Lucy Liu Dips Into Chinese History For A Swashbuckling New Role

Having built a cinematic legacy with badass roles in “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kill Bill,” Lucy Liu was eager to embody one of history’s most misunderstood women ― even if it meant looking beyond the multiplex and streaming platforms to do so.

The “Ally McBeal” actor is the voice of the titular character in “The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend,” an immersive, narrative-driven virtual reality game now available on Meta Quest after its Tribeca Film Festival premiere last year. The game is based on the life of Zheng Yi Sao, also known as Ching Shih, a female pirate in the South China Sea from 1801 to 1810.

Players first row out to a seemingly abandoned ship, where they soon find themselves seeking an escape route after encountering danger and a glimmer of treasure. Along the way, they get to learn a thing or two about a pioneering woman who, as Liu says, was “a ruthless and very fearless leader.”

“I was quite embarrassed that I’d actually never heard of her myself,” Liu told HuffPost in an interview. “I was really stunned that this woman existed, that she’d come from a lowly place in society as a courtesan and basically worked her way up toward understanding and taking over for her husband, who died mysteriously. The fact that she was an underdog was so important to me.”

Liu landed the voiceover role after meeting with British filmmaker Eloise Singer. As with Liu, “The Pirate Queen” marks Singer’s first foray into VR. And she, too, found herself captivated by Zheng Yi Sao’s life.

“A friend told me the story and she said: ‘Did you know that the most powerful pirate in history was a woman?’ And I couldn’t believe it,” Singer recalled. “There’s a misconception that Blackbeard was the most powerful pirate. Or, if you ask some