The Menu star Hong Chau was so convincing as a restaurant manager, she got offered a job
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In the pepper-bitter comedy The Menu (out Nov. 18), Ralph Fiennes portrays a famous and extremely disillusioned chef who has planned a horrifying night for a dozen rich guests at his remote restaurant, run by Hong Chau's derangedly devoted character Elsa.
"The Menu is about a master chef named Julian Slowik, who is played by Ralph Fiennes," says Chau, best known for her appearances in Downsizing and HBO's Watchmen. "He has a very exclusive restaurant on a remote island, and this movie is about the very special meal that he has prepared for these guests that evening. I play the restaurant manager and basically the right hand [of] Chef Slowik."
Searchlight Pictures Hong Chau in 'The Menu'
The film is directed by Mark Mylod (Succession) and written by Will Tracy and Seth Reiss, inspired by an evening Tracy spent at a restaurant in Norway.
"When I was reading it, I was laughing — I was disturbed and just shocked by each passing course," says Chau. "It's a really interesting film. I have a hard time describing it because it has such a mixture of different elements, but dark comedy is definitely an apt descriptor for it."
Chau's prep for the film included learning how to fold a napkin in a fancy restaurant style.
"I had to fold napkins in a very precise way, as if I had been doing it for years and years," she says. "It was odd that something as seemingly simple as folding a napkin would take so long to do, but I think the film shows very well all of the rigors of working in a restaurant."
Speaking to EW over Zoom, Chau is a light presence, friendly and quick to laugh. Her Elsa, meanwhile, is a very serious character as she tends to the restaurant guests, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and John Leguizamo, among others.
"Elsa was the hardest character to cast," says director Mylod, "I knew that if we went the wrong way, that character would end up being the comedy relief and I didn't want that. I wanted that character to have a humanity and a pathos, and, by extension, be tragicomic. Hong understood that instinctively. She never played it for comedy, she played it for the slavish devotion to Slowik and his art. The straighter she played it, the funnier it became."
"I didn't know exactly how I would play the character until I got my hair and makeup, then my costume on, and then I saw this set," says Chau. "That's just what felt right once I was actually there on set, and feeling Ralph Fiennes' energy as well, because I feel people are always in some ways trying to emulate people that they admire."
Chau's portrayal of Elsa was convincing enough to impress chef Dominique Crenn, owner of San Francisco's three-Michelin-starred restaurant Atelier Crenn, and a consultant on the film.
"She pulled me aside and said, 'I really like what you're doing, I think it's so perfect and so spot-on for a restaurant of this caliber, and I want you to come and work for me,'" says the actress with a chuckle. "So that was a great seal of approval."
Jason Mendez/Getty Images
Chau will likely be too busy with acting to take Crenn up on her offer. Certainly her schedule has been full of late, with Chau swiftly moving from Darren Aronovsky's The Whale, to Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up, to The Menu, to Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, which shot in Spain.
"Wes Anderson has, at this point, built such a reputation for himself, and he did not disappoint," says Chau. "All of the actors who worked on the film were so energized and happy to be there and it was really fun. He really creates a world not just for the viewers but also for the actors. You felt like you were in a Wes Anderson movie, the way that he shoots. He likes to do long takes where there's so much choreography, and so much happening, and it was fun to try to get just one take just right."
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