Zoë Chao

COAT Ceren Ocak via RK Communications TIGHTS Stylist's Own SHOES Tory Burch EARRINGS Lizzie Fortunato RINGS By Way Of

Interview by Nolwen Cifuentes

Photography by Ivana Cajina

Styling by Ariana Velasquez

Makeup by Maria Ortega

Hair by Vanessa Ocando

Photo Assisting by Sonia Broman

Styling Assisting by Isabelle Buneo

Before she captured hearts in HBO Max’s Love Life or solved murders in Apple TV+’s The Afterparty, Zoë Chao first made her mark as the charming lead in the indie series Strangers. Created by Mia Lidofsky, Strangers became Facebook Watch's first scripted web series and a Sundance darling that put Zoë on the map. I had the privilege of working on the series, almost 10 years ago, as the unit stills photographer, and got to see Zoë’s ability to command the screen with authenticity and humor.

Now, she’s bringing her talents to Nightbitch, Marielle Heller’s latest film — a genre-defying exploration of motherhood and identity. Playing Jen, an over-eager mom who challenges Amy Adams’s art-world protagonist, Zoë adds both humor and depth to a film that delves into the raw, unfiltered truths of parenting. It’s the latest in a string of performances that showcase her ability to find the humanity in every role.

I loved chatting with Zoë — our conversation gets into how Nightbitch masterfully tackles the nuance and wholeness of motherhood, exploring its raw beauty, ugliness, and (literal) transformations. Zoë reflects on working with industry icons and shares her excitement about stepping into the DC universe with James Gunn's latest animated project, Creature Commandos.

Check out Nightbitch in theaters December 6th, and Creature Commandos on HBO Max December 5th!

SWEATER Opera Sport via Lindsey Media UNDERSHIRT Anine Bing SKIRT & BLOOMERS Aleksandra Kolanko EARRINGS Cklasic BOOTS Miista CHARM Lizzie Fortunato

Congrats on Nightbitch! I can’t wait to see it. How did you get involved?

My agent sent me the audition. We were both huge fans of Marielle Heller, as a writer and director, but also as a performer. She's really masterful at character studies. She presents these fully dimensional characters and reveals the good, the bad, the ugly. Even with supporting cast who are often relegated to flattened secondary roles, she finds these ways to subvert the expectation in a rewarding way. I feel lucky to play any part in a Heller film because I think her work is so... what would be the word I'd use? It's unique and surprising.

I love that. So you were pretty familiar with her work before this?

Yeah, I loved her film, Can You Ever Forgive Me? The anti-hero and that performance is so compelling and challenging.

Did you read the Nightbitch book?

Mari wrote the screenplay and directed the film, but it's based on the book by Rachel Yoder. I started reading it, got halfway through when we started shooting and thought… you know what? I need this movie to be whatever this movie wants to be.  But made a promise to return to the book!

What was it like meeting Mari?

It was the end of 2022, I was just coming off the second season of The Afterparty, and I walked on to set - we were shooting on location at a library with a bunch of kids. And it felt like this family affair. Mari’s brother was there leading a sing-a-long – he did all the music for the film - and does the score for all of her films. 

Her husband stopped by with the kids. Mari breastfed at a certain point. Her parents came through. It was such a happy environment. A lot of the people in the crew had already worked with Mari before. Even though the production was underway – and that can be a nerve-wracking thing when you step onto a set and you're not starting on day one with everybody – it was such a warm environment and it just felt very easy to do the work. 

And Amy Adams has been the GOAT for me for a very long time. I was so excited to work with her. 

Oh, I bet, what was it like working with Amy? Was there anything you learned from her on set?

I play this character, Jen, who's the over-eager Virgo of this trio of mommies. There's this moving scene between Mother, played by Amy Adams, and the three of us moms. And the coverage is set up on the three of us, it’s not on Amy, but take after take, she gives a hundred percent - they'll yell, cut, and tears are running down her face.. She’s giving such a stunning performance that the camera doesn’t see. I remember we asked her, “wow, you do this for our coverage?” She said, “yeah, I don't believe in rehearsing. I don't believe in marking. I believe in performing and giving you guys everything I've got.” Which to me is so generous and correct. It’s really changed the way I want to show up in my work. We all rely on each other, and her giving a hundred percent when the camera isn’t on her is still going to inform our performances. It seems obvious and in acting school you make the promise that you’ll always “show up for your scene partner” but the reality is, the days are long and sometimes you’re on take 13 of a very emotional scene… but Amy never flagged. That was something I really took away from this movie.  Sprint all the way to the finish line. 

BLAZER Anine Bing TANK Stylist's Own SKIRT Ceren Ocak SOCKS Stylist's Own SHOES 3.1 Phillip Lim EARRINGS Cklasic RINGS Cklasic

Tell me more about your character, Jen.

She's a mom, too. When we meet her, we’re like, “oh, my God, this bitch.” [Laughs]. Just too excited to be a mom, too excited to share her knowledge, wants to get everybody involved. When I watched the film, I was shook by how convincing I am as that person. I don't know why she's in me, but she's fully fleshed out. 

Amy’s character, Mother, she's this cool art mom and she perceives this trio of moms as an antagonizing presence because they love Tike Hikes and they are all about these baby singalongs. But in true Mari Heller fashion, the relationship shifts and Mother becomes open to these women and their kindness and dimension. That's just one example of how you think you understand the film, but then it changes in a surprising, curious way.

I think we're always trying to put people in boxes and write people off. But what we learn over and over again is the lesson that you can't do that. People are not one dimensional. And yes, there can be this really peppy Stay at Home mom who's very put together and makes her own yogurt who can also be a really empathetic, available and present person who has the capacity to help other people in a positive way.

That’s always interesting because a character like that can often become one-note.

I think that’s part of the journey for Mother - to see the nuance in others.

Oh yeah, so, Amy Adams, her character is called Mother in the film?

Yeah, because she could be every mother. That's my interpretation of it. But specifically, Mother is an artist, who had gone to grad school and worked in a gallery prior to having a kid. We meet her in this chapter of the first couple of years into motherhood, as an older mom who had a child later in life. And I relate so much to that set up because I am in my late 30s. I'm also an artist. A lot of the themes that are at play in this movie, I think about a ton. The questions I have constantly swimming around in my head are examined in this film. 

BIB TOP Aleksandra Kolanko SUIT SHIRT Opéra Sport via Lindsey Media TROUSERS Anine Bing SHOES Charles & Keith via House Of EARRINGS Lizzie Fortunato

Without giving too much away, what do you think the audiences will find most surprising about Nightbitch?

What's cool about the film is it defies genre. It’s not one thing. And what I've heard about motherhood is that it’s also not one thing. The form really reflects the content. It conveys all the many colors, the really beautiful ones and the grittier, less aesthetically pleasing ones. I think people will be surprised by how raw and exposed it gets. It's exhilarating to watch that on screen. 

I have a lot of friends who've gone through birth and are in the first couple of years of rearing their child. I think because motherhood has been so underrepresented and oftentimes misrepresented, it can feel like a really isolating, lonely, confusing couple of years. I think this movie speaks to that period of time, and hopefully a lot of mothers of all different kinds will feel seen in this film.

That's how I felt just watching the trailer. It feels like a mother made this film. The concept of a transformation, or expansion as a mother. You were saying Amy plays an artist, and it made me think back to when I was pregnant and I was freaking out about my career. And I was like, “I've got to keep working. I'm not going to stop working.” But then I don't know, when you have a kid… it's not that the art doesn't matter anymore. You're just so much bigger than just that. My career is still important, but there's so many other aspects of me that I didn't even realize existed.

The movie takes on these questions about losing yourself and your identity. It’s about mourning a former self and accepting a current new self. It’s something that I think about a lot, because we, especially as artists, spend so much of our young adulthood dedicating every ounce of energy to an industry that's so fickle and to a career that's so hard to get off the ground. It's really challenging to wrap your head around having to step away, even for a couple months. But what the movie does successfully is recognize that there is inevitable change, but it's not a death sentence. It's a transition. You're in the bardo, but what's on the other side is also rewarding.

I love that.

But I also will say it is a film for everyone. I really hope heterosexual men watch it. We all started in a uterus, where someone used their own body to gestate us for nine months. They brought this child into the world, and then that person kept us alive and fed and nurtured us. This is a movie that centers the caretaker's experience. What I find important about the film is that we continue to face this terrifying political landscape that feels ruled by a staggering lack of empathy. The call to make art that makes people feel and care and relate to experiences that are not entirely specific to themselves is urgent. And I think this film does that.

Let’s chat about some of your other projects, you have a lot coming out including Creature Commandos which is James Gunn’s new animated DC show.

The premise is about a misfit group of incarcerated monsters who are summoned to do missions that are deemed too dangerous for humans. We’re your last resort. The motley crew is composed of The Bride (of Frankenstein), Dr. Phosphorus  (a literal and figurative toxic skeleton), GI Robot (who fought Nazis in WWII, is resurrected, and still wants to fight Nazis), Weasel (a DC classic), and then Nina Murzusky, who I play. I have my first Funko Pop! She’s an aquatic being, half fish, half human. She wears a water suit with a water tank helmet. She’s the most reasonable and caring of the bunch.  She's really the pathos of the season.

Were you familiar with the DC universe before this?

I didn't know anything about the DC universe or Marvel. I just knew that James Gunn was the big hotshot dude in charge, who turned out to be so wonderful and present and a real genius. I did a lot of my scenes with Indira Varma, who plays The Bride. She was in London. I was in New York. James was in LA.  But miraculously, it felt like we were all in the room together. The series has a lot of action and a lot of mess and a lot of comedy. But what’s really surprising is how the show is not afraid to touch real sadness. Each episode focuses on a different character and their origin story. And these origin stories are devastating.

Had you done an animated project before?

I have, but never a whole season and never one with so much action. There's a lot of grunting... and she's in water. So that was hard to do. Sometimes I’d put water in my mouth. I got very wet.

And that’s out December 5th?

Yeah, on HBO Max. It was the first time I'd ever gone to New York Comic Con. I got to see how excited the fans are. It's heartwarming. Nina Mazursky, the character I play - most people don't know a lot about her. It's fun to introduce her to the world while I am also being introduced to the world of DC.

So, I also want to mention that you and I both worked on Strangers... I don't even know how long ago now.

That was 2016, bish! 

Wow. So almost ten years ago, and here we are now. I feel like I keep seeing your face pop up on my TV in everything! How have things changed for you in your career since then?

I credit Strangers and the work I did with Mia Lidofsky for being a real turning point in my career. When I reflect on it, it's wild to think of us doing that from 2014 to 2018 - it was really our first big project. It started out as a web series which became Facebook Watch's first scripted show.

Quick side note – but working on that show helped me come out as bi. Just watching your character go through everything, I kind of realized… hey that’s me.

That's so cool and really moving. Wow, that's really moving. 

It was such a great show, I’m glad an audience found it.

It had the best fans, the most loyal fans, mostly queer women, queer women of color all around the world - someone came up to me in Germany and once in Mexico! We got into Sundance in 2017. That opened some doors for me. My now agent and former manager found me when they watched the three Strangers episodes that played at the festival. The first ever audition I did with CAA - even before officially signing with them - was a Richard Linklater movie, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, in 2017. That was my first big movie that my grandfather got to see in movie theatres.  Still have his movie ticket.

That’s amazing.

It's really a funny ride this whole career because I started out leading a show which led to meaningful representation which meant access to new opportunities and my audition tapes finally being watched by the people who made the decisions. But then it was having to start from zero again in a way, because none of the industry had seen Strangers. So from 2017 to 2020, it was just building, building, building, and working as much as I could and trying everything. 

Things changed with Love Life and The Afterparty. I’ve played the romantic lead in two sweet romcoms I’m proud of - Long Weekend and If You were the Last, which came out last year, opposite Anthony Mackie. 

Sometimes I get offers, and sometimes I audition for things. It blows my mind because for six years out of grad school, I was waiting tables. I am forever grateful to my Bar Marmont cocktail waitressing days that are still very vivid in my mind. But towards the end of those six years, I desperately needed something to change - I don't know if I could have kept going. So when Strangers came about, it was my last real stab at this career.

I'm always grateful to that show because I learned so much - what it's like to lead a show - the energy you need to be in every scene, the comfort on set that comes from having enough real estate, enough material to not feel like every line matters. I take Strangers and all its many lessons with me on every project.

And we’re still building, always.

There’s always somewhere else to go.

And always so much learning! It's so circuitous, too. Everyone will say, “Oh, this thing is going to blow up.” And it never does. And then the thing you do that was just a labor of love - maybe that takes off? Or maybe it becomes your friend’s uncle’s favorite movie and that is the success.  I'm just out here channeling Bruce Lee and trying to be water.

✦

---

You May Also Like