Bai Ling is currently starring in Dim Sum Funeral, the story of a Chinese American gathering for the traditional seven day funeral of their mother. Bai plays the lesbian partner of one of the daughters/sisters. Coming up, Bai will appear in the studio film Love Ranch and the horror film Chain Letter among many others. She spent a generous half hour on the phone filling us in on all the details.

Crave Online: Have you ever been to a 7 day Chinese funeral?

Bai Ling: Actually, before this film, I’ve never heard of or experienced it before. It’s something really new for me to learn, to re-educate by the film’s funeral. It’s very new, it’s very interesting to me and I think it’s a very old tradition that I think we’re not really adopting it anymore right now. But it’s really intriguing for me to know all of this. It kind of makes you wonder and think and value the person that used to be alive with you. I think that’s very interesting for me to learn that.

Crave Online: I thought so too. Is it something they still do?

Bai Ling: I don't think so. I think in old generation, but if I don’t know it, there’s probably not a lot of people following that. I think that’s too many days for people to handle. I think sometimes, it’s better to celebrate and to be happy. Sometimes tradition doesn’t do anything and people are there for the sake of doing it sometimes which is unfortunate.

Crave Online: How important is it to have an all Chinese cast playing Chinese characters?

Bai Ling: Actually, to me they are not Chinese except for me and the older man. We’re Chinese. The rest of them, to me, are totally American. They’re like alien to me. Like I come here, I have both cultures but they are really American to me, so basically I feel like it’s sort of an American movie dealing with the Chinese. But I think ultimately, this move is a story about relationships. Relationships are complicated. It’s like what makes the world. I think relationships, sometimes there’s a glass wall so you cannot see it, you cannot talk about it, you cannot say it but it’s there. So it’s something in our relationship, in our life we’ll experience. It’s something you wish the other person would do or say or you would do or say but you never cross that line to say or do it because there’s certain boundaries of what you believe you can do. I think the good thing is through the film, you learn so much about how much you can overcome your own fear, how much more your heart can be bigger than you realize and how much more you can really cross the boundary of fear and gain so much more. Also, I learned English word by word. Give and forgive are really two words to remember. In any relationship, work relationship, personal relationship, I think this film displays something beautiful about how you learn about people, how you can take extra steps to cross those boundaries to be closer, to make the world beautiful, more beautiful and start from your own heart, your own relationship.

Crave Online: What did you bring to your character on top of what was in the script?

Bai Ling: I think basically the script is just words. I bring life to it. I think there’s a lot of elements of modernness, craziness and unique youthfulness and sexiness, all this modern young girl element to this rather traditional piece about family values and relationships. I think for me also she’s a lesbian. For me it’s really fun and I think a part of me, I really appreciate women and I appreciate the fondness within the strict system. Like I came from mainland China in the army. I’m used to all of these rules and laws limiting me, but how can you emerge and smile, still dance in that beautiful free spirit within those limits. So I think she demonstrated or shows how you can fit in, like youth and contemporary young people in those families. You still can be there, can learn, can influence them, can teach. I think that’s something for me, I think will bring a lot of young audiences to see the movie and eventually they’ll learn about old traditions.

Crave Online: How would you describe your fashion?

Bai Ling: I think for me it’s like I’m very free. I’m not limited. I’m not a slave to any of the designers or labels because I came from a free spirit and have no label, no names in me. I just feel like I have this little spirit I discovered. One of the girls, she’s just crazy, very hip, very crazy, very edgy in her own world and she has fantastic taste of style and color and spirit behind her, so I just went with her. I went to the room and saw the colors and just decided, without even taking much time and thought. I think spontaneous in the contemporary use of the word is like people go for their feelings and not too much thought according to other people’s opinion. I think in the red carpet, everybody knows Dolce Gabbana, Gucci, all these beautiful designers. They’re beautiful, fantastic designers but where are you. I think in the contemporary world, it’s more important to show your unique quality of how you portray and show yourself in front of other people or on the red carpet, on screen because that shows the individuality that nature gave to us.

Crave Online: Was the costumer on the set of Dim Sum Funeral like that also?

Bai Ling: Yeah, he was very open. Probably he saw a lot of my pictures and plus, this film and role is very modern. It’s sort of like myself, so according to that he got a lot of stuff very close to my taste. Still then, sometimes, I show my stomach in the funeral, people are chatting. Anna, the director, asked me to change to wear long pants, not a short skirt. So that happened a few times which I understand. She didn’t want me to stand out too much to overshadow other actors, which I understand because it’s loud colors, sexy colors and sexy style, and there’s this energy. Even right now, I’m talking to you, I feel this laughter and smiling but she doesn’t want to take away the serious tradition and value of relationships she’s dealing in the film.

Crave Online: What is it like when your family gets together?

Bai Ling: Actually, my family’s very interesting because my mother is a professor and teaches comparative literature. She’s very free, she’s so intelligent yet she’s like a kid. She speaks her mind and very innocent and people love her. She’s the center of attention at the party. Friends just love her. She brings this happiness, laughter to everybody’s soul and life. My father’s a very gentle, very quiet, very content character. He’s very comfortable wherever he is in his own world and he’s very gentle. He looks like this old Hollywood glamorous movie star look, back in time, very elegant, very gentle, very romantic. I think I have both. I have his soul of being very romantic and gentle, kind of demure, kind of shy about elegance. Also I have my mother’s intelligence, craziness and humor. When we get together, of course my mother’s role in the family is have all the fun, whatever you want to do but my father is the ground of the party, of the family so it makes you feel at home and very comfortable.