Havana Rose Liu on Her Surreal Cannes Debut: “I Fully Vacated the Premises of My Body”
The actor discusses the premiere of Her Private Hell, working with director Nicolas Winding Refn, and the advice Charles Melton gave her.
Havana Rose Liu wore red to Cannes for a reason. On Monday, May 18, the 28-year-old actor embraced full glamour in a custom blood-red Balenciaga silk chiffon gown with a dramatic drape and a wavy pinned-up bob. It was her first time at the festival, for the premiere of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell, and to calm her nerves, she reached for the color that always grounds her.
“We were deciding between a red dress and a black one, and I was honestly terrified of the red look because it just felt so attention-grabbing. But red is really important to me. I always have a bit of red on, no matter what,” Liu told W the next day while rushing through the Nice airport.
The tradition traces back to her childhood and Chinese heritage. “It was always symbolically important in my household. Most people in my life wear something, even just a red string,” she explained. “I started to get more superstitious as life started to feel bigger and bolder, and it feels like a tiny tether to myself. When there’s no control at all, it’s a way of rooting myself in some sort of ritual.”
Still, committing to the gown took some convincing. “I asked too many people in my life [which dress to wear],” she said. “I was feeling really, really scared of it. But everyone was like, ‘Wear the red dress. Just do it. It’s Cannes, baby!’”
“We were thinking about the glam as: how do we take this old Hollywood feeling and modernize it? Also, I've been dying to try a bob.”
That included her co-star Charles Melton, who had previously attended the festival for 2023’s May December. Unlike fellow Cannes first-timers Sophie Thatcher, Kristine Froseth, and Diego Calva, Melton knew exactly what to expect. “Charles feels like an older brother to me,” Liu said. “Or maybe I'm the older sister. But he was very comforting to all of us, giving us advice about how it would all go down at the premiere.” When it came to the dress, he told her to “go big or go home.”
It’s a fitting mantra for Liu, whose ascent has had its own instinctive ‘just do it’ quality. The New Yorker was discovered in Washington Square Park while attending NYU, signed to IMG, and soon landed the cover of Vogue Italia. Since then, she’s built an impressive indie résumé with films like Bottoms, Lurker, No Exit, and the upcoming Tuner, opposite Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman.
“Red is such a vibrant, bold, and protective color,” Liu said. “When I need to muster up those feelings, red is where I go. Because it’s a safe place, but also unsafe.”
Diego Calva, Kristine Froseth, Charles Melton, Nicolas Winding Refn, Sophie Thatcher, and Havana Rose Liu at the Her Private Hell premiere.
In Her Private Hell, Liu plays an actor being stalked by a serial killer played by Melton. The surrealist thriller marks Refn’s first feature since 2016’s The Neon Demon. “He reminded me of the deep and undying value of just being a true and unique artist,” Liu said of working with the Danish director. “We're in this time where IP is being repeated. We're really trying so hard to make things that people will go to see. I also love those movies, but there's this other area of filmmaking that I hope never constricts.”
It’s a sentiment that seemed to resonate at the premiere, where the film received one of the festival’s marathon standing ovations. Whether it lasted seven or 12 minutes depends on who you ask, but to Liu it felt like “a thousand years. I fully vacated the premises of my body. I’ll have to watch videos of the evening to see what I was saying, if my eyes were closed. It was like an illusion—crazy.”
Liu grabbing a bite before the big night, which she described as “the most surreal and dramatic experience ever.”
Liu and Her Private Hell co-star Kristine Froseth.
Liu is the first to admit that she still isn’t fully comfortable with the spotlight. “Going into it, I was very intimidated by the whole thing,” she said. “It’s the most dramatic, celebratory landscape for film—so lavish, sparkly, and amazing. I initially had this desire to hide. But all my friends and family told me, ‘You have to step into your light and try to just enjoy it. Go all the way, and meet it where it asks you to meet it.’”
Next up is the New York premiere of Tuner, in which Liu portrays a young woman who plays the piano in order to connect with her late grandmother. The role carries personal significance for the actor, who dedicated the performance to her paternal grandmother. To prepare for the whirlwind ahead, she plans to return to familiar rituals.
“I usually walk the Brooklyn Bridge if I’m feeling out of sorts,” Liu said. “The idea of opposite action has been really heavy on my mind: when you feel like shrinking or hiding, step out, that sort of thing. Even though my desire is to hide in my house and sleep under the covers for three years, I'll be going on my walk, maybe doing a bit of meditation, and then going to my next premiere.”
