Fashion
Stephanie Hsu Loves a Cold Plunge Any Time
“Even if it’s January,” the star of the new TV series “Laid” said, “I will find the fire in me to do it.”
Stephanie Hsu was waiting for the universe to give her a sign.
She’d already been hooked by the premise of “Laid” — in which Ruby, a millennial party planner, discovers that all of her exes are dying and must track them down — after Nahnatchka Khan, one of the television show’s creators, pitched it to her.
Then the writers’ strike happened and Hsu, an Academy Award nominee in 2023 for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” started to waver. That is, until she crossed paths with the comedian Ali Wong, who worked with Khan on the sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat,” and asked her what she thought.
“Ali just stopped in her tracks,” Hsu recalled, “and was like, ‘She’s one of my favorite people. I would recommend anyone to work with her if they got the opportunity to do so.’”
That was sign enough.
In a video call from her home outside Los Angeles, Hsu talked about a few things she feels firmly about, like New York City, white rice and Adrienne Maree Brown’s book “Emergent Strategy.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Asian Food
When I’m traveling and in a place that isn’t particularly well-known for their Asian food, I really crave it. I had a period where I was uber-healthy, and I swore off white rice. And then the pandemic happened, and I was like, what fool am I? My ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years have been eating white rice. This is not a poison food.
Farmers’ Markets
I worked on a farm when I was in college, and it changed my life. It taught me the lessons of abundance outside of monetary value — the amount of labor it takes to grow a radish, and the deep care taken by farmers who are trying to go against the system and farm in healing, regenerative ways.
