The Simply Stellar Effy Han
Comets and meteors move at incredible speeds in close proximity to us and then disappear, sometimes forever. Stars however, come into our awareness and seem to live on forever. It’s appropriate that this title is also bestowed upon actors who come into high regard with the public and their peers. If you’ve been paying attention to films praised by the community, actress Effy Han has been visible with increasing frequency over the last couple of years. Born and raised in China, Han has proven she has the talent and on-camera magnetism that attracts American filmmakers and audiences alike. In a short period of time, Effy has amassed a number of awards for her performances (such as the Best Actor — New York Award, and a plethora of others) for her roles in comedic, dramatic, Science Fiction, and almost any other type of film you can name. From small budget Art shorts to Feature Films like All Aboard, Han rebukes any hint of typecasting by delivering drastically different yet memorable performances in every production she is a part of.
An overview of Effy’s film work in the past couple of years indicates that she is determined to prove she can appear in any genre with equal authenticity. Her performance as Abby, the hesitant fiancé in We Need to Cancel the Wedding earned her a Best Actor Award and (along with co-star Alessio Mongardi) a Best Acting Duo nomination at the Independent Shorts Awards, among numerous others. This inverse of the status quo Rom-Com, We Need to Cancel the Wedding offered a wide spectrum of emotions as well as the opportunity for some moments of gravitas for the cast. As Dr. Lou in the crime film 5150, Han plays a health professional who has witnessed a psych-ward murder. Overcome by trauma and injected with drugs, Dr. Lou is physically and emotionally in a state that is unstable at best. Effy’s performance is so transformative that she’s almost unrecognizable. In the Science Fiction Infidelity story of Implant, Han is the somewhat duplicitous yet devoted wife in a love triangle which also stars Hayes Beyersdorfer and Constance Parng (of Marvel’s multiple Oscar winning film Black Panther). The film received awards from the Asians on Film Festival; Effy’s embodiment of Emily was recognized as one of the most humanizing facets of the story. Her ability to display both a devotion to her husband and an equal determination to question his loyalty to her is the timeless connective tissue for audiences.
Han appears in JJ Jia’s to-be-released feature film All Aboard. Starring alongside Cici Lau (of Golden Globe winning series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Golden Globe nominated FX series Better Things), Todd Stroik (of Golden Globe nominated series Masters of Sex), and George Stumpf (of Oscar nominated film Hail Caesar), Han rounds out an impressive cast in this serendipitous yet harrowing tale which takes place on a plane. The actress will also star in the television miniseries Caretakers as Hanna Lee. Created by multi-award-wining filmmaker Edward Halstead, Caretakers follows a drug-dealing janitor named Todd and his misadventures. The min-series marks another shift for Han and a return to her comedic strength visible in We Need to Cancel the Wedding. While embracing the unknown and uncomfortable is an attribute for any actor, it’s particularly rooted in Effy’s approach. Born in Changzhi city or Mainland China, she’s tenacious in her goal of blending Eastern and Western cultures through her career. She declares, “I believe Film & TV are the most powerful way to communicate with the majority, for it reaches the mass amount of people in an efficient and cost-effective way. Visual storytelling can portray the very complicated, multilayered, and forever changing nature of humanity while presenting it in a thoughtful structure which gives humankind an opportunity to reflect and learn. Actors are a crucial part of this process as we are the intermediates between ‘a world written on paper’ and ‘a world in reality’. It is a mission for me; one which gives my life meaning to forever live by. This demands that I never give-up or compromise my work as an artist.”
