Josie Ho: Hong Kong icon

Despite only being in her early forties, it seems like Josie Ho has lived many lives. Clearly brimming with joie de vivre — she’s a fast talker and loves to laugh — she’s driven by curiosity and an eagerness to learn and create across various fields, even if she has had some stumbles along the way. As the daughter of a Macau casino mogul, she’s has been rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous since before she could walk. Despite resistance from her conservative father, she trained for Canto Pop success throughout her adolescence but ultimately rejected the restrictions of that world in favour of greater freedom and creative control in her work. 

Over the course of ten years, after many years collaborating with some of the most illustrious names in Hong Kong’s musical underground, she’s honed a reputation as an outspoken female musician with her indie rock band Josie Ho & The Uni Boys. A prolific actor, she has almost 60 film credits to her name, including spiritual crime drama The Drummer, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. She’s considered a taste-maker in her native Hong Kong; designing her own handbag line, Matahari Bags, and recently curated an exhibition of Pattie Boyd’s photography, bringing these works to Hong Kong for the first time. She’s also had crossover success in the West: most notably with 2011’s Contagion, a pandemic drama which, for obvious reasons, has experienced a renewed relevance in recent weeks. 

HUNGER sat down with the multi-hyphenate to discuss her high society childhood, musical beginnings in Canto Pop and becoming an unwitting lesbian icon in the vein of other straight actors like Cate Blanchett. 

When did you first get into music and acting?

I had a lonely childhood but then as I grew into my teenage years my sister became friends with all these big celebrities in Asia and I got to hang out with them. I was very young, 12 or 13, but I would go with them on set and to their concert rehearsals. I knew I really wanted to get into show business so I asked them lots of questions and they taught me a lot of tricks.

That’s convenient, for sure! So, what were the main tips they gave you for making it in show business?

Just to be very humble, super nice and willing to try anything. It’s really mostly behavioural stuff: don’t be picky, don’t criticise people and have good manners. Oh, and when you’re on set don’t sit in your trailer and play your video game all night, talk to and eat with the rest of the cast and crew. 

I know you started out in Canto Pop, what was that like?

I was not the best pop singer, not the worst, but not the best. I had a lot of attitude when performing but my record company basically told me to quit all that and just wear a white t-shirt and not fucking move at all on stage. Then, one time I went off-pitch when singing live at a big venue and after that, I was told that I had no potential and would have to lipsync for the rest of my life. Singing had been my passion since I was 11, so that put me into a very deep depression.

After that phase of your life, you earned respect in indie music. How did that come about?

I’m still in the stage of experimenting with a lot of different styles of music but indie and rock were my first experiments and the ones I really dug deep into. I was mentored by the members of a band called Lazy Mutha Fucka, who emerged in the ‘90s kind of as a response to how corporate Cantonese pop music had become.

How has your music career developed since then?

Well, thanks to Lazy Mutha Fucka I jumped to indie music and I’ve officially been in my band, Josie & the Uni Boys, for over ten years now. We do hard rock generally but we’re open to new inspirations and collaborations. We’ve become quite successful but it’s not all up to me, it’s a lot thanks to my amazing band; everyone wants to work with them.

You’re also an actor, how did you breakthrough in the film industry?

I first started to take acting seriously when I was in Tai Tai, a short film about the Hong Kong bourgeoisie. I didn’t expect it but that film showed at Cannes and was up for film festival awards and prizes.

One of your earlier roles was in Taiwanese feature Butterfly, which centres on a lesbian romance and is considered a classic of queer Sinophone film. What kind of impact did it make when it was released?

It showed at Venice Film Festival Critics Week and we were really lucky in that it was well-received. Personally, it’s what got me addicted to doing really great arthouse films. I remember I set my own website up and I was writing responses to every single fan letter I received and so many of them were from lesbians, I felt like a big sister to them. A big LGBT website at the time recognised it as one of their favourite films ever and, more generally, I remember going to Beijing and people coming up to me because they recognised me from this film, even though I never really worked in China.

Alongside your work in front of the camera, you founded your own production company 852 Films with your husband Conroy Chan in 2007. As a film buff, who in the industry inspires you?

Directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, I’ve watched so many of his films, and when it comes to actors, Julianne Moore, Saoirse Ronan, and Chloë Sevigny.

From our conversation, it’s clear that you’re not afraid to switch things up career-wise. What’s your secret to working across so many different fields?

I have this attitude in my work, like; “if you fuck it up, don’t worry, just pick it back up from where you fucked up.” That’s my motto and my way of surviving in this business. It’s given me the courage to test new things and even if I fuck up, I’ll do it all with a smile.

Want to keep up to date with Josie’s whirlwind life? Catch her on Instagram.