‘Watchmen’ Star Hong Chau Explains Why She Fought for that Fabulous Finale Hat

Watchmen actress Hong Chau was on hand at Amazon’s Winter 2020 TCA presentation in Pasadena today to promote the second season of Prime Video’s Homecoming. Chau is reprising her role from the first season, Audrey Temple, and told the ballroom full of reporters that she looked at “Temple’s journey this season as a coming-of-age as a young professional.”

Chau herself is hot coming off of a tour de force turn in HBO’s Watchmen, where she played the cunning trillionaire Lady Trieu.

**SPOILERS FOR THE WATCHMEN SEASON ONE FINALE AHEAD**

Watchmen ended with Lady Trieu attempting to steal the superpowers of Doctor Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). She claimed she would use them to save the world, but her father, Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons), believed she would ruin the world. He adjusted his own tiny, falling squids to kill her in a grotesque hail storm.

However, the question remains: Was Ozymandias right? Would Lady Trieu be a monster? Or would she have been true to her word.

“I know what I think, but I’m going to keep that a secret because it’s so much more interesting to hear what the audience thinks,” Chau told the scrum. “It’s gone both ways. I actually I am a little bit surprised by how favorable [laughs] Lady Trieu came off.”

Chau continued: “That was a very, very pleasant surprise because I agreed to do the role knowing that she wasn’t…”  — she paused — “…entirely what she seemed on the surface, but I think that it’s a great honor to play a villain on a genre show.”

Even if Chau believes Lady Trieu is a villain, there’s no denying she was a villain with style. One of the best moments in the Watchmen finale came when a newspaper stand worker complimented Lady Trieu on her halo-like hat and she made a “bless your heart” sort of mime to thank him. Decider asked Chau if that little physical movement was scripted.

“I asked Damon [Lindelof] if I could have the hat,” Chau said with a giggle. “And then the costume department like quickly whipped it up! And I showed them the picture of the [ao dai] because it’s a traditional Vietnamese hat. And I was like, ‘You know, because we had established early on that this woman built this vivarium to honor her mother, I feel like that’s an important part of her and so we should try to work that in in the last episode.’ So I’m glad they were amenable to it.”

When another reporter asked Chau what her favorite part of being on the show was, she said, “Gosh, she’s so cutting. I love that. I love somebody who takes no prisoners and who is able to just speak her mind without any fear or self-consciousness. It’s so rare that we get to that; that anybody gets to do that in real life so it was pure joy.”

Watchmen has yet to be renewed for a second season, but Homecoming Season 2 premieres on Prime Video later this spring.

Where to stream Watchmen