Entertainment
Natasha Liu Bordizzo On Playing A 'Hip '70s Girl' In 'Day Shift'
The actress also talks about getting scouted for modeling and landing her very first audition.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo didn’t intend to be an actress. The 27-year-old was a law school student in Sydney, Australia, on a “very different path,” as she puts it, before a modeling agency scouted her. Bordizzo initially turned down their offer, but then they came back with a different idea. “The same agent who scouted me for modeling was like, ‘Are you interested in acting?” Bordizzo explains over Zoom. “And I said, ‘potentially.’”
Fast forward a few years and Bordizzo’s chance encounter led to a lead role in Day Shift — a new Netflix Original following a struggling father who uses his pool cleaning business as a front for a much more lucrative career: murdering vampires for money. Day Shift premiered on August 12th and is already the streamer’s #1 movie worldwide.
Bordizzo — who seamlessly holds her own in the film, acting alongside Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, and Dave Franco — is a natural talent, and it didn’t take long for the actress to find her place in Hollywood. She landed her debut role as Snow Vase in Netflix’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2, in 2016, with no prior experience or formal training. “It was my first audition and I booked it,” she says with a grin. Three years later she played Helena in another Netflix Original, The Society. Soon, Bordizzo will also play Sabine Wren in AHSOKA for Disney+.
Now with a bit more experience under her belt, Bordizzo’s exploring more complex characters, like her role as Heather in Day Shift. “I play the neighbor of Jamie’s character who he meets, and I’m like [a] very ‘70s, hip girl with my salt lamps in my apartment.”
“I’m just a nice lady that he chats to every now and then,” she continues, “Then I become something unexpected and have to explain that even though I am something unexpected (I’m sure you can all guess), I am still working for the good side. And I work with Jamie and David to take down the evil side.”
Ahead of the premiere of Day Shift, Bordizzo took the NYLON-19 and revealed her astrological sign, the reality show she wants to be on, and the bad habit that she’s been meaning to fix.
1. What’s your astrological sign (and do you believe in it)?
I'm a Virgo sun with an Aries moon and a Sagittarius rising, if you'd like to know. And I do believe in it. I am all those things to a T.
2. Do you believe in ghosts, (and have you ever seen one)?
I guess it depends on the definition of ghosts, because I feel like it varies these days. I believe in the spirit world for sure. I've never seen one, because I don't necessarily believe they're visual, but yeah.
3. What’s your go-to drink order? (And if it's boozy, what’s your go-to hangover cure?)
Oat milk cappuccino is my go-to drink order. If I was to have alcohol, my hangover cure would be avocado on bread with eggs. A classic Australian meal.
4. Who would be the three headliners of the music festival of your dreams?
Oh my God, that's so hard. I think I'm going to say three completely different people. J Cole, Hans Zimmer, and this band I've been listening to recently that I'm obsessed with, called Oklou.
4. Describe your worst date in three words.
Performative, inauthentic, cringe.
5. What was the last DM you received?
It's probably someone being excited about the role I'm playing right now because the fans are really excited and they're very sweet.
6. If you could be in any music video, what would it be?
I'd probably be in a music video by this group called The Blaze. They have amazing music videos. My favorite by them is called “Queens.” They're like these mini-short films ,and I'm obsessed with them. I don't actually listen to their music very much, I'm more obsessed with their music videos. You should check one out.
7. What was your first concert?
My first concert was The Fray. When I was 14, [or] 15.
8. What were you memories of it?
My friend and I went, and we were bawling in the front row. At that age, we would watch a lot of fan ship videos on YouTube where our favorite characters, they would put them with music from The Fray. So we were just bawling, hysteria.
9. What was your favorite movie as a kid?
When I was younger, it would've been the horse movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
10. What's your go-to breakup song?
There's this album called “Songs To Break Up To: by Taku, and it's just this very cinematic. [There’s] kind of a lot of instrumentals, but each song is like called, “I Miss You.” And then it's like, “I Miss You More,” “We Were In Love,” all that. And it's so moody. I went through a breakup and that album was really well-timed. Do you know “After Hours” by The Weeknd? Yeah. I don't know if that's a breakup song, but I did listen to that a lot. I love that song.
11. What is your favorite red carpet look of all time worn by someone else?
Probably just everything that Zoë Kravitz wears.
12. What piece of clothing from high school do you wish you kept?
All my flair jeans.
13. What reality show would you most like to appear on?
I'd probably just want to be on Survivor.
14. What is your favorite fast food place, and what’s your order?
Definitely a burger of some sort. There's actually a place in Australia called Oporto, and there's a burger called the Bondi burger. It's like Portuguese grilled chicken and this special hot mayo sauce.
15. What is your favorite pair of shoes that you own, and why?
This pair of boots that Chanel gave me because they're so comfortable and really cool. And I can just wear them and make any outfit cool.
16. What's your favorite meme/internet joke and why?
Probably the guy sitting in a room with stuff on fire around him.
17. What's a bad habit of yours that you've been meaning to fix?
I don't know, sitting in dog parks without a dog and staring at everyone's dogs every day, like a creep.
18. What was the last internet rabbit hole you went down?
I was researching the timeline of things that happened in Star Wars on Wookieepedia, and I was researching the order that certain battles had happened.
19. What is one thing everyone should buy that is under $10?
A really good pen.
This article was originally published on
