Saving Face

In the scene at the video store with Joan Chen, a shot of the video for The Last Emperor (1987) appears. Chen starred in that film.

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The screenplay won a CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) screenwriting award in 2001. Alice Wu drew inspiration from her own experiences as a lesbian woman coming out. That win led to the script being produced.

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Teddy Zee, then president of Will Smith's production company Overbrook Entertainment, helped Wu get the opening shot she wanted by allowing Saving Face's camera crew to accompany a helicopter shoot for Will Smith's film Hitch, which was being filmed at the same time.

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In an interview, Michelle Krusiec said the filming of the nude love scene with Lynn Chen took only 20 minutes, but the anxiety leading up to it lasted far longer. She said: "I was pretty nervous, because I wasn't sure what to expect. Both Lynn and I did a good job of keeping things calm and relaxed, but you could feel a hidden wave of nerves. We did a few takes and planned some basic movements, but what you see on screen is quite organic. Between takes we just lay down and rested."

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Lynn Chen said she was afraid to tell her mother about the nude love scene. She had been acting since she was very young, and her mother had always told her "never pose nude!" This was etched into Chen's mind. When she finally told her, her mother was a little scared. Chen's mother did not care that she was having sex with another woman, only that they were naked while doing it.

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Michelle Krusiec, who is heterosexual, said in a 2005 interview that her mother had no problem with her playing a lesbian in the film, but that if she were actually gay her mother would not handle or understand it well, because being gay is one of the biggest taboos in Chinese culture.

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In a 2004 interview, when asked whether any of her family or friends had commented on her on-screen nudity when the film was released, Michelle Krusiec did not say so directly, but said her mother would probably be fine with it because she is quite open about sexuality and sex. In fact, they shared a common interest in the concept of porn. Krusiec said she heard one of her friends say her breasts were perky, and that she agreed with that view.

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The childhood photo of Vivian in Dr. Shing's office is actually a photo of Joan Chen's daughter.

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Awkwafina said she remembered being 16 years old when she first saw the film, and being very moved to see an Asian American character who was a lesbian from Flushing, Queens and rode the number 7 train. She described it as the first film she had seen that represented Asian Americans in familiar, real-life situations.

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