--- description: Hong Chau stars alongside Matt Damon in 'Downsizing' and plays a Vietnamese activist turned refugee who is shrunk down to five inches. title: Downsizing's Hong Chau Gets Her Big Break in Miniature image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8e19e69ce323af2/6988e6127cdbac39d6d5ae7e/hong-chau-gets-her-big-break-in-miniature.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Downsizing's Hong Chau Gets Her Big Break in Miniature  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 16, 2017 12:01 PM CUT  Chau’s character may be tiny, but her heart is oversize Chau’s character may be tiny, but her heart is oversizeGeorge Kraychyk—Paramount Pictures  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 16, 2017 12:01 PM CUT Ask a scientist how to address climate change, and they might suggest phasing out fossil fuels. Filmmaker Alexander Payne (_Election_, _Sideways_) had a more creative, if implausible idea: shrink people down to five inches. They’d require fewer resources, but get to live like royals. That’s the conceit of _Downsizing_, which stars Matt Damon as a man who decides to live large by getting small. But it’s his co-star Hong Chau who steals the show. She plays a Vietnamese activist whose altruism stands in stark opposition to the conspicuous consumption of the miniature world. Chau was born in Thailand to Vietnamese parents and raised in New Orleans. She planned on a career behind the camera until, after acting in friends’ films at Boston University, she found a knack for being in front of it. She got her first recurring TV role on the Big Easy–set _Treme_; her first film was Paul Thomas Anderson’s madcap 2014 neo-noir _Inherent Vice_. To play Ngoc Lan Tran, Chau says she drew inspiration from “my parents, the community I grew up in New Orleans, Flannery O’Connor.” As Ngoc Lan’s left leg has been partially amputated, she says, “I basically was learning how to walk again.” But what appealed most was not her limp or her accent–acting skills she sees as “a bit of a party trick”–but the character’s rich inner life. In this case: a God-fearing straight shooter whose difficulties never distract from helping those who suffer even more. Next up, Chau has a project with _Beatriz at Dinne_r director Miguel Arteta, another class-conscious filmmaker. As she reflects on the enduring message of _Downsizing_, she sighs. Science might delay humanity’s downfall, she says. “But science can’t cure apathy.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5027082/hong-chau-gets-big-break-in-miniature/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5027082/hong-chau-gets-big-break-in-miniature/"},"headline":"Downsizing's Hong Chau Gets Her Big Break in Miniature","datePublished":"2017-11-16T12:01:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:16:16.339Z","description":"Hong Chau stars alongside Matt Damon in 'Downsizing' and plays a Vietnamese activist turned refugee who is shrunk down to five inches.","url":"https://time.com/5027082/hong-chau-gets-big-break-in-miniature/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8e19e69ce323af2/6988e6127cdbac39d6d5ae7e/hong-chau-gets-her-big-break-in-miniature.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8e19e69ce323af2/6988e6127cdbac39d6d5ae7e/hong-chau-gets-her-big-break-in-miniature.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chau’s character may be tiny, but her heart is oversize","caption":"Chau’s character may be tiny, but her heart is oversize","creditText":"George Kraychyk—Paramount Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5027082/hong-chau-gets-big-break-in-miniature/","name":"Downsizing's Hong Chau Gets Her Big Break in Miniature"}}]}] ```