Kelly Hu alias Dr. Julia Hoffman

[Uncle Roger]

I met Kelly Hu, who played Julia on the 2004 WB pilot, at the Super Mega Show convention in New Jersey. What a nice, classy lady. She was a bit taken aback when I mentioned the pilot and was quite surprised that I had seen it. She enjoyed doing the part very much but felt the project didn't get a fair chance. She had no pictures from it though. Because the project was never finished, there was no need to shoot publicity photos for it.

Kelly was an odd but interesting choice to play Julia. She's primarily known as Mariko, the girl with the Edward Scissorhands manicure, in the X-Men movies.

She's just the kind of guest you want to meet at an autograph show--friendly, humble, witty and accessible. If does another show in your area, go meet her. You won't be disappointed.

[Gothick]

Kelly Hu barely registered as Julia in my one viewing of the pilot because the character really had very little to do.  As it was, they crammed far too much story (IMO) into a 40 minute snippet--to me, one of the downfalls of the pilot.  That, and the ending, but I'll save the rant because I know there are some who I respect and am very fond of here who thought the ending was the bees' knees.

Julia is on hand for a couple of scenes and had, if I'm recalling correctly, maybe three or four lines?  Kelly really may not recall much about it.  Presumably she would have been told about the plans for Julia to become a major character and at least some of what was planned for Julia in this iteration.  It would be been interesting to see her take on the character.  But, alas...

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There were a few publicity shots of Kelly Hu from the pilot that dealt with Julia examining bodies and such, but I only recall there being the one character shot of her that's published in KLS' latest DS book. It's too bad that she doesn't have copies of it to offer fans - but then I suppose there wouldn't be many asking for one considering that so few people have actually seen the pilot. 

As for how much she was in the pilot, I honestly don't recall because it's been years since I've seen it (though I don't seem to recall there being much), but there was more of Julia in the script. But then, there's pretty much more of everyone in the script than what appears in the pilot as it ended up. (And, gee, where have we recently experienced something like that?    But then it's nearly always the nature of the business that more is written than ends up being used...)

As for the ending, well, what can you say? But some judicious editing could have easily made it quite effective. Though quite interestingly the way the ending plays in the pilot is different from the way the script intended it to play. A touch that in all probability can be traced directly back to P.J. Hogan directing and deciding to change things.

[michael c]

i've only seen the pilot once at a fest.

it was one of the later presentations of the day and my memory of it is a bit foggy. however if i recall my assessment of it at the time was that it showed some promise, was visually interesting, and had some good casting. in her tiny bit of screentime jessica chastaine left an impression...

however there were two pieces of casting that were to me just wrong: blair brown as elizabeth and kelly hu as julia. they struck completely off notes to me.

and i too thought the ending was really dumb.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

This is how the end was scripted to be:

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT

Victoria drives, headlights burning through the darkness, her face hard with, determination. As she makes a turn, she suddenly hears a weird, ethereal VOICE.

ANGELIQUE (O.S.)
Stay away from him.

Victoria looks around, confused, not sure what she heard.

ANGELIQUE (O.S.) (CONT'D)
He'll never love you...

Suddenly, a drenching DOWNPOUR explodes from the sky. Startled, Victoria fumbles for the wiper switch, looking back up as the wipers take their first swipe, revealing

ANGELIQUE,

standing in the road directly ahead of Victoria's car! Victoria JAMS ON THE BRAKES, but it's too late. An instant before they collide, Angelique's face subliminally dissolves into a leering, skeletal

DEATH'S HEAD,

then WHAM! They hit! Angelique's body folds over the hood, head SMASHING face-first into the windshield as Victoria loses control. The car fishtails, sliding off the road and

SLAMMING HEAD-ON

into a tree. Dazed and bleeding, Victoria woozily pulls herself up, staring in horror at ANGELIQUE'S CRUSHED BODY, sprawled on the hood, gaping at Victoria through lifeless eyes. As Victoria begins to falter from her injury,

ANGELIQUE'S HEAD SUDDENLY TURNS,

bones CRUNCHING from the effort. Her face is a mask of blood.

ANGELIQUE (CONT'D)
He's mine.

Victoria's eyes roll back and she passes out. OFF this moment of horror...

FADE OUT.

END OF EPISODE.

[Gothick]

Thanks for that excerpt, MB. I have to say that that certainly reads as if it would have played much, much better than what I recall of the train-wreck that was the ending I remember seeing,  Like michael, the memories are vague, but I do recall my reaction to the ending as being:  "What th' HELL?"

I still find the scripted ending to be over the top, but it just could have worked with the right handling.

I thought Brown had potential as Liz.  They really, really needed to do a re-take of the scene where she welcomes Vicki to Collinwood, however.  Everything about the scene as it exists is off-key.

Again, Hu didn't make enough of an impression for me to know how she would have played Julia.  To me, Julia by definition has to have an edge.  I've not seen Kelly Hu's other work to know if she can convey that kind of edge.

In the clips I have seen from the Burton/Depp film, HBC did have an edge, but as I wrote to another fan who solicited my opinion, it was more Shelley Winters than Grayson Hall.

salutations, G.