Hiep Thi Le

Slender, delicately lovely college student who went to an open casting call in Northern California "because all my friends were doing it for fun" and ended up being cast in the leading role of Oliver Stone's third film set amid the turmoil of the Vietnam War, "Heaven and Earth" (1993). Hiep Thi Le had experience as a "boat person" when she was sent at age 9 to Hong Kong from her village in central Vietnam, not far from where the action of the film, based on Le Ly Hayslip's autobiographical books, is set. Although the film required Le to age over 30 years and cast her opposite a number of accomplished American and Asian actors, the untrained actress received excellent reviews citing her sensitivity and actorly grace as Hayslip. Le subsequently appeared as a prostitute in "Bugis Street" (1995, released in the USA in 1997) and co-starred in the little-seen "Dead Man Can't Dance" (1997).