Joan Chen: Once a sexy vixen in Hollywood, now seen as a dragon woman

Actress Joan Chen says she has gone from sexy vixen to dragon woman, in the eyes of Hollywood film-makers.

"When I was younger and more beautiful," she says, laughing, "I was the sexy vixen, the object of desire. Then I got older and I was the dragon woman. Evil. They don't want you as a human - they want you as a spice, a colour, an exotic element."

Chen, a China-born actress who broke out internationally in the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor (1987) as Empress Wanrong, is now 51.