Ballard actress Maggie Q learnt from Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise’s work ethic

NEW YORK – More than 20 years ago, Hong Kong cinema legend Jackie Chan saw something in a young model-turned-actress named Maggie Q, and decided to sign her to his management company and train her to become an action star.

Now, the Asian-American performer is back in the spotlight with her first high-profile role in more than five years, headlining Ballard, an acclaimed police procedural series streaming on Prime Video.

And the 46-year-old says witnessing the ferocious work ethic of movie stars such as Chan and her Mission: Impossible III (2006) co-star Tom Cruise continues to shape her professionally today.

A spin-off of the cult Bosch crime shows (2014 to 2025), Ballard – which has a 100 per cent critics’ rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes – follows Renee Ballard (Q), a detective with a chip on her shoulder who takes over the cold case division at the Los Angeles police department.

At a recent screening in New York, Q – whose last major TV roles were the action thriller Nikita (2010 to 2013) and political drama Designated Survivor (2016 to 2019) – says it was an honour to portray a police detective.

The source material for the show, the Renee Ballard crime novels by best-selling American author Michael Connelly, were based on a real 30-year female police veteran whom Q spent time with on set every day.

“And there are so many qualities about her that I don’t possess, but was able to bring to Ballard – because as a detective, there’s a certain amount of not just patience but also fortitude,” says Q, whose full name is Margaret Quigley. Her Vietnamese mother and Irish-Polish American father met during the Vietnam War.

“You have to keep your eye on the prize and it takes years, so you can imagine the dedication. You’re talking about a detective who will spend 10, 15 years just trying to bring one family a modicum of peace after something tragic.”

Q left her home in Honolulu, Hawaii, in her late teens, and moved to Tokyo and Hong Kong to become a model.

She made the leap to acting. Impressed with her turn in Hong Kong action film Gen-Y Cops (2000), Chan gave her bit parts in his American action movies Rush Hour 2 (2001) and Around The World In 80 Days (2004).

“He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen,” says Q of the 71-year-old, who made his mark in Hollywood with the Rush Hour action comedies (1998 to 2007) and voiced Master Monkey in the Kung Fu Panda animated franchise (2008 to 2016).

“I saw him and went, ‘Oh, it takes 1,000 per cent. Not 100 per cent, not 200 per cent. Everything you have.’

“And for my early days, to be able to witness that type of work ethic, I think that cemented something in me, and I’m a hard worker already,” adds the star, who is married to Vietnamese-American former hedge fund manager Curtis Macnguyen, 56.

When she took on her first big role in an American film, playing an intelligence agent in the spy thriller Mission: Impossible III, she experienced the same thing with American actor Cruise, 63.

“Same work ethic, and both very successful people. And I got to see very early on what that took,” says Q, who went on to appear in the Divergent science-fiction film trilogy (2014 to 2016).

With Cruise, she also got her first close-up look at Hollywood megastardom when she shot her scenes with him.

On their first day of filming at the Tiber river in Rome, Italy, “there must have been at least 5,000 people lining the river just to catch a glimpse of him”.

“I was in a boat with him and I remember thinking, ‘My god, the power of a movie star.’ I didn’t know what a movie star was until that film.”