Havana Rose Liu Is Taking Life as It Comes (2025)

Havana Rose Liu got discovered like any NYU student might—by getting flagged down by a casting director in Washington Square Park. Little acting gigs followed. “At first, I was like, ‘This is fun and stupid and silly,’” Liu, who graduated in 2019, remembers of her early moments on sets. “It’s 3:00 a.m., and I’m being a background player in a scene in the Upper East Side in a fancy restaurant. I was like, ‘What is happening? My life is so weird and adventurous right now.’ Then it just kept blossoming.”

Because of this serendipitous beginning, and a lack of formal training, the 25-year-old Brooklyn native hasn’t always felt comfortable in her profession. “I felt a ton of impostor syndrome,” she says. “The first two years that I was working, none of my projects had come out yet. So I just sat on this egg of worry that they were all going to come out and the truth was going to be that I was actually horrible at this.”

But the truth is out—and the reviews are good. The positive responses to her performances (particularly in Bottoms, where she plays Ayo Edebiri’s crush Isabel) helped her overcome those feelings of self-doubt: “I’m quite hard on myself in general,” Liu says, “but I have a little bit more solidity now.” She’s also realized that it’s okay to learn as you go: “I feel like I’m evolving as an actor. It’s made me feel at least a little bit more confident in being imperfect versus feeling like I had to be amazing right from the get-go,” she explains. “My favorite actors that I look up to in some way are, I think, always doing some of the same. So it made me feel okay being in process.”

Her path once looked very different: In college, she was studying the intersection of art with activism and wellness and “didn’t touch acting with a 10-foot pole,” she says. But since that fateful day in the park, she’s gone on to star in several films, every role bolstering her confidence further. “I’m constantly learning and very hungry for knowledge,” she says. She keeps what she calls “a Ratatouille mindset,” she adds. Meaning, “If anyone can cook, anyone can act.”

Up next, she’ll star in the horror film They Listen, written and directed by Chris Weitz and costarring John Cho. The film’s genre proved to be a fun challenge: “I’m an anxious and nervous person. So horror is a really fun, cathartic way to be scared in an environment where that’s useful,” she adds. She’s also recently wrapped production for Hal & Harper, an upcoming indie TV series from Cooper Raiff starring Mark Ruffalo and Lili Reinhart; and Lurker, a thriller from Alex Russell, whose writing credits include The Bear and Beef. “It just feels like a very abundant time,” Liu says, with the type of wholesome energy you’d expect from a Libra sun with a Virgo moon and Sagittarius rising. “I feel full of gratitude. There are a lot of fertile fruit trees around right now.”

Because she’s had such a great experience with her career thus far, there’s also a part of her that’s bracing for the eventual comedown. “I now keep waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she says. “This has been such an incredibly beautiful high moment of my life that I will never forget, and, also, now I’m like, ‘It’s only downhill from here.’”

But, in true Liu fashion, she’s remaining open to the sweetness of life’s possibilities. “There are always new adventures to have. There’s something about feeling the bliss of how much I loved all the people on Bottoms and how it ended up creating a big community of love in the world. I think it’s just a tender moment, so I’m just appreciating and feeling very grateful for it as it’s here. I’m excited to see what’s to come. And hopefully, it’s not a shoe dropping.”

Hair by Anton Alexander for Kérastase; makeup by Grace Ahn at Day One; manicures by Merrick Fisher and Naoko Saita at Opus Beauty; produced by Production Partners; photographed on location at The Hollywood Roosevelt.

This article appears in the June/July 2024 issue of ELLE.

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