That’s Hu she is!

She looks like Janna Victoria. No, she looks like Anjanette Abayari. No, she looks like a cross between Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Come to think of it, doesn’t she remind you of Nancy Kwan (in her Flower Drum Song days)?

That’s what everybody says about pretty girls – they look like this, they look like that. Kelly Hu is no exception. She looks a bit like all of the showbiz beauties just mentioned – and many others, I guess.

It must be because Kelly is a mix of American, Chinese, Hawaiian and English ancestry, with the Asian part of her more prominent than her American/English part. She even looks very Filipino.

When I sat with her for a 10-minute interview several days ago at a suite in the posh Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills during the press junket for Universal Pictures’ The Scorpion King (released locally by United International Pictures, showing in Metro theaters starting today simultaneously with theaters all over the USA), the first thing I asked Kelly was, "Are you, by any chance, part-Filipino?"

Very charming besides being very beautiful, radiant and bubbly and friendly and forever smiling (I didn’t see her frown during the interview, yes!), Kelly answered with a sweet no, "I am not," adding with palpable amusement in her caressing voice, "But you know what, a lot of people mistake me for a Filipino; they always ask and tell me that I look like a Filipino."

Back in the Philippines, I told her, she could be a beauty queen representing the country in any international contest. Indeed, Kelly is – a former beauty queen, that is. Born Kelly Ann Hu in Honolulu on Feb. 13, 1968, the 5’5"/34-24-34 head-turner was chosen Miss Teen USA in 1985 at age 17. A few years later, she won as Miss Hawaii and competed in the Miss USA Pageant.

"But even before I joined the Miss Teen USA contest," said Kelly, "I was already modeling. I traveled to Japan on a modeling assignment. That was after I graduated from the Kamehameha High School (restricted to youngsters of Hawaiian descent)."

Like in the Philippines a beauty title is one sure ticket to showbiz stardom.

"The titles (Miss Teen USA and Miss Hawaii) gave me not only the chance to travel to the mainland but also enough money for me to later relocate to Los Angeles to pursue my dream of becoming an actress."

She did so first by doing commercials (Vidal Sassoon, Mary Kay Cosmetics and Philadelphia Cream Cheese among them). Soon, TV and film acting jobs followed, including parts in the TV series Growing Pains, Tour of Duty, Melrose Place, Murder One and more than a dozen others. Before The Scorpion King, with no less than The Rock (Dwayne Douglas Johnson) as co-star (as the title role), Kelly appeared in such movies as The Doors, Surf Ninjas, Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man.

She now stars as Chen Pei Pei in the US action TV series Martial Law, with Samo Hung.

In Scorpion King, Kelly plays the beautiful sorceress Cassandra whose visions are followed by the evil leader Memnon (played by movie newcomer Steven Brand) in running the notorious city of Gomorrah. In the story set 5,000 years ago, a strong man named Mathayus (The Rock, yes!) sets out to eliminate the sorceress and deprive Memnon of his most dangerous asset. But, you guessed it, Mathayus doesn’t eliminate Cassandra but falls for her. Together, they bring down the evil Memnon.

For sure, Kelly will win the hearts of movie fans not only with her radiant beauty but also with her expertise in martial arts. No, Kelly isn’t faking it. She’s a black belt in karate. She’s also a ballet dancer, no wonder she moves with such grace onscreen.

Asked why she got interested in martial arts, something rare for such a fragile-looking beauty as she, Kelly broke into her winsome smile, "It’s because of my older, my only brother (she has no sister) who’s fond of martial arts. He’s a captain in the US Army." (Their mother is a drafts-person for the City and County of Honolulu and their father is an exotic-bird feeder.)

How was it working with The Rock (first seen as the villain in the Brendan Fraser starrer Mummy Returns)?

"He’s a wonderful person," said Kelly. "Not at all scary."

In one scene, she’s shown holding a cobra. Wasn’t she scared of the cobra (if she wasn’t of The Rock)?

"Those cobras were real, believe me! If I was scared at all, it doesn’t show in the movie, does it?"

As a parting shot, I told Kelly that she should visit the Philippines, if not to shoot a movie, maybe as a tourist.

"I’m looking forward to that trip," she smiled. "I’m sure I’ll feel right at home in your country."

After all, doesn’t she look like, well, one of us?