Not only is she taking charge on-screen alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton in her new The Protégé film now in theaters, but Maggie Q is also taking charge in the business world today as a tenacious entrepreneur and business owner.
The 42-year-old actress holds her own as an effective contract killer on the big screen beside Hollywood heavyweights Jackson and Keaton, on-set interactions Maggie Q fondly remembers.
“It really was everything I hoped it could be,” Maggie Q reveals to me at Forbes. “You never know what you’re going to get. Everybody’s personalities are different. Everyone’s entitled to go about the things the way they do. I had such nice friendships with these men. We were very collaborative together. They were very generous with their time and energy. I think everybody really was centrally focused on what was best for the film. It sounds like that should always be the case, but it’s not, so this was really nice.”
Formerly a successful model and actress starting out in Asia, Maggie Q has had a steady rise in Hollywood, including notable performances in Mission: Impossible III, The Divergent Series and working alongside Kiefer Sutherland on the hit television series Designated Survivor. Now having much experience working in entertainment industries across the world, Maggie Q has noticed a major difference between how Asia’s film industry is run compared to Hollywood.
“First of all, there are no unions there [in Asia]. There’s none of the creature comforts that you have in Hollywood, right? So I got to Hollywood and I was like Wait, I am allowed to have all these things? This is crazy! We didn’t have trailers. They might put a stool out for you if you asked. Besides sort of that surface stuff, what you want to start off with is a fully realized script that you can really sink your teeth into and do a lot of work in and over there, we never had that. They start movies without a script, which is not even logical but they did it. It was bizarre and it was nice to get back to the states and be in Hollywood and have a structure where you could actually make things possible within the structure. It was very safe and comfortable.”
As Maggie Q continues getting these leading roles in film and television, she also has noticed her approach to contract negotiations evolving. “Well it does change and it can obviously only change with time, experience and having something to offer, right? So I need to be continually optimizing so that my worth is raised. That’s kind of how I look at things. I’m an entrepreneur and a business owner. I have three businesses and so for me, that’s kind of how I approach movies, as well. I have a very business mind.”
While juggling her major Hollywood projects in the works, Maggie Q continues to make time for her ownership in a variety of international businesses. “I have a technologies company actually in Asia that brings like social over to that side of the world for western talent, I have a supplement company called ActivatedYou that focuses on gut health and then I have a sustainable activewear company called Qeep Up.
Now starring in major studio action films and making solid business moves all the while, Maggie Q is not one to mess with, on or off-screen. When I asked her what advice she would give to her former self after everything she has experienced up to now, she responds with a laugh, “I would tell her buckle up!”
