Havana Rose Liu reveals the moving way 'Tuner' honors her grandmothers

NEW YORK – Growing up, Havana Rose Liu learned to never talk to strangers.

But that changed as a student at New York University, where she was mulling a career in arts therapy or alternative wellness. One day, Liu was stopped by a modeling scout while walking through Washington Square Park, although she promptly turned the agent down.

"I was like, ‘Am I going to get murdered?' " Liu, 28, recalls with an exasperated grin. "I ran into her multiple times, so over time, we built a trust and I softened to the idea. But initially, I was like, ‘Absolutely not! I'm not following you into your basement. My parents told me about people like you!' "

That chance encounter quickly led to fashion spreads, background work, and eventually, a burgeoning film career, with scene-stealing turns in the Ayo Edebiri comedy "Bottoms," psychological thriller "Lurker" and holiday movie "Oh. What. Fun." opposite Michelle Pffeifer.

Her latest is the white-knuckled crime drama "Tuner" (now in theaters nationwide), which follows a gifted, hearing-impaired piano tuner named Niki (Leo Woodall), who unlocks a gift for safecracking. Dustin Hoffman co-stars as his mentor, Harry, while Liu plays Niki's love interest, Ruthie, a fiercely dedicated pianist who is still grieving the death of her beloved grandmother.

For Havana Rose Liu, piano thriller 'Tuner' is 'my grandmothers' movie'

For Liu, "Tuner" is very much a tribute to her paternal Chinese grandma, Jane, whose American name was Rose. (She was named for her grandmother, as well as the Cuban jazz club where her parents had their first date.) Many of Liu's fondest childhood memories are of singing Frank Sinatra and "The Phantom of the Opera" around the house with Jane, who died just before "Tuner" started filming.

"After she passed, I was struggling to figure out how to connect to my work anymore," Liu says. "I felt a little lost, and then this project came in and saved me. It reminded me that filmmaking can be a place to put all of that life."

Coincidentally, "Tuner" also has a spiritual connection to her maternal grandmother, Irene, a self-published poet.

"When I rewatched the film the other day, I saw that Dustin's fake birthday, Aug. 8, is also her birthday," Liu says. "I was like, ‘Look at this! It's my grandmothers' movie!' "

As a kid born and raised in Brooklyn, Liu's grandmas were "the most active cheerleaders I had in my life," she says. "They both worried for me in the creative field because they also had those aspirations for themselves and found it tough. But on some level, it felt like there was an intergenerational baton that was passed onto me, of all the artistry they didn't get to live out to the fullest extent that they should have."

To believably play an aspiring composer in "Tuner," Liu trained for two months straight and learned five concert piano pieces. "Even when I was talking to a friend, I'd be doing scales," she recalls.

At her parents' urging, she took piano lessons until middle school, although "it's not like riding a bike" and most of that early practice hadn't stuck 20 years on.

Back then, "it was very much, ‘This is something you should do,' " Liu says. "They hoped it would teach me discipline and ritual, but what it taught me was amazing social skills. I would just talk to my piano teachers because I didn't want to play!"

The 'Bottoms' breakout is working with Nick Jonas, Jesse Eisenberg next

Liu is extremely curious by nature, and relishes the challenge of mastering a new skill for a film. To portray a cheerleader in "Bottoms," she fondly remembers practicing flips and jumps along with co-star Nicholas Galitzine, and she also learned to speak Cantonese for an upcoming project.

She writes music in her spare time as a therapeutic exercise, although she has no intention of releasing it any time soon: "Everything's too soft-baked. It's not ready to eat!"

Coming up, she's co-starring in boy-band dramedy "Power Ballad" with Nick Jonas (in theaters June 5) and the neon-drenched thriller "Her Private Hell" (July 24). Further out, she appears in a still-untitled musical comedy from Jesse Eisenberg, as well as a video-game adaptation of "Elden Ring."

Liu is sworn to secrecy about the latter fantasy epic, joking that a publicist will blow dart us from across the room for saying too much. ("We'd all be dead now!")

The up-and-comer enjoys meditation and pottery in her downtime, and she's eager to start creating furniture of her own, too. "I would love to make everything in my house," Liu says. "I just love the idea of eating out of bowls that I made, or having things made by family and friends. Maybe I'm overly sentimental."

Most of all, she wants to continue surprising herself with what she does next. In "Tuner," there's a moment where Niki asks Ruthie to imagine how she'd feel if she woke up tomorrow and could no longer play music. Liu says that she used to feel "very peaceful" about the prospect of one day giving up acting, given that she has so many other interests and passions to potentially fall back on.

"But more and more, I've felt that it's my way to play out so many lives, and have all those different careers and loves and friendships and stories," Liu says. "On some level, I would experience some pretty major grief if I couldn't do this anymore. I would live much less life."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Havana Rose Liu reveals the moving way 'Tuner' honors her grandmothers

Reporting by Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 11:15 AM.