doing her own stunts. She later said, "I had never done a day of martial arts in my life when I started in the business. I couldn't even touch my toes." In 1998, she started her acting career in the TV drama House of the Dragon, which was a huge hit in Asia. In 2000, she made her film debut as Anna in the horror film Model from Hell, and went on to star as FBI agent Jane Quigley in the action thriller Gen-Y Cops that year. Her appearance in Gen-Y Cops impressed Chan so much that he cast her in his films Manhattan Midnight and Rush Hour 2. In 2002, she starred as martial artist assassin Charlene Ching in the action film Naked Weapon. In 2004 she co-starred with Kelly Hu, Russell Wong and other Asian-American actors in a 30-second PSA produced by Mark Allen for CAUSE USA (Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment), The Least Likely, encouraging Asian and Pacific Islander Americans to register and vote. In 2005, she played Harmony in the German-Singaporean TV mini-series House of Harmony, opposite Fann Wong, and co-produced the animal treatment documentary Earthlings narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. 2006–2013: Hollywood career and Nikita In 2006, Q made her Hollywood breakthrough as co-star in Mission: Impossible III alongside Tom Cruise. She played Zhen, the only female member of the IMF team. In 2007, she appeared as Mai Linh in the Bruce Willis movie Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth film in the Die Hard series, and as Maggie in Balls of Fury. In 2008, she played fictional Cao Ying, a granddaughter of the warlord Cao Cao in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, her first ancient Chinese costume performance. That year, she also appeared in the drama/thriller movie Deception starring Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman, as Tina, an investment banker who introduces Jackman's character to an exclusive anonymous sex club list. She also stars in the video game Need for Speed: Undercover as the seductive lead character, federal agent Chase Linh, the player's only contact to the Tri-City Police. In 2010, Q became the lead character, an assassin gone rogue, on the CW series Nikita, based on the 1990 French film of the same name. Since its premiere, she has been incorrectly described as the first Asian American series lead in an American television drama. (Actress Anna May Wong was the