SYMPENTREVISTAEDITA
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 If you don't do it, no one else is going to do it for you.
00:03 So you need to do it.
00:04 So that's also like, if you want things to grow,
00:08 you need to help it grow.
00:09 You need to put in the support.
00:11 (gentle music)
00:12 - I see you.
00:13 Fresh off the boat.
00:17 Always smiling like the good Asian.
00:19 What are you concealing?
00:22 - I have something to confess.
00:25 - Confessing secrets is the most exciting thing
00:28 in the world.
00:30 - Ah, sorry.
00:31 Send your fam to about down like that.
00:34 - First of all, I was recently able to watch
00:37 the first episodes and I must tell you that I was surprised
00:40 by the complexity of the characters.
00:43 I think no one is just good or bad.
00:46 Everyone is looking for the best life that they can have.
00:49 So do you remember what your first reaction were
00:54 when you read the script?
00:56 - Yeah.
00:57 I feel like it's so well adapted from the book.
01:03 And there's a lot of things that I remember reading
01:06 from the book that made it into the scripts.
01:08 And I tried to hold onto a lot of those feelings as well.
01:12 And it's interesting you talk about,
01:14 there are no good or bad characters.
01:16 And that's how I feel, especially with these genres of war
01:20 and conflict and struggle and survival is that like,
01:23 a lot of the time we depict war
01:25 as the good people fighting the bad people.
01:28 And this show attempts to just portray the other perspective
01:33 as a human perspective, as a valid perspective,
01:37 as a perspective that we haven't always seen.
01:40 And it's just people struggling and surviving
01:44 the same way that we've always gotten used to
01:47 how this, the Vietnam War has been depicted.
01:50 Yeah.
01:50 - When I first read this script,
01:52 I thought who is going to play the cat?
01:55 (laughing)
01:56 Because it's a tremendous role.
01:57 - I was wondering that as well.
01:58 I was wondering that for ages.
02:00 - It's you.
02:01 Because it's a tremendous role.
02:03 And as you're saying,
02:05 the depiction of someone who is so morally
02:10 and spiritually conflicted
02:12 and to be in almost every single frame,
02:14 it would take a very strong and dedicated actor.
02:20 And that's who we found in "Wa".
02:24 - I tried my best.
02:27 - You did.
02:28 - Yeah.
02:29 - Now over the years,
02:30 we have seen classic movies like "Platoon",
02:33 "Apocalypse Now" or "Full Metal Jacket".
02:35 Movies that I think show us only one perspective
02:39 of the Vietnam War.
02:41 But over the time,
02:42 I think the new generations grow up
02:45 with that single reference.
02:47 And this series seeks to stop that.
02:51 What do you think will be the impact of this series
02:54 on the audience when the premieres come out?
02:57 - Yeah.
02:59 Yeah, it's interesting.
03:01 I like to think of it as adding to perspectives.
03:07 It's not necessarily we're trying to stop
03:09 or change anything.
03:10 We're just adding to the perspectives.
03:12 'Cause everyone's entitled to their perspective
03:15 of their version of what they believe things to be.
03:18 And this is just the perspective that we haven't told before.
03:21 And it's a new perspective.
03:23 It's a perspective-
03:24 - Or a perspective that has always been there.
03:26 - Yeah, sorry.
03:27 - No, no, yeah.
03:28 I realize that when I say that it's new,
03:30 it's only new to the audience.
03:31 - Yeah.
03:32 - But it's actually-
03:33 - It's existed as long as-
03:34 - It is the perspective, by the way.
03:35 - As the stories we've told, right?
03:37 Exactly.
03:39 And yeah, I think the audience will really,
03:44 lap up this journey because a lot of the time
03:46 we think of like spy thrillers and those sorts of genres,
03:50 we think it's just fighting from the other side.
03:53 But I think we're depicting really deep
03:55 of human emotional journeys, connections
03:59 that are so relatable to anybody.
04:02 You don't necessarily have to be growing up
04:04 in this period in time.
04:06 - But I also, if I can interject,
04:07 I also hope that when people watch this,
04:10 they'll just go, "Wait a second, what happened?"
04:12 - Yeah.
04:13 - "What happened?
04:14 I might need to have a little bit more context
04:16 to understand what's going on."
04:17 And then read up on what happened, by the way.
04:20 You know what I mean?
04:21 And then track that with your memory
04:23 or how you know what the Vietnam War is.
04:26 You know, like example, in episode two,
04:30 when the student reporter comes to you-
04:34 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:35 - And says, "Hey, did you see that
04:36 we were supporting you guys?"
04:38 - Yeah.
04:38 - And your character goes, "Well, who?"
04:41 - Yeah, yeah, it's just like,
04:42 "We're fighting on behalf of the Vietnamese people."
04:44 But it's like, you do realise that it's-
04:46 - And then he says, "All of you."
04:47 - Yeah.
04:48 - But there is, or we're two sides.
04:50 - Yeah.
04:51 And it's so simplistic, the way we see this.
04:54 And there's more complexity to conflict, really, yeah.
04:59 - What was the idea you had of working in Hollywood
05:01 in the beginning and after getting there?
05:04 And with the years of experience,
05:07 did you realise, "Oh, that thing is very different?"
05:11 - Ah, so you're actually talking
05:12 about two different perspectives because-
05:14 - Yeah.
05:15 - Well, I was in Hollywood.
05:16 - Yeah, yeah.
05:17 - And this is his introduction to it.
05:18 - This is my experience.
05:20 - Which I think, hopefully, is a good one.
05:22 - It's been a great year.
05:23 - Very good point.
05:24 How is your experience here right now?
05:25 - Yeah, like, I mean, I think I know where you're coming
05:28 from in terms of like, even just watching Hollywood movies
05:31 growing up, it's just like, you know,
05:34 I guess I never really saw people like myself on TV.
05:37 And I've just grown to accept that even if I became an actor,
05:40 that I would just be lucky enough to have my head
05:43 in a scene or something like that.
05:45 And then, yeah, and then obviously a project
05:47 like this comes along and obviously in the last,
05:49 I guess, decade or so, you know,
05:51 we've really seen the attempt to tell more diverse stories.
05:56 And to be given this opportunity and to be presented,
06:03 I don't know, in such a way that, you know,
06:06 these stories do matter and I've been given a platform
06:09 to be able to tell this in such a powerful way.
06:11 It's really great.
06:13 I can't really, like, you know, yeah, like,
06:17 I feel like there's a lot of people before me
06:20 who have struggled as actors to try and be represented.
06:24 And I'm definitely the fortunate recipient
06:27 of the benefit of that, yeah.
06:31 - You know, coming from someone who came here 25 years ago
06:37 with every single hope and dream
06:38 that everyone comes into this town with,
06:41 I guess what I learned was that change is very, very slow.
06:45 You know, so this is 25 years later,
06:47 to be able to sit here and have another generation come
06:51 and be able to speak to you, by the way,
06:54 to have the support of HBO and A24 and Team Downy,
06:58 like, that's the support that I can see
07:01 that the young generation can just walk into
07:04 and be able to embrace and be supported by.
07:08 That's been something great to experience
07:12 and to be in support of as well.
07:14 - But I can also just say, like, yeah, like,
07:18 like from the get-go, like, Sandra has been, you know,
07:21 she's obviously been through the paces
07:24 and journey of Hollywood.
07:25 And from the get-go, since I walked onto this set,
07:28 like, it's people like Sandra
07:30 who've just absolutely supported us.
07:32 You know, you've made, you've spoken up on behalf of things
07:36 that I didn't feel comfortable speaking on behalf of,
07:38 and just little things, you know,
07:40 what does, what are the things that I need,
07:45 and how do I navigate this?
07:47 And so, you know, just-
07:48 - Like, take your lunch.
07:49 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:50 And then, yeah, just, it's been wonderful to see,
07:55 like, people who've worked and have had a lot of experience
07:58 in Hollywood just guide new people to this process.
08:03 - Yeah, if anything also, if you don't do it,
08:08 no one else is going to do it for you.
08:10 So you need to do it.
08:11 So that's also, like, if you want help,
08:13 if you want things to grow, you need to help it grow.
08:16 You need to put in the support.
08:18 (speaking in foreign language)
08:22 (upbeat music)
08:29 (upbeat music)
08:31 (upbeat music)
08:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]