“It’s about who you know!” You hear this all the time , but if your craft sucks, it doesn’t matter who you know because nobody will care.
I want to scrap that phrase for a second. Yes, the entertainment business is hard to get into, yes, all the top level people are hard to access, but if you keep doing your best work and put it out there, little by little the right people will come along.
ACTING
I trained in acting and got my MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School, I had an agent and a manager, and auditioned for a bunch of CDs (casting directors) who overtime were familiar with my work. The CDs became my life line and sent me to bigger auditions like for The Farewell and Disney’s live action, Mulan, (neither which I got obviously). I always put my best foot forward, but other roles that were available for Asian American women were shit and I was fed up.
WRITING
Around 2017, I learned how to pen episodics which now became my brash comedy, QUEENS and my drama, ANNA WONG. Both series focus on AsAm experiences as I know it to be. I had a lot of ups and downs writing them because there was no Crazy Rich Asians, no #GoldOpen, no To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Doubts creeped into my mind about whether or not the industry would care about AsAm stories. But I trekked on, wrote, got feedback, wrote again, got more feedback until we finally shot QUEENS last year.
Fast forward to earlier this year, in February it seemed like nothing was happening. All the industry contacts my team had to push QUEENS came up empty and we kept getting rejected by film festivals. I cried to my friend and let out my frustrations of wishing successful things would happen to me sooner, hell I even wondered if anything would happen at all. Still, I got my shit together and continuously redrafted ANNA WONG, and now it’s in 2nd round of 2019 Sundance Episodic Lab. I randomly signed up for a pitch competition at the Australian Int’l Screen Forum in NYC for my feature script, 69 BAYARD. I researched how others crafted their pitches and practiced the shit outta mine. After 3 rounds, 69 BAYARD became one of the winners. I still keep in contact with some folks I met there.
It’s about Who You Know
Back to this phrase. Good work begets good work. If you go to a lot of industry related events, genuinely get to know folks and share what you’re up to, you’ll end up finding people you align with. Put THEM on before thinking about how they can put YOU on. And if you have questions, ask them.
In June, I went to an industry event at IFP where one of the panelists is about my age and is a director/writer. We seemed to be on similar paths because she was also writing a feature and getting that made. She’s ahead of me career-wise so I hit her up afterwards for advice and asked her to grab coffee, but she was heading back to LA. When we spoke over the phone, she flipped the conversation on me and asked me what I’d been up to. At this point, QUEENS premiered in LA and won Best TV Pilot Comedy, I told her about ANNA WONG and 69 BAYARD, and it’s pretty clear I’ve been doing my best work. I also told her I was an actress and the struggles I faced as an AsAm actress which led me to writing. By the end of the conversation, she let me know she was flying back to NYC this summer to direct a television series and offered to put me on to the casting team. I felt very grateful and sent my material over, and promised to follow up with her…which I did.
I got an email yesterday from the television series casting team that the director sent them my headshot and resume, and asked if I wanted to audition for a part. I said FUCK YEAH — in a professional way of course.
So yeah, it’s sort of about “who you know”, but I genuinely wanted to get to know this director and I continue to do my best writing. Had I not done either, I don’t think the director would’ve put me on. Whether or not I get this role doesn’t matter, I’m very grateful to her and I hope I can put her on for future opportunities like she did for me.
