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Justin Chon: Not your average Asian American actor

Its not easy being a new actor in Hollywood. Whats even more difficult is having an ethnicity that can lead you being stereotyped to certain roles. But for Asian American actor Justin Chon, it was just a matter of timing and inspiration that he got into one of Hollywood’s hottest franchise of the moment.

Justin recently sat down with The Korean Times where he talked about acting, being part of Twilight and many more. Here is an excerpt of his interview:

“I thought it was going to be my big break,” he said. The film proved to be an amazing experience but it did not live up to expectations, while “Twilight” became a sleeper hit.

Chon is regarded as being part of a new generation of Asian-American actors, who portray non-typecast characters ? being neither the agile Bruce Lee nor the nerdy Long Duk Dong (“Sixteen Candles”).

But one is bound to be stuck with a broken stove ? the glass ceiling for Asian-American actors is still there.

While adequate roles for Asians are lacking, Chon suggested that Asian-American artists themselves ? filmmakers, actors, producers ? are also responsible.

“I went to an Asian film festival and the movies playing there were like `Joy Luck Club 20,”’ he said, explaining that many Asian-American works have not evolved much since the 1989 book-turned-movie, “Joy Luck Club,” which portrays cultural and identity conflicts.

To read the rest of his interview, click on the link above.

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Justin Chon speaks out for CPAF

Justin Chon is bringing awareness for the Center for the Pacific Asian Family (CPAF) in support for the Chase Community Giving contest.

Fans can vote for CPAF to win against 99 other charities for $1 million. The winners will be announced Saturday, Jan. 23. CPAF aids Asian Pacific Islanders who have been victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

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Justin Chon interviews Muse

Twilight actor Justin Chon became MTV’s backstage reporter at the KROQ’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas festival. Justin turned his usual antics on the people backstage and was able to interview British punk-rock band Muse.

Justin Chon: Oh my God, you guys were absolutely amazing, the whole show — how it was produced was amazing, the balloons and the piano and rocking on the guitar, everything was just perfect. This is my first rock show backstage experience ever.Here is an excerpt of his interview:

Matthew Bellamy: So, how’d it go?

Chon: It was everything that I imagined it would be.

Dominic Howard: And more?

Chon: And more. I guess if I were to go back and do it all over again, would there be anything that you guys would have said I should have done that I maybe didn’t do?

Howard: Did you see everyone today? Did you see Phoenix? I’m a big fan of that band.

Chon: I saw everyone, I saw Phoenix.

Howard: Well if you saw everyone, that’s a good start.

Bellamy: Backstage, there are certain things that certain bands get up to — I’m sure you can fill in the gaps.

Howard: That might be happening a little bit later — maybe if you hang around, you can see a bit more. [Laughs.]

Chon: Awesome, man. You guys are on all the ["Twilight"] soundtracks, and I know that ["Eclipse" director] David Slade actually did some of your music videos.

Bellamy: Yeah, yeah. He did four music videos for us.

They also talked about meeting Stephenie Meyer in Las Vegas.

Chon: Wow, perfect! Well, I’m in the movie and I’m a huge fan, so it’s an absolute honor to be in your presence. There’s this huge fandom with Stephenie Meyer and the books — what stuff inspires you guys?

Bellamy: We were with Stephenie last night, actually. We just saw Stephenie. She came to see us in Vegas — it was good seeing her, she’s a nice lady. Lovely! And she brought her friends along. But what inspires us? Books, films, anything music and just whatever comes. Life experience is a big one for the lyrics; certain things that happen to you turn into songs.

To read the rest of their interview, please click on the link above.

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The humans of Twilight

Ten Twilight sites were given the privilege to talk to the “humans” of Twilight namely Anna Kendrick, Mike Welch, Justin Chon and Christian Serratos about the Twilight Saga and Filming New Moon. Here is an excerpt of their interview:

Q:  In New Moon you have a kind of love triangle going on.  I’m curious to see how that ended up playing out for you.
M: There are a couple of different love triangles there.  There’s obviously the one between Bella and Jacob and Edward that Mike is trying to squeeze into.  More of a love rectangle.  And I guess there’s the one between Mike and Jessica and Bella.  You know, Jessica likes Mike.  Mike likes Bella.  Everybody likes Bella. And it sort of doesn’t turn out great for Mike or Jessica.  A lot of this is very indicative of high school heart ache in general, but it’s sort of heightened with these supernatural characters.
Q:  Both of you have a background in theatre.  I wanted to know how that has helped you with your roles for Twilight and New Moon?
A: Well on a logistical note, there was a scene when Jessica and Bella go to the movies, when we were shooting that outside there were like hundreds of girls standing and watching as we shot it.  It was just a nice tool to have experience in front of a live audience.  It seems like a silly comparison, but honestly it helped to kind of block out the fact that all these fans were watching us and to try to just focus on the scene and ignore the fact that they’re all kind of videotaping us from the side lines.

Q: What was your favorite scene to shoot?
Mike: My favorite scene by far was the kind of three way date that happened between Mike and Bella and Jacob.  That horribly awkward moment when Mike asks Bella out to the movies and she tries to turn it into a group thing and then it ends up being the worst case scenario which is that that three way thing.  You know, I’m sure it was certainly not a lot of fun for Mike to go through.  I mean, I can relate, as I’m sure a lot of us can, but it was a lot of fun to do.
Anna: And I would have to say that there is a scene where Jessica and Bella go to the movies.  That was fun because Jessica really likes to talk about herself and Bella is really depressed.  She’s not saying much.  We were just kind of trying to do it all in one take, and Chris told me to just keep talking until we came to a natural stop.  So I stopped and just kind of monologued as flighty, silly Jessica which was a blast.
Q: Does having different directors and different visions for different movies cause any confusion for how you should play your character?
Mike: I think that the directors that we’ve had are very different in terms of style and process, but there seems to be a singular vision in terms of our characters.  Everyone seems to be pretty unanimous about it, and that basically is that we are there to add levity to the franchise and to just represent normalcy in Bella’s life.  Represent  just kind of a real high school experience to give the story some grounding so that people are able to believe the more supernatural fantasy elements.

To read more of their interview, head over to Twilight Lexicon.

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Justin Chon is excited to meet the rest of the cast

Shooting a movie, one would think that you get to meet everyone since you are basically involved in one project. But that is not the case for Justin Chon, who didnt meet some of the New Moon cast as they have separate filming schedules. But with the LA premiere only a few weeks  away, he is excited to meet everybody.

“The cast is so big now,” said Justin Chon, who plays “human” Eric Yorkie. “Seriously, it’s like an army. You really don’t get to meet everyone.

“The premiere is going to be wild; it’s gonna be a zoo,” he laughed, sounding for a minute like a super-fan. “I want to meet Michael Sheen!”

“Recently, I had met all the wolf pack, but I finally met Tin[sel Korey] and Bronson [Pelletier] maybe two weeks ago,” Chon said. “And I was like, ‘God, I feel like I already know you, but this is the first time I’m meeting you!’ That is so wild.

“I haven’t met [Dakota Fanning] either, because they’re Volturi and they shot a lot of their stuff in Italy,” said the 28-year-old actor. “I’m always in Forks.”

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A conversation with the humans

They may not usually have the attention but the company of Mike Welch, Anna Kendrick, Justin Chon and Christian Serratos plays an important role in keeping Twilight heroine Bella Swan glued to her human roots. In an interview with the Vancouver Sun, Anna, Christian, Justin and Mike talked about going back to New Moon, being part of the Twilight Saga and many more. Here is an excerpt:

Unlike Twilight, which was shot in Portland, you shot New Moon in Vancouver. What was that like?

Justin: The weather’s actually been better here. Portland was very, very, very cold and rainy. It’s a little bit nicer here.

Anna: One of the freaky things about shooting New Moon in a different location than Portland was the re-creation of things, like the high school parking lot. It was like déjà vu because we were in a different country but they completely recreated the parking lot from the school we shot at before.

You also got a new director. What was it like working with Chris Weisz?

Michael: Chris was really great. Catherine [Hardwicke] was wonderful too, but they’re just totally different in terms of their style and their process. And I think that as a result, you’re going to end up with a film that just feels very different. I think that Chris made more of a conscious effort to have a visual cohesiveness in terms of how the film is going to look and feel with the vampires, the werewolves and the humans. Visually, it’s more stylistic. And as far as the way he likes to work on set, he’s just very calm and very clear-headed and intelligent. He knows what he wants and puts a lot into the preparation so by the time we get to the set it’s all sort of mapped out for us.

Christian: He’s really awesome. He’s very well-organized, well-spoken, fun and carefree – simultaneously. It’s incredible.

If you weren’t playing humans, which would you prefer to play: a vampire or a werewolf?

Anna: I would personally rather be a werewolf since they seem to get to have a lot more fun. The vampires are very cool, but they have to be very calm and collected all the time. The werewolves get to let loose a little bit more.

Michael: I’d much rather play a vampire. Being a vampire would be cool, I think, for the first 100 years or so. It’d be fun to be able to play because vampires are just too cool; they’re just sexy and interesting and complicated.

Christian: I’d play a wolf. I’d play Leah, ’cause she’s sassy.