Q : This film seems like really a honest and authentic account about what it was like growing as Asian kid in California. What was your first impression of the script

Izaac Wang: Yeah, my first impression was that it was a difficult script and not because the script was bad at all, but it was mostly because of myself. I’ve never played a lead dramatic character before. Specifically, it was a version of myself that I didn’t really want to go back to—which was a more vulnerable, more angsty, more weird version of me now. That was the version of myself that I wanted to keep in the past, but I had to reopen that version of myself to play this character. In the end I ended up enjoying the character Chris, and I enjoyed playing him, it was a blast playing him on set as well,

Q : In the film, there are a lot of scenes that involve skating culture. Did director Sean Wang feed you about skating culture, such as by Tony Hawk’s performance or watching Stacy Peralta’s movies?

Izaac Wang: I didn’t know a lot prior to skating culture. Obviously, I knew who Tony Hawk was. And I’ve watched skating videos before, but I wasn’t super into skating and it’s definitely not a hobby that I’d tried to pursue. Well, I actually did and then I broke my wrist when I was like nine years old. Then I stopped skating. (lol)

Going back to this movie, I’ve learned a lot about skating, I’ve learned some cinematographers who specifically filming for skating like Spike Jonse’s movies for example. Literally, I’ve learned how to skate and also learned how skaters talk, supposedly. Me and Sean really didn’t talk through it too much, but we did talk about learning how to be a skater back in 2008, and it was something that we tried to accomplish throughout the movie.

Q : I heard that director Sean Wang handed you a  flip phone to familiarize yourself with that kind of phone because obviously you are using a smartphone now. So talk about what kind of conversation you had with Sean in order to tap into those days, with MySpace and all those gadgets back then.

Izaac Wang: Yeah, really the only thing that I had to focus on in terms of technology back then was the flip phone, right? Learning to type on a flip phone because most of the MySpace scenes and the Facebook scenes and all the scenes involving the computer really were mostly done in post-production.

But the flip phone was difficult. I couldn’t learn the flip phone at all. It was really hard. The fact that I had to click a letter multiple times just to get to one letter was hard (lol) And I was really slow at it, but other than that technology was still super, super cool back then.

Photo by [Courtesy of Focus Features / Tal, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserv – © Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

Q : Even though you had experience in some of the filming in the past, could you take us through your casting process? I heard that director Sean Wang went into the street casting, not just hiring from the agency.

Izaac Wang: Yeah. Sure. So he reached out to my agency and my manager reached out to me. But other than that, Sean basically cast everyone via the casting manager, Natalie. And like mostly everyone on set was a first-time actor besides me and Shirley Joan. And I think there’s a guy, a kid named Jaden, who was an actor before he played Max.

But yeah, that’s it. Those were the only real actors. Other than that everyone else was basically contacted by Sean or they saw the ad that they were looking for actors and basically sent an audition and got in.

Q : How did you bond with other kid actors? Obviously, most of them didn’t have any experience. So talk about how did you guys bond on the set to create those dynamics as friends?

Izaac Wang: Yeah, I think the number one most important thing Sean was aiming for is to forget that you are a professional actor, and just be a kid.

And I think Sean really landed it with that because by getting first-time actors, you know they haven’t had any professional experience, so all they did was really just be themselves. And I think what was most important is just being yourself. You know by being yourself, you can really just make friends with anyone despite whether or not they’ve had an acting career.

I made friends with practically everyone on set, cast and crew. And I’m best friends right now with Raul (Dial) and Aaron (Chang) who played Fahad and Soup. Nonding with those guys was super fun and it definitely improved the acting experience overall.

Q : Taking someone like a Joan Chen who has a really enormous work experience, not just in U.S., but also starting from China. Did you get some acting tips or conversation you had with Joan Chen in order to tap into your character or also create a family dynamic?

Izaac Wang: Really, no. It was mostly just like we just got lucky with the synergy and chemistry that we had. And if anything, Joan really didn’t tell me about tips or anything. I ended up just learning through her acting, like by watching her act, I became a better actor. Even though she wasn’t actually teaching me how to act.

Photo by [Courtesy of Focus Features / Tal, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserv – © Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

Q : There’s a really great scene where you guys have a conversation in McDonald’s eating together. Talk about what was fascinating about her ability that you might probably apply in your future acting.

Izaac Wang: I think really just like being one with the character, like trying to really relate to the character as much as possible is like the most important. And I also learned that facial expressions is like very important, like body language. Body language is very important when it comes to acting, something I can take into the future.

Q :  This film won at Sundance. What was it like to actually be at Sundance, an experience that has such a great recognition among the film industry?

Izaac Wang: It was super cool. The Sundance labs were already really awesome. To actually go to Sundance was like sick. I mean it was cold, there was snow everywhere, and I love snow. I love snowboarding. So that was fun.

And I got to hang out with Aaron and Raul. We all stayed in like one room where there’s like bunk beds and stuff. Watching the movie for the first time, that was embarrassing, but it was fun. And overall, just the whole experience was just great. Like I really couldn’t have wished for a better way to watch the movie for the first time.

Issac Wang: Yeah. Sean would always try to play music for us on set that was like era-specific. He gave some of the cast–specifically Vivian, me, Raul, and Aaron playlists of songs that we would actually listen to, which was very helpful and it really helped get us into the character.

Q :  So, what do you want the audience to take away from this film?

Izaac Wang: I mean, if you’re a teenager, don’t be afraid to be yourself. Be confident in who you are—and always love your mom.

Photo by [Courtesy of Focus Features / Tal, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserv – © Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

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