May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage month. It comes hot on the heels of the 93rd Oscars where AAPI creatives made Hollywood history.
ChloĆ© Zhao is the first woman of Asian heritage to win Best Director. Youn Yuh-jung is the first Korean woman to achieve Best Supporting Actress. Steven Yeun is the first Asian American man to be recognized with a Best Actor nomination. Itās encouraging and inspiring to see Asian and Pacific Islander storytellers making strides in Hollywood.Ā
AAPI screenwriters are also on the rise and responsible for bringing diverse voices to the screen. Read on for gold nuggets of wisdom from writers and filmmakers that are bringing Asian American and Pacific Islander stories forward.Ā
Alice Wu: Find Creative Ways To Motivate Yourself To Write
Honored as one of 2021ās Most Impactful Asians & Pacific Islanders inĀ Gold House’s A100,Ā Alice WuĀ is a writer, director, and producer. SAVING FACE, her first feature, won the CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) screenwriting award in 2001. Itās based on the filmmakerās own experience of coming out as a lesbian to her Chinese family.
Her second feature, THE HALF OF IT, is a queer rom-com currently on Netflix thatās loosely based on the story of Cyrano de Bergerac.Ā She shared with Refinery29Ā that she used an unconventional motivational tool to write the script in record time:
āI wrote a check for $1,000 to the NRA, gave it to my friend, and I said,Ā Iām giving myself 5 weeks. On August 8, if this is not a fully written script and two people read it and confirm, you are sending that check in.Ā And then I told all my friends. It was the most stressful five weeks of my life. It was like having a thousand agents breathing down my neck.āĀ
Sujata Day: Telling Your Story Can Empower Others
Multi-hyphenate actor-writer-director-producerĀ Sujata DayĀ was influenced by another multi-hyphenate, Issa Rae. Working as an actor on Raeās web series AWKWARD BLACK GIRL, Day saw firsthand how Rae didnāt wait to be called on by Hollywood to tell her story.
During an interview with Complex,Ā Day recalls her processĀ of witnessing Raeās journey, which inspired Day to write, direct, produce, and star in her first feature, DEFINITION PLEASE:
āWe would just have very casual conversations about, ‘Oh, Iām writing my Black girl story, you should write your brown girl story.’ I think just from going on this journey of AWKWARD BLACK GIRL to getting a text from Issa when she was shooting the pilot for INSECURE on HBOā¦Just being on set for the shooting of the pilot and realizing what we had come fromā¦it was inspiring enough to push me to tell my own stories in my own way.”
Mindy Kaling: Watch More Than You Write
Mindy KalingĀ has been on both sides of the camera as another multi-hyphenate in film and television. Where she used to be the only woman of color on staff, sheās seen the increasing demand for more inclusive stories and diverse representation on screen.Ā
Speaking to Variety, Kalingās advice for aspiring screenwriters might surprise you:
āMy advice for writers who are trying to get into the entertainment industry is to watch more than you write. I think a lot of times when youāre young, you feel like output is your only way to get out of your current situation, but I found that when I was younger and I would do thatā¦my writing just got worse. And I think that taking in a lot, reading a lot, watching old shows, that really helped me.ā
Christina Strain: Representation Matters
Christina StrainĀ is a television and film writer of Korean and Caucasian heritage. Her feature FINDING āOHANA is streaming on Netflix, and sheās currently working on the hit fantasy series SHADOW AND BONE. The show features Alina, a biracial female protagonist.Ā Strain has spokenĀ about the eye-opening experience of working on the show, realizing sheād never written a pilot with a Hapa (half Asian) lead.
In an interviewĀ with LadyJenevia on YouTube, Strain emphasized the importance of Asian characters receiving top billing on screen:
Ā āItās amazing how important it is to, one, see yourself represented at all, and two, like understand the representation that you are seeing. ā¦. The tricky thing about representation is there is no version of representation that is a one-size-fits-all perfect thing for anybody.Ā
But the sheer fact that you can see a person as number one on the call sheet is a huge thing, because somebody out there is going to see that, and it is going to occur to them that that is possible. ⦠I am a half Korean woman who grew up without a lot of representation on TV, but the little bits that I saw meant the world to me.ā
Tze Chun: Protect the Diversity in Your Script
Tze ChunĀ is the showrunner for the upcoming GREMLINS animated prequel series on HBO Max with credits on his resume that include GOTHAM, LITTLE AMERICA, and ONCE UPON A TIME. He actively supports the AAPI creative community throughĀ his Twitter accountĀ by boosting an Asian creator every day.
This is ChunāsĀ sage adviceĀ for screenwriters concerned about whitewashing when selling a project to Hollywood:
Reminder that if you are selling your project to Hollywood and are concerned about whitewashing you can add a casting restriction clause to help prevent this.
See below for sample language I used for a project with a Chinese protagonist. Please RTā¤ļø pic.twitter.com/KHytiJ64aQ
— T$E CHUN (@thetzechun) September 18, 2020
Diane Paragas: The Path To Getting A Feature Made Is Not a StraightĀ Line
Diane ParagasĀ is a writer/director versed in narrative and documentary films. YELLOW ROSE, her first narrative feature, centers on an undocumented Filipina teen that dreams of a career in country music. She wrote a draft of the script, but it wasnāt until years later that the film was made.Ā
In an interview withĀ From the Intercom, the filmmaker reveals how the film came to be:
āI wrote a script, just probably not that good early on, and I didnāt have that much experience so I kind of put it aside, and then I directed [other projects]. ⦠I met Cecilia [producer], and I think at that point we really were solidly trying to pursue this movie.
We, like any film, decided to make the feature script into a short film as a proof of concept. So we did get funding for that, and it took a couple of years. ⦠The short enabled us to win a grant ⦠but unfortunately, [the filmās crew] had to wait for me on this one because I had decided to castĀ Eva Noblezada. We had to wait for her to finish her Broadway run ofĀ MISS SAIGON.
So itās always been a little bit of hurry up and wait, and then wait, and then itās happening and then itās not.ā
Lulu Wang: Focus On Your Passion For A Story, Not Its Subtitles
Writer/directorĀ Lulu WangĀ is best known for THE FAREWELL. The film won an AFI award and is lauded for bringing an authentic Asian American narrative to the screen. The American dramedy is a bilingual film with the majority of the dialogue spoken in Mandarin. In April 2020, Wang hosted a Tweet-a-Thon in collaboration with Ava DuVernayāsĀ ARRAYĀ andĀ commented on creating a film with subtitles:
Difficult, but I think American companies are more open to subtitled films these days. Understand the marketing challenges, but stay focused on what makes you passionate about telling this story 1) Why this story 2) Why NOW and 3) Why are you the one to tell it https://t.co/enQElp7rbE
— Lulu Wang (@thumbelulu) April 30, 2020
Kumail Nanjiani: More AAPI Storytellers Are Needed
Variety hosted a conversationĀ in 2020 in honor of Asian Pacific Heritage month with AAPI creativesĀ Kumail Nanjiani, Hasan Minhaj, Jon M. Chu, Ally Maki, and Lulu Wang. Nanjiani made a salient point, that more AAPI stories are needed:
āWe need more voices and we just need more representatives from all our different communities doing stuff, because otherwise thereās so much pressure on any one story to represent a whole group of people, and thatās just impossible. ⦠On-screen representation is important, but I think writing, directing, those things are very, very important because we just need more people telling their stories. If someone says, āOh, you know that hit Asian movie?ā I want people to be like, which one?ā
Watch the full conversation below:
Asian American and Pacific Islander stories and storytellers are needed. In the PBS series PAST FORWARD: CONVERSATIONS WITH AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, filmmakerĀ Li-Shun YuĀ spoke during theĀ THE ROOTS OF ANTI-ASIAN HATE IN AMERICAĀ conversation:Ā “If we don’t tell the story, then it’s going to be toldĀ aboutĀ us and framed in a different way.”Ā Authentic AAPI perspectives offer the diversity and fresh storiesĀ audiences crave. Tell your story, write your script, and direct your film. The world needs it!
Get your TV Pilot in front of our great panel of judges, including Tze Chun! Early Deadline: June 15th.
Joanna Ke is an award-winning, half Taiwanese actor, writer, producer, and trained sword fighter. Her foundation as a creative producer and screenwriter is built on nearly a decade of experience as a professional script reader in development and acquisitions. She studied screenwriting with the late, great Syd Field, and as an actor, has had the honor of working with director Cameron Crowe. Her films have won BEST ACTION and BEST FANTASY awards, and her acting has won BEST PERFORMANCE and BEST VILLAIN accolades.
Wielding her broadsword is a favorite, both on and off camera.
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