00:00This is Tim Wasper from Festtrek Concert TV.
00:28I'm here at the Regal Cinemas Union Square in New York City for Dances with Films New York.
00:33I think at the end of the day, it boils down to a lot of trust in each other as scene partners.
00:39And so I am really grateful towards Mingo because he was an excellent scene partner.
00:43And I feel like he's taught me so much and I've learned so much through him and all the acting tips that he would give me off camera.
00:50Like what's a good tip?
00:52A good tip that he gave me?
00:53Actually, the whole when we were talking about kind of personifying the character physically, he told me to think like mentally.
01:02I'll like never forget this advice.
01:04But you said like mentally, if you were to think of Alice in a headspace, like what would you think of her as?
01:09And that's when I was like, she's a firecracker.
01:10And for him, he said, I think of Peter as like a stick in the mud.
01:13And so kind of like balancing those two dynamics, we had like a lot of discussions outside of just like on our own personal time.
01:22Did you physically when you were the firecracker?
01:24Yeah, because she's moving.
01:25Yeah, I would have to like hype myself up a lot before like each take because I feel like I'm naturally an introvert.
01:31So as soon as the camera would yell action, that's when I would have to like really ramp myself up.
01:35But in terms of how we work together and our chemistry and everything, I think from like just right off the bat, we were able to establish trust with each other in the chemistry read because one of the scenes that we had to do was the final scene where we're going at each other.
01:50And we didn't know each other beforehand, but I just looked at him and I was like, this is our chemistry.
01:55We're getting this role.
01:56Like just scream in my face.
01:59Okay.
02:00Unpopular opinion time.
02:02Hit me.
02:02Um, I don't really think song lyrics matter.
02:08Excuse me?
02:09They're just vehicles for the melodies.
02:11That's the worst thing I've ever heard next to boiling meat.
02:15People misquote lyrics all the time, yet nobody cares.
02:19Take a look at Gangnam Style, biggest hit of 2012, yet most people who loved it had no idea what the words meant.
02:25They just like the beat and the horse dance.
02:27I think it really boils down to, again, going back to being really specific on how the character walks through the world.
02:36And so even in the moments where he doesn't say a line, it's as meaningful as what Peter does.
02:41Because each moment, like all of us, we live in our day-to-day lives, affected whether we're talking or we're listening.
02:49So it really boils down to like either, you know, really listening to your scene partner.
02:54This might sound cliche because it really boils down to listening or it's really understanding your character's point of view on how I should be feeling or what I should be doing at those moments.
03:07And also like we did a ton of rehearsals over Zoom and also like we did some blockings.
03:12We would FaceTime each other.
03:13Yeah, FaceTime each other and we would do some in-person rehearsal as well.
03:17So those things all naturally informed how we would, you know, what the scene will come to when the actual camera's on.
03:26So it's also like very nice.
03:28So having someone as dedicated to their craft as Mingyu, because like even after shooting long days,
03:34because even after shooting long days, we'd be like, all right, now let's, let's meet up after shoot and like run the lines again for the next day.
03:41And so we, we worked like very closely with each other on really nailing these characters and making sure that we had that cadence where we could bounce off each other.
03:48That's different.
03:49It wasn't even in English.
03:51Exactly my point.
03:52The lyrics didn't matter.
03:53The song would have been just as successful if he was reciting a Korean takeout man.
03:58So I was making social commentary about Seoul's Gangnam district.
04:00But did people dancing to it at the wedding care about it?
04:03No, it's all about the catchy hook.
04:05I can't.
04:06Okay, how about Radiohead?
04:07Oh my God, of course you like Radiohead.
04:09Tom New York said all of his lyrics were f***ing nonsense.
04:14It's all about the vibe, the math of the music.
04:16The math of, okay.
04:17I mean, really came, I was inspired by two of my favorite New York movies, which are Manhattan and Francis Ha.
04:23So I think those are gorgeous black and white movies.
04:26Like I never think for a second, I wish these were in color.
04:29Like they're just, there's a beauty in the black and white.
04:32So it really came from an aesthetic point of view.
04:35And, you know, I'd like to say there was some deeper meaning in the black and white, but it wasn't at least intentional how I originally drew it up.
04:41I just wanted to be inspired.
04:43I was inspired by those movies and I wanted to do my version of that.
04:46I don't know that I calculated as much in terms of the arc.
04:50I just thought more in terms of character and kind of, you know, where they are in their relationship.
04:55So the cultural stuff to me was just a part of the conversation.
04:59And it wasn't really like a, you know, let's hit on this at this point.
05:03It just, I wanted it to feel more organic and more how things would come up.
05:06No, it's in the background.
05:07Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:09Yeah, for sure.
05:09For sure.
05:10That's definitely important.
05:11And again, I'm hoping this reaches an Asian American audience who, again, doesn't see themselves represented in a lot of films.
05:18Like as far as leads.
05:19What about Bob Dylan?
05:22Man literally won a Nobel Prize for his lyrics.
05:25Simple but effective melodies.
05:27I'm having chest pains.
05:28Look, most people can't even understand what the singers are saying half the time anyways.
05:33I give up.
05:34You're beyond help.
05:36Hey Siri, how do I make an Asian man feel human emotions?
05:39You know, in thinking about the drama, I didn't want this to turn into a Korean drama.
05:43Like I wanted it to be real.
05:45What's wrong with Korean dramas, Walter?
05:47I mean, they're a little extreme, but honestly, when I wrote it, of course, I wanted it to be intense and I wanted it to be real.
05:56But what they brought to it was, you know, they took it to another level.
06:00And I was like, this felt right.
06:02You know, like I tend to go by instinct.
06:04And like, if something feels right, it feels false.
06:07I just felt like they're both their performances.
06:10They were modulating perfectly for the scene.
06:13I honestly think from the get-go with Alice because she is such a strong force to be reckoned with.
06:19So I think from, I think the first line, first scene, that's when it clicked for me.
06:24Because it's like, oh, Alice, when she knocks on the door and just barges in.
06:29Yeah.
06:30And just barges into the apartment.
06:31I think that's when it really hit me.
06:33Because as a character, like, I think that sets the tone pretty much of, okay, here she is.
06:39And you're not getting rid of her.
06:41Like, this is it.
06:42And I think just carrying that performance through, but then also understanding the nuances of the character and how she is, like, underneath all of that energy.
06:52And I think that part clicked for me when we honestly filmed the fight scene together, when all of our uncomfortable truths were coming out and just really studying those lines.
07:22So, I think that's when I was in my car, I think that's when I was in my car.
07:47Walter and I, we had a lot of, you know, collaboration going back and forth.
07:50and there for me before we you know we started shooting too um there's the scene where peter
07:58gives his monologue and so i worked with walter on the side and giving him different takes like
08:03different kind of um ideas on how this monologue could play out and we worked together saying like
08:10no peter wouldn't really be doing this in this moment or like this take is a lot better and so
08:15we chose a rough draft from that and that allowed me to really understand where peter operates from
08:22because that monologue is pretty heavy but you can go into like a lot of different directions and so
08:28once you have a kind of a sense of direction that you um you want to go with then you understand why
08:34this character operates from the way he operates and then from that you just let the script just
08:39really guide you on like how you want to like um and have the characters
09:09you
09:10you
09:10you
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