Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 523 - Why Did Dustin Nguyen Of 21 Jump Street Vanish From Hollywood For An Entire Decade? - Dustin Nguyen

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523 - Why Did Dustin Nguyen Of 21 Jump Street Vanish From Hollywood For An Entire Decade? - Dustin Nguyen · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast today.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is so exciting for me.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have Dustin back on.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dustin, your life is incredible.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we captured it in the first part a year ago.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now we're here to really talk about some other stuff because you and I spent some time in New York recently.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And over those few days, you told me some really, really good stories about the decade that you didn't
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: you didn't work and I found that to be super really I mean inspiring to say the least and I really want to be here today to recount those those years that that you really got knocked out of orbit and a lot of us probably think that you know it's you've always had a steady flow of work and all of that but at one point it sounds like it's pretty bleak so welcome back thank you for
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thanks, Ken.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, man.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's nice to have another sit down with you.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Although we've seen each other a little bit, you know, outside of the podcast.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, glad to be back.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's start out with, um, I think the period of getting all that work, you know, during the years of 21 Jump Street and and working a lot, what do you think contributed to the the slowdown or the stop of working?
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, you know, it is not unusual, you know, the life of an actor, unless you make, you know, you made it to the sort of the ace superstars that is, you know, it's, I think when you become an actor, you expect down times.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Actually, there's more down times for most
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: that that just comes with a territory and then it doesn't help that you sort of the in this case, you know, Asian-American, you know, Asian-American, the opportunities much less in terms of coming your way.
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, particularly at the period that I was starting out, you know, in the late
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: So those two things I think is the big factors and still are to some degree now there are a lot more opportunities now for Asian Americans you know the climate has changed so much since I started but you know we still got a fight for our place at the table, you know.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: In my case, you know, I had such a great start.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I had this lucky start, how did you was shining on me?
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, working landing really, you know, 21-jump street, of course, launched my career, but even before that, I started working, and I was on a cell, which a lot of people probably didn't know this.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was on a cell for a year, General Hospital, very early on in my career, and then, but jump street,
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: After Jump Street, I started doing some features and guest stars and then I did another series go see Quest, VSD, I believe it was Steven Spobberg series, and then other series like VIP,
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't continue to work, but the dry period kind of started after VIP, I think I did VIP for like three seasons, and it was a great character, a lot of fun silly show, it knows it's silly, and it just have fun doing it.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, and twist the end of that, well, I think it's the end of that show.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I want to take a quick one, VIP had Pamela Anderson on, right?
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's correct.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had it.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, I was only, you know, I was hottest movie star of her time.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was crazy.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, I was working with amazingly beautiful women, you know, Pamela, the other ladies that were on the show now.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: the so many beautiful women and the show were just like, I candy, you know, I do an action and I me and Sean Baker was the only two male actors on the show.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we just had a great time.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it was, it because of Pamela, it sort of unseated Baywatch as the, you know, the number one syndicated show in the world of the time.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so for me, you know, I had such a good time and my character again, I had the luck of, you know, I got to play like almost like this rock star kind of guy, you know, right in a motorcycle and all of that stuff, but yeah, but that was the show.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was writing pretty high on that show.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then a big personal tragedy happened in my life where my wife at the time, got into this really horrific car accident that ended up paralyzed her funeral from the neck down.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that just kind of like, and we about to get married and all of that.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: 11 years or so of taking care of her and making ends meet, I think it's common knowledge now, you know, can in America that if you have one of those medical incidents, you've done for man.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I was writing high at the time, I was making great money and literally,
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: three or four months, I was bankrupt, yeah.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the bills for intensive care, you know, I mean, it just unbelievable, you look, you look, you blank and you like, oh man, I'm broke, you know?
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the medical bills were just so rages, and then of course, the stress, you know.
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was in that period where,
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, very sort of the cliché thing when you're in a place like that, you start to evaluate quite a few things, and I was thinking like, okay, I've sort of hit like the ceiling, but I felt like I had a ceiling in the whole world as an actor, and opportunities were there.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I felt guilty thinking that because up to that, I've had some tremendous opportunities compared to some of my peers, you know, at that time.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it was a struggle of that really kind of let me down in a situation with my wife at the time.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I basically quit acting.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, um,
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: went into one of my hobbies, making civil jewelry and custom leather clothing with some partners, and that was a fun adventure there.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it was a good three or four years, you know, without even thinking about acting anymore, and then the opportunity comes up with a
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: love for acting again.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: But even that, you know, I did this movie, little fish.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a terrific little movie.
• 8:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I made, again, just, you know, I'm so lucky.
• 8:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I landed this movie with some of the biggest movie stars and the role was just like, it's one of those rare roles that probably comes along every 10 years, you know, for the Asian American male.
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And but I think I've been in the business long enough where I wasn't like, oh man, this is gonna put me at the top again, you know, I was very realistic about it.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had I had hopes that it would go somewhere, but again, you know, back then, the climate was different, you know, after that movie again, work was quite slow.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like you were saying earlier,
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: what was I doing?
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of like, okay, well, this was a great little thing to come back with, you know, movie little fish, but now, now let's just, uh, relook at things and it hasn't really changed much in Hollywood at that time.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, and, um, fate came along and brought me to Vietnam,
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: 2006, given take a year with the rebel, the Vietnamese film, the rebel, which you know, brought me to Vietnam for the first time being away from the mother land for 32, 33 years.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't, I want to go back to the leather making business.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you, you glossed over it, but there's so many details in the leather making business in those years that sound like a lot of fun.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: You were, you told me at one point that you were making, um,
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: leather for like a lot of celebrities and you know the act of meeting up with these guys and setting up a room at the shop.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The details of that is riveting to me.
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's a quick setup.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So a friend of mine at the time a friend and a became a partner in
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: were friends, and he was had a passion for making custom leather clothings, which I really love.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've always sort of like an amateur designer with jewelry and things like that.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we started making stuff literally out of our living room and garage, it's, you know, make a couple of leather pants, and you know,
• 10:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody introduced us to a stylist in the industry.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that stylist happens to be the stylist that people like Stephen Tyler from Eros Smith and Ninens Nail and James Patcil from Metallica, you know, Billie Eidle.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you name it was like stars, started, and I'm a real rocker, you know?
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And 70s rocker.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, so liberties get introduced to us, you know, again, you've got to like me and Jabra and a couple of guys, you know, we hire a couple of guys that's all handmade stuff, you know, leather clothing and cutting the pans and the pattern and and now we're like, you know, celebrities just start wearing because of the stylus, wearing how stuff doing cover shoots, you know, Rolling Stone magazine, all these magazines.
• 11:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so gradually we started making some money and we managed to open the shop on Melrose
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: on Melrose, L'Abraida, that kind of littlebraida near Melrose there.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, and it was very boutique kind of thing.
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we would actually have clients come in, you know, because the people like, again, Billy, I don't just come in hang out with us and we'll have this little room with the expression machine, you know, and some wine and some beer, you know, it's like, it's like party time, you know, they come and they like that, you know, they kind of go in.
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not like, hey, we're going to try to sell your stuff.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're coming in and hang out, you know, some time three, four hours, you know, and and then like, yeah, man, you know, I like this.
• 12:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Can you put, can you make this for me?
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Can you make that for me?
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, and, um,
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even things like this ring I'm wearing right now, you know, one of the first rings that we make and things kind of happen very organically so it's very critique right and and that was kind of like a lot of you know we make and stuff and like is that you know Jackie Chan was I think one of our first big client as well.
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, like this, we made this, I think our first line, silver jewelry line, we made like a dragon collection, which is the dragon motif with rings and bracelets and pendants and we made this massive bell buckle, like I think you're like half a kilo of silver with, with I think 332 on it stones and grayed in it and and we did it just more like, um,
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: a special piece, you know, we didn't think anybody was going to buy it.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's like half a kilo silver, you know, and Jack, he actually bought the first one, you know, and we make them for order, of course, because, you know, we didn't have the resources to make a bunch of them, you know, or did we think it was sell.
• 13:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think, yeah, so Jacky, you know, and he used to come over and hang out because he liked the, all of them, you know, they kind of liked the fact that they could come into, like, a space, they feel like it's there, there.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't say that at home, but kind of like the little hang out living room.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, living room and we have the music cranking things like that, and sometimes depends on the client there'll be other things involved, but you don't have anything crazy or dangerous anything like that.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you kind of get the idea, you know, it's the rock mentality, even Will Smith bought some stuff for much.
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was the period where, you know, we started doing really well.
• 14:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this is, you know, it's one thing can to make custom made things for, you know, I make one for you, I make one for Will, Smith, that make one for James and all of these celebrities.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm dropping names like crazy because they were like my assholes and all of these rockers.
• 14:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's another thing when you start to get into stores, right?
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I forgot that there's a famous store in the Belvie Center.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's still there.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Traffic.
• 14:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So traffic was one of the first stores that really ordered or stuff from the, you know, either pants, mettersheards.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then we started having a lot of clients in Japan.
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: They'll Japan at that time love.
• 14:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, this is, when Chrome hearts broke a big, you know, so all of that stuff was really hip, they love sort of like the American rock and roll kind of spirit.
• 15:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so we started getting into a lot of stores in Japan.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But now you got to fill the orders, you know, you got to, like, this store would, like, you know, I need to, I need three small three medium three large, well, things like that and it started become really tough, you know, because the quality control that this is our hand may right now on top of that.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: For some reason, again, it's like, I guess sometimes if you don't chase it, I started getting calls for like acting jobs, right?
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Little here and there, and I remember a little fish.
• 15:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I mentioned a little fish.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was the first job I got where I left to go to Australia to shoot.
• 15:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And while I was away, the business isn't sham.
• 15:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because that was kind of like the guy that kind of organized everything, you know, damaging business.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I want to come back, you know, people were like, man, where's our orders?
• 16:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And my partner, and I'm not snitching on him, he thinks everybody knows, you know, people who knows to Brown and LA.
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he was a big druggy, you know, and man, you know, it just, it got, it became very clear.
• 16:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: that we could not do business with, with, with him being the way he is, you know.
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so what to close down, but but during that time, it was, um, it really kind of took my mind off, you know, I never thought I'd become an actor again, because I was just right about my, my rock heroes and, you know, imagine, man, you know, listening to, um, you know, um,
• 16:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, let's listen to my tackle error Smith.
• 16:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, listen to my talica and then James Hadfield sitting there.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll billiard.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll come in.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: You got white wedding on rocking.
• 17:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Rebel Y'all.
• 17:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But but Dustin, did you ever feel like these big names were coming in, but at one point you were you're up there with them and now you're servicing them did that ever?
• 17:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: create this weird space inside of your mind?
• 17:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting that you ask that, because no, can it never cross my mind, I think one, I think because I was in my mind anyway, that time was so definitive that I'm no longer an actor.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm in this new environment, again, with my rock heroes and things like that,
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was loving what I'm doing, too.
• 17:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't like, you know, I'm stuck, you know, doing stockpile and stuff at Home Depot.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, I'm not knocking that, but I was loving what I'm doing.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right?
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that was my life.
• 17:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I never thought like I was servicing them.
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah, you know, in the beginning, you know, they were our clients.
• 18:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then again, you know, like I said, you know, they would come and they'd be like, we'll be hanging out sometimes.
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, we never like, oh, yeah, you know, soon, so it's coming in.
• 18:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to try to sell them some today.
• 18:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes they'll come in, don't just hang out for two, three hours, and that's it.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: No.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to us, that was very cool.
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the outside is like, no work gets done.
• 18:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they leave a notch.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I thought we got to get back to work and fill some of these orders.
• 18:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 18:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I never thought about that, Ken.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I never thought like, yeah, you know, I'm servicing them or, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm above this or this is good.
• 18:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like work and you have a felt that way.
• 18:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank God.
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And during that time, you made enough to sort of like ticker of your wife at the time, well, she's in bed.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was kidding, yeah, I was kidding by, you know, I was kidding by again, you know, the medical bills never stopped, you know, because you required like, you know, literally clocked off nursing care.
• 19:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: and I was fighting the insurance company the whole time, I mean, I can write a book about that, things that they wouldn't want to pay for and you have to really, you know, one of the tricks you do is, I don't know if you have any friends who go through these kind of things, but when you submit a bill for insurance or a service,
• 19:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's a major bill, automatic.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is how they all detrained.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: They have whole staffs of people do.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It immediately turn you down.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is not medical, medically necessary.
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the word they always use.
• 19:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is not medically necessary.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: We would not pay for it.
• 19:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: For instance, you need a special kind of mattress.
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: People who are paralyzed, you know, because danger is bad source, because they can't turn themselves, right?
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you get bad source.
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: carry big problems and down the road, infections.
• 20:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you need special kind of mattresses.
• 20:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's why you need constant nursing care.
• 20:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do they got to kind of turn you, you know, you know, you get better or is it two or three or four hours?
• 20:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: They got to turn you.
• 20:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So things like that, you know, they always turn you down.
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: They don't want to pay for it.
• 20:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so what you got to do is you got to appeal.
• 20:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So but what they're counting on usually, statistically,
• 20:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't even read it, turn it down.
• 20:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe five will come back in appeal, right?
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So now you only deal with five crimes.
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you turn them down again, right?
• 20:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then out of that five, maybe two would have the stamina to go back and appeal again.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's medically necessary, because now I got a doctor to write letters about it.
• 20:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And some statistics that says that is necessary.
• 21:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you coming at them with,
• 21:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, data is in stuff, right?
• 21:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, more pressure on them.
• 21:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: So now they like, so the point is, you probably get up with one out of 10 that, that tenacious enough, right?
• 21:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: To stick around.
• 21:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And at that point, they're like, okay, we're gonna pay for it.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So they're, they're a head man, you know, 10 claims, they are now only paying for one claim, right?
• 21:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: So at that point, they pay you.
• 21:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, but that process,
• 21:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: is so infuriating, humiliating, soul process with you, you know, I mean, you learn to beg, you learn to scream, you learn to threaten, you cry, I mean, you know, it's a terrible system and I'm not saying anything to you here in America, in terms of the medical system,
• 22:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's still a lot of expenses, you know, and especially the nursing care.
• 22:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was getting by, we're still very stressful, and you just, you know, he's got to put one foot in front of the other.
• 22:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: There we go.
• 22:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think the thing that helped me was, I think it would have been even harder.
• 22:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then, in the back of my mind, overhand, I've really got, I wish I could be acting right now.
• 22:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wish I could be making movies.
• 22:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I never thought of it.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think because I was so definitive that life was over for me.
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, wow, Dustin.
• 22:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: What a revelation that is, you know, because of you in the middle of acting,
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: and having that happen to you could have really posed a very different problem.
• 23:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you'd already kind of like, I mean, or did it happen while you were at the peak of VIP, or VIP had already come and go?
• 23:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I tell you exactly what it was, the peak of VIP.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was like our, like Remcorega was 2000, it was the year 2000.
• 23:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was the middle of our fourth season, minimum third season.
• 23:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was the fourth season.
• 23:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was in the middle of filming that when the accident happened to car accident happened with my actual life.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so was at the peak of the show, you know, and you're like, man, my life can't get any better than this, you know, I'm about to operate, I'm on like a hit show, making great money, and bang, you know, and again, that's the thing that people tell you, man, life, I mean, one phone call, one incident, one wrong decision, and you like, in a tailspin.
• 24:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, that came out of nowhere,
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Remember one.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was 11 years of your life.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think different things happened in between that and the leather business.
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then the movie, the roles started to research for you.
• 24:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I guess halfway through the time that you were married, I mean, it started to pick up and you get a call from Vietnam.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you get back into the swing of things.
• 24:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I got a call, you know, from Charlie Win, Charlie, who you know, to say Charlie Win, and Johnny, he's younger brother, and Johnny, I met Johnny actually while I was doing if I could mimic correctly, occasionally Johnny used to come in on the set of the IP.
• 25:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: because he was known in the stunt business, and you know, I got sort of a start there.
• 25:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think he might even have doubled me a couple times.
• 25:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had a double, a great double on the show.
• 25:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think there was occasions where they would need a, they're doing two separate units and they would need an extra double.
• 25:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: But in any case, Johnny would lead Johnny through a lot of my stunt friends.
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And at the time I was really in an also motorcycle racing and Johnny had just gotten in a motorcycle
• 25:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, I was just, if a grim character, we were talking a lot about bikes and going through the tracks, you know, the race tracks, and then he just disappeared, you know, for a while, joining.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then when I got a call feeling, I believe it was a journey that called me first and reach out with an email about the film, apparently, you know, they've been living in Vietnam, to make movies, and they were about to start this film called the Rebel, you know, Yelp
• 26:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They want to know if I would like to come and join them.
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they sent me the script and I read it and I really wanted to play the villain part in it.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because at that time, Ken, I never got cast as a villain, and I think it's so much fun to play all the antagonists.
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, that isn't better word, but so, and then of course,
• 26:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've always had a desire of acting in our mother tongue, you know, and I've always had a curiosity what's like in Vietnam, now now mine it's been 30 plus years since I've been back, but I've since I left in 1975 and so.
• 26:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've always thought, here, what's Vietnam like these days, what would the film, community be like over there?
• 27:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the rebel came at a perfect time where it exposed me to all of this, and I went to Vietnam for the first time in 37 years that this movie, the script, I read it, and I felt immediately resonated with me.
• 27:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: The spirit of the Vietnamese people was so strong, right, because people were haven't seen the film.
• 27:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It takes place during the French colonization of the Vietnam.
• 27:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's the rise of the Vietnamese rebels to fight back and try to gain independence from the French.
• 27:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that spirit was so strong in the film and the script.
• 27:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I, I went to do it and I said to Charlie, I said, you know, I'll do this.
• 27:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love to play the villain and I had a lot of inputs ideas, you know, to make the character more than what was on the page and just like, yeah, you know, whatever you want to do and went there and just went there and shot the film.
• 28:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I remember, right, can't, it was a good, it was probably a good two months shoot, you know, and who was taking care of your wife while you were gone, like that would, and that took over your brain?
• 28:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's what the nurses are for, right?
• 28:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, the nurses, you know, filled in and, um,
• 28:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was able to do that.
• 28:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that went on, you know, kind of, would tie back, or do movie come back, never thought, you know, figure it out.
• 28:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be it, right?
• 28:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, one time thing, I had an amazing time.
• 29:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just, you know, from the first week I was there, I felt like it was home again, as cheesy as that sounds.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was tremendously difficult shoot, but I had the best time of my life, you know.
• 29:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then the movie became what it became, which I never thought it would be.
• 29:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not that I felt like we were making a bad movie, but, you know, at that time, I remember that the local newspapers and reporters and people like,
• 29:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they were pretty played, you know, it's like, you guys have a bunch of EQs.
• 29:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you know about?
• 29:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can't speak Vietnamese properly in their mind.
• 29:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what do you know about Vietnamese history, and you're going to make this film, you guys you're like, ridiculous thing, whatever, it's hard.
• 29:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: They'll retire on one.
• 29:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of them even set that all out.
• 29:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll just kind of kept our heads down and made the movie, we felt like,
• 30:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: kind of movie we wanted to see and I didn't know the film became such a huge thing because I after that I came back to the States and until Johnny and Charlie
• 30:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Back then, you know, there was a, if I remember right, this again, this isn't to, I think by the time the movie came out, probably it was 2007 or eight, I'm guessing.
• 30:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: At that time, I think Vietnam barely had 50 cinemas in the whole country.
• 30:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they weren't even what you would call proper cinemas.
• 30:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, before all the synoplexes are built.
• 30:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 30:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: But apparently, you know, it was full house.
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, when it became like a major sensation in Vietnam, you know?
• 31:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you make the argument that three seasons.
• 31:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the rebel really wore the milestone of Vietnamese that new wave of modern cinema in Vietnam.
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: These two films really,
• 31:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: kickstarted the film industry up again after the war.
• 31:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to think about like the your involvement in it is pretty amazing when you think about, you know, you've been in the American film and TV industry for so long and then being a part of this resurgence in the Vietnamese side is probably the most natural thing actually.
• 31:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, on hindsight, you know, I mean, it could have, again, we were talking about how in life, you know, one decision or a choice or something.
• 31:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I could have easily have read the script with the revel and didn't get it on past on it or the idea of, you know, here I am used to and I'm not a prima don.
• 32:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, but, you know, when you're working in Hollywood, you've got especially
• 32:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, so on and so on, right?
• 32:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm going to go to Vietnam, you know, rough it out.
• 32:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't even have a chair to sit on the set back then, you know, and you know, and, you know, eating wrong food and having, you know, many things can go wrong.
• 32:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 32:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: But money is not as like a fraction of what I would make in Vietnam, I mean, in the US.
• 32:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So all of these things, I could have easily said no to.
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't, you know, and became what it became and what it became was, what it did for me, aside from the film being a bit hit.
• 32:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I believe also, you know, there was a lot of mentions that, you know, who's this guy to play the villain in the rebel, not depressed and Vietnam and the people in Vietnam at the time, of course, had no idea who I was.
• 33:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't know.
• 33:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: how to film videos and also, you know, for whatever reason, I don't know, you know, they're like, we've never seen like a villain in a film that is so watchable and whatever the word they're using, but the point is I started to get a lot of inquiries to go back to Vietnam to do more movies,
• 33:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I went back to do another movie, and then by this time you meet everybody that counted in it, film community that, you know, back then is like a handful.
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was this thing like Dustin, you know, where don't you come back and sort of be a part of this Renaissance, you know, this sort of Vietnamese film Renaissance that's
• 34:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: kind of close my eyes and jumped because I felt like, hey, you know, in Hollywood, it's luckiest I've been, the roles that I play, there was nothing like, like, see, you know, the character from the rebel, I would get to play that in Hollywood back then.
• 34:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then there's other roles that I ended up doing in Vietnam that was tremendously satisfying
• 34:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I just made a leap of faith and told my wife the time is that, you know what, I'm gonna keep making good back and forth and make these movie views.
• 34:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then coincidentally we got to a point in our relationship where we decided a part which I don't wanna bore people with it, but that just, it was a very complicated thing
• 35:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: We just couldn't make a work, but I think the universe, I don't think I know, the universe will let me there.
• 35:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was so happy with it, and now I open my own production company there and
• 35:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: and I start producing and directing and just doing things.
• 35:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they were some crazy.
• 35:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's something with who he's there.
• 35:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 35:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, but I tell you, I wouldn't try it if or anything.
• 35:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Dustin, I do have a question so far for the life and the idea of destiny.
• 35:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: The idea that we contribute
• 35:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: with free will, and we create action, but then there's luck.
• 35:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's timing, there's all of these things.
• 36:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: How much of all of that affected you?
• 36:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, when you look back on all these years now, and you look at the roller coaster of life, I mean, honestly, how much of this is really,
• 36:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: you're doing, because it sounds like there's like times where you're just like, it's over.
• 36:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The acting is over.
• 36:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing bringing you in.
• 36:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're bringing up money to handle this whole thing with your wife at the time.
• 36:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you just slowly start to get pulled into it.
• 36:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it sounds a lot like luck, destiny, and fate to me.
• 36:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I know you personally as a very hardworking person, but it just seems like you almost
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: that we're happening almost.
• 36:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Man, I mean, you and I can talk about it for hours about it.
• 36:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think we have over coffees, things, but I think, you know, this is the million dollar question of life, you know, all of these work, is it a little bit of each?
• 37:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I work my ass off in anything I do.
• 37:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: In particular, filmmaking, I love it so much.
• 37:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I could do a 247 and I work my ass off to be the best I can.
• 37:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that would never change.
• 37:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I too wonder sometimes.
• 37:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I too sometimes have to be humble.
• 37:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: and realize is that I'm a lucky bastard, you know, because things happen where, like you said, you know, the rebel came out of nowhere.
• 37:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even a little fish, here I am, completely out of, you know, at that point, I think when a little fish came along, I've been out every for three years, you know,
• 37:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: the way the business is outside of the mind and it was such a major role in this film that they were there was screen testing major talent and they were casting all over the world not just in Hollywood you know for somebody to play the love interest to to um to play the thing to to keep
• 38:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's it where what do I fit in you know, I mean at that time I don't even have representation and And it was just by luck again, you know friends and a dear brother of my run you and who also Audition for the part and he called me about it, you know, and I don't want to get into much about it and then go on
• 38:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll take too much time, but the point is that movie, I did everything not to do that.
• 38:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, I did not want to go in for it because I knew I would not, you know, there were people of bigger names that were being screen-test and I didn't want to be disappointed and all of that and no matter what I did, eventually, you know, I was talking to going in an audition for it.
• 39:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm getting it, you know, and that whole process was a long, interesting process too, but to skip forward and up, doing the part.
• 39:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you go like, well, if you don't call that luck, you know, you're faked.
• 39:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you call it?
• 39:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: However, having worked my ass off, as an actor and my craft and I don't want to be pretentious about it, but I was ready for that.
• 39:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think because, you know, it's one thing that the opportunity came, but if I was kind of like, wasn't ready as an actor and I walked in and fall on my face or whatever, I'm not going to get the part, right?
• 39:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So clearly, I was ready when faith, whatever you want to call it or when the universe opened that door and I walked in and I did my thing and that was that, you know?
• 40:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I believe that you know the probabilities are endless right you and I sitting here talking right now is because a few days ago we were on the phone and we both made a decision to do this podcast.
• 40:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: If we did not have that moment, then this is not happening right now or a different version of it.
• 40:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We might be doing this a month or two months from now, so that there's all these probabilities that have been proven in quantum physics, and it's all about if you tune in to a particular frequency, and then this path, right?
• 40:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So all these probabilities out there, and I think you can call that, uh,
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: fate of whatever, but you still have to make the choice.
• 41:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are you and I still have to animate the choice.
• 41:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then it becomes whatever becomes.
• 41:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I make any sense.
• 41:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know I make perfect sense and you know I'm gonna have to jump a few modules ahead you know we're gonna talk about some other things but let's go to you know dope thief and let's go to superfakes because those are the two biggest projects that in the last year you know dope thief is already out on apple and then superfakes you've worked on and it'll be coming out next year but let's talk about your character and dope
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a departure from the way Asian American men in gangster roles are portrayed.
• 41:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're not one-dimensional, you're like who comes up with this stuff and at the right time in the history of Asian men in cinema, like why how did they come up with that?
• 41:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I tell you, Peter Craig, I love the guy and I owe everything to him.
• 41:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's a show produced by Ridley Scott, who is my, really, he's one of my through heroes, you know, that I aspire to be, and he brought Peter Craig on to do a show right now.
• 42:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Peter Craig for those who outside the business, he's a Oscar nominated writer for films like The Town,
• 42:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: He rewrote the latest remake of a reboot of Top Gun, Maverick.
• 42:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: He rewrote the new Batman that was, you know, a few years back to, again, the reboot of Batman.
• 42:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Celebrated writer.
• 42:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he was a showrun, he wrote, you know, the whole entire show.
• 42:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I got a call from, from, I kept my agent about to show and,
• 42:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And just here in the description, you know, it's like, man, this is like an amazing part.
• 42:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And my agent said, I said to my agent, yeah, you know, send me over the script and sides or whatever.
• 43:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll prepare the audition and you said, well, you know, they want to meet you on zoom.
• 43:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I got on zoom, you know, with all the producers there and peers there.
• 43:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: We just talked, I mean, it was weird because I was like, I'm right, you know, you know, how many scenes do you want me to read?
• 43:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, I really want to do this such a great part.
• 43:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And not that time, I didn't have access to a lot of the scripts.
• 43:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just look up on the scenes, they sent over in description.
• 43:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we talked for, I think like 40 minutes, you know, about my background and there's some van.
• 43:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was that, you know, and they told me, you know,
• 43:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he grew up in the East Coast.
• 43:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he really, he knows about that whole East Coast.
• 43:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's written a lot, like the town, things like that about sort of like that sort of the lower class, the criminal world.
• 44:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And...
• 44:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I said to him, I said, why Vietnamese, you know, I mean, this part could be played by actually anybody and, you know, for the, just a brief belief is just about the whole trafficking of fentanyl drugs and stuff on the East Coast, the biggest fentanyl trafficking route that was was busted by the DEA and the FBI and the CIA some years back based on a true event.
• 44:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I said, why be it in a maze?
• 44:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And at that time, can I even realize, you know, in Philadelphia, which we've had a show to place, that we're a community of Vietnamese, so it's certainly large enough to be noticeable.
• 44:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he said to me, he said, why grew up in these coasts, you know, and then you grew, and you've seen these guys.
• 44:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: You've seen Vietnamese guys.
• 44:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: You've seen Chinese guys, you've seen blacks, and Puerto Ricans, and he just thought it was very interesting to have, you know,
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: this Vietnamese American gangster.
• 45:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: His pitch to me was a Vietnamese American Tony's soprano.
• 45:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
• 45:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know.
• 45:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
• 45:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm like, yeah, where do I say that?
• 45:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know?
• 45:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where do I sign?
• 45:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And how much do I pay you?
• 45:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll pay you to do this part.
• 45:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he just wrote this wonderful part.
• 45:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I offered it to me with such a gentleman.
• 45:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: never have to audition for it.
• 45:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it was a big fan of my work and up doing the show and originally I was only signed on.
• 45:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think for maybe four or five episodes and I was gonna die or something.
• 45:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're not sure.
• 45:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then they just kept expanding my character.
• 45:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was just an amazing, like a sapita Craig was just really the guy behind the whole thing.
• 45:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was an amazing experience.
• 45:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I can't advocate enough for those kind of roles to be written in the world.
• 46:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, look forward to now this super fake that is actually put together by like an all-star team.
• 46:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's like guys over from beef and you know, the Saf one of the Safty brothers I believe.
• 46:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's a big project that's being put out there, right?
• 46:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, in eight twenty four is being seen, you know, got Lucy Lou anchoring the show as the, as the lead on it, get some amazing cast on it.
• 46:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, gritty Chinese American community in New York.
• 46:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: in the world of superfeggs, you know, the high-end fakes, Rolexes, and purposes, and things like that.
• 46:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But like I said, the writing, you know, Alice Jew, who's the head writer, she'll run it from beef, such eloquent, amazing writing about the Chinese American experience, the immigrant experience.
• 47:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So in a lot of ways, it's a sort of like a gangster crime drama, but it's really about, again, family, you know, immigrant family, in this case, you know, in New York trying to sort of fit in, trying to find a place for ourselves.
• 47:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Henry, my character, is this...
• 47:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the guy, again, on the surface, another youngster role, you know, he's like the base.
• 47:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's inspired by two different real-life characters in New York that was brought down eventually, but sort of like the head guy that handles all of that, counterfeit business, you know, and underground New York, but it's written so eloquent and he's funny and tense.
• 47:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's vulnerable, I mean, it's just, again, you know, this is the difference, can when I started that, we didn't have Asian Americans, right, that understood us and also as a writer, forget the color of the race, just great writers and who happens to be Asian Americans and understand the Asian American experience.
• 48:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and that I'm really excited, you know, for people to, to, to see it and, and to some of me again.
• 48:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you think about the De Nero's of the world, the Pachinos of the world, they had their place in these gangster mobster movies, and I'm not even Italian, but I'm even like, when I think about how they must have felt to portray those guys, I imagine the pride and the coolness that, we got to be these Italian mobsters at that time.
• 48:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then now I think we're like,
• 49:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So far behind Asian-American actors, we don't get the roles of the Pachinos and the Dineros being in that kind of like that crime world.
• 49:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: But now we're starting to see it with the roles that you're getting.
• 49:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And does that make you want to do
• 49:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: a more sort of wider breadth of work.
• 49:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you have it, you really think about it.
• 49:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: But at this point in your life, do you want like more dramatic roles or are you just really grateful to kind of like, are you searching for a certain role for yourself anymore?
• 49:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have anything particular.
• 49:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do tend to,
• 49:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: for the most probably attracted to so-called dramatic roles.
• 49:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I've always been, and considering the work that I've been doing in the last two or three years, and by the way, it's not a plug, but actually, they don't get away drivers is another.
• 50:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: example of, I think I got some two certain age where, and the timing is right in the industry perhaps where these kind of roles, a little more mature roles that comes in with some depth or at least the potential there for you to explore and bring something to it.
• 50:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 50:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't actually look, but I think that's my wheelhouse, you know.
• 50:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you mean playing the 40-year-old part, your wheelhouse?
• 50:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've always been attracted, I tell you that the performance that inspired me, once I decided to become an actor, has always been and always will be so far, is opportunities, performance and dog day, afternoon, and that's have always been sort of like what I head towards to be able to do is an actor.
• 51:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love comedies, I love romantic comedies and I think it's an actor, gravitates towards more dramatic stuff.
• 51:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think for me now, it's, um,
• 51:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've done some pretty, like, first dramatic roles in Vietnam, you know, that unfortunately doesn't come to the West, but because I've done them and these roles that I've been doing in the US these last few years that we talk about, it makes me realize that still a lot of gas in the tank for me, you know, I feel like as an actor,
• 51:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm so happy that I get really good reviews and feedbacks and the work I've done lately, but I feel like that's like 60% of what I still got, you know, in the tank, I feel like if I was a race horse, you know, I have a ran, I'm a ran yet.
• 52:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
• 52:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm very excited to be open to what's ahead.
• 52:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think having been through a lot of sort of down times of learning that at the end of the day, you know, it's,
• 52:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, it's that half of a lack of faith or what it would be because you just don't know what comes your way and you just get a I think the hardest thing can and I think in your line of work or in any line of work that you really love but during the down time the hardest thing which is to not lose faith in yourself and and not lose that
• 52:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: that joy for what you do.
• 52:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I've lost it, you know, I've lost that joy, you know, at your times.
• 52:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what other people think, but I think those are the two important things to keep in mind, you know, not lose the faith in yourself.
• 52:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We all been, I've been told, you know, so many times that I would never made in this business.
• 53:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right, but I believe it's crazy.
• 53:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, when I think about your life and the business of film and you know, I mean, been knocked down so many times and right and different, like VIP, you know, that peak and 21 jump street, that peak and the peaks that you're writing now and all of these things, it's sort of mind-blowing.
• 53:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've interviewed over 500.
• 53:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: of Vietnamese guests that have been on this podcast.
• 53:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's, you know, a lot of big heavy hitters on the podcast and you're one of the probably the most downloaded episode across all the platforms and it's pretty, pretty magnificent to watch because, you know, as it.
• 53:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: relates to Vietnamese American culture.
• 53:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you were there from the very, you were there from day one, and it really resonates in a podcast like mine, which is, you know, very Vietnamese American centric, so.
• 54:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, interesting.
• 54:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think you and I talked about and of course the title of your podcast too, right?
• 54:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 54:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Talked about and other people, you know, this question comes up all the time.
• 54:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: What?
• 54:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean to be Vietnamese American?
• 54:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 54:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think it still eludes a lot of it.
• 54:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a tough thing to to pay.
• 54:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and, and, and I think you and I have shared over coffee's and meals that growing up, I've never once considered myself Vietnamese Americans for a long time, whatever.
• 54:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 54:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I don't know that that was because it was a knee-jerk reflex of wanting to assimilate.
• 54:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, and sort of push back on being Vietnamese or where we come from.
• 54:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It never was a aggressive thing for me, but for sure, you know, the simulation was a big pressure, and I don't think I've ever was aware in a good way that I am a Vietnamese American and what does it mean until I came back from doing the rebel of Vietnam that trip back to the motherland, you know, after 30 something years.
• 55:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: really I can't tell you how many times I was sitting on set, you know, doing the rebel on on on on waiting, you know, between shots and as so many revelations that came to me, just looking around and and it's like it's not my first time beyond a movie set, but somehow I look around and I'm just astounded that I'm
• 55:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: like I have to all these years working in the film industry, I'm actually on a set now where everybody looks like me.
• 55:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone speaks like me.
• 55:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: We all sitting around hunch over, you know, eating Vietnamese food, but we're making movies, right?
• 55:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: No different for making a movie in France or in a Hollywood or wherever making movies is making movies, but it was at that point I realized
• 56:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm here with people who looked like me, who thinks like me and they all have a same love for movies like me And that really changed it around for me and and I never was a political guy where you know I'm gonna fight for the Vietnamese American cause and all of that stuff in terms of being very very vocal But it really cemented in my heart that I am Vietnamese American and
• 56:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: whatever I can do to keep that image positive through my work, I would do.
• 56:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for 12 years, I was making movies and being non, you know.
• 56:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: and now that I'm back here and not no longer movies there, I still feel that way in terms of, you know, the image of the Asian Americans, I'm the Vietnamese American males, and Vietnamese Americans in general.
• 57:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's always,
• 57:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: room in my heart and in my mind to hear more of your stories publicly because I mean a lot of the stuff that you shared with me privately is spoken to me from you in the privacy of our own kind of bubble when we're together.
• 57:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: But
• 57:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, I've told you this that I really wish some of this could be more public and, you know, again, I've only scratched the surface today and I'm I'm very grateful for what you've shared, but there's also stuff like the meeting of your wife.
• 57:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: we're not going to get into right now, but I hope that maybe next year or at the end of this year we're still in August right now, but that we can get back on and we can talk about the project that you're working on and do the same thing.
• 58:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: We talk about a good chunk of your private life that you're open to sharing and then we can talk about the next few projects that you've been shooting for the rest of this year and
• 58:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: kind of like how that rhythm where it's like there's so much that that you've lived and you know today I want to thank you for coming back on and I really hope to see you again very soon, Dustin.
• 58:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah it's always you know you're nice to down in the time.
• 58:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It goes by and you know and sometimes when we get into a particular topic
• 58:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I try to be mindful of the time constraint and that at the same time, you know, one and just sort of share some things without being so generated.
• 58:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, there's just so many things that you don't realize until you sit down and talk about it.
• 59:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: It could go on for hours, you know, but I mean, there's so many topics like the difference between
• 59:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: acting and directing for you, you know, and then even the hat of being putting on a producer, we can spend hours on each one of these modules that, you know, that I'm sure a lot of young people, if you read the comments in your YouTube section of your interview with me or your podcast with me, you know, it's, there's so much accumulated knowledge that you have that, um, would be it's always fantastic to listen to.
• 59:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, so much of it, certainly lately, I tell you, I can go back to the years that I spent making movies and being a known man.
• 59:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've learned stuff there.
• 59:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no film school and books.
• 59:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can take it back and teach you, you know.
• 59:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I'll share that.
• 59:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that can be really educational, but, but you're right, you know, there's a lot there, but I'm very thankful for, you know, your friendship and have me on the, thank you podcast.
• 1:00:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't do a lot of these because like, you know, there's a comfort there that, but I think for you too, you know, that allows you to sort of relax and talk about things.
• 1:00:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: and have some fun with it at the same time.
• 1:00:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, with you, I feel that.
• 1:00:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's always, it's always great, you know.
• 1:00:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll do another, we'll do another one.
• 1:00:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Dustin.
• 1:00:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate you once again.
• 1:00:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, bro.
• 1:00:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to The Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
• 1:00:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Tran.
• 1:00:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at The Vietnamese Podcast.