From comedy, to dance, to hosting "Trading Spaces: Girls versus Boys," Diane Mizota attackes every arena of the entertainment forefront as the "Wonder Woman of the Year."
Interview with Diane Mizota
October 23, 2003
Interviewed by Allan Axibal
Transcribed by Jennifer Chong
Diane Mizota is well remembered as the ditzy Japanese twin "Fook Mi" in Austin Powers in Goldmember, but do not let this image define who she is. The UCLA graduate began her career in entertainment as a professional dancer appearing in two Academy Award shows, Friends, Ally McBeal, That Thing You Do, A View From the Top, and more. Diane's extensive acting ability, ranging from comedy to drama, has graced the screen in a number of movies and television shows including: Miss Match, King of Queens, MTV's Undressed, 7th Heaven, a recurring role on CSI: Miami, Imposter, and Out to Sea. Her dynamic personality can now be seen as the host on Discovery Kid's Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls and the youth lifestyle countdown show Filter on the G4 Network. Multichannel News awarded her the honor of being this year's "Wonder Women of the Year."
Click Here for the interview with Diane Mizota in RealVideo.
Allan: Please introduce yourself. Tell us a little about your background.
Diane: I'm Diane Mizota and I'm the host of "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls." I got started in entertainment and then I got into commercials and more theatrical stuff. Then I just started hosting probably in the last year and a half, or two years. It's kind of just another thing, like being an actor, you have to be able to do a lot of different things. So that's what I do now and I really enjoy it.
Allan: How did your UCLA education help your career, if at all? Was it helpful to be in the LA area, in terms exposing yourself to the Hollywood scene?
Diane: It absolutely helped me. In my fourth year, I took one of those internship classes for credit which I thought was the coolest thing -- that you could go to a sound stage and eat their food and get class credit for that. It was really great. I interned at Bette Midler's production company in reading scripts, and I think there are lots of internships available like that. From there, one of the development executives helped me get onto Margaret Cho's sitcom, which was filming on the Disney lot at the same time and I'd heard about it and read about it. I wanted to be an intern on it so they asked around and I ended up being the intern on that show. That really opened my eyes to the way things work or don't work, as the case may be sometimes. That was invaluable. I mean, I think that was probably some of the best part of my education where actually getting out there and seeing what's going on and being able to ask people questions about what they do and how things work in the entertainment field. And I also love my UCLA education because being a Communications Major, you get to analyze media and so you're aware of the images, especially being a performer, that you may portray or may be asked to portray. Just having an awareness, I think, is something that a lot of the actors who don't have a background like that kind of maybe don't think about or aren't aware of.
Allan: You began as a dancer, so what kind of dances do you do and how and why did you transition into acting?
Diane: I started as a jazz dancer. I always loved dance. When I was in high school I was on the dance team and we competed. I just never thought I could make a living at it. When I came to UCLA, I really picked it because it's close to these professional dance studios that you get to get on scholarship there, which in essence means you get free dance classes for cleaning toilets and working the desk. That's what I did while I was in college. I did a lot of film and TV commercials mostly with jazz. I've done the "Academy Awards," Gap commercials, "Friends," and "Suddenly Susan." Basically, whenever there was a dream sequence on a sitcom, there was a dance number. It was like in the "Drew Carey" time when there was a lot of dance on sitcoms. From there, I started to do dance commercials and realized that it's very lucrative and much less time consuming to work in commercials and so I transitioned in that way. It was like, "I don't have to hurt myself or pull a hamstring to this a job?" It just sort of happened. Dancing was really my first love, my first passion.
Allan: How was it to play opposite Mike Myers in Austin Power's "Goldmember" as Fook Mi?
Diane: It was amazing. It was so fun and I really enjoyed it. I mean he's really gracious and kind and here I am this little nobody, struggling actor, who got picked for this role and he treated me like an equal, which was really amazing. It wasn't in the final cut but we do have a couple of other scenes where we got to work with Michael Caine, which was completely mind-blowing. He saw my audition tape and made comments about how prepared we were and how much work we put into these characters and he was like, "That's what acting is all about." Our audition was insane because we really kind of went for it and tried to match everything about ourselves, like Dazzling, she had a belly button ring so I had a fake belly button ring, and things like that. He was just so complementary and I was like "Wow, I can die now because Michael Caine complemented me on my acting." It was just an amazing experience. Everyone from the set designer to the director, they're all at the top of their game, like complete A-list moviemakers. It was really an amazing experience.
Allan: So, this character is probably a very familiar image to non-Asians as a "fobby" Asian girl who can barely speak English and who clashes with the American culture by way of her attitude, dress, attire and more. What do you think about Hollywood perpetuating such images?
Diane: Well, I think it's a shame that in addition to images like that there aren't other images. It's like that's all that there is. I think that that's a shame. Coming from an actor's perspective, I make choices for me and my career that make me happy. I kind of had issues with the character. My barometer for picking roles is like "is this something that I would be offended by?" The tone and the attitude of "Goldmember" is so silly and so over the top that I just thought it was really funny. I was concerned though obviously about it being a stereotype. But, the sad thing is that white actors can play really ditzy, really stereotypical parts and because there's a balance of real, smart, and true characters, that it's not like the Asian community where it's like this alarm goes up because unfortunately that's the only kind of representation we're given. Now, I think that it's hard to change that because of Hollywood. I know I spoke to Jay Roach and Mike Myers about the characters. Mike loves Japan and he had gone there and he really loves anime, both Mike and Jay, so they kind of wanted these characters to be very "cartoonish" and very much based on Japanese anime. I felt good knowing that that was their intention, and of course these characters were sexy, but they weren't trying to be degrading or be gratuitous or anything like that. I think that they were honestly just trying to be silly and everybody on the set just embraced us and, for he most part, the feedback is fairly positive. But it is a shame that there aren't any other characters so there isn't a wealth of Asian American characters in the media to see so that you have a spectrum. Unfortunately, it's very select right now. I think it has to change with writing because there aren't projects written especially about Asian Americans to portray what our experiences are like. So during "Austin Powers" I was working with my friends and we were writing a sitcom treatment about us as dancers. It just felt good to be a part of something positive and to use my story of what's happened to me in the entertainment industry in a positive way and with humor. It was hard to write my story but I think that's what more people need to do so it gets out there and there is much more diversity in terms of Asian characters and parts.
Allan: How did you land the hosting position for "Trading Spaces, Boys versus Girls?" Tell us a little about the show.
Diane: I auditioned. They had a mock house set up in the Valley with little child actors and I just had to go in and kind of improvise and also do a set standup like I do to open the show. They put me on tape and I just thought this was the perfect job for me but I just didn't first of all think that they'd pick an Asian person because most everybody on "Trading Spaces" is white. Then, I just knew it really felt right for me and then a couple of months later they called me and offered me the job.
So it's about a boy and a girl and they trade rooms for two days and they re-decorate each other's room with the help of designers and carpenters and it's usually along a theme because with kids, they don't care if you can make a desk versus buying a desk. That doesn't really mean anything to them. But, we do get to work with tools and they usually pick a theme. We've done a skateboarding room, and a Hollywood movie star room. Whatever the kid is interested in is what we do. I'm really having a good time with it and it's nice for me to be a presence on television and not be a character, or a stereotype, or a Chinese prostitute, or all of the other crazy things that are out there. I just get to be myself and not have an accent, which I'm really enjoying.
Allan: What is "Filter" on the G-4 network?
Diane: "Filter" is a top ten countdown show. We countdown with the video games, like the best fighting games or the best Mario games. G-4 is a network. They show video games. The whole focus is how guys play each other. There are shows where they interview creators and games. It's all about video games.
Allan: You obviously like to work with children and direct most of your acting career toward the youth audience. Was this by choice? Why toward the younger generation rather than the adult audience?
Diane: It wasn't really a choice. I mean, being an actor you kind of just go where the work is. I guess I love kids and I've always really enjoyed children's senses of humor. I just think that my energy really plays toward the younger audience. What I enjoy about my job now is that I can say all of my 13-year-old boy jokes and everybody laughs. It's just really fun. I guess I feel sort of youthful myself. Adult and more grown up kinds of programming just aren't as fun. You don't get to be as silly. So, it definitely wasn't on purpose. I just think maybe my energy or my essence kind of veers more towards being a little more goofier and sillier as opposed to the lawyer, the kick-ass or bad ass, or anyone like that.
Allan: What do you like about being a host? How does that differ your experience as an actor?
Diane: Well, like I said, being a host is great because you just get to be yourself. A lot of our show is improvised just with the kids so you get to just kind of go with what's happening and it's also very low pressure because it's so highly edited that you don't have to get the take perfect. You just talk and then they'll take little funny sound bites and make the show. So, I just enjoy that it's a very loose structure and it allows for a lot of freedom and creativity. We're always coming up with ideas for different shots. It's also given me a background into pre-scene, how a show is made, and how to piece together stories. I've been kind of really watching how they're doing it because it's not realistic to plan to be in front of the camera forever, nor do I really want to. It's great to get an eye for a prettier scene.
Hosting is different from acting in that in acting, you try to bring yourself to every character, like aspects of yourself. But, hosting, I just find it much more free than acting because I'm actually having my own voice and it's not somebody's words necessarily put into my mouth so I really enjoy that. It's something that comes naturally to me and I don't feel the pressure. Acting would always really stress me out. I'd have acting classes at night and I'd be like "What am I going to do?" You know, I was just really stressed out. But with hosting, it just comes very easily and it's very enjoyable for me.
Allan: You said you like the behind the scenes look and producing and that you didn't want to be an actor in front of the camera forever. Does that mean you plan on producing?
Diane: I haven't thought that far in advance, but probably I could see myself going in that direction. Just from being in this business for over ten years now, you kind of know when a production is run well and when it's not. Just working with Banyan, the production company that does our show, I've sat in on editing and really talked to the producers and I could see myself going in that direction and it would help to alleviate some of my frustrated performer issues because I'd have a little more control about content and maybe pick some projects that have more of an Asian American focus. That's something that would make me feel really good because as a performer you only have choices about what kinds of work you take that is offered to you. You aren't really necessarily creating so much as a producer, a writer, or an executive producer.
Allan: Congrats on being awarded the Multichannel News "Wonder Woman of the Year." What does this mean to you and why do you think you were chosen amongst all the other well qualified nominees?
Diane: Do you want the truth? I think the guy at Multichannel news, one of their editors, saw me on "Filter" and he liked me on that show and then he saw "Austin Powers" and he liked that because they did a little story on "Austin Powers." I talked to the head of G-4 and he was like, "We don't know how this happened because we are such a small network and basically nobody gets our channel." But, he just somehow picked me to feature in an article and it was great. It was great press for our little network. I don't think it really had any bearing on my career or anything but it was nice to be recognized for your work on a channel that you don't think anybody watches, that maybe six people do. So, G-4 flew me to New York and we went to the luncheon and that was really nice because it honored women in cable and women executives and that was really cool to see that they're really in active and influential positions.
Allan: What was the lie you were going to say?
Diane: Well, I don't know. I was like should I speak of something?ut honestly was it like they picked me on merit? No. It was just the guy kind of had a thing for the video game show which kind of happens often, like I've had eight-year olds and thirteen-year olds asking me to marry them and stuff which is so funny to me but that's your audience, those video game pros. A lot of thirteen year old boys are quite familiar with that market.
Allan: Future plans?
Diane: I really see myself continuing on and hosting. I really enjoy it. Hopefully our show will go on for at least another season and then after that, I 'd love to host on a network show. I just enjoy it cause you don't have homework like with acting. But of course, if anything came up, like I just met with some people at NBC when I was in New York and he was like, "We'll keep you in mind for any little things we can to keep you"...because I'm on the East Coast a lot. And, if an opportunity came up, of course I'd love to do a sitcom or films, which is sort of not any profession you can plan what's next. I mean you can kind of think where you're going to want to go, but I would never have said, "You know next year I think I'm going to do 'Austin Powers.'" I mean, you just never know where things are going to take you. That's kind of what's so fun about it, yet also completely maddening cause I'm a big planner and you just can't really know.
Allan: Do you have a goal for your career, like do you want to be in a place at a certain time?
Diane: No. I mean, I just want to have my health insurance. I don't really have that. When I chose to be a dancer, I expected to live in a one bedroom apartment for the rest of my life. I never expected to make a career out of it. I thought that I'd do this, and then I'll become a secretary or something. I'm just going to keep trying to enjoy myself and maybe create a project of my own. I really don't know.
Allan: Well thank you so much, Diane.
Diane: Thank you.