By APA Staff
Braving a long, uphill journey that is proving to be well worth the while, the Red Doors cast and crew are hoping to repeat their success in New York as the film opens in Los Angeles and San Francisco this upcoming weekend.
At the 2005 VC Film Fest, Asia Pacific Arts reviewed Georgia Lee's debut feature, Red Doors, calling it a “moving, imaginative film.” Little did we know then that a year and a half later, the comedy about an Asian American family in New York would do what no Asian American indie has done since Better Luck Tomorrow: lead all films with the highest per screen weekend gross in the United States.
Much of the film's success is testament to the efforts by director Georgia Lee, actress/producer Mia Riverton, co-producer Jane Chen, and the rest of the Red Doors cast at mobilizing a grassroots campaign aimed at getting audiences – Asian and non-Asian alike – into theaters. Whereas Better Luck Tomorrow had a major studio supporting the grassroots marketing with TV ads, Red Doors struck gold primarily through underground channels. And as our latest interview with the Red Doors team shows, the success involved strategic positioning, passion infused with hard work, and a bit of good fortune. Their insights not only provide lessons for minority filmmakers looking to turn a festival jewel into a theatrical hit, but also shed light on the spirit of Asian American filmmaking at a critical juncture in its history.
APA talked to the cast and crew of Red Doors on the red carpet as a special preview screening of the film played at Hollywood's glamorous Egyptian Theatre two days before the L.A. theatrical release. Georgia Lee and Mia Riverton were there, as were actors Freda Foh Shen, Tzi Ma, and Elaine Kao, as well as Georgia Lee's father, who the character of Ed is based on. Together, they discuss Red Doors at a juncture of its own: coming off the big New York opening, the film faces uncertainty as it opens in Los Angeles and San Francisco. -- Brian Hu
Interview with the cast and crew of Red Doors
September 20, 2006
Interviewed by Brian Hu and Ada Tseng
Photographs by Angilee Shah
Film stills courtesy of www.reddoorsthemovie.com
Sweetening the Deal
APA: So how did this project begin?
Mia Riverton: Basically Georgia and I were friends at Harvard, and we always had an interest in filmmaking. Georgia went into consulting, and I moved to LA to become an actress. But we were always looking for ways to work together, because Georgia was making short films on the side. But she was in New York and I was in LA so it didn't really work out.
Her parents kind of insisted she enroll in Harvard Business School, and I promptly said, "The only way I'm going to let you do that is if you take a leave of absence after one semester and make a film with me." ‘Cause I had reached a point where I was acting full time, and I loved it, but I really wanted to be part of the creative genesis of a project and work behind the scenes. So she dropped out after one semester of business school and moved into my kitchen in LA (she wrote Red Doors in my kitchen), wrote the script in February and March, and we were in production in May. Our third partner Jane Chen also quit her job in Wall Street and came on board to help produce the movie. It was like three college friends decided to do crazy things.
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(L-R) Georgia Lee, Jacqueline Kim, Rossif Sutherland, Tzi Ma, Freda Foh Shen, Elaine Kao, Sebastian Stan, and Mia Riverton. |
APA: [referring to the actors] So how did you rope these people in?
MR: Well that's an interesting story. We had casting directors in LA and New York, but what happened was the script started making its way around the Asian American acting community. We didn't have any money. At first, we were going to make the movie with $50,000, because we didn't know what we were doing [laughs]. So we were going to use non-professional, non-union actors, and the script found its way to a friend's hands, Eric Byler of Charlotte Sometimes, who passed it to Jacqueline Kim, who plays Samantha in the movie. And Eric also recommended Elaine [Kao] for the same part. From there, Jacqueline passed it onto Freda.
Freda Foh Shen: She called me and said, “There is a project I'm going out for where the script is really good. So you should go out for it.” And I hadn't read the script, so I called my agent and said I wanted to audition. And I don't know what they did or if they did anything, because it's an independent film, so there's no money for them. But a couple weeks later, Jacqueline calls me and says, “How was your audition?” And I said, “What audition?” She said, “They were here!” And I went, “Ahhh!” [laughs]. So I called my agent, and they said, “Well, they didn't want to see you because you're too young.”
MR: That's true. We thought she was too young and beautiful.
FFS: So finally, my agents got me an audition at 7pm at night. They're emailing me the script and the audition is the next day at noon.
MR: At my house.
FFS: Yes, so I get the script. I read it. It was so good. I immediately pushed that button and emailed it to him. [Points to Tzi Ma] Because I thought, if I'm going to go out for the mom, you have to do the father. It really was so good.
So I started calling all my friends to see if they had any old Chinese lady wigs. Nobody had one. So, the next morning, it was 10am, and my neighbor called me. He's 89, and he was recently widowed. I told him what I was doing, and turns out his wife had a box of 15 brand-new wigs, so he came over with them, and one of them fit! So, I took it with me to the audition, and I did it first with my normal hair. And I could tell they were sort of going: “Ummm…” So I put on the wig, I came back in, and literally, they screamed.
MR: You looked like my mom. It was scary.
FFS: So that was my story. The wig got me the job. And Tzi…
Tzi Ma: Well, she sent me the script. I said, "No more indies, man.. I gotta make some dough." [laughs]. And she said, "NO you gotta read it you gotta read." And you know, I've known Freda for a while now, and she's pretty persistent. She'll be on me. So I read it and thought it was wonderful. And then I ran into Mia. She said, “We're doing it. What do you think?” And I said, “I think it's pretty good.” I had to admit, it was pretty good. And then I met with Georgia and Mia in New York. I had a great time meeting Georgia. Mia I already know, so…
MR: I had to sweeten the deal a little for him. He was like, "I don't want to be around the set with that girl all day. Too high maintenance."
TM: [laughs] So I thought, Mia can sweeten the deal.
MR: [mischievously] I think I did.
TM: Shhhh… No, do not print that! [laughs] But yeah, that's how it happened. It was really great. I enjoy being with them. It was a lot of fun. So I thought, bite the bullet.
MR: We had to beg him. That's the back story. We got very, very, very lucky with the casting. When you get this caliber of actors… and with the budget we had? That doesn't happen.
FFS: But it's really the material. When you have the material, you get the actors.
Elaine Kao: I auditioned originally for the role of Sam, and I got called back for Sam. But after the callback, I get this call from Mia saying “Hi Elaine, we're just wondering, would you be interested in reading for the part of Julie?” And I was like “Sure.” And she said, “So, can you come over to audition tomorrow at noon, to my house?”
MR: At my house. I wanted to make out with her. [laughs]
EK: So I go to her house, and I read for Julie.
MR: She was just so good. We knew we wanted her in the movie. It was just a question of what the right fit was.
APA: [To Mia] Did you already know which role you wanted to play?
MR: Well, my character is named Mia, so… We joke about this all the time: that Georgia is just too lazy to change the character names. Her younger sister Kathy is in the movie, and she plays Katie. Georgia just has a lot of placeholders that end up in the actual movie. Georgia and I had wanted to work together as actress and director for a long time, so she wrote the part for me, which was great, because I had never been involved in the process before where I could actually have some say in the development of the character, so that was really interesting. I think it makes for a more organic experience. Which is good though, because I think being an actor and a producer simultaneously on set was really challenging. It takes a lot of compartmentalizing, and it could have been a nightmare. But thankfully, since I was involved in the beginning, it went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would.
Father's Blessings
APA: [to Georgia's father] You want to talk about Tzi's performance?
Dr. Lee: Satisfactory.
FFS: [laughs] You see where the sense of humor comes from?
APA: What was your reaction when you heard that Georgia was writing a character based on you?
GL: How much are you going to pay me?
Dr. Lee: That's exactly right. [laughs] She talked to me quite a bit about what she wanted to do in terms of making a film. And for someone who's just starting out in film, the easiest and the best thing to do is to start out with something you're really familiar with. And that's me.
GL: It's good material to work from. I have a whole lifetime of material.
Dr. Lee: I have a very complicated life. I have a lot of stories for her to write.
TM: You owe him.
APA: How much was made up and how much was based on reality. Is it true that you used to threaten to run off to a monastery?
Dr. Lee: I don't think I threatened, per se..
GL: We just got the sense that he would run off to a monastery. [laughs]
Dr. Lee: Well, I've always had an interest in religion and philosophy, and particularly Buddhism. Actually, I got Georgia and her sister to go to a monastery for summer camp.
GL: We went to a Buddhist camp.
Dr. Lee: I wanted them to check out the place for me first, before I headed out there. But they came back and said, “it's not as great as you think.”
GL: The funny thing is, when I was at the monastery, all I could think was – wow, this would be a great place to shoot. That was why we ended up shooting there: because you had sent me to that Buddhist camp.
Dr. Lee: On a more serious note, I've watched the film a few times. And what I expected from the film was to tell what happens to members of the family when they all go on their lives, particularly when children grow up and parents retire. Unavoidably, you wonder, what am I going to do with my life? Georgia and I talked about it. That's probably the parts of the movie that [reality] comes out.
APA: Georgia, in a lot of interviews, you've played up the fact that you dropped out of business school, to your parents' disappointment, to make this film. [to Dr. Lee] How would you respond to this, now that you have the opportunity?
Dr. Lee: It's somewhat disappointment, but she promised that if Red Doors does well, she will consider…
GL: I promised to consider.
Dr. Lee: She made a deal with us. It just so happens that the school had a regulation that she can always go back in five years without having to reapply.
GL: He's read the fine print.
Dr. Lee: So the clock is still ticking…
GL: [sighs] Some things never change.
A Family Affair
GL: [My sister and I] used to do perform little plays when we were younger. Katie had been in lot of my short films. She's my younger sister, so she's always been used to doing what I say. And she works for free, so… And the role is very much based on her. The two roles that were based on real life were Katie, based on my sister Kathy – she really had a prank war in high school – and Mia. So those two characters are near and dear to my heart. And Ed. But [my dad's] not an actor. Yet.
Dr. Lee: I'm coming to Hollywood.
GL: I always feel like this is my extended creative family. I have the Lee family and I have the Wong family, which is emotionally dysfunctional. I feel very blessed. All these actors usually get paid to do what they do, and they donated their very valuable time and energy and passion to this project. I feel like if I only make one film, I'm very proud that this is the film that I made.
Dr. Lee: You can go back to business school now.
Sending It Out to the World
APA: This has been a long journey. You made the film two years ago, it's been through the festival circuit, and it's finally coming out. I'm sure you've been busy promoting. Can you talk about what that process entails?
TM: With this process of doing a very indie, indie film like Red Doors, you really need a lot of support. You need support everywhere. Not only the cast, the producers, but more than that. The producers: it's their job. They go there, they produce the film, it's out there, the baby's born, they send it out to the world. For the cast as well: we feel responsible and we want to share this particular product with the community. And we try to reach out to the community as much as possible. I mean, I've gotten in contact with people I haven't seen in decades.
Freda and I are both from New York, and I've been in LA since 1988. And ever since I've really gotten into acting, we don't get to see each other that much, but we're good friends, because no matter what, and whenever one of them has a project coming out that needs help, I'm there for them. And vice versa. And that's what happened in New York. All of these people came out from nowhere. It's much easier in NY because things are more concentrated, whereas LA and San Francisco are different. But in terms of really getting the support, [it was] really just calling everyone you know. Email. Thank god for email. Without email, forget about it, this wouldn't happen. If this had happened 20 years ago… forget it. We would have never gotten the type of turnout that we did in New York City. Hopefully it'll repeat itself in LA and San Francisco.
I'm running up with Georgia to San Francisco, because it's opening at the same time. It's in three theaters here [in Los Angeles], so most [of the cast has] to stick around here. I think it's important for a film like this, for the cast to come out and do stuff like Q&A's. Because it's almost like a theater piece: we have some contact with the audience. Where there is some communication and some give and take, as opposed to a regular film that is fully supported by a huge press budget, a huge advertising budget, and it'd be taken care of. If I go to a Hollywood premiere, every one of us would have a publicist following us, introducing us to everyone, before you even get there. There'd be a team of people saying, “Oh Tai Ma's coming down. Freda's over there.”
FFS: And they'd only let us do a few minutes with each reporter.
TM: There's 600 of them. But your life is planned for you. You don't have to worry about it. But for this, [laughs], I'm talking to Freda, are you going to New York? Where are you staying? What's the cheapest fare?
FFS: Jet Blue has a special.
TM: And she's saying, you better get on it now, you're going to miss it. It's a lot of logistical stuff that you usually don't have to think about.
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FFS: Another thing as far as community. There was a man named Gary Lee from New York, who asked Georgia, “do you know people here in the community?” And Georgia was like, “Oh yea, I know people here.” And he said, “I mean… in the business community.” This man was incredible. He went out to all of these businesses, accountants, lawyers, stock firms, investment firms, etc. He said to them, we have this film, an Asian American film, and we have to support it. And it turns out, a lot of these businesses have these funds for diversity groups or specifically for Asian American ones. And they would buy out parts of the house. Deloitte & Touche -- they bought out part of the house in New York City, and they loved it so much that they said they would contact their people in San Francisco and Los Angeles in order to buy out parts of the houses here. But we need that kind of contact and support from our community here. Businesses as well as the artists.
GL: It was very fortuitous. He reached out to me. We need more folks like him, who aren't necessarily in the arts, but who are these connectors between the community and the arts. And the non-profit organizations. And the for-profit organizations. But he reached out to me because one of the many things he does is volunteer for the Chinatown groups, and there was this school called the Shuang Wen school, and he had read about me online and asked if I could speak to them. And then we started talking and he said, “Well how are you reaching out to the Asian American community?” And I said, “well there's Asian Cinevision. There's VC.” And he said, “Yeah, but those are all Asian American entertainment organizations. How are you going to reach out to the Asian American community?” The Asian American entertainment community – we all get the same emails about ten million times. But others don't get the emails about Asian American films, but they would like to. So he said we have to reach out to those groups. So he helped us connect with a lot of the corporations and diversity groups, great groups like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Deloitte & Touche, Leimann Brothers. They all bought out theaters and they filled them with really enthusiastic audiences. And that was really critical for us to helping us achieve our box office success in New York.
FFS: And in the future, I think it's very critical for any Asian American film or theater endeavor, to get those members in the community interested and involved. Books and music, any of that. To get a sense of our own identity and outreach in that way.
GL: It's very powerful. Because we had no marketing budget whatsoever. We didn't have the ability to buy TV ads, to buy billboards, and put these wonderful peoples' faces on them. All we had was the power of grassroots outreach. So we reached out to people like Gary. All of us emailed all of our friends and all of the organizations, in the arts and not in the arts, non profit, Asian American groups, gay and lesbian groups, the women's professional groups, Buddhist groups. And lo and behold, somehow it worked. So I think it shows a couple of things. There is demand out there for this kind of content, just that before, no one knew how to tap into the Asian American market. Now with the internet, there is a way to reach out to everyone in a pretty low-cost way. So I think it's very exciting. I certainly hope that going forward, other Asian American film and theater, music, books, politics also reach out to the Asian American population.
A Home for Asian American Cinema
APA: You opened at the ImaginAsian Theatre in New York. What was that experience like? Was it different from a more mainstream theater?
GL: Yeah the ImaginAsian is a new theater. We opened in two theaters in New York: the ImaginAsian and the Angelika. It was great. We had our premiere at the ImaginAsian. They were very supportive. It was great to have this kind of synergistic thing of having an Asian American film at an Asian American theater. It was really exciting.
APA: Do you think having an Asian American theater is a viable way to sustain Asian American cinema? Or is it not enough?
GL: I don't know, that's a good question. I don't know how the ImaginAsian Theatre itself is doing, or how the TV channel is doing, and I guess only time will tell. I think ultimately, it's about content. If they're able to continue to attract great content and retain it, I think it can be a successful model. Nobody's done it yet, but we hope them well.
APA: I know they're thinking about opening an ImaginAsian Theatre in LA now. What kind of advice would you give them, as directors and producers, now that you've been through the process?
GL: Where are they planning it?
APA: They're planning to have it in Little Tokyo.
EK: Oh yeah, they bought the Linda Lea Theatre and they're renovating it.
GL: I know that in New York City, what makes it difficult for the ImaginAsian is the location. It's not in the most easy-to-get-to location.
FFS: Not just for Asians, but for people who want to get to independent films, it's difficult to get to in terms of the mass transport. San Francisco has the Kabuki Theatre which is also in Japantown, but it's very easy to get to.
MR: LA has a totally different kind of geography from New York. One thing that I would say is different is that I think that they should really partner with grassroots organizations on an ongoing basis. There are so many little Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Chinese, Japanese groups that are not only founded on the arts, but are also political groups and other non-profit organizations. Those people want to see the movies, they're just not in the world of arts and entertainment so they don't necessarily seek out content that's Asian or Asian American, but if it's given to them and they know about it, they're happy to go support it. Maybe we can get more of an audience and then get more traction and have a commercial success and not just a marginalized community. And that's how it crosses over I think.
GL: Reach out to the non-profits, and not just Asian Americans interested in entertainment: school groups, corporations, political groups. Those people are probably very interested in seeing content that is Asian American-based, but have just never had it delivered to them.
MR: And food is very, very important. Keep that in mind. Food and Asian people [laughs]. That's the way to get us there.
A Little Help from Friends
APA: Can you guys talk about your reaction to the New York reception?
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TM: We loved it. It was fantastic. I was going to say you can't buy that kind of opening, but you can, because the community came out and supported us. It's really weird, because sometimes when you look out into the audience, you don't see an Asian American audience. Even if it's a mainly Asian American project. Most of the time it's a predominantly white audience. But this time around, predominantly the audience was Asian American. It was very exciting, man. During the Q/As, everyone came out, and I thought there are really a lot of Asian Americans out there who are taking an interest in what we do. We can't do what we do without you guys. Impossible. It cannot be done. We cannot bring content and projects out to the world without support of the community. We need you guys. You guys need to come out and back our asses up, because without you, it's not going to happen. In terms of sustaining and really letting the world know how different we are, how we can be all of these different things and people, without the support of the community, it can't happen.
FFS: The other thing that I think is important, and I think it's true with this film, is that this is one of the first films that deals with an Asian American family. And I think that is content which is interesting to a lot of people. I had a question from a man who is from the Buddhist community who emailed me and said that this film really should be seen by everybody because it deals with our families -- Asian American families. I've never seen anything like this before. Better Luck Tomorrow is a great film and I really like it, but it's not about an Asian American family. But the more that we have of our experiences here moving on from the immigrant stories, the more we're going to draw in our community. Because all of you guys – this is your story growing up. It's the same as me. And that's one of the things I found so attractive about this: it went beyond the model minority stereotype and it explored all of the dysfunction that was lying beneath my own family, which I'm sure was probably true for any family, which is why people relate to our movie whether they're Asian or not. They can relate to the comedic dysfunction.
Critics in the Crosshairs
APA: How important do you think reviews are in getting the word out?
MR: If they're good, they're important, and if they're bad, they're not important. That's the way I see it. I think independent films are largely review-driven. Certainly in our early festival run, our awards and our reviews pushed us into the public eye a lot more. If we didn't have good reviews, we would have gone the way of other independent films. So I do think that for independent films, it does make a difference.
TM: I don't know, man. Today reviews are not as important in past years, because I think less people read these days.
GL: Yeah, and with the internet, everyone's a critic.
FFS: If you like a film, you email all your friends. It used to be that word of mouth was much slower.
GL: Everybody's a blogger and everybody's a critic now. Almost in a way, criticism has become democratic.
TM: I think again, reviews are all subjective, so whichever reviewer has the most following, people tend to follow his opinion. That's it. And normally as actors, you just read it for amusement. Nothing is as good as they say it is, and nothing is as bad as they say it is. It depends on the content of what they're reviewing. They're always competing with the content. If [a screenwriter] writes with a lot of twelve-syllable words, then sure enough, the review will have a lot of twelve-syllable words! It's weird. We do see that. You always feel that there's a sense of competition between the reviewer and the people creating what they're reviewing.
MR: There is that saying: people who can't do teach…
GL: [laughs] Oh now you're going to get all the reviewers in the world mad at you.
APA: Do you think that there's a disconnect? Especially for Asian American films? A lot of reviewers don't know how to approach an Asian American film.
GL: Yeah.
TM: We all agree.
GL: They miss the point.
MR: There's one of two different things. One is that they're overly focused on the culture and how it's so ethnic and wonderful. But that's not the point. Or the other is that they're not going to be that; they're going to be contrarian and just take the piss out of it because they don't want to be seen as too politically correct.
TM: Or they just don't get it.
APA: The New York Times review said that Red Doors was basically three kinds of movies: the coming-out story, the assimilation story, and the dysfunctional suburbia story. But it's funny because Freda mentioned that this is the first Asian American family film--
GL: --they don't see it in the context of that--
FFS: --in the context that we see it in. They have no reference.
TM: But we forgive you guys because you haven't seen enough of us. If you've seen enough of us, you'll understand.
GL: They don't understand the history and the struggle to bring a film like this to the screen. Which is fine; they see it in the grander context of independent films, but I think it's hard for them to see it in the grander context of the development of Asian American film, which is that we are trying to move away from stories of the immigrant experience. I certainly enjoyed watching those, and those were important and good films, but we're trying to move to the point where we are making films that have real stories and real characters that happen to be Asian American. And this is a point that we feel really strongly about and sometimes I think we're misunderstood. We are very supportive of the Asian American cause in terms of putting faces and stories of Asian Americans in film and television, but I think the most powerful way to do that is not necessarily to focus on being Asian American and focus on the immigration story, but to focus on characters that are very complex and real, and going through compelling life passages, and that's where we started with Red Doors. It was first and foremost a story about a family coming of age. It's a nuanced point though--
MR: --because I don't think we want to belittle the specificity of the Asian American experience. Because I think that's the richness and the detail of the particular experience. But for audiences who aren't Asian American, I think they can find an entry point because they are recognizable and they are three-dimensional. They find their entry point and they find their way into this movie, and then all of a sudden they're having this organic experience. And before they realize it, they're enjoying an Asian American film!
Official site: http://www.reddoorsthemovie.com (http: //www.reddoorsthemovie.com)
APA interview with Jacqueline Kim (http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=53492)
APA interview with Georgia Lee (http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=41635)
APA review of Red Doors (http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=24223)
Published: Thursday, September 21, 2006
