You know, I don't hate
I do shit about legacy
Do stuff you love
You know, do stuff you can get behind
I want to not care about what people think
and I want to
do things because I want to do them
Hey everyone
It's Julie Young
For Korean American Story
and Not Your Average
Today we are in
Brooklyn Bridge Park
sitting down with Justin Chon
Hey
Yo, what does that even mean
Oh gook?
in Korean it just means country
What I'm curious about is
you grew up with this
grand dream of being a famous actor someday
No
General I feel like-
What happened
No, I didn't
This is like
maybe I should do this kind of thing
No, because it wasn't a possibility
I did-
You said it was not
Yeah, it's just-
It's just not possible
You know,
growing up it's just
You look at it's
not
allowed
It's not like
there's no space for you
Yeah
And I don't I was
delusional, enough to think
that like I was
gonna
be
a pio-
like to break through that
Because this is-
you know growing up
there is no John Cho or
Yeah
There's nothing
At what point were you like
Ok, actually I think this is it
I'm gonna do this
I still- I don't know
I still don't know
Look at me I'm still like
Now I'm directing
I don't know, you know like
Yeah, when did the directing part of it
come into it
I think it became a part of it when
I just
was sick of like
auditioning
Yeah
And sick of
What people are telling me
I'm capable and not capable of
Yeah
You know, and
The thing is, I know I'm a good actor
You know, like
You know, people
You know, I don't give a shit
What people
Say
I know I'm a good actor
Because I wouldn't be here
And I wouldn't have had the opportunities and
gotten the jobs
that I did, if I wasn't
And I know what I'm capable of
which is so much more than
I've been allowed to do
Another part of it is like
you're only as good
as a script
Right? So you watch like
someone like Russell Crowe, right?
He's never really bad at anything
But when he's given the right
platform, and the right
the right, you know
the material and the right direction and the right
you know infrastructure
He just destroys
So you see something like
I don't know
Like I heard this story
Someone worked on
3:10 to Yuma
They wanted Brad Pitt for that
He came in like, you know
He got the script like a week before
And he came in and he
Just destroyed it
He's a good actor
There's no denying that
But he's been in some bad films
So imagine being an Asian-American
You're just constantly given
The bad roles, I mean
or
even if you are in something good
like, say like you know
Kelvin (Yu)
He was in Milk
But does anyone remember him in Milk
No
Because he was at like ancillary character
And I think he had one line
But I think if I'm directing, like
Most of the time I should be
Just directing
'cuz that will
I will create the right
Platform for someone else
To really shine
I'll create the roles that I want to do
But I'll give it to somebody else
Would you ever eventually just want to direct
Just depends
You know like, I don't
I think
At a certain point in my career
I stopped
Saying
This is
The end all be all or
This is the direction
Because its always
Constantly shifting
What do you want your legacy to be?
You know I don't really-
I don't give a shit about legacy
Like I think it's like-
Come on really?
Yeah,like I think it's like I-
I have a purpose
And I just keep
You know
Putting my nose to the grindstone and working
'cuz legacy means that
You're so self-important that like
You want to be immortal
Immortalized
By the impact that you leave behind
You know
Like, making
Making "Gook"
Being on both sides
Like being an actor
It's such a self indulgent like
Thing
And it's so funny when actors are like
When they make something
And they're like
Really annoyed that people like
Love them so much for that, right?
Like you know
Someone who does like a famous role
And they constantly get noticed for that
And they're really annoyed about it
It's like, is that what you asked for?
And then it's like
The other side is directing
And you make this film and
The only thing I wish is
Every project I take on is
Am I willing to talk about this
For the next five years
Or ten years, or possibly if its
You know if
God forbid if it's successful
The rest of my life
Like if it's something iconic, right?
Right
It's more about, can I
Have enough passion to
Talk about it for that long
It's more about
It's more about thinking about it in those terms
Rather than like
This project
How is it gonna influence people
Is it more about like
Can I get behind this
You have like, a life philosophy that you follow?
Yeah, like
Do stuff you love
You know, do stuff
You can get behind, you know I think
You know, transitioning
from
a
a little dumb shit
like twenty-something year old
into like, now being like
Now thirty six
No offense to you twenty year olds
Yeah
But you know, being thirty six now
And like you know starting to get older
And having a kid
and transitioning into that phase of my life
I think it's more about
I don't really care what
I do care, not thats a lie, like
but it's like
I want to not care about what people think
And I want to
Do things because I want to do them
Yeah
Cheers
Thanks