There's no maybe about it: Always Be My Maybe is one Netflix original movie you should definitely
watch.
Starring Ali Wong and Randall Park, the film has been hailed by critics and viewers alike
as a fresh and hilarious success.
So just how did this gem of a movie come to see the light of day?
If you thought the on-screen chemistry between Ali Wong and Randall Park was pretty incredible,
you're not alone.
In fact, part of that might be because the comedic duo goes back a long time, all the
way back to college at UCLA, if you can believe that!
They met in the late 1990s at a friend's place, where said friend was hosting a fried rice
cooking competition, as reported by The Washington Post.
The two were also part of the LLC Theatre Company, a comedic performing arts group that
Park co-founded.
And in a twist that confirms all too clearly that truth is stranger than fiction, Always
Be My Maybe premiered at the Regency Village Theater in Westwood, which is where UCLA is
located.
The surreality of that was not lost on them, either.
Wong told Variety that being in Westwood was, quote, "a trip."
"Brilliant.
Excellent, as always.
Ta-ta, Julianne!"
"Okay, first of all, you sound like Count Chokula."
For as much acclaim as Always Be My Maybe is receiving, the movie might never have been
made if not for a fateful 2016 interview Wong did with The New Yorker.
Wong was riding high from the success of her Netflix special Baby Cobra, and she mentioned
that she and Park had been trying to make a specific movie for years, their, quote,
"version of When Harry Met Sally."
Of course, by their "version," Wong presumably meant an Asian take, as there aren't exactly
a ton of rom-coms out there with Asian-American leads.
It didn't take very long for the word to get out about it after that, and boy did the internet
respond.
Vulture even put out a plea to Hollywood, begging to get the movie green lit.
Park recalled in an interview with The Washington Post:
So Wong and Park got to writing the script, along with screenwriter Michael Golamco.
The rest, as they say, is history!
When Harry Met Sally wasn't the only film that Wong and her crew looked to for inspiration
while birthing Always Be My Maybe into existence.
The 1992 star-studded comedy Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy, was also a film Wong had in
mind when fleshing out the characters and meditating on the comedic aspects of the film.
She told Rolling Stone:
Additionally, Wong appreciated that the premise of Boomerang was black employees working at
a black advertising agency, something she found refreshing, and, quote, "empowering."
She dished:
The late 2010s marked an uptick in the amount of movies starring Asian-American actors,
like Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
Always Be My Maybe is a welcome addition to these groundbreaking films, and it really
is the first of its kind.
Director Nahnatchka Khan gushed in an interview with Variety:
The same holds true for Jordan Peele's Us, a horror film predominantly starring black
actors.
In addition to that, Park and Wong emphasized that it was equally important that they make
a fantastic movie, as people wouldn't want to see it otherwise, it had to be great.
Wong joked:
Always Be My Maybe is filled with many little moments that Asian Americans resonated with
in a special way, such as Judy telling Sasha:
"We Koreans use scissors for everything."
…and Sasha preparing Spam musubi for dinner.
Those moments are important, as they allow families descended from immigrants to see
bits of their own everyday lives on the screen in front of them.
While that was indeed intentional, Park also wanted to make sure that the film wasn't rife
with stereotypes or populated by characters that viewers would expect.
The actor explained to The Washington Post:
To that end, they sought to make the relationship between Marcus and his dad, who doesn't speak
with an accent, affectionate and close.
"Hey.
At some point, you're gonna have to take a chance on something, son."
That flies in the face of the stereotypical portrayal, which shows Asian mothers and fathers
with thick accents.
One of the many hilarious and bitingly smart aspects of the film is Marcus' band, Hello
Peril.
With clever lyrics and fun performances from the actors, you can't help but crack a smile
when the band takes the stage.
And yes, that is the famous Bay Area rapper Lyrics Born on stage with Marcus.
Plus Dan the Automator actually produced all of the Hello Peril songs, according to Pitchfork.
And get this: Park even wrote his own lyrics.
It probably helps that he had his own '90s hip-hop band, Ill Again, to use as inspiration.
You might not have caught it, but Park very deliberately named the band Hello Peril for
a reason.
In an interview with Pitchfork, he revealed:
How clever can you get?
It was pretty impossible to miss that Daniel Dae Kim played the role of Brandon Choi, Sasha's
fiancé.
You might have recognized him from his work in Lost as Jin-Soo Kwon or perhaps as Jack
Kang in Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent.
While we're over here wondering why he doesn't have his own James Bond movie yet, Kim was
just massively stoked to be cast in Wong and Park's film.
In an interview with Variety, he gushed:
Plus he says he loved getting to play a jerk.
Hey, he might be the sweetest guy in real life, but Kim seems to be a pro at playing
jerks!
"So, you want me to go to San Francisco alone?"
"That's the beauty of it.
We'd both be in new surroundings.
We'd be apart…together."
And Wong knew what she was doing with this casting, too.
The actress shared:
You might have noticed some subtle cultural details in Always Be My Maybe.
For example, in the beginning, Sasha and Marcus remove their shoes when they come indoors,
only replacing them when it's time to leave.
That's akin to Judy pointing out that Koreans use scissors for everything.
But some of these touches were the work of director Khan, whose movie debut is arguably
a visionary one.
She wanted to make sure that the time and place, the San Francisco Bay Area in the '90s,
was reflected in the film, especially for Asian-Americans.
She explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:
So, if you felt transported to a San Francisco where the rent wasn't so darn high and there
weren't hipster coffee shops everywhere, that's the reason why.
Kimchi stew.
Lemongrass dumplings.
Free shumai.
And yes, even venison sous vide, complete with headphones...
"Comes with headphones so you can hear the sound of the exact animal you are about to
consume, illustrating nature's life to death cycle."
In so many scenes in Always Be My Maybe, food plays an important role, both as a marker
of cultural identity and a force that can either bring people together or break them
apart.
Food is important in every culture, and, in this film, viewers are treated to the cuisine
that's significant in Asian-American traditions, such as Korean and Chinese food.
Lest we forget that Sasha is a chef, and a very successful one at that!
To that end, it makes total sense that they hired celebrity chef Niki Nakayama as a consultant
for the film.
Director Nahnatchka Khan told the Los Angeles Times:
Who's hungry now?
All of the locations they filmed in the movie had a significant sense of place, one that
felt familiar, especially if you grew up in the Bay Area in the '90s as Wong did.
And even though Park grew up down south in Los Angeles, he put a lot of himself into
his character, Marcus.
In an interview with NPR, Park shared:
And, you know what?
That really comes through.
Believe it or not, Park literally brought aspects of his family onto the film set: specifically,
those paintings.
He explained:
All of that helped make things feel as genuine and close to the heart as possible for him.
If you saw the trailer before watching Always Be My Maybe, you knew Keanu Reeves was going
to show up at some point.
But if you didn't, you might have fallen out of your chair when he turns up as a satirical
version of himself as Sasha's date.
"Jesus Christ."
"Oh my God, you're bleeding!"
"You see how easy that was, Marcus?"
Remember that dinner scene?
Yeah, it was basically one of the funniest moments of the film, complete with lines from
Reeves like the characters' $6,400 meal costing…
"…less than a residual paycheck from my hit movie Speed."
Of course, Wong and Park wrote the role explicitly for Reeves without knowing if he'd actually
take it.
But much to their surprise, he did, and he reportedly was a total blast to work with.
Wong had some specific motives behind this casting, too.
In an interview with Vulture, she confessed:
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