FWM: When did you discover your love for acting?
I have always loved performing. I started taking ballet at eight years old and was a cheerleader from the ninth grade on. I was a member of a dance squad called the Satin Dolls in high school and took jazz and ballet classes at Fullerton College, where I earned an A.A. in Theatre Arts, and at Cypress College, where I earned an A.S. in Chemistry. I was also a cheerleader at Cypress College.
I started entering beauty pageants when I was 18 and, being a very obsessive and driven person, I ended up winning most of them and placing in all of them. I was a City Queen for many cities and a State Queen for California for different titles. I was very honored to hold all titles, but some very special ones are Miss Los Angeles Chinatown, Miss Cypress, Miss Hawaiian Gardens, Miss San Francisco Universe, Miss Orange County Universe, Miss California Hemisphere, Mrs. Orange County America, Mrs. California United States 2000, Mrs. American Achievement, Ms. United States World 2007, Ms. World 2008 and Ms. Universe 2009. The wonderful Miss Los Angeles Chinatown pageant committee sent me to Taiwan, Hong Kong and on a cruise to Mexico to represent the Los Angeles Chinatown community.
While attending U.C. Berkeley and majoring in Chemistry, I won Miss San Francisco Universe and was discovered for the part of Miss Hawaii on “Fantasy Island”. I dropped out of Berkeley and re-enrolled at Cypress College to pursue show business, which did not make my Asian family very happy, but I eventually went back to school and earned a B.S. in Business Management and MBA from Pepperdine University.
I got the part of Cleo the Snake Dancer on Magnum P.I. and did a dance with a huge snake, and I thought it was my BIG break! My part got cut to a giant poster with the snake on a building behind Tom Selleck, while he sat on a curb! While at Cypress College, I studied with Mark Majarian, who was an excellent teacher. I switched over to Fullerton College after I got my A.S. in Chemistry from Cypress College, and I studied with Sal Romeo. I joined Sal’s Friends & Artists Theatre Company in Los Angeles, which included Dustin Nguyen from the television series “21 Jump Street”, and I learned so much from Sal!
I am currently studying with Matthew Arkin at South Coast Repertory and privately with Karole Foreman. Karole is a Shakespearean expert and has written two musicals based on Shakespearean plays. She helped me prepare my Lady Macbeth monologue for Brian Barsuglia’s “A Bard for the Ages: Shakespeare’s Timeless Effect” and for our award-winning film “Dark Classics”. I am very proud of winning Best Shakespearean Actress at the 2019 LANFA Film Festival Awards for “Dark Classics” on August 4, 2019!
“I believe that I am a Formidable Woman because of my drive to succeed and to always stay positive and to overcome any obstacle that might stand in my way.”
FWM: You have acted in over 60 feature films, alongside legendary actors including Aki Aleong, Lorenzo Lamas, Mel Novak, Eddie Griffin, and Tommy Wiseau. Was there any commonality between the actors?
All of the legendary actors that I have worked with on-screen and in plays share the distinction of being dynamic and charismatic. The camera loves them and they seem to glow on screen. When I did the Eye on Entertainment interview with Aki Aleong, he was very sick that day and could barely open the gate to his ranch. As soon as we started filming, he instantly became the magnetic Aki again and it is one of our best interviews! Here is the link to the interview: https://youtu.be/rlg7N0dX7xA
I recently worked with Aki and filmmaker John Reign in the film “Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption”. They are both two of the greatest actors I have ever worked with, and I am so grateful to be part of this amazing film! I first worked with John Reign in his great film “Finding Purpose”. I had wanted to work with John and his Polestar Productions for a long time, and “Finding Purpose” is a film that is close to John’s heart. It starts with a spectacular war sequence from the Bosnian war, and John wrote this film originally for his disabled brother, who unfortunately died before the film could be produced. Tom Stoops took over the role of John’s disabled brother and he did a fantastic acting job and brings comic relief to the film. John expanded my role as his ex-girlfriend Skye, as the shoot went on because we had amazing chemistry in our scenes together. John was concerned with the lighting and how I looked, and I appreciated it so much. We took multiple takes from all angles, and he would show everyone what the scene looked like from the monitor playback. “Finding Purpose” ended up being my first love story!
There was so much charisma and intense energy between Aki Aleong and John Reign in all of their scenes together in the big-budget sequel to “Finding Purpose”, called “Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption”. John plays my husband in the film and Aki plays my father. Their scenes together in the film are electric and John was nominated for Best Actor at the 2019 Hollywood Silver Screen Festival and “Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption” won Best Feature Film. Aki won the Trailblazer Award.
When I worked on Gregory Hatanaka’s “Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance”, I was on set all day and didn’t film my scene until late that night. I knew my character and my part, but I only knew the character name of who I would be working with. I went on the set and met Tommy Wiseau, but it was right before he became mega-famous. I hadn’t seen “The Room” so I didn’t know who he was, but he was mesmerizing. You couldn’t stop looking at him. In the scene, I was supposed to be showing him how to use a sword. He ended up showing me how to show him how to use the sword! I am grateful to Gregory Hatanaka for giving me that scene with Tommy!
FWM: Tell us about the 2019 Hollywood Silver Screen Festival.
The Hollywood Silver Screen Festival is an IMDb-qualified annual festival with live film screenings, guest and panel speakers seminars, small group breakout sessions and networking parties in Los Angeles, California. The Executive Producer of Hollywood Silver Screen Festival is the award-winning film director and actress, Dr. Petra Deeter. Her recent movie, Reborn, a narrative drama about domestic violence, has received many awards and honors and has been screened in theaters around the world, including the legendary Chinese Theaters in Hollywood. Quoting Dr. Deeter, “Visual storytelling has the power to influence, teach, inspire and enrich our lives. It can bring hope, clarity, and understanding. It breaks boundaries and builds connections between people, between people and dreams, ideas and visions. The Hollywood Silver Screen Festival is all about recognizing and celebrating the artists who dedicate their lives and passion for the art of visual storytelling.”
I was very privileged to be the 2019 Festival Queen, and to have had the great honor of presenting the Awards to the Industry Winners and the Film Festival Winners. Many of the Award winners were good friends of mine, which made the evening even more special!
I am excited to announce that John Reign and Polestar Productions won Best Feature Film for “Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption” and John was nominated for Best Actor! I play John’s wife Skye in the film. The great Aki Aleong plays my father in the film, and Aki won the Trailblazer Award for his legendary career! I can’t wait until everyone can see both “Finding Purpose” and the bigger budget “Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption”. I am so proud to be a part of these fantastic, heartwarming films!
The winner of the Innovative Artist Award was Hollywood leading man Chris Tashima. Chris won an Academy Award for his wonderful film “Visas and Virtue”, and he has starred in Stacey Hayashi’s “Go For Broke”, “Under the Blood Red Sun” and many other films. Chris cast my daughter Marissa as a Japanese princess in one of his earliest films “Chisai Samurai”, and my mother and I have followed his amazing career ever since then.
FWM: You are the Executive Producer and Host of an award-winning television interview show called “Eye on Entertainment”. Can you tell us more?
Filmmaker John Cox and I started “Eye on Entertainment” on Time Warner Cable almost 15 years ago. At the time, I was a Marketing and Public Relations Director for an international Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) company, but I missed show business so much that I would work 12 hour days in technology and then travel to Hollywood to conduct interviews with stars at film festivals or on the sets of their films. Sometimes we would conduct interviews at the Time Warner Cable studio that was run by Linda Lou, and she became part of our team. A highlight of doing “Eye on Entertainment” was covering the Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards in 2009. We had to cover the Daytime and Primetime Emmy Awards, and all of the events in between!
“Eye on Entertainment” won Outstanding Television Show at the 2013 EOTM Awards and Best Television Show at the 2017 WIND International Film Festival, where I was also named Best Host for “Eye on Entertainment”. I am now mainly focusing on my Acting career and becoming the BEST actress that I can be, so I mainly do “Eye on Entertainment” interviews to help promote the films that I am in. You can access our YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/eyeonentertainment
FWM: Tell us about Eat Darling Eat.
Eat, Darling, Eat is a storytelling website (www.eatdarlingeat.net) about mother/daughter relationships. The authors of the site are Author and Journalist Aimee Lee Ball and Filmmaker and Cinematographer Steve Baum. Aimee’s books include No Time to Die, a New York Times Notable Book; Cybill Disobedience, a New York Times best-seller; and Changing the Rules, a Best Business Book. Steve Baum is a filmmaker and award-winning cinematographer whose production credits include “Proof of Innocence” (Discovery); “The Pluto Files” based on the book by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (PBS/Nova); “The Physics of the Circus” (New York Times Productions); “Beatlemania” on Broadway; and the documentary “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry.”
Steve found me on Backstage.com and asked me to write an article for Eat Darling Eat. My mother had just become a Vegan so I asked her for some recipes. As Steve and Aimee learned more about my mother, they kept asking me to expand upon her history in the Japanese Internment Camp at Poston during World War II. I am grateful for the experience of writing this article because it forced me to do research and learn more about my mother. What makes me the happiest is that my mother is proud of the article! You can see the full Eat Darling Eat story here: https://www.eatdarlingeat.net/single-post/An-American-Story
FWM: Why are you a Formidable Woman?
I believe that I am a Formidable Woman because of my drive to succeed and to always stay positive and to overcome any obstacle that might stand in my way. I inherited this drive from my mother Fumie Lee, and I have passed this down to my two daughters Marissa and Misty.
I am grateful to many people in my life, but most of all to my mother Fumie Lee. I am Chinese, Japanese, and Native American. My mother was interned with her family at the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona during World War II. After internment, my mother remembers eating tomato sandwiches because money was so scarce. But my grandfather started another carnation farm in Encinitas after the war and made a lot of money through the Japanese stock market, although he continued to live frugally in the same house, demanding that all seven of his children work in the carnation fields. My grandfather imparted a fierce work ethic to the family. My Uncle Jack was the first Asian-American to become president of a U.S. institution of higher education, Sacramento City College, and my Uncle Tak is the renowned cinematographer for many major films, including “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Philadelphia”, and “The Sixth Sense”. After graduating as the valedictorian of her San Dieguito Union High School class (and being voted “Most Beautiful”), my mother attended nursing school and worked as a charge nurse at UCI Medical Center for many years. My mother raised five children and has helped to raise six grandchildren, including my daughters.
I am most grateful to my mother and my husband Paul for the wonderful life that I have and for contributing to the success of my children Marissa and Misty. My mother and my husband Paul have helped raise my girls and have served as powerful examples of integrity, achievement, empathy, humility and positive values. Paul is a successful Certified Financial Planner, who has been listed as a 5 Star Wealth Manager in Los Angeles Magazine for the last six years. My daughter Marissa has had a top Sales career with an international pharmaceutical company for many years, and my daughter Misty is a recognized child psychiatrist at UCLA. With my mother and Paul’s help, I earned a B.S. and MBA from Pepperdine University and rose to become a vice president of Marketing for technology companies. My mother is a big part of our lives and continues to lead by example.
Today I have returned to my first love, which is Acting, and I am closing in on the Acting career that I desire and that I have been working so hard to achieve. I can finally say that I have performed Shakespeare and that I am doing roles that I am extremely proud of.
FWM: What is next for you?
I am so excited about the success of John Reign’s “Finding Purpose”, and I can’t wait for everyone to see the upcoming big-budget sequel “Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption”. I am very grateful to John for giving me the awesome role of Skye and for showing the world what I can do when given the chance! He has signed with Roger Paul and his career is skyrocketing. I am honored and grateful to be part of the Polestar family, and I want to be involved with John and Polestar Productions in any project that he wants me to do in the future!
I will be playing the villain Hayden Webb in Kevin C. Kellum’s television series “Vice Squad Los Angeles” and will be doing an upcoming film with my mentor Aki Aleong. I am trying to be very careful about the projects I select in the future, and I am so grateful to have wonderful guidance from people who I trust and respect!
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