Jimmy O. Yang (performing a bit)
speaker
225 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Jan 2025
Jimmy O. Yang (performing a bit)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
him being more and more three-dimensional of a character.
Yeah, I think I have a slightly different perspective than people that are born here in America because I get it. It's very unfair to have that constant foreigner stereotype. And it is something that we internalize. But I live in a weird in-between where I was actually a foreigner. So how can I lie to myself and be like, no, this person's lame because he was foreign. I was foreign, man.
And I remember when I first came to the country... Sure, I kind of expected white people, black people, Latinos to kind of not accept me in a way. But it was kind of sad that even Koreans and Chinese people who were born here, ABCs, American-born Chinese, they didn't accept me because they didn't want to be associated with me because I made them look foreign too because I was actually foreign.
So that felt kind of sad. So in a way, I always have a soft spot for immigrant foreign characters and outsiders, especially even an outsider within Asians. And I think it's a weird policy to say, oh, I don't play anybody with an accent. Now, okay, at this point in my career, I could choose to do certain things, not do certain things. based on artistically do I feel passionate about this or not.
But any day of the week, if, say, the Danny Mang character from Patriot State come to my desk, I would love to do it. You know, the guy was awesome, and he's amazing, and he just happened to be an immigrant that had a thick accent. And I think doing those kind of roles are just as important, if not more at times.
It was interesting because in the book and also in the script of the pilot, Willis is supposed to have trained in Kung Fu all his life, but he's not supposed to be very good. So how do you play that?
I wasn't sure if the producer was going to have me train in Kung Fu, but I'm like, guys, in order for me to look bad in Kung Fu, I have to be pretty good to at least understand the language of Kung Fu. It's like learning a new language in a way, right? I've never done martial arts before. In my life. So I had a trainer, Danny. He was Danny Ma. He's awesome.
And I trained with him two, three times a week in Wing Chun, hitting the dummy, doing the basics. So at least I can look right in the form. And also martial arts is a language, is a culture in itself. You want to get in that mentality. It's like driving the Toyota Corolla. I want to get into Willis's mentality, somebody who is trained in martial arts all his life.
And then I can still not be very good when it comes to the fight, you know? So that was how I was able to make it real. But it was also very interesting. Growing up in Hong Kong, Kung Fu was so prevalent and such a thing that you see on TV in real life. And of course, being Asian American, People almost expect you to know how to do Kung Fu and I don't know how to do any of it.
So this kind of filled up a big void in my life and in my culture. Now at least I can say I can hit a wooden dummy Wing Chun style and I'm pretty okay. Finally, finally, you know, in middle school, kids who used to like make fun of me when I first came to the country and they like, like, you know, bully me and like talk trash, whatever. But that's how I learned to defend myself with comedy.
I would talk back. But one time this kid got to me and I don't know what what like got into me. Right. I just full on did turn around, did a roundhouse kick to his stomach, jumped up, karate chopped him in the back of the neck. And this is me with no martial arts training and 13 years old. And I just watched enough martial arts films growing up. And then all his friends got so freaked out.
And they're like, yo, don't mess with him. That's Bruce Lee, man. And I was like, hey, you know, if that's a stereotype and that's a stereotype that's going to save me from getting bullied, I'll take it. I will be Bruce Lee for you.
Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
The gorgeously enveloping new drama All We Imagine is Light opens on a warm, muggy evening in Mumbai. You feel immediately transported, caught up in the bustle and flow as young men stack crates on the sidewalk, older women sell food in open-air markets, and commuter trains rattle their way across a glimmering cityscape.
Over this scene, we hear the voices of unidentified locals, talking about how invigorating, but also how draining, life in the city can be. It can be especially overwhelming for the many who moved here from distant villages, leaving their families behind.
The writer and director Payal Kapadia, who was born in Mumbai herself, made her first feature a few years ago with A Night of Knowing Nothing, a documentary that blended fiction and non-fiction elements. In a way, All We Imagine is Light, her first dramatic feature, also blurs the boundaries.
Some of the stories we hear in that opening sequence were drawn from interviews with actual Mumbai residents. and Kapadia introduces us to her two leads so deftly and casually that it takes us a while to even realize that they are, in fact, the leads. One of them is a woman named Prabha, who works as a head nurse at a hospital. The other is a younger nurse at the hospital named Anu.
Prabha and Anu are roommates, and about as different as can be. Anu, played by Divya Prabha, is flirty, fun-loving, and a little impetuous. Prabha, played by Kani Kuzruti, is quieter and more responsible. She's the one who does most of the cooking, and reluctantly agrees to cover the rent when Anu comes up short.
Even so, there's a real sisterly warmth to Anu and Prabha's relationship, and the more they get to know each other, the more their similarities, as well as their differences, come into focus. Both Prabha and Anu came to Mumbai from the southern state of Kerala, and while they rarely see their families back home, both are still governed by strict expectations, especially of their romantic lives.
Anu is dating a young man named Shiaz, and because he's Muslim and she isn't, she must keep their relationship a secret. Prabha, meanwhile, has a husband who moved to Germany some time ago for work. She's barely heard from him since, and fears that their marriage, which was arranged by their parents, is long over. All we imagine as light, in other words, is about a lot of things.
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