Meet Hong Chau, the actress from Alexander Payne's movie "Downsizing," who's grabbing attention even before the film opens; how the radio drama version of "Star Wars" helped put NPR on the map; and three film critics (who happen to be under the age of 10) weigh in on "The Last Jedi."
Did you know 'Star Wars' was once an NPR radio drama?
George Lucas is known for making famously generous donations to his alma mater, the University of Southern California. But he's made lesser-known gifts, too — as in 1981, when he sold the rights to the "Star Wars" movies to KUSC for the grand sum of $1.
KUSC, an National Public Radio affiliate that is owned and operated by USC, wanted to adapt "Star Wars" for radio. As part of the deal, they were granted full access to the sound catalog used for the films — from Ben Burtt's light saber sound effects to John Williams' score.
Backstories that were necessarily cut from the theatrical releases were also made available. Thus, the radio adaptation of "Star Wars: The New Hope" lasted nearly six hours, and included details such as stories from Luke Skywalker's childhood.
The radio adaptations were a massive production. John Madden was the director, Brian Daley adapted the scripts, and a notable cast signed up as the voice actors — Mark Hamill returned as Luke Skywalker, and John Lithgow voiced the part of Yoda.
And it paid off for NPR. The 1981 broadcast saw a 40 percent jump in audience, with 750,000 listeners tuning in for each of the original 13 episodes. So the team returned to adapt the other two movies: "The Empire Strikes Back," broadcast in 1983, and "Return of the Jedi" — delayed by years-long public radio funding woes — in 1996.
While there was a lot of talent involved in the radio productions, the task of piecing everything together fell to one man: Tom Voegeli. He produced all three of the adaptations, even turning down an offer from Lucasfilm to work as the dialogue mixer on the film version of "Return of the Jedi" so that he could finish the radio adaptation of "The Empire Strikes Back." As he told The Frame:
To this day, I wonder if I should have taken them up on that offer. But my rationale was that I was right in the middle of doing the radio work . . . and I thought, Who the hell is going to carry this on?
Either way, Voegeli contributed to a timeless work: the radio dramas remain a must-have for "Star Wars" fans.
The radio adaptations of the first three released "Star Wars" films are available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.
'Downsizing' star Hong Chau: 'This character is not 2D. She was a dream'
Hong Chau stars opposite Matt Damon and Christoph Waltz in Alexander Payne’s upcoming film "Downsizing," but it's really Chau who steals the show.
Downsizing is set in a fictional not-so-distant future. A new technology has been developed that allows people to shrink down to about five inches tall, in an effort to combat overpopulation and consumption.
Hong Chau plays a Vietnamese activist who is “downsized” against her will by the Vietnamese government, and who later befriends Damon’s character. Chau has also played roles in David Simon’s series Treme, about her hometown of New Orleans, and she had a small part in Big Little Lies.
Chau is the child of Vietnamese immigrants who fled Vietnam by boat to Thailand in 1979. Frame host John Horn’s conversation with Chau starts with her recounting her parents’ harrowing escape story.
Interview Highlights:
On her family's escape from war-torn Vietnam:
My parents story is actually pretty crazy, it sounds sort of like a movie. My dad was shot, because you're not supposed to leave the country. They left at night and he was shot by one of the guards so he was laying on a boat bleeding for three days until they got to a refugee camp in Thailand. They got robbed by pirates twice before they got to the refugee camp. I was actually born there at the refugee camp in Thailand, and we randomly had a sponsor family in New Orleans, who was also another Vietnamese family that we weren't related to. It was organized through the Catholic church in New Orleans. We weren't related, that was the beautiful thing about it. And we weren't even Catholic.
So was it in high school where you started deciding you wanted to act?
No I never wanted to be an actor. I didn't even acknowledge that I was an actor until like two years ago. Even after I had done Treme, an HBO show, even after I had done Inherent Vice, a Paul Thomas Anderson film, When people would ask me what I did I would say I'm a dog walker.
Was that actually true?
Technically, it's true because I do hang out with my dog alot and we go on walks, but I would never really want to talk about acting. Part of me even when I was trying to get acting jobs I was still kind of thinking, oh I should do something else with my life.
So what was your first paid acting job do you remember what it was?
It was very strange it was supposed to be like a hybrid reality show, whatever that means, but we were supposed to pretend to be real people. It was about me and another woman and we go on this cross country road trip together
This is "Finding My America," isn't it?
Yeah, we actually did drive from New York to San Francisco on that show.
The how so after that did Treme come along?
Treme was my first big deal job, I was already a fan of David Simon and Eric Overmyer and Nina Kostroff. I love the Wire I know why most people love the Wire, but I love the Wire because, my parents when I was growing up in high school, what they did is they had a bodega, like a convenience store, but it was directly across the street from the projects in New Orleans. My dad was shot during a robbery when I was younger... Getting back to The Wire, why were even talking about this, the reason why I love The Wire so much is that I love where they showed the home life and how people actually live and what their interior lives and emotional lives were as opposed to the gun violence that happens. But I was more drawn to the kids and just how families are when they grow up in that environment.
So if your life experience sets you up for whats going to happen in Treme, does the same thing happen when Alexander comes along with Downsizing and has this story of what it means to be a refugee, an immigrant or somebody who is invisible even though you're right in front of us?
When I was reading it I just loved it as just a great story that was just unusual and the characters were really rich. I mean, yes, those are all of the reasons I wanted to play the character and all of the reasons why I'm proud of it and that I'm excited for other audiences to see somebody from this background being given a really well-drawn portrayal. A very complex one ...I've seen a lot of movies, and I really have never seen a character like this ever.
What conversations did you have with your director about how the character should be portrayed?
People have asked me a lot about what discussions did you have with Alexander, particularly about the accent. For me, I don't have a problem with accents. I know a lot of Asian actors have put out a blanket statement and have said, well I don't want to do any stereotypical roles or I don't want to do an accent. My parents speak with an accent, a lot of people that I know speak with an accent. I have friends who speak with an accent. Accents in a vacuum aren't a problem, it's how you portray those characters and how well they're served in a script. My character in "Downsizing" is very complicated, very complex and very well-written and lovingly portrayed. The thing that we're trying to say is that we want better roles for people of color and for women, that I am totally on board with.