What’s another real life story you would love to see turned into a movie or show and work on?
So many. I’ve been reading a lot and am fascinated by these Asian American women who partnered with Black civil rights leaders. One is Yuri Kochiyama, who was good friends with Malcolm X and actually cradled him when he was assassinated. I’m fascinated by her life. She lived to 90, this Japanese civil rights leader. Then there’s Grace Lee Boggs, from the 1960s, who was Chinese and one of the authors of the Black Power movement. I’m really interested in the coalition building these women did between Blacks and Asians, and I love this rich history [we haven’t really seen yet].
Did you connect with Lingua Franca and its story?
Oh yeah. Isabel comes from the island I’m from, Cebu, and it’s a beautifully observed, very pure kind of movie. She’s telling an outsider’s story. The lead character is a Filipina, trans, undocumented immigrant working for a Russian family in Coney Island. The layers of othering and otherness are so profound. She’s in an immigrant community, but doesn’t belong there, and she falls in love. This character gets to feel and be the human being I think most people get to be, but trans people don’t in film and TV.
What’s the most exotic or far-flung location you’ve been to for work reasons?
One of the things I loved during Respect was looking for extant photographs of Black churches in the 1940s, 50s, 60s. That took me to a lot of these far-flung churches in the south like Athens, Georgia, and also Detroit, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey, because a lot of these photos are not online. They’re kept in the archives of those churches. That church tour was revelatory. Also, when I was doing Sunday in the Park With George [in 2017 starring Jake Gyllenhaal], they used a lot of silks, and I was invited to look at silk making in Thailand. We went to Chiang Mai and that was beautiful. I want to go back there and stay for two weeks.
Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin
and Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington in Respect
Photo: Quantrell D. Colbert
How do you feel about the Philippines now, and should LGBTQ people consider a visit?
I’m closely tethered to my homeland and miss it so much. I feel like something is missing in me if I don’t visit it [to see family] often. I think there are a lot of gay people there, and part of what’s fascinating is it’s a very tolerant society, but gay culture is different. Spend a couple of nights in Manila, but also go to the beautiful places like Bataan, it’s really beautiful on the northern tip of the archipelago. The landscape reminds one a little bit of New Zealand. I would recommend Palawan. There’s an Aman resort that people should go to on Amanpulo in Palawan, it’s expensive as hell but it’s beautiful.
And what do you love about being based in New York?
It really tests you. There are so many things to love. I’ve lived there for over 25 years, approaching 30, and I feel like the thing that’s constant is the way it stares you in the eye and asks, can you handle more? That’s the energy that keeps me going, that keeps me alive. Others would say it’s oppressive, but I find it exhilarating.
What’s a happy place you love to visit as a getaway?
It used to be here in the Berkshires, but now I keep thinking, can we just go someplace else? We love the Greek Isles. We love the Aegean Sea and will go back once everything opens up.
Although I hope the anti-AAPI violence situation improves by the time people read this, what can non-Asian allies do to help?
There’s a program called Hollaback! (www.ihollaback.org) It’s bystander intervention. Also on Instagram, SafeWalks, (www.instagram.com/safewalksnyc) which is a group of volunteers who walk Asians and elder people who feel at risk.
