Theater attendant hopes to be movie star

When she isn’t ripping tickets for eager moviegoers at the Regal Dole Cannery Stadium 18 theatres, Lori Tuisano is doing whatever she can to work her way onto the big screen.

The 44-year-old theater attendant and aspiring actress is hard to miss. From her station just inside the front doors of the theater, Tuisano greets each arriving guest with a beaming smile and a country-fried “How y’all doin’?” that raises the eyebrow of more than a few patrons.

Tuisano, who is half Japanese and half Samoan, attributes the creeping twang and her ability to appreciate people of all stripes to her itinerant life as a military brat.

Born in Hawaii, Tuisano moved with her family to Mannheim, Germany, at age 3. Three years later the family moved to Kentucky, where she learned to shrug off racial taunts (“They thought I was African-American”) and take pride in her uniqueness.

Tuisano took her positive attitude and a “major Kentucky accent” to the family’s next stops in Berlin and the Presidio of San Francisco.

It was while she was in high school in California that Tuisano overcame her fear of live audiences and fell in love with acting.

By the time she returned to Honolulu at age 17, Tuisano knew that she wanted to be an actress.

She caught on as an extra in the 2002 surf film “Blue Crush,” which was filmed in Hawaii.

Tuisano continued nurturing her craft, dreaming of the day she’d land her dream role in a Victorian period drama.

“Like Jane Austen,” she said, “but with vampires!”

At the same time, she understood that quality roles for full-size Asian- Pacific Islanders are few and far between.

In 2012 she landed the role of Mrs. Mahani in the film “Fun Size,” starring Victoria Justice, Johnny Knoxville and Chelsea Handler. Nickelodeon Movies, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, flew her to Ohio for filming — her first first-class flight — and exposed her to life on a feature film set.

“I loved it,” she said. “There was so much food. I spent my time reading and snacking.”

The film opportunity came during an otherwise difficult stretch for Tuisano. She had devoted a year to taking care of her ailing mother, who died in 2010. Tuisano remained unemployed for more than a year after that, slowly depleting the modest inheritance she had received.

She found part-time employment at Regal, but it wasn’t enough to cover her rent and expenses and she eventually found herself taking shelter at the Institute for Human Services.

Things have improved since then. Tuisano now lives with one of her co-workers, she loves her job at the theater and last year she landed roles in a couple of foreign productions: the Japanese film “Boku no Ojisan (My Uncle),” scheduled for theatrical release in Japan next month, and the Chinese romantic comedy “I Love That Crazy Little Thing,” starring Hong Kong singer-actor William Chan and K-pop star Jessica Jung.

“I’m just waiting for that big ol’ Hollywood movie production to come and sweep me away,” she said.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.