Justin Chon was born in southern California, grew up in Irvine, Calif., and majored in business at the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles.
He broke out as an actor playing Peter Wu in “Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior” on the Disney Channel in 2006 and then as Tony Lee in the Nickelodeon sitcom “Just Jordan.” In 2008, he became part of the “Twilight” universe as Eric Yorkie, one of the secondary human characters.
In 2012, Chon teamed up with Kevin Wu (aka KevJumba on YouTube) and Hawaii film director Ryan Kawamoto to create “Hang Loose,” a comedy set and filmed in the Aloha State. Chon again partnered with Wu to co-write, direct, executive produce and co-star in the 2015 movie “Man Up,” a contemporary comedy also filmed in Hawaii.
In 2017 he wrote, directed and starred in “Gook,”a gritty drama about the experiences of two Korean American store owners in the first days of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Chon took his career in a completely different direction when he joined Hilo-born YouTube personality Ryan Higa and three other Asian American actors in performing as the K-Pop boy band parody group Boys Generally Asian (aka BgA); Chon’s stage name was J-Lite. They looked like the real thing.
Chon, 40, who moved to Oahu earlier this year with his wife and daughter, is celebrating the release of “Blue Bayou,” another powerful, critically acclaimed dramatic film that he wrote, directed and starred in.
The movie follows the experiences of Korea-born Antonio LeBlanc (Chon) — adopted by Americans at the age of 3 and raised in Louisiana — who discovers that his adoptive parents never completed the paperwork required to make him a citizen. Married, with a stepdaughter who adores him and a baby on the way, Antonio discovers that the government is planning to deport him. The film is now playing in theaters.
We caught up with Chon by phone on Tuesday while he was in Los Angeles promoting the film.
You are an American citizen from birth. What drew you into creating “Blue Bayou?”
I’m friends with people (in that situation), and I started hearing that people who were brought to this country as small children — that the government had acknowledged were adopted legally by U.S. citizens — were subject to deportation 20 or 30 or 40 years later. I thought that was just absolutely shocking and appalling; I don’t know how that’s possible, and my heart just bled for the community. I thought it was my responsi-
bility to shed some light on the issue.
I think I can say without spoiling anything that the story is not predictable at all in terms of how the characters act. Did you get them from the experiences of people you know?
That’s storytelling, that’s being creative. … This has been happening since the Clinton Administration. I’m not trying to make anybody the bad guy or that it’s somebody’s fault. I’m saying, “Let’s take an honest look at the situation, and let’s fix it.” That’s my main stance on it. In telling a human story, it has to be three-dimensional, and every character in it has to be three-dimensional. Everybody needs to feel that they’re justified in what they’re doing. Those are the things in the story that make the story feel tangible and real instead of feeling like an agenda film.
Going back a little bit in time, what’s happening with BgA? I loved the “Who’s It Gonna Be” video. Are you going to do any more videos?
That’s something I did for fun with Ryan (Higa). He’s a great friend of mine. It’s something he really wanted to do. I had a lot of fun making those videos.
What stands out most about being part of the “Twilight” universe?
It was a really interesting experience for me. Pre-“Twilight” I didn’t really know where I was headed with my career, I just knew I wanted to act. Post-“Twilight” I got to see what mattered to me, what was important to me with my art, and what I wanted to stand for and what I wanted to do. Watching from arm’s length what (the stars) went through, it didn’t really feel like something I wanted to be a part of. It really clarified what I stood for and what I wanted to do.
What brought you back to
Hawaii to live?
My family used to go there for Memorial Day every year when I was a small child — it’s always been a place of joy and, more importantly, healing. Hawaii has such a beautiful spirit, and the people there are so beautiful and welcoming, and also, being Asian American, for any Asian American, it’s predominantly us. I feel accepted. I can walk around and not feel like I’m “the other.” As I’ve become a parent I want my child to be self-confident — she’s a hapa baby — and I want her to grow up somewhere where she can feel confident and safe and become a full loving human being.
In 2016 you wrote an article about skipping an audition for a role that required a stereotypical Asian accent. It reminded me of a conversation I had with James Hong about the roles that had kept him working steadily since 1954, and about a play about Asian actors in Hollywood that was staged here in 1997, Philip Kan Gotanda’s “Yankee Dawg You Die.” You wrote that your solution has been to create. Is that getting easier for Asian actors and filmmakers?
I do think it has become a bit easier from when I started acting, but we still have a long way to go. There are still gatekeepers. We have to get into a position where we are the decision-makers. As an independent filmmaker, I don’t have a master. I can make what I want and not worry about being censored, and I can tell the story as I see fit from my personal authentic experience.
What’s next for you?
I just finished shooting a film on Oahu. It’s about an Indonesian father and son. The son is a rapper and he’s just about to blow up, he’s recording a new album in Hawaii. His dad is his manager, he just fired his dad and got a new record label. When I finish this press tour, I’m going back to edit on it.
