Growing up in Indianapolis, Megan Le never felt that she completely fit in. The daughter of a Vietnamese father and a Scottish mother, she didn’t look like any of the other kids. She didn’t fit in with the Asian kids; she didn’t fit in with the white kids. When she was in the fourth grade one of her classmates asked Le if she was black. Le wasn’t sure, maybe she was.
Le found a place for herself studying several styles of dance, in gymnastics and musical theater. When she graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles, she found a place where there were people of many racial and ethnic backgrounds. Le studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and at the Sanford Meisner Center and went from there to work on stage and in television and films. In 2007 she began working as a stuntwoman, and in 2012 she co-founded Five Fingers Media, an independent production company.
Le, 35, was in Hawaii last month to do some stunt work on CBS’ hit TV show “Hawaii Five-0.” She plays Agent Tran on the Netflix series “Medical Police,” which premieres Friday.
What brought you out here to do “Five-0”?
I came out here in September — it was my first time doubling Meaghan Rath — and they called me back for another episode. Last time I doubled her she was in jeans and long sleeves. This time we were in denim shorts and a bikini top.
We hear that Hollywood needs to be more “inclusive,” but you seem to make your own opportunities.
My husband and I started Five Fingers Media with some friends, because most of us were actors and we wanted to get a better handle on stuff going on behind camera. We’ve done about 14 shorts, and we just did our first web series, “No Matter What,” a micro series that celebrates female friendships. It follows an unassailable best friendship between two women, Alice and Olive. Each themed episode begins with the girls in their 20s in 2008 and then jumps to them in their 30s in 2018. We see these girls grow and win and fail, but they’re always there for each other.
How much can you tell me about “Medical Police”?
It’s described as an “action thriller comedy,” and it is very much a comedy, so absurd and inappropriate, and there’s some romance in it too. It’s a spinoff of the show “Children’s Hospital,” and a lot of that series’ regulars have cameos. I’m this T-1000-style villain that chases our heroes all over the world, and when I watched the entire season one night I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to wake up my neighbor.
What do you like to do that is not work related?
I don’t know. Work is fun and the things that I do for fun somehow become my work. My focus is acting, but I have such a physical background and it’s such a part of me. I dance, I train in martial arts, fencing. I train for stunts, I go to open gyms, I cross-train and I shoot guns. It’s hard for me to focus on one thing, and I’m a Gemini, so look out! I just signed up for a UCLA extension class in Business of Entertainment, which is very applicable to what I do.
What is something you want to do in 2020?
My husband and I want to became conversational in Vietnamese so our daughter can grow up speaking both languages. We wanted to do it before we had a baby, and we didn’t — but we still want to. He’s full Vietnamese, so he’s more Vietnamese than me, but I’m more Vietnamese than my mother. We can learn it together.
