I’m the child of immigrants. My Taiwanese parents came to America with no money and supported my brothers and me as small business owners in Orange County, which is close to L.A. but about as far away from Hollywood as you can be. I didn’t know anyone in the industry, but had a great deal of people help me along in my path,” said Lin. “I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am now and to be able to play a small part in trying to support talented, aspiring young filmmakers out there through a program like ‘Interpretations’ who, like me, had the desire and passion, but no connections to the industry.
We ultimately get to know ourselves a little bit better by pushing forward.
When John and I started 15 years ago, you know I was making the Credit Card movie [Better Luck Tomorrow], and it was an indie movie. Back then obviously there was no money, so everybody just came on because they either believed in the script or the project. And that spirit was so strong, and in a way something I treasure. And then, going and doing the studio films, it’s always been I think one of the big challenges for the film makers, to make sure that, yeah, there’s money and people are being compensated, but let’s show up and be passionate, you know. To be able to meet up 15 years later, and to do this film with all the physical challenges that were ahead of us, that’s something I take a lot of pride in. Everybody on this set, in the cutting room, everybody went above and beyond, and that’s something that’s really rare. And again, I think when I took this on, I wanted to make it the biggest budgeted indie film ever, and I really am very fortunate. And that’s due to the people that got together to make this.
There's an anxiety of wanting to please the studios. You want to prove to them that you can do it and sometimes you might jump at a project that you're not totally passionate about.
I kind of approach action/non-action very much similarly. It has to be character-based and it has to kind of come off the theme and the overall arc. I had a very strong opinion on what sets this journey off. That’s been the centerpiece of this film….action to me is no fun if it’s not built around character. And that has to come from the very original impetus of why this movie exists. So far, I mean all the action pieces are set off of that incident and all how our characters react to it. So, for me it’s exciting because it’s organic. It’s not artificial. It’s not something that I do an action because people want to see action. It’s because this journey, whatever happens, whatever causes this to happen, whatever our characters do to try to counter it somehow organically creates that.
Do what you love. I’ve seen so many people through the years calculate and speculate on what films to do in order “to make it.” And every time those projects crash and burn. I think when young filmmakers make films trying to impress the industry, they usually won’t work. I think the people with the power and money actually want to work with filmmakers that have something to say. And at the end of the day, if the film is made for the right reasons, then there’s no failure. You live or die by your voice.
I became a filmmaker because I wanted to deal with issues that intrigued me, that I thought were pertinent, that would start dialogue.
As great as JJ’s films were, there’s still a lot to be mined from these characters. They haven’t really gone on their five-year mission, so what we experienced in the TV show hasn’t been touched on yet. That sets up an opportunity for exploration and the deeper you go, the more you are examining humanity. Those are the things that I absorbed as a kid and hope to tap into and embrace and celebrate. By the time this movie comes out, Star Trek will have been around for 50 years.
I think ultimately that sense of hope is something that even as a little kid I was able to kind of grab onto.
With my first film [“Better Luck Tomorrow”], I was working three jobs [to help pay for it]. I was meeting with potential investors, and right away everybody’s like, “It’s an Asian-American cast. It’ll never sell.” And a lot of them were Asian-American investors. A guy offered $1 million for the budget, and he said, “We’ll get Macaulay Culkin to be the lead.” If I would have said yes, I would have gotten $1 million and I would have gotten to make the movie with a white cast, but it didn’t interest me.
It is very important to support what you believe in.
That's part of what they do. I'm just hired to make the movie and I love the idea that we have, but there's no connection at all.
If you cast an all-white movie and it doesn't do well, no one will say it's because you had an all-white cast.
It’s all new and fresh. The Klingons, Romulans and other species are great, but it’s time to go further. It has been fun to focus on creating whole new worlds and species.
I feel like every time you get to make a sequel, it's a privilege. It means that people have embraced it and want the journey to continue.
I'm confident that China's economic growth will definitely not slow to below 9 percent in the next two years.
If you put forth a really diverse cast and you fight for it and it doesn't do well - and it may fail for other reasons - you're gone because you stuck your neck out for that decision.
My dad worked 364 days a year, only took Thanksgiving off, and from age 8 to 18, the only time I could hang out with my parents was by staying late. And every night, it was Star Trek on Channel 13 in L.A. That was my childhood. All my friends were Star Wars kids but I didn’t go to the movies, so I was the Star Trek kid. Thinking about this, it became a very personal and very emotional decision.
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