美国国家公共电台 NPR Ali Wong And Randall Park On Rapping, Rom-Com Tropes And (Keanu) Reeves（在线收听）

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

In the new rom-com "Always Be My Maybe," the romantic lead is a dorky dude living with his dad. The love interest is a famous woman who isn't too busy for men. And there's another rom-com trope this movie breaks - Asian Americans in steamy love scenes. And we'll get to that about four minutes in, so take note for little listeners. The movie takes place in San Francisco, where Sasha Tran and Marcus Kim grow up, become inseparable, have sex for the first time with each other and then stopped talking until 15 years later.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE")

ALI WONG: (As Sasha Tran) Hi, Marcus.

RANDALL PARK: (As Marcus Kim) Hi. Yeah. Hi, Sasha. Hi. Hello. Hi. (Laughter) What's up?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Ali Wong and Randall Park are the leads and co-writers of "Always Be My Maybe" on Netflix. You may know Ali Wong from her Netflix comedy special "Baby Cobra" and Randall Park from the TV series "Fresh Off The Boat." And both of them join me now from our studios in New York.

Thanks so much for being with us.

WONG: No, thanks for having us.

PARK: Yeah, thanks for having us.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So take me back a little bit to why you wanted to make this film and what story you wanted to tell.

PARK: Basically, the - after "Baby Cobra" came out, there was a New Yorker profile on Ali. And in the profile, she just casually mentioned that she always wanted to do this project that we had always been talking about - kind of our version of "When Harry Met Sally." And after that, there seemed to be a lot of interest for that script. But we didn't have a script, so we figured that...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So Ali got you into this is what you're saying.

PARK: Oh, yeah, for sure.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

PARK: For sure. Well, her genius and the massive success of her special was the spark. And...

WONG: But - and then I think, you know, a lot of people have been itching, including myself, have been itching to see Randall Park be the lead in a film. It's long overdue. You know, if you look at Randall's IMDb page, it has, like, 150 credits. It's ridiculous. And everybody knows him from something because everything that he's guest-starred in is - he just always shines and just he's - you look at someone like that, and you're like, are you kidding me? You're that handsome. You're that charismatic. You're that pleasant to work with, and you're that talented.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I want someone to...

WONG: And it's...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...Talk about me like that.

(LAUGHTER)

PARK: I know. I'm blushing.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

WONG: And it's - you know, it's long overdue.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Why is it long overdue? I mean, I guess what I'm asking is, all those things being true, what have you seen the impediments being to having something like this happen before now?

WONG: You know, it's tough when you have to wait around for other people to write something for you because there's no precedent for someone who looks like you to play certain characters, right? So it's a - such a unique character that I've been dying to see and put on camera for a long time that he plays. And that's something, for me, that's really personal. You know, the - Marcus is very much this guy that I grew up with in the Bay Area. And it's a very specific person. He lives at home with his parents, like, well into his 30s. He's confident. He has his artistic passion, but he has his day job. And he's good. He doesn't need anything else. And he's sexy. And he's attractive, despite the fact that he lives at home and he's not, like, super rich or whatever. And so it's just - it's so exciting for me to see that guy, you know?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And then there's you, Ali. You know, you are a woman - a successful woman in this film, who doesn't have problems landing men - can even land Keanu Reeves if she so wants.

PARK: Yeah.

WONG: Yeah.

PARK: And usually when you see, like, successful women who run big companies in movies, it's like - they wear shoulder pads. And they're strutting down...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

PARK: ...The bullpen firing people.

(LAUGHTER)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And then crying in their office because, you know, they're too busy to have a relationship.

PARK: Right. But here you have somebody just living their full life but somebody who's also vulnerable. It's a real, real human being that we can all identify with.

WONG: And she wear - you know, something that people picked up on is that she wears her glasses from the beginning to the end...

PARK: Right.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's true.

WONG: ...Which is extremely rare in a rom-com, which I didn't even realize.

PARK: Yeah.

WONG: But usually, there's some sort of makeover that involves...

PARK: Where they ditch the glasses.

WONG: Where they ditch the glasses.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

WONG: And I'm not ditching those glasses.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, that did not happen in this movie. We got to talk about sex because unlike "Crazy Rich Asians," which has no sex scenes, this is a very different kind of romantic movie.

WONG: I guess - you know, it's funny because someone was telling me that they wish there was more sex, that they wish there was, like, actual thrusting.

(LAUGHTER)

WONG: I mean, they were like - and they were - and she thought we...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Now I'm blushing.

WONG: She thought we chickened out. She was like...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

WONG: ...That would have been revolutionary...

PARK: (Laughter).

WONG: ...If you'd shown two Asian Americans thrusting.

(LAUGHTER)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What kind of the film did she think you were making?

WONG: And I was like, all right. Well...

PARK: (Laughter).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Moving on.

WONG: ...I'll do that for the next rom-com I star in...

PARK: (Laughter).

WONG: ...Where I cast three other stellar...

PARK: (Laughter).

WONG: ...Snacks.

(LAUGHTER)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, obviously, it was deliberate to have Randall be sexy and Ali be sexy and having sex.

PARK: Yeah.

WONG: Yeah, for sure. You know...

PARK: It's real.

WONG: I mean, because we talk a lot about "Boomerang" and how that's, like, one of our big inspirations.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: "Boomerang" was a 1992 movie with Eddie Murphy, and now it is a series on BET.

PARK: Yup.

WONG: Yes. And "Boomerang" is a super sexy movie, in addition to being funny and grounded and having a great soundtrack. That movie's sexy, and it was - it's something that, like, I remember.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I have to, of course, ask about Keanu Reeves. It has to happen. Not only is the rap song "I Punched Keanu Reeves," like, now, like (laughter) streaming and everyone loves it, he plays one of Sasha's love interests in the movie and gets to be himself. Why did you want Keanu in this? It's genius to have him. But why did you think he was the guy?

WONG: Well, in terms of story, you know, we thought when - at that point at the farmer's market, when Marcus is ready to tell Sasha that he has feelings for her and she reveals that she's actually dating somebody, we thought to ourselves, OK, who - in terms of story, right? - who would be Marcus' worst nightmare?

(LAUGHTER)

WONG: And we thought, all right, we should get...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Any guy's worst nightmare.

WONG: Any guy's worst nightmare.

(LAUGHTER)

WONG: We should get an - it was very important to me, personally, that all of Sasha's love interests be Asian American. And we thought to ourselves, OK, we should get an Asian American icon who's a great actor, who's funny and willing to make fun of himself. And the only person in the entire universe who fits, like, those first three parameters is Keanu Reeves.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right.

WONG: And then, you know, it was fun because he hadn't seen the movie. He hadn't seen the rest of any of the scenes get shot. And at the premiere, we didn't know if he was going to show up. And he - because he was so busy promoting "John Wick." And he showed up, and he sat behind me. And it was so delightful...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah.

WONG: ...To hear his reaction throughout the entire film. And he was dying laughing.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Really?

WONG: He was covering his mouth, just like...

(LAUGHTER)

WONG: He just couldn't believe it, you know? It was so touching and sweet to watch.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: When you both look back at how hard you worked to get here, what does it feel like to now have it sort of out in the world and sort of moving the margins of what we see and what's sort of, you know, available in the imagination?

PARK: It feels amazing. I'm so glad - ultimately, our goal was to create a very entertaining movie. And the fact that it might be moving the culture and representing Asian Americans, that's all, like - that's like icing on the cake. That's, like, great. But none of that would have happened had we not told a great story.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Ali Wong and Randall Park.