Leon Le: Returning Back to HCMC

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Caught this article down at VietNamNet on actor Leon Le who's been in Broadway productions of Chicago and Beauty and the Beast and recently played in The Missing Women, and just thought it was interesting that he was going back to Saigon to work on his career - which in a way could tell you what's out there for Asian American stage actors and the different types of receptions they receive:

Many Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) artists seem to have little success abroad but they easily achieve fame when returning to their homeland. What about you?

I was trained to be a stage actor so I work on stage more than in motion pictures. It is true that there are not many opportunities for Asian artists in Western countries but I can say that I’ve been lucky in my career.

There are many overseas Vietnamese film makers who come back to shoot in Viet Nam. However, many of them have received negative feedback from critics as they are said to have missed the mark when it comes to in-depth issues of modern society. What do you think?

I have seen films such as Buffalo Boy and The Rebel by Viet kieu film makers, and I think that Viet Nam’s motion picture industry has been making progress. We cannot deny the contribution of overseas Vietnamese film makers in the whole process. A unilateral perception of Vietnamese modern society is inevitable as most overseas Vietnamese film makers were born or have lived abroad for most of their lives. We should support overseas film makers making films about Viet Nam and welcome their interest
Read the full interview here.