Wanted to throw a link and a little bit of the interview with Jimmy "C-dub" Tsai from Ping Pong Playa down at TaiwaneseAmerican.org:
H: I heard this role was based on the character Christopher "C-Dub" Wang that you created for video ads for your company Venom Sportswear. The story went that you didn't realize that Ping Pong Playa was being written with you in mind as the lead...For the full interview go here.
J: Yes, that's right. So, what happened was the Venom Sportswear spots came first. Then, at the production company I work for --Cherry Sky Films-- we had helped Jessica finish her film In the Realms of the Unreal, and we had such a great time working with her, (producer) Joan and I were like, "We need to find another project to work on with Jessica." Then Joan came up with the idea of doing a ping pong comedy, and when she mentioned it to Jessica, Jessica said that it would be a fun idea to use the C-dub character as the protagonist. So then we set about developing the film with Jessica and myself writing the script together. But on one side of the conversation, Joan and I were always wearing our producer hats and discussing who we could possibly cast in the role of C-dub, while on the other side, Jessica was always just assuming I'd do the role. So one day when Jessica and I were working on the script, she mentioned something to the effect of: "When we're shooting, I don't want you to worry about rewriting or tweaking the script." And I said, "Well, why not?" And she said, "Well, you're practically in every scene!" And I was like, "Whoa-- you should talk it over with Joan first." (laughs) I was always one hundred and twenty percent either way though, whether or not we wanted to cast someone in the role or whether they wanted me to do it.
