Fay Ann Lee: Independently Mainstream

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FADE IN

If Fay Ann Lee's film Falling for Grace (www.fallingforgrace.com) is a quintessential romantic comedy, the process of getting to our interview played more like a farcical comedy of errors.

Our meeting time was changed a couple times due to the surprising demands of Fay's schedule when she arrived in Des Moines. When they time was finally confirmed, I found myself nearly falling down in Target while rushing to buy a hand held tape recorder, changing clothes in my car while driving, and getting my arm stuck in my shirtsleeve at a red light, much to the delight of the Hells Angels wannabe in the next lane. I arrive at her hotel and we decided to find something to eat. Without thinking, I offered to drive and then had to introduce her to the "homeless shelter on wheels" that my car had become in recent weeks. She stood in the heat while I threw clothes, napkins, batteries, boxes, notepads, CDs, soda cans, water bottles and "random bits of living" into the backseat and brushed the crumbs off the passenger seat.

While driving, we were talking about a project I'm developing for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and she finally said, "ya know, we could stop at any of these places your passing." I laughed like an idiot, realizing I had gotten so caught up in conversation that I forgot the purpose for being in the car. So, I made a U-turn on some weird gravel semi-driveway and we found ourselves enjoying the finest haute cuisine at McDonalds, she with the McNuggets, me with the iced coffee. (Perhaps caffeine was the last thing I needed.) The humor continued as Fay tried to get water from the self serve soda fountain, only to repeatedly filled her glass with neon blue PowerAde. By the time we made it to a small table to actually start the interview, it felt like we were good friends laughing really hard about how ridiculously funny the imbalance of life can be.

The story of how Falling from Grace (originally titled East Broadway) ended up on the screen in Des Moines, Iowa, is, itself, a film-worthy tale. 10 years ago, while making the transition from working as a stage actress in shows like Miss Saigon to work in film and television, Fay found herself disappointed by the roles available to Asian American women. "I didn't see the point to continue acting if I was only ever going to be offered the cleaning lady, the nurse, the lawyer who speaks Chinese." So, she decided to write her own script. She took a screenplay writing class and developed a romantic comedy ("I am totally a Chick Flick kind of girl") inspired by several random meetings she had with John F. Kennedy Jr. over the course of a few weeks. "I saw him on the street, in a restaurant, at the bank, he rode past me on his bike. I just saw him everywhere. It's not odd to see a celebrity on the street in New York. But I saw him A LOT in a short amount of time. I thought, is he stalking me? Am I stalking him? And when I started writing the script I wondered if someone like that--"American Royalty"--would ever date a working class girl from Chinatown."

On the recommendation of her teacher, she entered her script into a few writing competitions and garnered some interest from a few Hollywood producers based on her scripts recognition in these competitions. Thrilled, she took a few meeting where she was told how much they loved the script and wanted to buy it, if she would make one small change. As a first time writer, she was open to anything, however this "small change" was they wanted her to change the Asian American lead to a Hispanic lead so they could offer it to someone like Jennifer Lopez. "Uhm, why would Jennifer Lopez grow up in Chinatown and have Asian parents?"

With the guidance of a producing mentor, she decided instead to raise the money herself to the make the film how she thought it should be made. She armed herself with the script and a rough trailer she had made with some friends and, over the next four years, put together the financing herself. On the strength of the script alone, famed casting director Billy Hopkins came on board and brought in several recognizable actors, including Gale Harold, Christine Baranski, Margaret Cho, and B.D. Wong. When the film suddenly found itself without a director, Fay stepped in to that role as well. I asked if it was overwhelming to be ever-increasing her responsibilities--from writer to actor to producer to director to, ultimately, distributor.

"I was never really sure if I could it, but with each step I just kept moving forward. I never wanted to be the director because I was too scared to do that. But when the director bowered out, I had to take on the directing. It was just one thing after another because I was just focused on getting the movie made. I believed in the story and I believed there was an audience for it so I just kept going."

Once the film was complete, it was accepted by the Tribeca Film Festival, one of the premiere festivals in the country, where New York Magazine named it one of the top films to see. Falling from Grace was so well received by the audiences that they actually added an additional showing during the festival. It seemed all by certain that the film would be picked up for national distribution. And then came the brutal blow from a few of the potential distributors she met with: they told her that they didn't believe "Mainstream America" was ready for a romantic comedy that had an Asian American female protagonist. She was shocked.

"I think Mainstream America is completely ready for this movie and Hollywood has completely missed the mark. ... It's just an old fashioned romantic comedy that happens to have an Asian American lead. I'm not saying my movie is award worthy. But what I know is that it is a very audience friendly film. ...
I hadn't really thought about it much but I was talking to some friends of mine recently and came to the realization that I think Asians are very invisible in this country. So my movie and my presence is very invisible to Hollywood. They just don't see it. They don't think Asian Americans are compelling. ...
But people are ready for new stories. Look at our political climate. Look at Obama, and even Hilary. I think people are starving for change. And I think they're ready for a minority segment to step up--to have more presence. And it seems that all little films are having a hard time. I'm trying to prove to Hollywood that America wants a movie like this."

Where most filmmakers might take this industry rejection as the final nail in the coffin and move on to their next project, Fay decided to take another tactic. She became her own distributor and contacted small theaters across the country and asked if they would show her film. In return, she would travel to the theater and meet with the audiences that supported Falling for Grace.

"With most distribution for films this size--if they're distributed at all--they are given a limited run in Los Angeles and New York City. If they are successful in those markets, maybe they will slowly roll out into other cities. I decided I wanted to open everywhere else first. And also I wanted to create some kind of story so when I do open in New York or Los Angeles, I can say 'well, guess what--Des Moines, Iowa, DOES want my movie. In fact, the requested it and supported it."

Given her passionate determination not to let her film go the way of many films that never see the light, I asked what had been the most surprising thing about the path this journey has taken.

"Actually, I think the greatest gift in what I'm doing is to find the complete strangers who are rallying behind this movie. I mean, I landed in Iowa where I don't know a single person and I'm greet immediately by six people around me saying, 'okay, you have this interview and then this radio show and this television interview,' on and on. A woman saw the movie in another city and took on the distribution role herself IN AUSTRIA. She took my little movie to this other country and toured around with it because she believe in it that much. I couldn't go to Austria but she could and she did. ... I mean, how did this happen?"

Falling for Grace has been compared to My Big Fat Greek Wedding in its audience appeal. Given the incredible success of that film, I asked how it was possible that it could be suggested that there was no audience for her film.

"Greek Wedding made $250 million at the box office. Granted, that movie had the support of Tom Hanks but it was still a very simple, straightforward romantic comedy. I believe my film has the same kind of appeal plus the potential for a huge international market. Let's say my movie makes a fraction of the Greek money. $5 million, maybe. Then they (the distributor) can release my movie in China where THERE ARE A BILLION PEOPLE. Why do they think they're not going to recoup?"

As I was preparing to meet Fay, I did a lot of reading online and was a bit surprised by the strong negative reaction it had from some people, much of which attacked two aspects of the film: the harsh judgment that the lead actor is not also Asian American and the fact that this successful and independent woman doesn't seem to feel complete until she has a man in her life. I asked Fay about these things because they struck me as odd since it is widely discussed that Falling for Grace was inspired by Fay's continuous run-ins with John F. Kennedy, Jr. who is, uhm, not Asian American. And what romantic comedy doesn't have at its core the message of someone feeling incomplete without love?

"First off, I think that a lot of the people who are making these comments haven't actually seen the movie. I mean, frankly, not a lot of people have. They are basing their judgments on what they think they know from the trailer or from what they've heard. ... I used to get so upset that people would say such nasty things about me or about the film or that 'I'm not Asian enough' but now I'm numb to it. ...
My whole point of making the movie was to try to make a film that will speak to the mainstream. Also, I think the ultimate message of Grace's journey is very feminist. Without giving away too much, by the end of the film she stands her ground on what she needs from the person who says he loves her. And, no, the male lead is not Asian American but that's just not the story that inspired me to write it. That doesn't mean the film is void of strong and interesting Asian American male characters. The father, the brother, the co-worker. They are complicated characters with interesting things to say that add to the tapestry of the film. ...
Really, I just wanted this to be an All American movie that just happened to have an Asian American family in it. I think the way for Asian Americans to lift our level in Hollywood is for an Asian American film to be an All American film. That was my goal. I wanted to make it as "Mainstream" as possible and I was shamelessly trying to do that."

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As a final question, I asked Fay if there was some advice that the person she is today would give to the person she was before this whole journey began.

"I think the one thing I would say is that I should have trusted my gut more. I was so green in terms of being a producer, being a director, that I always was looking for approval from everyone else because they had so much more experience than me. I think to young filmmakers--to first time filmmakers--I'd say that you've got to trust your gut, especially if it's something you wrote. Trust your gut and go for it."

Anything else you want to add before we sign off?

"Yeah, tell everyone you know to tell Oprah about my story," she said with a smile. "I'm not even kidding."

FADE TO BLACK

www.fallingforgrace.com