Tamlyn Tomita: Dame Derring-Do
By APA A/V Team
http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=25464


Tamlyn Tomita tells it like it is. In this exclusive interview, she
takes APA (and its readers) to task on WWII, being sucky, and the
adrenaline rush that theater provides.

When meeting Tamlyn Tomita, one is tempted to use a whole bunch of F-
words to describe her: Fiery. Feisty. Fun. Fantastic. Lucky for us,
Tamlyn lets her acting do the talking. And really, a quick peek at
her exhaustive profile reveals a little something for everyone:
she's got the halcyon days of our youth covered (Karate Kid Part
II). She's done her share of female-empowering family sagas (The Joy
Luck Club). She knows how to walk the tightrope between big-budget,
blow-em-up blockbusters (The Day After Tomorrow) and the little guys
tucked away in some corner of indie-ville. (Greg Pak's Robot
Stories.) So is it any surprise that the woman who has it all holds
absolutely nothing back when she's onstage, no more than a few feet
from the closest audience member, giddy with the idea that by the
end of her performance, she has left you bleary-eyed and slack-
jawed? Well, no. Because, to loosely paraphase her, it's what actors
live for. More importantly, it's what guides her fearless (wouldn't
you know it: another f-word) instincts and drive for self-
betterment. And if all else fails? Well, she just hopes that she
doesn't f*** it all up. -- Chi Tung


APA: Can you talk about your film coming out, Only the Brave?

Tamlyn Tomita: Only the Brave is an independent film written,
directed, produced, and starring Lane Nishikawa, who is a Japanese-
American third generation actor based out of San Francisco. It's a
fictional story based on the rescue of lost batallion in WWII by the
442-100th batallion Japanese-American regiments. As we all know --
or you should know in your history, young buck and young gal --
segregation in US military. Japanese-American soldiers volunteered
to enter the army even though their families were left at home
because of the concentration camps, and one of the most heroic
exploits of the US military in history is the rescue of the lost
batallion, the Texas batallion, the 141st I believe, who were stuck
and surrounded by German soldiers.

It's an independent film. I play -- I'm not a solder [snaps] but I
play the wife of one of the characters, and what's wonderful about
the story is that we get to flash back to seven of the soldiers,
their personal lives before they enter the war, so we get a fully
dimensionalized picture of these soldiers -- who they are, where
they came from, why they did what they did.

APA: do you think it's a story that has been overlooked?

TT: Absolutely, absolutely. If I remember correctly, the only movie
that's been done on a full scale is Go for Broke! starring Van
Johnson in 1952, black and white, wonderful picture. But damnit,
Spielberg, Tom Hanks, all those big producers -- it's such a big
trend now, these types of pictures. And it [Only the Brave]
deserves as much attention as any of those pictures -- Band of
Brothers, etc. Schindler's List is of course on a much larger scale,
but if you're talking about American heroism -- this is a picture
that deserves to be seen because we're seen our kinds of faces.
They're speaking our language. They're doing it under our red,
white, and blue stripes, the patriotism and the honor and duty of
doing it under the American flag for our country. It's absolutely a
story that needs to be told, and I think there's a lot of
apprehension because -- how do you market it? You gotta do it under
the Band of Brothers banner. You gotta do it under a that kind of
attitude, that kind of feeling that this is an American story. It
deserves as much attention as the Chinese-American fighter pilots
who were involved in WWII. The Japanese-American union was led by a
Korean american soldier, a colonel Young Oak Kim. These things are
not well-told.

APA: Your career has been widely varied in terms of roles you've
taken. What stands out to you?

TT: Well, the first one's always going to be the most special one.
Karate Kid 2, which I did before I even knew I was going to be an
actor, and I just did it on a fluke. Because I majored in history, I
wanted to become a teacher. And what I found out in the process of
creating a character, learning the story, figuring out what are you
trying to say, what is the message that's underlying, what is your
agenda. I mean, you're trying to fulfill something, you're trying to
give, you're trying to teach, you're trying to educate people that
there are stories out there that can't be overlooked. And [Karate
Kid 2] was such a personal adventure for me, because of the close
relations that I developed.

Joy Luck Club is another one, bringing a highly popular book with
very universal stories between mothers and daughters. That was very
special because of those relationships and those kind of
generational stories that all of us who come from immigrant families
have strapped on our backs, that we have to deal with in being
American in America. But, we also have to recognize and acknowledge
our history and our legacies and say, "I have that too." But always,
that's what the interesting part of being an ethnic American is:
every day we're going "Wow, how do I play this, or how am I going to
react that someone is going to throw some racist sh*t at me," and
say, "Am I going to just suck it up, am I going to confront it, am I
going to say Hey why are you saying this?" There's all kinds of
variables.

But yea, in my career, I've done great projects, I've done sucky
projects, but each one I've done for a reason, even for the lowest
kind of common denominator to pay the rent or pay my bills. But
there are those wonderful jewels.

APA: Do you enjoy doing theater?

TT: A play is always different for an actor. That is the joy. If
every actor could get paid what they get for doing a TV show or
film, we'd be seeing some stars on stage all the time. Because, to
live a story, to live a character from A to Z, without any cuts, and
the risk. You cannot rely on saying "Oh geez, I screwed up that
line." You don't any retakes. You have to think on your feet, you
have to know your character, you have to invest in all your through
lines and what you want, what you're trying to deliver, what you're
trying to say, and the conflicts and fights and the circumstances in
which you find your character in. That's what the brilliance of
being onstage is all about.

APA: Thank you for your time.