Young Provo pianist wins award for first acting gig
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Sometimes it's not what you know, it's ... what else you know. When Provo resident Justin Kwong was picked for a, ahem, key part in the cultural comedy "White on Rice," it was his piano playing that sealed the deal. He'd never taken an acting lesson in his life.
"The kid in the movie has to play the piano, and I didn't want to fake that," said writer and director Dave Boyle.
Though filmed in Salt Lake City and made by local filmmakers, "White on Rice," in which a contemporary Japanese-American family is burdened with a lazy uncle, is a low-budget independent feature most likely to sell tickets in West Coast cities with large Asian populations like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
If the film does well in those markets this summer, said producer Duane Andersen, then it may get a brief run in local theaters, possibly in September, before going to DVD in 2010.
Justin, who's 13 but was just 11 when he worked on "White on Rice," could be an important factor in the film's success. His performance in "White on Rice" is so convincing that it's already made him an award-winning actor. In May, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival honored him with its Outstanding Newcomer award.
Piano playing wasn't the only thing that the filmmakers had in mind while casting the role of a boy who keeps an even keel while various events rile up all of the adults in his life. They also wanted to find a youngster who was both a little offbeat, and able to seem mature beyond his years.
"We did an on-camera interview and I asked him what he liked to do in his spare time," Boyle said. "He told me, totally deadpan, 'I like to design houses.' I knew we had our guy."
Justin said that he's been teaching himself to do architectural drawings ever since seeing home floorplans in a magazine. "I liked how the houses looked," he said.
He had no problems at his first audition -- an opportunity his family learned about from his piano teacher -- because all he had to do was play the piano. "That was pretty easy," he said.
Being called back to audition a second time was a little bit rougher. At the second audition, Justin had to do a line reading. "He just kept getting nervous, looking at the camera," said Justin's mom, Keiko Sato.
A natural performer
Perhaps sensing the connection that Justin would eventually forge with his character, Bob, Boyle was patient, leading the young non-actor through the line reading multiple times. By the end of the audition, Sato said, "he wasn't comfortable, but it was a little better than before."
"White on Rice" tells the story of 40-year-old Jimmy (played by Hiroshi Watanabe), a somewhat feckless and recently divorced man-child who moves in with his sister's family -- including his nephew, a talented young kid named Bob, whose bedroom (and bunk bed) Jimmy ends up sharing.
Bob's mother (who dotes on Jimmy) and his father (who's frustrated by Jimmy) try to keep the family together -- something that becomes especially problematic after Jimmy decides to start dating again. Bob takes care of himself. He even starts his own landscaping business, so that he can pay for piano lessons.
"He's so much more mature than his uncle that he ends up sort of being his uncle's life coach," Boyle said.
When the movie was filmed -- conveniently for its young co-star, in July 2007, during summer break from school -- Justin learned about acting from the ground up. "They would put tape on the floor where I was supposed to stand," he said, something that's entirely routine ... unless you've never made a movie before. For Justin, it meant that he had a tendency, at first, to get caught looking at his feet.
And it took a while for Justin to become accustomed to what he called "my serious face." "There are only a few scenes where I kind of just play around," he said.
Once he began to be familiar with the moviemaking process, however, Justin's learning curve turned out to be much shorter than what you might have expected from an 11-year-old with no prior acting experience.
"For some people," Boyle said, "the ability to perform and act is a big step. Then being able to do that on camera is a second big step."
It did take some time for Justin to get comfortable being on camera, but he didn't have to learn to act. "Justin already knew what he doing and understood the role," Boyle said, from the start.
One thing that was consistent throughout was Justin's state of mind. "It was quite fun," he said. "I enjoyed working with the cast members. They were fun to work with and fun to talk to."
The critics like him
"Fun" is a word that's frequently used to describe Justin by people who've seen "White on Rice." Justin doesn't particularly look like a good time waiting to happen: He's slender, of average height and wears glasses. He looks like your little brother (ironically, given that Justin is the oldest of his parents' four children).
His performance as Bob, however, has people talking.
"We knew his performance was great," Andersen said, "but it's been really satisfying the way his role has been received. People have really, really responded to him."
Reviewers who've written about the film, Andersen said, always mention Justin's performance. "He's sort of the calming influence" on the movie, Andersen said. "All of the adults are constantly going at very high speeds. The contrast in him is unexpected and always fun."
As Justin remembers it, he didn't try to do anything special. "I think I pretty much just followed the script," he said.
Boyle said he thinks that Jimmy and Bob have a relationship similar to that of popular claymation characters Wallace and Gromit. Jimmy is like Wallace, the slightly dotty English inventor who has amusing social blind spots. Bob is like Wallace's faithful dog Gromit, the sensible, grounded half of the duo, who picks up the pieces after his master's schemes fall apart.
"I sort of had a feeling," Boyle said, "that people would latch on to Bob."
When he flew to Los Angeles to receive his award during the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Justin thought he was just making the trip to support the film. No one told him he'd been picked for a festival honor, right up to the moment that the prizes were handed out.
"The wanted me to say something, and I wasn't really ready to say anything," Justin said. "I think I just said something like, 'Thanks for the award.' "
If Justin keeps on acting, maybe someday he'll have another chance to give a speech at an awards ceremony. Or maybe he'll grow up to be an accomplished architect or concert pianist. He still hasn't taken acting lessons, or gotten an agent, but that doesn't mean his acting career is over.
Acting isn't the first thing on his mind, but he thinks he'd enjoy being in a school play (he'll be in the eighth grade at Centennial Middle School this fall), or even doing another movie, should the opportunity arise. "Maybe I'll just do it for fun," Justin said.
Posted in Lifestyles, People, Movies, Kids-and-teens, Entertainment on Sunday, July 12, 2009 12:10 am Updated: 7:08 am. | Tags: White On Rice, Justin Kwong, Dave Boyle, Duane Andersen
