Because even if you are an actor or a director with a huge project under your belt, it doesn't make the life you've chosen any easier.
"Unfortunately, you're in a business where you can never walk away and say I'm on top of the world," says Kahn. "Because you're not. You never are because there's always someone hungrier than you, someone younger than you, someone older than you, someone who's better than you, always competing."
"I feel a lot of times it's high school all over again," says Lee. "It's like here are the TV people ... 'Oh, he's not good enough.' It's like all these cliques, and now it's just people who are older doing it.
"I went to 'The Last Samurai' premiere, and it was beautiful. Go down the red carpet, and the publicist walks up to one of the photographers on the red carpet and says, 'This is Will Yun Lee.' And he went, 'I don't know him.' Turned his back on me and put his camera down. I thought it was great. |
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It was just such a defining moment, like, this is Hollywood. You can't take it personally. It was really funny. It was like, I don't know,what can you say? How can you not laugh through that?"
You laugh through it because, well, you are at a movie premiere, and while your TNT show was cancelled, you are a working actor making a pretty good living, and you're no longer alone in the industry. In fact, one of your good friends is a big-time director. Together, you have a synergy that is rare in Hollywood, where you know you have each other's backs. So, you may not be recognizable on the red carpet yet, but there are plenty of others who know just who Will Yun Lee is. Anyway, it doesn't matter to you because you're in a position where you can laugh about how five years ago you had nothing, and then go meet up with Joseph Kahn for dinner. And, yeah, it just might be for a plate of sushi - ED. |
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