A story of persistence to inspire positive change.
Chi Nguyen is a Vietnamese actress currently based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2017, Nguyen graduated with a Bachelor’s from Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). Her notable works include the first Vietnamese-Australian comedy series Phi and Me (2019), her solo comedy cabaret “Lotus” (winning Best Cabaret in Melbourne’s Fringe Festival in 2019), and playing the recurring role of Jeanette Dao in Amazon Prime’s “The Wilds” (2020).
Twenty-four year old Nguyen has wanted to become an actor “since day zero.” It took years of convincing her parents to allow her to pursue acting. Like many Asian parents, Nguyen’s parents originally wanted her to pursue business. Nguyen said, “When I finished year 12, the career counselor was like: What do you want to do? What do you want to study? And I’m like: Well, I want to act. My parents want me to do business. Is there any way that I can do both?”
Unable to do both, Nguyen did not tell her parents she paid the $60 application fee to audition for the VCA. Unfortunately, she did not get in the program and returned to Vietnam for a gap year. While she was home, she persisted in her goal of becoming an actor. Nguyen got her parents to pay for her acting short courses and continued to convince them of her passion to pursue an acting career. “I just told them: hey, sit down. I learned this new script in class. I’ll perform this for you. And I just really tried to convince them,” said Nguyen.
Eventually, her parents conceded and allowed her to audition a second time. This time she got into VCA’s program and also received the Grace Marion Wilson Scholarship for Excellence in Acting. After graduating, however, starting her career was not easy.
“2018 was the first year out of university, out of acting school,” she said. “And it’s always the toughest year for most people because you don’t know anyone, and no one knows you. So casting directors don’t usually reach out to you.”
This made receiving the script to “The Wilds” so much more exciting. Nguyen said, “When this audition from ‘untitled project’ Amazon Prime came through, I was like: oh gosh, yes.” Her agent had sent her the whole script of the pilot episode, along with the sides for two scenes she was to audition with. “I read it in one sitting, and I was crying in the end,” said Nguyen. The character she was auditioning for, Jeanette Dao, was a young, happy go-lucky girl who really helped with the family restaurant. Nguyen felt an instant connection. “As a Vietnamese woman who grew up in Vietnam, I just have a gut feeling about how that experience would have been. It’s not something that I have to research, it’s something that I have lived. It’s in my blood.”
After submitting the tapes, Nguyen did not hear back for weeks. It was at this time, she began doubting herself. “Maybe they hate me,” she thought to herself then. Around the same time, she began writing her own work, a one-woman solo comedy cabaret called Lotus. It depicted her life as a Vietnamese immigrant in Australia. She was about to debut her piece in the Melbourne Fringe Festival that month when she finally heard back from Amazon Prime, telling her she got the part. A week later, she was asked to fly out to film.
Describing that day, Nguyen said, “And I was like: ‘T-t-tomorrow?’ And my agent said yeah. So I packed overnight, quit my full-time job that I just got because I was so broke, and I cancelled my solo show that year, because I’m flying to New Zealand for five weeks to shoot the pilot. I dropped everything.”
A year later, Nguyen was still able to do her cabaret show between shoots for “The Wilds” episodes. Lotus won “Best Cabaret” at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2019.
“Sometimes during my difficult times, I think back, and I think of that younger self who did all of that fight, and I just think, like gosh, where did she get that fire from?” said Nguyen.
Speaking to Asian representation in the media, Nguyen shares that what happens off-screen is equally important as what happens on-screen.
Boasting a diverse ensemble cast, “The Wilds” tells the story of young women from different backgrounds who have been stranded on an island, only to find out nothing is what it seems. “It’s exactly the kind of series that I wanted to grow up watching as a young adult, teenage girl,” said Nguyen. Not only does it focus on the female experience, working with the team was effortless in the context of race and culture. Behind the scenes, she felt like the team went “above and beyond” in their research to ensure that all aspects of the character’s Vietnamese heritage were portrayed authentically. This was a rare experience for Nguyen in the industry.
Nguyen said, “Yes, more representation for people of color in the media [is important] for sure, but it has to be reflected on-screen as well as off-screen in the culture of working with these people and the culture of being inclusive, as a collaboration.”
To others wishing to pursue their dreams, Nguyen said, “Do what makes your heart flutter, is always kind of my thing. You would know it in your heart when it’s the right thing to do.” Just as someone once told her, “Sometimes you only need one person to believe in you to do it. And remember that I believe in you and I will be encouraging you on.”
To read this article in Chinese (Traditional), please click here.
