Exclusive Interview: Director Dave Boyle And Actor Hiroshi Watanabe Talk WHITE ON RICE

This past week I had the awesome opportunity to interview writer/director Dave Boyle and actor Hiroshi Watanabe of the upcoming indie romantic comedy WHITE ON RICE (check out the trailer). A funny little story about Jimmy, a misguided 40 year old divorcee trying to navigate his way through a new life in America and out of his sister Aiko’s basement. The movie opens limited on September 11th, 2009, go watch it if it’s playing in a theater near you. Here is the interview after this jump…

RS: First of all, I don’t know if you’ve guys been informed but I myself am an Asian, an Indonesian to be exact and I’d just like to say thank you for making a movie with Asian actors that’s not about martial art fighter

DB and HW: Thank you (laugh)

RS: So what’s fascinating about making movies casting Japanese stars?

DB: I’ve worked with the actors. Hiroshi for example, I met him in Big Dreams Little Tokyo and I just thought he’d be perfect to have his own movie, be the lead in it and because of that, the movie took on sorta Japanese feel to it.  A comedy about family so his relatives have to be Japanese too. For a background, I learned to speak Japanese when I was in missionary in Australia a few years back. Big Dreams Little Tokyo, it was meant to be a one-time type of thing, very loosely based on my experiences trying to learn Japanese in Australia and then WHITE ON RICE sort of took on this Japanese American feel to it because of casting Hiroshi

RS: I read your statement on the press release and I quote “I guess you could call WHITE ON RICE a work of a speculative autobiography. At the time I began writing the story, I had serious concerns about my future. I found myself daydreaming about a bleak future in which I was unemployable, incompetent, and totally dependent upon others for survival” When was that and how similar was your situation with Jimmy? Did you sleep in the janitor’s closet like Jimmy did?

DB: I didn’t stay in the janitor’s closet (laugh) I lived in my sister’s place for a long time. It was pretty, within recent a few years . I think I got a little bit of Jimmy in me, very exaggerated but he’s sort of what I’m worried I could be perceived as

RS: I understand that Joel Clark is the co-writer, how did he get into the picture? What was the process?

DB: Actually, I was introduced to Joel and only met him once and then for the next six months, he and I collaborated via e-mail. We only met once before we started working and the collaboration was..  I’ve already gone through several drafts of the script by that point and he wrote a lot of the dialogue for the final version. I liked working that way. I know the story that I want to tell and if I’m focused on other things , I’ll let somebody to just worry about the dialogue and write the jokes.

RS: Hiroshi, career-wise, you’ve done quite well in Hollywood productions with The Last Samurai, Letters from Iwo Jima, what attracted you to WHITE ON RICE and how is Dave Boyle as a filmmaker to you as an actor?

HW: He writes very fast, very funny, I really enjoy working with Dave. I worked with him, his first production, in Big Dreams Little Tokyo, a very small part. He remembered me and he called me and I know he writes very good stuff so I decided right away. And I’ve done drama and this is my first time to play the leading part in comedy. I really love comedy especially American sitcom so it feels like a sitcom and I had a really great time

RS: What was your favorite scene in the movie?

HW: Tak and Aiko were talking about Jimmy. Tak said this coffin would fit Jimmy’s size, that scene was really funny and really scary.

RS: This is the impression I got from WHITE ON RICE, and please correct me if I’m wrong all the characters are focusd on something that they don’t realize what they already got all along. Jimmy didn’t notice the banana girl, Tak didn’t realize the potential that his son has

DB: They get distracted, about not realizing what you have in front of you

RS: So, WHITE ON RICE opens next week, September 11^th

DB: It will open in L.A. and Orange County and the following we expand in San Francisco Bay area. We’ll just keep expanding as long as it can go

RS: How do you hope the Asian American audiences would respond to WHITE ON RICE?

DB: We’ve already screened the movie several dozen times at film festivals and the response there especially at the Asian American film festival like the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival, has been really really great. So I’m hoping to keep that tradition. We’re really working with a lot fo the film festivals on doing our grassroots marketing to make sure the audience is aware

RS: What’s next for filmmaker Dave Boyle?

DB: I haven’t decided what film project I may do next. On this one, I’m learning so much of how distribution works. I’m doing some of the work myself but I have a distribution partner who’s a lot more experienced than I am to make sure it gets into theaters. And I think in the next 6 months of my life are going to be occupied with that. But I’m always on the lookout for a good story, I’m always making notes, hopefully next year I’ll have something ready to go.