Heroes in Business - LTEF Simon Twu audio only 1

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

LTEF Simon Twu audio only 1 by

Welcome to the talk show Lighting the Educational Flame with your host, Mark Hoberman. The goal of this show is to provide a learning experience to people of all ages with guests from various fields and academics, a wide range of industries, and insight into the many forms of art, athletics, and entertainment. We hope you enjoy the show. Actor Simon Tu is our special guest today. Simon talks about his experience in commercials, movies, and more. Simon will also talk about giving back to others through his company, Simon Technique Studio. Hello and welcome to the talk show, Lighting the Educational Flame, brought to you by Great Success Education.

I'm your host, Mark Hobman. Today's guest is actor, singer, and voice coach, Simon Tu. Simon, welcome to Lighting the Educational Flame. Hi, guys. Nice to meet you. And thanks for having me, Mark. Oh, it's my pleasure. My pleasure.

Simon, before we talk about your professional career, can you tell us a little bit about your background and upbringing as a child? Oh, my gosh. My upbringing. That's a long story. 29 different schools growing up oh my goodness yeah i was a teacher and i only taught in four well i guess i have more experience so um no it was a crazy life like um you know my family's

always like donating stuff all over the world and try to like help people so i just kind of kept traveling grew up with a lot of different family members but it was really cool because um throughout this process i got a chance to uh learn from different cultures and it's just so fascinating that like because i was forced to be in those positions where i have to compare to different cultures and um they had like a lot of similarities for example hot pot right or like gumbo or like the russian like potato soups you know or like a lot of cultures kind of merge together in certain ways because there's some wisdom behind these you know legendary things that they pass on right um or the wisdom that they pass on and at the same time there's also a lot of things

you have to be localized in order to pass down the information for education which we talked about absolutely so uh you know and we talk more about you know we know about the upbringing now and i want to talk now about your career which you've done it all so you know there are a lot of people out there in the entertainment world who do commercials and voiceovers, and there's so many things to do in the business as they get up there into bigger parts. What's your experience in that part of the industry with voiceovers and commercials?

I love voiceovers and commercials. So I had a small title called, like, Asian Commercial Prince back in, like, 2011 to 2013 or something love voiceovers and commercials so i had a small title called like the asian commercial prince back in like 2011 to 13 or something because i don't know i was i was really really fortunate to have done a lot um i don't think i can name the brands here but i think i've done like over 80 commercials and um internationally and national and or like the you market, blah, blah, blah, all of them together. And it was so much fun because I feel like once you get on a roll, like do more of them, it becomes much easier because it's almost like a practice of working with different directors or different teams.

And every director directs you differently and have different like keys. For example, some directors would be very, very nice and be like be like okay if you're holding like a beer or holding whatever like you have to be like that the same position three two one action three two one action so so we have like the muscle memory array you know because we've done it so many times so we know okay so they want almost identical you know inserts of your hand did it up and sometimes you can ask for like one of those grains or something so you can leave your hand there and just at sometimes you can ask for like one of those grains or something so you can leave your hand there and just at least for me like we all we have little strategies so i know my muscle memory here so with a three two one action you know so it's the it's the same movements so

they get the best shot in the shortest amount of time and they'll like to use it next time so that's pretty cool how long does a a 30 second or one minute commercial take to shoot? You know, people think that you go in, you walk in, it's a one minute commercial, you take three minutes in case there's a couple of takes, you go home and that's it. It's much more involved than that, isn't it? Oh yeah. Um, I, I, from my experience, it's usually takes, I mean, it takes a lot of planning, a lot of planning, sometimes even rehearsals in a foreign language and then um um yeah it's it's from my experience it took a fitting of course blah blah blah so it takes about

one day of fitting usually and then about uh one to seven days of shooting depending how big it is it's fitting is the clothing you mean yeah so we should try on the clothes and see like if it fits if it looks good or not oh so so they don't say come in jeans and a nice black shirt they whenever you go to a commercial it's always clothes that they tell you this is what you're wearing you know i mean you know it's the industry i think everyone's trying to save money so like yeah but but you never end up wearing your own clothes. At least I haven't in a while. It's always their clothes for some reason. Well, without telling us maybe the brand name, can you tell us the different...

80 commercials is a ton. The different types of products uh those commercials that you've been in yeah yeah yeah like uh banking cell phones telecommunication um um fast food um beers um um yogurts um and uh yeah oh gosh I can't I actually have the names faster I can probably brand is in here well that's what that's what branding and marketing is all about they want to know the brand more than they want to know uh the product i get it but without mentioning the brand i know you were in a commercial with like john legend and his wife chrissy tegan so what was that like you don't have to mention the brand no they're they're awesome it was really really cool to see them on set and

work with them on set it was like like, it's just great people. And I always love, I love music, you know? So come on, John Legend, the music producer for La La Land, I believe so. And also he's just, like his name, a legend, you know? And it was awesome. It was really, really cool to work with. And everyone on set was so nice. I'm sure it was a great experience.

When we talk now about either bigger parts or TV and movies, do you think there are enough meaningful roles in television and or movies for the Asian community? I wish there's more. I really wish there's more. Yeah, this guy's got to work. Simon's got to work. Call him. Thanks. So, no, I really wish there's more. Yeah, this guy's got to work. Simon's got to work. Call him. Thanks. So, no, I really wish there's more. And I think it's going towards that direction a little more, like the representation and also the authenticity.

And at least in my experience and talking to some executives and stuff at different studios and producers, it's like, it's, I feel like it's half half. Like some people are like, just, we're just going to keep doing the safe, safe way, safe way. But there's some people who are like also trying to find that authenticity. For example, I'm not like those pro like, oh my gosh, if you're like, you know, if you're looking for a Vietnamese where you have to look for Vietnamese, like separating all the

agents so much that you can't even play because that's only like saying like um um the caucasian or white americans can only play their specific like i'm part dutch and i'm part that's like but at the same time it's like at least authenticity for example the northern chinese at least have really be chinese not japanese so like like the characters maybe it's fine once in a while, but at least you have to speak it correctly, not like a completely different language, which used to happen a lot, by the way. And so, for example, northern Chinese is like,

,, whatever. And southern Chinese is like,,, so it's completely different, right? But no one ever gets that. And so like, sometimes when it's not the authentic, there's a discrepancy, you know, it's almost like if we're making a movie in Asia about the United States and it doesn't follow this right categories, you get really confused and really bored out right away but but english-speaking people would never see the discrepancy you would sit and you would know the discrepancy right away oh yeah i heard that oh yeah oh big time so so and i'm just saying like while we're on on on air like i'm just hopefully get a chance to share that experience because I lived there for so half, half, basically.

Um, I grew up in America, Santa Monica, but I, I, um, I also lived in Asia and worked in Asia for quite some time. Um, especially with the corporate pro productions or like different international, um, directors and producers. So it was really interesting to see both side of the picture. And I'm just like, I'm an advocate. I just hope that one day we can do more projects like that, that can actually, and it's doable. Like, imagine like dance, right?

We go to like dance or ballets or whatever, or modern dance shows, and it's an international language. But how come now that we added language and other even more supporting artistic work, it makes it less communicable, which is, you know, you're adding more budget, you're doing more artwork, you're making it even more grandiose, and filming it, spending so much money on it, and it's detached even more. So that's the discrepancy that i'm really working so hard i even try to write projects right now and just just just trying to push that forward and especially as a performer an actor and singer just really try to uh be more authentic well

well you mentioned projects so i'm sure my viewers are going to be very excited to hear about, I guess, your latest project, which is the movie Lead the Way, in which you play the main character. So tell us about that. That's got to be really exciting. I mean, that's your baby now. Oh, yeah. So it was such a pleasure to work with the team. It was a lot of fun. work with these the team um it was a lot of fun our director is richard l anderson he's a two-time oscar winner um and an emmy winner um so he's he was known for his doing the sounds so i was so um thankful to work with him because even though like he's not an oscar winner for directing but who cares like working with any like professional people they just have that mindset and attitude and it was so endearing to work with him and just to see like how he thinks and how meticulous he wants things to be and why and his artistic vision um so talking to him on such you know i learned a lot i learned a lot and um um for those of you who don't know, he did like, you know, what is it? Indiana

Jones, Star Wars, Star Trek, Night Before Christmas, like, a bunch. Yeah, like a bunch, like if you go on his behind the page. But more importantly importantly i learned a lot and um our producer julia she was awesome and our writer um eugene it's just it was a script about um autistic person who even she got semi-blind written for the president of the united states and that's your that's your uh that's your role yeah patrick lee yeah so people should know Lead the Way is L-E-E, apostrophe D, Lead the Way, based on the character's name, Lee, sure. Yeah, satire.

I love satire. So I think you run for president, right? Your character runs for president. Yeah. And haven't you guys, I think recently, didn't you win some kind of film festival award recently? Yeah, we won the best independent feature film At Chinese American Film Festival recently

That's huge Congratulations, that's great to hear Thank you So a lot of times when we say this on the show Often that the people, the viewers They know the glory but not the story So you must have encountered obstacles along the way In pursuing your passion. There's got to be a lot of no's. If you did 80 commercials, maybe there's 200 that you didn't get. I don't know, but I'm sure

that there were some obstacles. So this is your passion, your love, entertainment. What were some of those struggles like? Oh my gosh. It's just, I feel like the struggle of entertainment is that I learned this earlier on. And I had really great mentors and really taught me this, but you can always have better education and more education and more training. And one of the things that I learned is that we have to treat this like a business, right? I learned is that we have to treat this like a business, right? So like, and the earlier you get a chance to work, um, at different positions, not just a little bit, but a lot, like as a writer, as a producer, as a did it, then, you know, how they think, you know, not be like, so it's not, so it actually gets us out of that narrow mindedness as an artist that a lot of us get trapped

into, because as an artist, you're only looking at your world, your vision, and be the best you can in that world. So that is so priceless. But at the same time, it's like that's also a hindrance because you don't know how to help the other people to help you.

So I personally feel like I learned that later on in life was that it's a business you know there's marketing there's the there's the there's the branding there's the uh there's the um craft for sure there's the audition process blah blah so actually that's why i i came up with like some celebrities in asia and also um some great dear friends um for Assignment Techniques Studio. We have Academy Award winners in the studio as well and world champions. We only find the best of the best. We just try to give back as well and share with the next generation that this is also a business.

It's a whole package. It's not just like blindly going to school and just taking lessons. Okay. And then 10 years down the line, okay, I'm done. What do I do next? Because a lot of young generation people, I realized that they tell me, they're like, we don't know what to do next. Some people graduate from top schools. I don't want to name names here, but top like Ivy schools, or in the world, or even, and they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in their lifetime for education, which is actually pretty common for like elites, you know, but they're still kind of lost. They're like, okay, then what? So we try to provide a place where like, you can start studying with Academy of Winners or world top people at a very young age. And, you know, we provide very

specific things for them to help them grow and programs and projects for them. And hopefully we can help them with getting into better schools, you know, but even more importantly, growing who they are, finding who they are at earlier stage. That's great. And it's great that you mentioned such a process. It's a business because people don't realize. And if it's a business, it's work. And it does take a lot of work to hone your craft, to learn the right things to do, how to audition, to memorize lines. So you mentioned earlier that, you know, you had a great time. You appreciated so much what you learned from some of the tops of the industry. You know, the director of Lead the Way. What are examples of some things you learned? I mean, you've been in business for a young guy.

You've done a load of commercials, a lot of work, international. What were some of these things that you learned from some of these really top level people? Oh my God, I learned so much. I want to do a shout out like to my mentor, Elizabeth Sun. She was the most giving person ever.

She was just, she kind of taught me the most important part of my life i believe is to give and um like as you you're in education sometimes you don't get paid a lot for education at all sometimes it's almost free you know like if you calculate sometimes you get almost minimum wage but it's just because to see them grow it's like wow this is unbelievable it's almost like you almost treat them like your own like kids you know um and um so she she gave it a lot in her life and always taught me where to go and just very expressive and that's what this program is about like it's not just after taking class we have a mentorship program where they can ask questions,

we guide them through different things as well and the paths as well. So that's one of the things I learned so much, to give back, to don't lose that while you're on a path of what you want to do as well. And then working with Joseph Foseph fines he was amazing he um i was i remember i was working in asia for a long time a lot of time there's the their craft in china was sam slovsky mainly and it's a lot of pre-prep work and and which there's nothing wrong with sam

soft it's just that because um the environment that they're in it's a lot faster it's like fast based it's more like fast food so a lot of people and you know not getting too much into the cultural aspects and the preparation work over there but it's just it becomes very like i don't have time to do my work not like us work like a teamwork so sometimes and so uh i remember working when he was like simon you know i got this relaxed and i was like okay and i remember when he said that i was like yes because i started training in acting and music in america first i was like oh my gosh thank you for reminding me and so because i did a lot of prep work and pre-story whatever all the backstory stuff and i just sat in and just let him

feed everything to me like meisner work feeding the react acting's reacting right and it was so much fun working with him and he really like reminded me and clicked again i was like oh my gosh so um it was it was it was an honor working with him um he was just so good all you have to do is just react off of whatever he's giving you is so good um and uh it was really lovely to have like uh you know his talk in his room afterwards and he was you know he was very very nice to say like it's like thank you for doing your work here and you know for the project and um it was very sweet of him it's also great that you're open to learning some people you know don't have that growth mindset, and you certainly do. And you mentioned education, but I know that you are a little involved in

education yourself. I want to dissect a little bit and learn more about Simon Technique Studio. So Simon Technique Studio. Okay. So at the beginning, I didn't want to name anything like under my name. I was like, why? You know, it sounds so like, ugh. You know, but like, I was like, why don't we name like, you know, educational growth or like some energy. Anyway, something that's like positive, right? And then not like my name. But like, so, but because I would remember I was acting a lot back in Asia.

And I was in Beijing at the time. There's just so many projects at the time. And I was talking to A-lister there, Zhang Jiayi, and he was really, really cool. Like that team. And he's an amazing actor there. I really respect him and also the team there. But they were like, Simon, like you're one of the few bilingual actors and bicultural actors here that works a lot and also really understand it um so um i was like okay so and then and then i why don't you do some education because they realize

that i can localize like um meisner or like you know uh woodhagen like different techniques into the localization and they've been having um a lot of of Asian actress has been struggling with that. It's because just like you mentioned, you have some experience with books, right? Like any books translated into a different language, you lose like 30%, sometimes even depending on who you find, 70% sometimes, you know? And they're like doing like, it's almost imaginatively you're like, you're fishing. You're like, oh, this is the best technique. Yeah. But how come there's no fish?

You know, oh, I'm the wrong pond. Oh, I'm so sorry. You know, like, you know, like that's what was happening. So I spent a lot of time about more than 10 years like with these people. I was working with my other colleagues were the four top teachers from the four conservatories in China. And then I was the international coach there. So I would like to fuse this thing together. I was like, OK, so how do we make this better?

How do we communicate this better? How do we localize it? For example, like the Chinese culture, a lot of Chinese actors like, oh, yeah, yeah, it's big. Right. And even Japanese culture is sometimes as very big as anime like ah you know like like almost like um naruto you know or whatever like you know but but the real culture within the cities at least um is are like um Thank you. Thank you.

Very quiet. Bye bye. So it's very small, right? And it's very like, but how come when it goes on the camera, it's like, it's like so it's animated, so exaggerated. So because the Asian culture, you have a lot less physical expression compared to like America. I think I read it somewhere like psychology or like communication. 70% is physical language.

Yeah, yeah. So, but that's not really the case there. So, if you implement everything, you can't implement everything. You have to be able to understand the culture so much that you can localize it. Or else it doesn't make any sense anymore. So that's what I was doing. And that's how we got started. So I'm very fortunate to have a lot of A-listers and celebrities and top actors there to help me with this program to build the curriculum and to fix what we need to share with these people.

And also some mentors from from from america as well like top people so so is it are you teaching acting you're teaching singing who are you teaching and what are you yeah so we just started this thing um um march this year so um i mean we've been doing educated for a long time but it's like the online platform so we um i do the acting and singing part and we have. And we have artists. We have also producers and stuff like that. But we have artists. He's an Academy Award winner, a great dear friend of mine, James Parrish.

He's awesome. And he did like, can I say titles of movies here? Sure. Oh, yeah. It's already out. So he did like iRob robot um benjamin button um uh he did the face and um the uh spider-man lion king mulan blah blah blah blah blah the list goes on and he's he's great he's just phenomenal like even sitting in class i was like oh man jade's

i'm learning a lot like i am every every time so um So I just want to make sure that we're giving the best we can to the next generation. So if I'm still learning a lot, I'm like, okay, hopefully that's going to translate so they can learn a lot as well. So you're paying forward the tradition your parents started about paying it forward and giving, which I think is great. Which begs the question, what is next for Simon too? giving, which I think is great, which begs the question, what is next for Simon, too? Man, I want to really start getting into more projects in the States and also start developing some really cool cross-cultural projects. We're looking into it right now. Meanwhile, I can't say much about it, but I'm working on a song as well. We continue to work on songs.

We did two songs during pandemic because it was so hard to go to studio stuff. It's a more independent project. A song was called The Lead the Way, and we got a lot of people to sing together for that, like influencers, celebrities, and actors and singers to come together and around the world. So we did something non-profit like that and um you know and another song called shape your future for u.s census um and then but this time it's going to be like a pop song so i'm really looking forward to the different creative um projects that's happening coming up and where should people go to find out more about you on their websites

or places you can go your imdb page i'm sure is one where can they go to find out more about you or their websites or places you can go your imdb page i'm sure is one where can they go to find out more about you so um there's two websites right now this one's called simon2 and that's a twu um simon to just think about like we think of like asian guys as not sorry typical asian stereotypes the reaction is like okay with the camera yeah yeah simon two with a u um simon2actor at uh simontwactor.com and the school page is simontechniquestudio.com oh by the way the reason why it's called simon technique studio is because these guys in asia spend like 100k on marketing in on baidu in asia so it's the first thing you can find like sim technique or simon technique studio is the first thing that pops up on news so so it's like you know it's like why not use something that's rented out there it's

already a brand there there absolutely well simon too i can't thank you enough for joining us today sharing your passion and all your experiences you've had in the entertainment business. I really appreciate you being here. To the viewers, this is Mark Holman thanking you for watching Lighting the Educational Flame. Catch us Monday nights at 9 p.m. EST on E360 TV, on Roku and Apple TV. Remember, we're 24-7 on the Lighting the Educational Flame YouTube channel. Have a great day, Simon. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Mark. Thank you. Thank you for watching Lighting the Educational Flame. To contact Mark Hoberman, email him at info at gradesuccess.com or visit him on social media through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Thank you for watching Lighting the Educational Flame. Thank you.