White Board Challenge With American Born Chinese Stars

Hey, what's up everyone? I'm Ben Wong.

And I am Sydney Taylor.

We are here with Young Hollywood. And we are doing the whiteboard challenge.

What's up, Young Hollywood?

Today we are with two very special guests. How are you guys feeling?

Good.

Good. Nervous that I'm going to fail this, but. Good.

So you have the whiteboards. We have the whiteboards. Yeah. We're going to be quizzing you about American Born Chinese. Right. Our show. You think you guys know everything?

It's going to be a five. You know, I like to set expectations low and then if you overcome them then great. So I'm going to say no. I wasn't sleeping a whole lot when we were shooting the show, so.

Perfect. Just see. So yeah, the bar's very low for you guys.

Okay, that's fine.

But before the first question, When did you guys find out that you got cast for the show? And what was your reaction?

Uh, I found out in the bathroom of my hotel room in Stanford, Connecticut.

I also found out in my bathroom while I was trying to wash my face and then I got to quit my job at Target like that week.

You worked at Target?

Yeah. Yeah.

No way. Did you like stock or the cash like the cash register?

I was cashier, guest services.

No way. You worked at Target. And you quit.

I got to quit. That's legendary. It felt great at the time.

And you being in Stanford, Connecticut?

I was I was shooting a movie. Oh, sketch. Yeah. Booked another project.

You're working at Target. Yeah. So you're booking another project. We love that. We love that. Okay. Ready for your first question?

Yeah. Hit it.

Okay. Ben uses his cell phone in the show. It can be seen in the trailer of the scene. What is the color of his phone case? Okay, flip.

Ding ding ding.

Mine's more specific.

It is more specific. It was dark blue though.

Is written down. Dark blue.

Damn.

There you go. You didn't remember that pretty good.

You were writing a lot so I was like I was like I was scared. Like that's more than blue.

Did you guys know each other prior to the show at all?

No, not at all. But we clicked really quickly, like oddly quickly I'd say. Yeah. Um, but no. Nothing before the show.

And when you were trying out, was there any chemistry reads with each other or you no Zoom calls, nothing?

We had one chemistry read and then you got to pick between how many girls?

I didn't get to pick.

You you had a say.

It wasn't my call.

You had a say. They asked me out of posterity, but I don't think I don't think they were going to.

He picked me. Yeah, I did.

Good call. Good call.

We love that. We love that. She got to quit Target because.

Yeah, thanks for letting me.

Okay. Sydney was a huge fan of this series, and it was the theme of one of her birthdays. What is it?

Wait wait. W-w-which one is this? But which one is this? I actually, okay. Don't out me for something else. But I Okay, ready? Flip. Oh.

What did you write?

Hunger Games. You definitely wrote that one. You definitely wrote that one.

Ben, what did you actually initially write? And why did you write it in a different language?

It's it's It was a No, you wrote that. That's Yeah, that's. Yeah. I don't know. I don't want to out you and say. I don't know what you wrote. It was High School Musical.

That's true. You were obsessed with that series too?

Yes. I had a High School Musical theme party when I was, you have party. I know. I know. My mom, she gets very into the themes.

I wrote Hunger Games because I also had a Hunger Games theme party and was pretty obsessed. Which I think is a really like morose theme for children.

Well, you know, it came out that year and I was one of the few kids in my grade that got to watch it. And I read the books that year. Right. So you knew it was a sort of a dog eat dog crab in a bucket story about kids.

Yeah, I watched the trailer. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Why did you laugh so hard though before you guys answered the question? Was there some in-

Well, there was one particular show that I thought you might say that I was hoping you wouldn't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, but we don't need to to bring up what that show might be.

Okay. That's fine. We don't need to know. We don't need to know. Did you have any special moment that you guys had maybe with each other or separately from set that you'll never forget?

Watching Jimmy sleep. That sounds creepy when I say it like that. Jimmy Jimmy our our our Jimmy who plays Way Chen in the show. He's the third in our trio. Yeah.

He has Where's he today?

He's in New York. Okay. He didn't want to bring this. No. He's hanging out with Mahi who plays a nuch. They're actually having a sleepover. Probably right now they're staying in each other's houses. Probably. Hopefully they're in a nice warm embrace somewhere. Anyway, Jimmy sleeps a lot on set. And it's always really entertaining. He can fall asleep in any position. Any posture. Any position. Sitting up straight. Any elevation.

Does he purposely or falls asleep?

He like he's just taking a nap. You just take a nap. Uh, anything. He just likes sleeping. He fell asleep during a take. He's supposed to be like laying on the floor. He's supposed to be unconscious. Oh, I see. And they shot the scene and they were like, "Cut." And then he was like. And they're like, "Jimmy, you can get up now. You can stand up." And he was like, gone. Nothing. He started snoring and they're like, Yeah. No, like he really fell asleep. Oh yeah. It was daily that he would sleep all day on set.

But you like he could sit in one of those discom uncomfortable um cast chairs, you know, eight out of like canvas. He like he goes into a certain position where he'll put his arms out and he'll just So like you knew you knew like that. Oh no, he's just falling asleep. He likes to get settled and then he's out within two minutes. Under two minutes. Out cold.

How about you guys? You sleep? Are you good at sleeping?

I'm not. I'm a terrible sleeper. I can't sleep.

So you were up late on set like certain nights and stuff.

I would get like jealous about how much he could sleep on set. Yeah. Sleeping the whole time. He's a really sleepy boy.

That's a fun That's actually a really fun fact to know. So. Okay. Love that memory. Never heard that in my life. Someone's so good at sleep.

Such a special one. Yeah.

Okay, ready? This is the scene that was Ben's favorite scene to shoot. What? You said it in the audio. You said it in an interview.

You know, I just say anything in those things. Great. You point a camera at me and I start spewing nonsense. Okay.

You've said this was your favorite scene. So you'd have to remember what you said and you have to assume what what would it be.

How am I supposed to know if you don't even know it? Uh, okay. I don't think you're going to get this one. No. He doesn't even know it. I mean, I wrote a thing and you weren't there for this thing. Okay. How could you even know I was having a great time? Oh, but it'll be good because then you can explain it.

If I wasn't there, I was there most days. So based on that, I think I know what's on his board now. Okay. Because there were very few days that I wasn't there. Yeah. Okay, flip. Yeah. Wasn't there for that. Yeah.

What were you not there? What did you say?

The karaoke one. That was what you said. That was in five. Five.

There was a one, our our I worked with a director. We worked with a director. He worked with a director who's whose like specialty, not his specialty, but like his flare is he he loves doing one-ers. And and there's

Wait, what is a one-er?

Like a a one shot. Like a one take. Like a long take where you don't cut. The camera's just rolling and it's moving around. Okay. A one-er. There's a very there was a very good one in one of the later episodes. But the the thing is doing? What did she get? Smudge on my face. Or was there already smudge on my face?

I got marker on your on your pants. Oh. Sorry. This is a This is a rental. We're always like this when we're together by the way. It's always Yeah, we're eating tacos. This is a rental. These are rental cargos. Um. Used to give those back to me.

Anyway. Yeah. Bowling was was good one.

Bowling is good. Wait, but what about the one-er?

It was a thing we shot. Yeah, it was That what else is there to say? It was a thing that and the show. They edited out the one-er. Well, the all the pieces of the one-er are in there, but they edited. They they did cut it up, which is a little sad. But, you know.

How long was it total? How long was it?

That's that's how the pre-creative process is. It was so long that our cameraman, it like broke our cameraman. Trey, God bless his soul, had to hold like this giant steady cam for like 17 minutes at a time. This thing this thing weighs like, I don't know, like 100 pounds or something.

We've been there, Trey. You know. Weights. Weights.

Yeah. He's like going all around and he's weaving and like by take three he was like I don't think I can do this anymore, you know. And then like at take 20 he was like, "All right, I'm."

And I'm pretty sure like two days later he he he uh he left the show to go tour Europe with his oh my God, with his punk band.

We were like, "Where's Trey?"

They're like, "Oh, he's in he's touring with his punk band in in Norway." No, that's right. And we were like, "Wow." That was his final straw. Yeah, the carrying the camera. He was done. I hope it was already gonna happen. I hope the thing did just yeah. He said like, "Sorry, Trey." Sorry, Trey. But he's in he's probably in like London right now, so he's he's doing fine. Off to better things.

Okay, well, you said bowling. Was bowling your fave?

Bowling was probably my favorite just because it was the a lot of it was like montage, and then there's a little scene with us where I catch you and give you something. Don't want to spoil anything. Yeah, the whole scene's like a party. Yeah. But yeah, it was just we just shot in an actual bowling alley. So like we were like bowling in between, and there was a pool table. Yeah. And like everyone was there. It was just like fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was it was probably the most fun and Lucy Lou directed that episode. So she's around and yeah, that's awesome. So yeah, that was my favorite. And I like slammed my face into a door. And then he slammed his forehead into a door and had a gigantic

Jimmy was supposed to hold it.

Yes.

For me, the direction was, "Hey, Jimmy, when you run out the door, hold it open for Ben to to run out behind you and then close it." And Jimmy and Jimmy sort of he took that and went like this with it. He was sleeping. Yeah. He was too sleepy. Uh so then I get to set and Ben has a welt. Maybe. Gigantic. Size of a golf ball in his forehead. Oh my god. But his hair covered it, so it's fine. Um, and Lucy Lucy Liu, the sweetest director alive, gave me a little bit of medicine. That's right, so.