Christine Ko Hopes Netflix's "Tigertail" Will Make People Call Their Parents

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Christine Ko, the star of the Netflix Original movie, "Tigertail," goes over how she got involed with the project and its personal significance to her as an Asian-American woman.

Video Transcript

- The new film, "Tigertail," that you're in. I watched it yesterday. It is so beautiful. First of all, it's cinematography is just a beautiful film.

CHRISTINE KO: Oh, it's stunning. Alan Yang and Nigel Bluck did an incredible job. I mean, it's like if you want to watch something to really understand the beauty of Taiwan in New York, there you go. You've got an hour and a half of it.

- Yeah, It is so visually beautiful, but also the story is so universal, and I mean, just that desire to connect with your parents. And so tell me about auditioning for this, meeting Alan Yang, and just your experience, starting from the beginning.

CHRISTINE KO: Yeah, I mean, for me, this film was such a personal-- you know, when I first got the audition, and I saw that it was for a Taiwanese Chinese-American, I was like, oh, my gosh. This never happens. You know, we never get to play the lead. And so I was so excited. And I was such a big fan of Alan's work.

And I know that he really correlated this to his "Master of None" episode about parents. And I remember watching that, how much that got me. You know, I didn't grow up with my birth parents. I was adopted by my aunt and uncle.

And so, you know, at 21, when I decided to meet-- or have a relationship with my birth dad in Taiwan, it really brought up a lot of feelings and that kind of understanding of, you know, we're the same person, but we grew up differently, and I'm just trying to get to know you right now.

So when I read the script, I was like, oh, I can so relate to this, you know. Like, there's so much you want to say. But you just haven't had that connection yet. And so, you know, auditioning for this, and really going through the steps, and ultimately doing a chemistry read with Tzi Ma, we actually did the read in Mandarin to kind of just see what that felt like.

And it went so well when we did the original audition side. And then when it switched to Mandarin, it just hit this new level of relatability, because you know, at that time, unfortunately, I was going through a personal loss, and I had lost my adopted father. And so when we were going through this, it kind of felt like therapy for me.

And when he spoke in Mandarin, I just stopped for a second and was like, oh, my God, the last person that-- the last time a 60-year-old man spoke Mandarin to me was my dad. And it just was this moment of when we did the scene, like, I was talking to him in this very strange way. But it was so therapeutic and lovely. And it made me be like, OK, this is how I'm going to channel that pain, and that grief, and you know, and that love.

And so we went on this journey together for two months. We shot in New York and Taiwan. And it's something that will change me forever as a person. And all we hope about this film is that it makes you-- if it makes you want to call your parents and see how they're doing, or also for parents to call your children.

I feel like so many times we call them to check in on them. And it's kind of nice for them to reach out and see how we're doing too. You know, you need that relationship to go back and forth. And that's the whole point of this film.

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