Randall Park Credits His Hollywood Startup’s Success to ‘Deep Friendship and Trust’

The production company that actor, writer and now director Randall Park co-founded four years ago, Imminent Collision, has birthed its first baby.

The indie film “Shortcomings,” an adaptation of Adrian Tomine’s acclaimed graphic novel, is the company’s first completed co-production as well as Park’s feature directorial debut. The Sony Picture Classics film about three young city dwellers looking for the ideal connection came out in theaters on Aug. 4 to mixed but largely favorable reviews.

While several other projects are on hold because of the writers’ strike, Park told TheWrap he looks forward to helping them see the light of day when the time is right.

“My hope is that we introduce the world to new storytellers, a lot of new voices and help bring out great talent — Asian American Pacific Islander talent — who might not have gotten the opportunity otherwise,” Park told TheWrap for this week’s Office With a View.

Before the “Fresh Off the Boat“ and “Always Be My Maybe” star made it big, Park co-founded an Asian American theater company, Lapu, the Coyote That Cares, as a UCLA student. That’s how he met fellow Bruins and now co-founders/partners Hieu Ho, a film producer, and Michael Golamco, a writer.

“To us, every great story starts with an imminent collision… and in a lot of ways, we feel like that was kind of the path for us as well as individuals,” Park said. “We always felt like we were going to come back together. It was imminent.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you co-create Imminent Collision, a company that presents comedy-forward stories from Asian American perspectives?
One of my main career goals personally was to be able to work with my friends. When we did “Always Be My Maybe,” which I co-wrote with my dear friend Ali Wong and Michael Golamco, who is now my producing partner, it was just such a great experience and such a revelation in a lot of ways. It made me realize how fun it is to work with folks that I came up with and so we wanted to keep that going.

Tell me about the latest developments with Imminent Collision.
Well, right now, we’re not doing too much because of the strike. We’re in support of the strike. There were numerous projects that Mike and I were writing but we stopped writing in support of the strike and other projects that we had in development with various writers, which have been put on hold.

We did produce “Shortcomings,” which was my feature directorial debut, which I’ve been promoting as the director. That’s our first project that has made it out into the world. Unfortunately, none of the actors or writers are promoting it, but I’m out there representing the movie as the director, and we have a bunch of projects at various levels of development that have mostly been put on pause.

How do you feel about that?
I feel like it’s the right time for us to fight for these things as union members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. It’s kind of now or never, so I’m fully in support. It is a little bit bittersweet in some ways, in the sense that here we have this movie coming out and we put so much work into it, and it’s coming out during a very tenuous time… but I put those feelings aside for the greater good. I think it’s a good thing that it’s happening right now.

What have you learned so far from launching Imminent Collision?
It’s a constant reminder that it takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of effort and energy, and time, and a little bit of luck to get a project off the ground. The key is to be very passionate about the stories you’re telling because that is the only way you’re going to stick to it through the obstacles that come up in this business.

I think what separates us from a lot of companies is our deep friendship and trust with each other, because the three of us have known each other for so long. We’ve been through so much that we understand each other. We have a shorthand with each other. I think it’s this bond that we have and this trust that we have that separates us from a lot of other production companies out there.

Tell me about your directorial debut with the indie feature “Shortcomings,” an adaptation of the graphic novel by Adrian Tomine. What was that like?

It was an amazing experience. It was a challenging experience but it was also just incredibly fun. This was a story that I was passionate about because I had read the graphic novel back in 2007 and I always felt like something should be made with this graphic novel.

It’s a story that just felt so real to me, and such an authentic reflection of my life at the time. So I always had it on my mind over the years as something that deserves to be out there as a TV show or a movie and so it was pretty amazing that eventually 15 years later, I got to direct a feature film adaptation. And screening at Sundance was such a thrill and coming out in theaters. It’s all been quite surreal.

What advice can you give others who want to start production companies, particularly those who specialize in telling stories of a particular racial or ethnic group?
It certainly helps to do it with your friends and if not your friends, at least those with a shared passion for the kinds of stories that you’re telling.

What’s one piece of advice you wish someone had told your younger self breaking into the industry?
I feel like everything happens for a reason so I don’t regret anything that I went through. My immediate thought would be to just relax and be patient and keep working, keep working. Keep making stuff at any level. There were definitely times when I felt discouraged and times when I’ve wanted to quit and so if I would have been there for myself back then, I would have just told myself just keep going and find joy in the process.

What legacy do you aspire to leave when it comes to your career?
It’s always been a dream of mine to pursue this as a career but a lot of it also had to do with changing people’s perceptions, broadening people’s idea of what it means to come from this community, to just open people’s minds. I think in the process of doing that as a company, we’re doing our part in making the world a little more inclusive, accepting and better.

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