How Ali Wong and Randall Park Made Always Be My Maybe , a Rom-Com for the Ages
Ali Wong and Randall Park’s new Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe has it all: food, family, romance, and making out with Keanu Reeves. In breaking traditional recent rom-com tradition, the film’s leads are both Asian-Americans and it doesn’t shy away from steamy love scenes. Wong and Park are not only leads, but co-writers of the movie detailing the childhood friendship between characters Sasha Tran and Marcus Kim, losing their virginity together and the fraught relationship they reconcile with as adults when they unexpectedly meet again 15 years later in their hometown of San Francisco: Sasha is now a world-famous chef, while Marcus is working for his dad and living at home.
For both Wong and Park, making Always Be My Maybe was a departure from their other work. Wong is known for her Netflix stand-up specials Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife as well as the ABC sitcom American Housewife and the new animated series Tuca & Bertie, while Park has become widely recognized for his leading role on ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat, where Wong was a staff writer. At the helm is Nahnatchka Khan, the show runner for Fresh Off the Boat.
Following the film’s debut on Netflix, Wong and Park discuss how food told the film’s story, incorporating their own lives into the movie and the reality of making out with Reeves.
GQ: First thing’s first: How did you keep Keanu Reeves being in the film a secret?
Ali Wong: It wasn’t a secret he was in the movie, it was a secret he was playing himself and that he was my love interest.
Randall Park: It was just something we were told not to talk about it, so we didn’t really talk about it publicly. I’m surprised people didn’t really find out until they saw it, but yeah, it was a nice surprise for everyone.
How did you get Keanu to take the role? Why him?
Park: When we were writing the script, in the story, it was at a point where Marcus was about to confess his love to Sasha, so we wanted to hit Marcus with what would be his worst nightmare. And we were thinking of who this person would be, and we wanted someone who was iconic, beautiful, super talented, a great actor who was funny and also someone who was able to poke fun at himself. Really there was nobody else in our heads than Keanu Reeves, so we put that in the script that it was most likely we would never get him. We had other ideas we’d go to, but we sent the script to Keanu, and he totally got it and was totally down. He came back with so many suggestions and improvisations. He was such a great collaborator.
Who were the other suggestions for his character?
Wong: Ooh! We’re not gonna tell you. We’d feel bad.
Park: It was me with a beard. It was me with a big fake mustache.
I would have still loved that. Did the real Keanu really inform the character, or did you have the character developed before him?
Wong: What you see is a lot of what was written. You know that part where he lists all those Chinese dignitaries? That was him. On the first day, he proposed the glasses without the lenses. A lot of the lines we had written and he just went for it. The Speed line about the residuals, he just went for it.
That was such a great line. Ali, how would you describe making out with Keanu?
Wong: It was very surreal because, first of all, it was at 4 in the morning because it was a night shoot. We shot at this Jewish museum at San Francisco [and] we had to shoot at night. So, it literally felt like a dream because it was so late, and it was so surreal, but it was really fun. It was more all that banter between us like where he’s like “I miss your side. I miss your light. I miss your soul” but I was very committed and into it.
Were the barrage of compliments between Keanu and Sasha like “I miss your light, I miss your soul” all improv?
Wong: Yeah that was all improvised. Is this the one in the movie where I keep complimenting his body, and he keeps talking about my soul?
Park: Yeah.
Wong: I’m like, “Yes to my toes and my ass. Tell me how you miss my ass.”
Park: They went on for much longer. They had many options.
I think the family and cultural stories are so integral to the story. After Judy (Mrs. Kim) dies, Marcus’s growth as a person is stunted. Why did you decide to tell the story like that?
Park: It just made sense story-wise to have the thing that really bonded them as children fall apart early. We saw the character of Judy as being the heart of their childhood, and to lose that early on disrupted the course of, really, both of their lives even though Sasha went onto do great things. They’re both dealing with the tragedy in different ways. It just felt organic story-wise to have that happen.
One of the things in the film is that there are these character quirks you joke about like Sasha’s parents being concerned with tipping or everyone using a handicap sign to park in San Francisco. Tell me about that.
Wong: They’re just parts of the characters that we thought would be funny. There wasn’t any other method. They’re just observations about other people that we weaved in there.
Park: To us, it was important throughout the writing process that we put things in that were funny, number one, but also that felt like they came from a real place. And the conversations these characters have, reflect on the conversations we have. For us, it didn’t really feel like we were making any commentary or making any stereotypes, it was really us trying to make their conversations authentic.
Are there any parts of the movie that are rooted in your real lives?
Wong: There’s a lot of stuff that is from our personal lives. There’s a lot of stuff I bore witness to that was really fresh to me that I hadn’t seen in a film. I really love Marcus’s character, and I really loved Marcus’s relationship to his father. Growing up in San Francisco, that guy Marcus, that Asian-American guy who’s been living at home well into this thirties because rent is so ridiculously expensive in San Francisco who gets to have his artistic passion at night and his day job, and who’s completely satisfied with his life, and who’s so attractive, confident and sexy, despite living at home. It’s not this cartoonishly, schlubby guy. And his warm relationship with his father? That’s something I grew up with. That’s very personal for me.
Park: There were a lot of elements we took from our lives. The losing virginity scene was something I talked about. A version of that was how I lost my virginity. In the writers’ room, coming up with stories that could help us tell our stories. Definitely, a lot of things made it in there.
Wong: That whole conversation about holding your purse, I’m sure you could imagine the conversation they had to have before.
Why was the idea of food and the cultural and family stories around it so central to the story?
Wong: I’m going to steal this from [director Nahnatchka Khan]. She’s the one who said this first. Nahnatchka talks a lot about how food is memories: how the smell and the taste of a dish can bring you back to your childhood right away. For Marcus, Sasha and Judy, that’s a huge way they connected. For Sasha, that’s her childhood.
Park: It reflects a lot of Sasha’s journey in the story. It reflects her home, leaving home and finding herself in this very successful and elite world, but then coming back home. The meaning of home and how she holds onto a journey of that throughout her journey, but then comes back to it is a big part of it.
Ali, you got to make out with three very good looking guys in the movie. How was that experience for you?
Wong: Yes! Well, I’ve been with the same guy for the last 10 years, so at this point, I feel chemistry with a turtle. It was really fun, it was really exciting. There was one day where a lot of the car scenes you see where I’m crying in the car, making out with Randall in the car, that I filmed in one day, it felt like a final exam. It was crying, kissing, arguing—it was crazy. It was great. Anyone who says it’s not great to kiss people on camera is either lying or dead inside.
Originally Appeared on GQ
