It’s funny. I did three movies with him. He grew up in a Japanese-American family in Ogden, Utah. It would take about a year of my life, but I found it a very rewarding thing. PD: I was only there a couple of weeks, because most of the scenes are with the kids. PD: Well, as you know, with movies, more than half the time, you’re not filming. But I do remember that drunken guy on a crutch. There were several groups out here that I joined. This surprising horror comedy starring Chris Makepeace (Meatballs), Robert Rusler (Weird Science) and Gedde Watanabe (UHF) is often mistaken for an art flick thanks to the VHS and DVD cover featuring a painted vampire Grace Jones. But everything is slowing down. But of course, knowing Robin, he did talk. I became more popular on commercials than I did on stage for a long time. He is not one of the cool kids. Yankovic further maintained the unlikelihood of a sequel to UHF in an interview, citing the underwhelming box office returns of the film, and lack of industry interest in financing another UHF project. And I also worked with Larry David, where we improvise our dialogue. It's like every bad stereotype possible, loaded into one character.". Japanese-American actor Gedde Watanabe, who does not speak Japanese, describes his audition for the role of Long Duk Dong — and the trick he used to win the part. Good at playing a gangster, would do 40 of them. Club: What was that set like, with Robert Altman and Robin Williams?Paul Dooley: That was half of my life. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.Among other … The big scene that people remember—young women write me and stop me on the street all the time—about that late-at-night scene where I’m being really warm to [Molly Ringwald’s character], I originally found that that scene wasn’t in the movie. I didn’t make my first film till I was 49 years old. Did you feel a bond with him? All the young girls love that scene. And Christopher Guest. In the original version of this story, a quote from Martin Wong was incorrectly attributed. Yesterday's winner: Phyllis Weaver spins the wheel and it lands on a red snapper. For a generation of Americans, the answer to that question is a name: Long Duk Dong. "But that one certainly did.". Weaver has two choices. But suddenly when he wasn’t doing it, he kind of retreated into himself, refreshing his batteries or something. When Gedde Met Deborah - a newly filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack. And my part allowed me to be very, very funny and also kind of dramatic sometimes. Ken Watanabe (渡辺 謙, Watanabe Ken, born October 21, 1959) is a Japanese actor. Newly-filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack; All-new audio interview with casting director Jackie Burch; Newly-filmed interview with composer Ira Newborn; Newly-filmed interview with supporting actor John Kapelos; Newly-filmed interview with camera operator Gary Kibbe Dooley is ultimately best-known as the ideal movie dad, from the cranky used-car salesman father of the bicycling-obsessed hero of Breaking Away to Molly Ringwald’s sympathetic dad in Sixteen Candles. So you could almost do a scene that could be a commercial, but for reading instead of a product. What isn’t in question is the winning perfor… I worked on the stage and off Broadway and really became successful more as a commercial actor, which I did for many, many years. It was so beautifully considered, and they created these characters that are so different to each one from the other. It all came about because I’d been writing so many funny radio spots. Gedde Watanabe's Long Duk Dong drew laughs — and fire from critics who decried the character as a racist caricature. Author Confronts Stereotypes in 'Ask a Mexican', Stereotypes in '300' Fail to Match Historical Reality, Controversial Stage Play Magnifies Stereotypes, 'Aliens in America' Pits Stereotypes, Humor, 'Believe It': Proud Mississippians Shun Stereotypes, Filmmakers Shatter Arab Stereotypes in Hollywood, Valentino's Sheik: An 'Other' Made to Swoon Over, New Life for a School Film on Gay Tolerance, America's Love Affair with Stereotyped Brands, Movie Industry Builds, Challenges Black Stereotypes. I had a few jobs or I was there the whole week and it worked very well. I was in it one day, but I have a nice little part, which I improvised. And if an actor is good at playing a cop, you’ll play 40 of them. PD: The best movie I ever made was called Breaking Away. But he played the crutch as if he was drunk. If you think of Guffman and the character he played as a director of that wonderful group, he chose the best actors in the world to play the worst actors in the world—Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and all of them. Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. And if you think about his film work playing dramatic roles, he has a melancholy quality about him, a thoughtful quality. I tried to follow the script as much as possible. It’s still popular after all this time. Universal Pictures “When Gedde Met Deborah,” a newly filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack “Rudy the Bohunk,” a newly filmed interview with supporting actor John Kapelos “The In-Between,” a newly filmed interview with camera operator Gary Kibbe (He played Nurse Yosh on ER.). It was so well-received that I still get work from it, and people meet me, and they mostly connect me with that film and Sixteen Candles, where I also played the father. His parents settled there after his mother was forced into a … Ringwald was Hughes' muse during the early 1980s, crafting Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink specially for her and … We all had a great time. And some of the actors who were still around were doing a Q and A, talking to the fans. But I’d have even more credits if you counted all the commercials. But you know, going in, you know some films will be popular and some won’t. Featured Performance. The series lasted for fifteen seasons, and none of the main characters, who received starring billing at … Once he got a job on Law & Order and he called me and said, “They’re looking for a guy to play my father and I gave them your name.” So I did Law & Order with him. There’s no cars there. After digging in to the Nico Mastorakis catalog with Island of Death, Zero Boys, and … Another fine extra, this interview with Burch takes the form of a video essay, rather than a straight to camera interview. Gedde Watanabe later reprised his role as Kuni for a guest appearance on The Weird Al Show in 1997. (Stupid! Normally a character actor often will have one day’s work. I am a dad. The now-92-year-old still shows up frequently in movies and TV show guest spots. "Every single Asian dude who went to high school or junior high during the era of John Hughes movies was called 'Donger,'" says Martin Wong. AVC: The shows that you’ve guest-starred on recently, it’s such a long list. Iconic movie dad Paul Dooley talks about Breaking Away, Popeye, and the scene John Hughes wrote just for him. I saw an interview once where the actor Gedde Watanabe kept his fake Japanese accent throughout the entire filming process of 16 Candles. And over 90% of my work has been fathers after that. But it was a wonderful chapter in my life, because I’d been a kind of writer and an improviser and an actor, all kinds of different things in my life. Did you have a feeling that this was going to be this sleeper hit?PD: I thought it was a great script. PD: Well, there are movies that are a little cult films that college students like, like Strange Brew, with those two Canadian guys from SCTV, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. Oh, and along the way? I had a big part in that. Hollywood may be importing leading men from Asia, one oft-heard argument says, but it has a ways to go with Asian Americans. He and I became friends. It's an odd animal.". When we launched In Character, we set out to explore fictional characters who had left a mark on American culture. Much to his credit, one of his first shows on Century Cable's "Hollywood Today" highlighted minorities in Hollywood and how they are often unduly stereotyped. And that’s how I got into the film business. Spent six months doing that movie. He is an actor, known for Sixteen Candles (1984), UHF (1989) and Mulan (1998). I hope we helped some kids get more interested in reading. He and I became friends. [Laughs.] After all, he was one of them: born in the U.S.A. Gedde Watanabe is 52 now. PD: Yeah, I’m still friends with Dennis. He had long periods of time where he’s just on, couldn’t stop entertaining. I got to be sort of typecast, as they say, which I didn’t mind. Altman let all of them go home except about 10 of us who were the principals. They became very friendly with a kid named Gedde Watanabe, who played Long Duk Dong, the Korean character. When they discover him, the inanity continues: "Oh, no more yanky my wanky," he moans. Everyone was floored. Interview Random Roles. He hardly had to talk. And I never stopped. "But probably most people know me as Long Duk Dong," he confesses, "which is still hard for me to say. You might have one scene or two scenes once in a while. In 2001, graphic novelist Adrian Tomine (Shortcomings) published a pungent one-page comic describing his own history with the legacy of Long Duk Dong. First, I joined the Second City group that came to New York, then after [that] I moved to California. You’ll come in, and it takes about eight days to do a drama and about five days to do a sitcom. It’s a lot of fun, I like working with other actors. "In fact, I was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I was accosted a couple of times by a couple of women who were just really irate and angry. I was the head writer. I never again found writing quite that good for me to play. Adds Wong: "It's baggage for him just like it's baggage for us.". Everyone thought he was really a foreign japanese actor. I was the heavy. Especially television. We have dinners and lunches, and I watch him if he’s in a play. AVC: Robin Williams had a reputation for always being “on.” Was he like that on set? But we had a wonderful time together. I see him all the time. I said to a friend when I started working there, “I’m finally going to use my comedy skills for good instead of evil.” Instead of just selling stuff, it was going to be about perhaps helping kids. Casting ‘Sixteen Candles’, an all-new audio interview with casting director Jackie Burch When Gedde Met Deborah, a newly filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack Rudy the Bohunk, a newly filmed interview with supporting actor John Kapelos The In-Between, a newly filmed interview with camera operator Gary Kibbe Long time. Casting directors like to use people who have done it well before. He is the foreign-exchange student, fresh from some unidentified Asian country, in the popular 1984 high-school comedy Sixteen Candles — comic relief in a movie with more than its share of slapstick. So I did get a lot of experience, because you could learn from doing commercials because you can still learn about camera technique and work in front of the camera. Those are the greatest hits of "The Donger": No more yanky my wanky ... Oh, sexy girlfriend ... What's happenin', hot stuff? And he was always our court jester, because he obsessively could not stop entertaining. It looks like you have five films that are in post-production or production right now.PD: I have some independent films that are slowed down in the editing and all. There was a little nightclub. I look at him as kind of a genius. In the '80s, teenagers quoted Long Duk Dong endlessly. I don’t really audition for TV anymore. Hughes always thought the nerds should be appreciated, that is unless they were Asians. And they understand Watanabe's conflict. "If you're being called Long Duk Dong," Wong explains, "you're comic relief amongst a sea of people unlike you. Gedde Watanabe's Long Duk Dong drew laughs — and fire from critics who decried the character as a racist caricature. It was amazing. He is currently filming a thriller in New Mexico. Specifically, the Asian community, which had been a part of California culture long before many "Caucasian" families had moved out West. That was kind of connected to all my radio writing and experience. You just get invited to be a guest star. The American medical drama ER features an extensive cast of fictional characters. "I was making people laugh," he says. [Adopts Bobcat voice.] And we worked every Saturday for five years for no money, just for fun. Popular actor Ken Watanabe, 57, has publicly admitted that he had been in an extramarital affair as rumored since earlier this year. That way they didn’t have to pay for hotels and per diem and all that stuff, and the expenses were less. True enough: More than 20 years after Sixteen Candles came out, people are still laughing at — and cringing over, and sometimes singing along with — the phenomenon that is Long Duk Dong. There’s a street called the Promenade. Sometimes I still go and audition for a film, but of course, with the lockdown, nobody is doing anything right now. Another one I have a very small part in is Slap Shot, which is very popular with people who like sports. You’ll have two or three days out of an eight-day schedule. They want more roles that are simply American, not ethnic. When Gedde Met Deborah, a newly filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack Rudy the Bohunk, a newly filmed interview with supporting actor John Kapelos The In-Between, a newly filmed interview with camera operator Gary Kibbe And they’re little cult films with young people, because they’re about pot-smoking clowns and alcoholic clowns, and Strange Brew is about drinking beer. Sometimes you could have a great script, but for various reasons, it doesn’t become a commercial hit. His every entrance is accompanied, mysteriously, by the sound of a gong. "The Donger needs food.". And Robert Altman discovered me there, and he put me in five movies in a row. AVC: Right. They say to me when they write to me or meet me on the street, “I wish you were my dad.” [Laughs.] And there are a number of things like that. The situation for Asian-American men in Hollywood has improved a bit since 1984. Arrow Video has delivered their April 2020 lineup and it's a corker! AVC: You’d probably read a lot of scripts by then. But I worked with a lot of great improvisers. But I know it was a great script. I enjoy it all. Gedde Watanabe is 52 now. I kind of thought of him as a little undiagnosed manic depressive, because when it was manic, he was manic. Nov 25, 2015 - Vamp (1986) Top: Grace Jones & Robert Rusler; Bottom: Chris Makepeace, Gedde Watanabe & Robert Rustler But if you are typecast, that means you work a lot. She chooses the box, but when Hiro-San opens it, the box is empty! There was about 85% of the comedy. And so once out here for absolutely no money, I went every Saturday night out to Santa Monica. You know, he’s a writer and an improviser and one of the best, actually, and a terrific comic actor. Since 1984, Dooley has been married to My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holzman (“You may not know this, but my wife is a very famous writer”) and Dooley is currently writing himself, working on his memoir, titled, appropriately, Movie Dad. And the rest of it was kind of very, very serious. Some minor actor on the set had a crutch for some reason, and Robin borrowed the crutch and then did about 20 minutes of humor of just using a crutch. AVC: In the 200 credits, is there a movie that you have a soft spot for that never really got the traction that Breaking Away or Sixteen Candles did? I’d like to have you in it. AVC: Why did it take so long? By morning, Long Duk Dong — portrayed by actor Gedde Watanabe — lies splayed out in his host family's front yard. It wasn't until the wrap party where he revealed he was born in American and spoke perfect English. AVC: Like that wonderful scene when you’re walking through the campus at night with your son, played by Dennis Christopher. "'What's happenin', hot stuff?' An actor always likes to get parts that are different, so you’re not playing the same thing all the time. • When Gedde Met Deborah, a newly filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack • Rudy the Bohunk, a newly filmed interview with supporting actor John Kapelos • The In-Between, a newly filmed interview with camera operator Gary Kibbe He grew up in a Japanese-American family in Ogden, Utah. Even a film that is not so popular, it will find an audience. Either she holds on to the snapper, or she goes for the box that Hiro-San is holding. He was doing his nightclub act half the time, you know. I got very busy once I started working in film and television. A 39-year-old woman decides to use the money her parents had been saving for her wedding to open a cat-themed cafe. The A.V. But when he wasn’t on, he was off. ", Watanabe left Utah at 18 to become a performer; Sixteen Candles was his big Hollywood break. Gedde Watanabe was born on June 26, 1955 in Ogden, Utah, USA as Gary Watanabe. So I was all prepared when they started doing real movies. They asked, 'How could you do a role like that?' That wasn't so bad: At least Lee, the martial-arts star, could kick ass. When Gedde Met Deborah, a newly filmed conversation between actors Gedde Watanabe and Deborah Pollack Rudy the Bohunk, a newly filmed interview with supporting actor John Kapelos The In-Between, a newly filmed interview with camera operator Gary Kibbe Maybe, I don’t know, 15, 20 years ago now. All that being said, there is still a lot to love (maybe even as much as there is to question) in Hughes’s directorial debut. I’m pretty sure this along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doomare the reason why the PG-13 rating was created. And I did notice something about him, which I saw later in his work. And, says Watanabe: "We really need an Asian-American star, and it hasn't happened." Gedde Watanabe in La Cage aux Folles, East West Players. Long Duk Dong is the creation of writer-director John Hughes, whose films — The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off — enshrined a Hollywood-heightened image of a suburban high school near you. Feels like a lifetime. Both the audio and text versions on this page have been corrected. But then we got bad weather. I have four children and three grandchildren. I knew it was going to be a hit, but I thought it was really just for kids. You’re between takes, between setups, between lighting. Videos smoking People who smoke occasionally or on a regular basis, usually do so out of reach of the cameras for an image issue. Since then, he has developed a pretty long resume doing movies, theater voice-over work and TV. So I was at the carousel picking up my luggage at the L.A. airport, and Bobcat, who I didn’t know, came up to me. Kaya Press: Accomplice to Memory defies genre—it is … I’m making a movie. Long Duk Dong wears his hair in what we called a "butt-cut" back in the '80s — parted straight down the middle. Not so much in the pandemic, but we’re still friends. I just turned down three or four of them because they were boring parts anyway, but certainly didn’t want to risk anything. My favorite stuff is working with Chris Guest and Larry David. You Make the Case: The 'In Character' Blog. Pretty long career. But he did have those moments where he was quiet and sort of going into himself. So we were happy to have him, and we didn’t get bored because we had him. Call Me Kat is an American sitcom television series largely based on the British sitcom Miranda by Miranda Hart.The series is written by Darlene Hunt and stars Mayim Bialik in the title role, with Cheyenne Jackson, Kyla Pratt, Julian Gant, Leslie Jordan, and Swoosie Kurtz in supporting roles. And they recently had a big reunion for that film. Anyway, it’s been quite an interesting journey. ", Worse, says Nakamura: "You're being portrayed as a guy who just came off a boat and who's out of control. So that’s what extended it for another couple of months. Dooley says that Robert Altman discovered him on stage, and wound up casting him in films like 1978’s The Wedding and 1980’s Popeye, which started a TV and film career that’s included everything from Law & Order to Shakes The Clown. We thought we’d finish with the filming on the water and a couple of boats in about a week or two. The actor, wearing a gray suit and a black tie, appeared in front of journalists at a press conference in Tokyo on July 15, approximately four months after the news of the affair first broke in tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun in March. Would he stay in character? It took off and then revived and on cable all the time. And it was a huge audience out of Hollywood. As far as film actors go, many people mention John Cho. In that case you could just make endless fun of them. They became very friendly with a kid named Gedde Watanabe, who played Long Duk Dong, the Korean character. [Steve Tesich] won the Oscar for the writing, original screenplay. I’m writing a book now about my experiences, and I say, after 49 years as a New York actor, overnight I was discovered. PD: I created that show. Then he jumps onto the person below — who turns out not to be his new American girlfriend. Recently worked with Dennis Quaid. Watanabe says making Sixteen Candles was a great experience, but one that, in retrospect, he realizes he was "a bit naive" about. You can’t find a theater right now, but I did three or four independent films in 2019, and they’re still waiting to find a home, will probably stream at some point. Could have been very boring otherwise. And retro theaters will play it at special times. Bo Foxworth in Cloud 9, Antaeus Theatre Company. He played a few psychiatrists and some strange characters. And in about eight years I will be 100 years old. I’ve always worked here and there with different groups of people out here in L.A. AVC: That improv history probably helped your work in the Christopher Guest movies as well.PD: Oh, yes. Get a job while you’re waiting for your luggage. So it’s easy to get typecast if you’re successful at one thing. He had already played your son the year before in Altman’s The Wedding. But Dennis [Christopher] and I are very closely associated. Sixteen Candles stole even that limited pleasure — and Asian-American guys focused their frustration on the actor who played Long Duk Dong. Paul Dooley made his film debut at the age of 49. The biggest shocker is how the film would have been given an R-Rating any other time than in 1984. And I was very happy doing that one. Those are my two favorites actually. And then later, a little later, I met him again, and he put me in a few movies. And it’s kind of connected, mostly with Sixteen Candles. And that was also about as old as Popeye, which is 42 years old now. In honor of Popeye’s release on Blu-ray this month, Dooley took the time to talk about what life was like with Robin Williams on the film’s set, how his time doing commercials led to his work on The Electric Company, and what convinced him to join the cast of Sixteen Candles. As for Long Duk Dong, he lives on in pop-culture memory — though in some places, as more than a stereotype. But if it wasn’t a very interesting part I wasn’t going to subject myself to maybe catching COVID. In 1984, when Sixteen Candles came out, some Asian-American groups decried Long Duk Dong as stereotypical, racist and part of a long history of Hollywood's offensive depictions of Asian men. I met Chris when he was only 17. Stars: Mayim Bialik, Swoosie Kurtz, … It was a thrill to work with them. I’m at the at-risk age. But he proceeds to have the night of his life: At the high-school dance, he finds romance, gets seriously drunk and ends up in a tree, hollering, "Oh, sexy girlfriend!". And then, of course, when we filmed, he would go into the part. Nowadays, there is no answer to the question -Gedde Watanabe is gay?-, so everything you've read on the internet is just rumors. AVC: You grew up in West Virginia. Gedde Watanabe on IMDb: Movies, Tv, Celebrities, and more... John Hughes is the undisputed master of teenage movies from the 1980s, but the #MeToo movement has Molly Ringwald revisiting these comedic, sometimes romantic dramas through a new lens. PD: Yeah, I spent a lot of time improvising. Nakamura and Wong, from Giant Robot magazine, clearly see some humor in Long Duk Dong, too. "It's odd that a character that's not a primary character would have so much notability," says band co-founder Shan Justice. I’ve even been offered some jobs in the last six months to go to a set and to work safely, you know, be tested. But then when I saw it, I realized it’s entertaining for anybody, for grown-ups, too. It’s about bicycle racing. Lena Hall in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hollywood Pantages Theatre. This character is the epitome of racist stereotypes about Asians. Long Duk Dong makes his first entrance in the movie upside down, hanging from a top bunk, waggling his eyebrows at the female protagonist of Sixteen Candles and trying out his conversational English: "What's happenin', hot stuff?". I remember one day we were on a break for 20 minutes and just hanging around all of us in costume. 'Oh, sexy girlfriend.'". 329 People Used Offensive? And then I started doing voice-overs, and then I drifted into doing comedy on radio with some partners of mine from Second City, where we used improvisation to create the commercials and recorded radio. His parents settled there after his mother was forced into a U.S. internment camp during World War II. – commissions earned – The 1984 John Hughes film “Sixteen Candles“ will be getting a “Special Collector’s Edition” Blu-ray Disc release on April 14th, via Arrow Video.The film starred Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling, and Gedde Watanabe.Tech specs for this new Blu-ray include 1080p video in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio from a … Why this movie doesn’t work is the inclusion of Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) an exchange student who comes to stay at Sam’s house. He's mystified by quiche; confronted with a fork and spoon, he uses them like chopsticks. "I feel bad for the guy in the end because he's had to live with the fact that all these Asian-American men hate him," says Nakamura. I spent a year doing that. The series premiered on Fox as a midseason entry in the 2020–21 television season on … I turned down the movie because I was only in it for the first two or three minutes and the last two or three minutes.