Usually when I interview someone I am, mostly, the storyteller in the room. It’s my job to listen for the thread that will help me capture their perspective, their world, their story (or a small part of it). I’m far from perfect, but I’m good at it. Ricky He is better. He never rambles, though he pauses several times through our conversation to apologise for it. His answers aren’t too longwinded or beside the point, and he quickly beguiles me with stories of his youth he probably never planned to tell. I am his captive audience. And when it came time to edit our conversation into a story I couldn’t bring myself to cut any of it. Near the end of our conversation, Ricky tells me he feels more like a storyteller than an artist. I think he’s right, so what better person to tell his story than him?

Note to Readers: This is an (almost entirely) unedited conversation, with all the whimsy, grammatical blunders, ums, likes, cools, and other innate humanness that comes with. I hope you thoroughly enjoy it.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up on the east side of Vancouver. I was born in that area, and I think when people that aren’t from Vancouver hear “east side of Vancouver” they immediately think like Maine and Hastings, which is like the worst part of Vancouver. But the east side of Vancouver has always kind of like been like a big hub for immigrant families, you know, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, East Indian families, some black families, just like a lot of immigrant families. Very diverse, but definitely the less affluent side of town.

What kind of stuff were you into as a kid?

When I was a kid, I think at this point, all kids are children. All children are inherently a little bit bouncing off the walls, hyperactive, a little crazy, and I certainly fell into that category. When I was a kid I was really into just playing on my own and, like, creating little stories. I had little sketchbooks to draw characters in. And for whatever reason I think I threw them out in my teens because I went through an “I’m too cool for this” phase. But I would draw these characters and they’d all kind of fit into, like, the Ricky cinematic universe. I’d play out all the characters and there’d be, like, action sequences and there’d be character arcs. And like this character goes bad, but then he comes back to the light side, things like that. I was big on that as a kid. I think obviously a big influence was TV. I just grew up watching a lot of TV.

That’s really cool that you were good at sketching things.

I always thought so. My parents didn’t think so. We did art classes for years, me and my little sister, and I think at one point, maybe when I was like 13, I was like, I think I want to be an architect. And they said “I don’t think you’re talented enough. But Irene, you know, she’s got it going on. She could totally do that.” And I was like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Do you just have one sibling?

I do just have one sibling, but I have I have three cousins that I kind of grew up with and we’re really close like siblings. So there’s five of us, including my sister, my cousins and myself.

Are you close with your whole family?

Yeah, I’m close with all my family, especially on my dad’s side. We just grew up hanging out a lot. I’m the second youngest, my sister is the youngest, but I was kind of right in the in-between lines where I’m still young, but I’m old enough where like they didn’t have to censor themselves when they were talking to each other when they were teenagers. So I got the best of both worlds.

So that’s what you wanted to be when you grew up – an architect. How long did that last?

For as long as it took for my parents to say I’m not talented in it. 

You must have had a lot of respect for their opinion.

Apparently, I did. I think I just needed somebody to believe in me when I was a kid. You know, and then and when you don’t immediately get that, I think as you get older and older, you figure out a way to believe in yourself until other people do.

How were you in school?

I was actually a really, really bad student. And I’m not embarrassed to talk about it, but now as I’m getting older, you know, I have kids now. And it’s like, I still don’t think that academic prowess is the mark of an intelligent person, or a hardworking person, or even an obviously valuable person. But then at the same time, now that I’m a parent, I’m like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t just tell the kids school doesn’t matter. But no, I was not the best at school. I think in the 11th grade I almost failed math, and I almost failed biology, which, which kind of sucks. I guess maybe subconsciously, deep down there’s a part of me that’s weirdly proud of it because in my head I’m like, I’m like not conforming to stereotypes, and I’m pushing boundaries. I’m the Asian that’s bad at math.

What came after that?

What came after that was when I was in high school I was in this all through high school over here we have this thing called the cadet program. There’s Air Cadet, Sea Cadet, and Army Cadets, and it’s not related to the military, but it is funded by the Department of National Defense here. And through that, I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about discipline, and I think initially I did kind of resist it, where I was kind of like too cool for this. But I had a little bit of a challenge for myself, where I said “let me commit to this thing for the first year and see how much I can get into it, and, if I really give it my best shot, if I don’t enjoy it then I can have the conversation with my parents that I don’t want to do this anymore.” But I ended up really liking it, and I made a lot of great friends, and it changed my life in a lot of ways. I think through that I actually gave myself a bit of an illusion that business was something I wanted to do. Like maybe I want to be in some sort of I don’t know, management role.

So after that I actually stopped doing the drama program and I started to try to direct my focus into getting into university for the first time.

To do business.

To be a business guy.

How’s that working out for you?

Not so good, not so good. And that time, grade 11was an academic low point. I also had a near death experience.

Oh wow, what happened?

Me and my friend were watching were watching a movie, I think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fire movie. And my cousin was in the area, and she texts me “Hey, I’m hanging out with this guy, do you guys want to come hang out?”

And, you know, we were young and me and my friend were like, oh yeah, let’s go. We just wanted to do hood rat things. And so we sneak out of the movie while the rest of our friends are watching it, we get in the car and, this guy, I guess he thinks he’s a street racer. So he was driving really aggressively. And when you’re a kid in high school, in the back seat of the car, no seatbelt on, you don’t want to be the guy saying “Oh can you slow down man? This is actually too fast for me.” 

You’re like, yeah, this is awesome. Meanwhile, you’re, you know, peeing a little bit. So we drive all the way up to this really scenic part of Stanley Park, where there’s a viewpoint you can look over the Lions Gate Bridge, and on our drive down the hill, this guy’s just acting like he’s Tokyo Drift, skirting everywhere. And again, same thing you’re kind of like, “This is awesome” and kind of like, “What am I doing? Oh my god, this is a big mistake.” And it starts snowing ever so slightly, and we made just one too many jokes about “Imagine if we just like, completely lost traction and drove off the side.”

And then of course, it happened. The car fishtailed really hard and we drove basically a cliff. I remember slamming my head a couple of times on the windshield and thinking I better duck and cover or I’m going to get really hurt. And I looked over like to the side and my friends also kind of crashing to the side. And I remember because in slow motion, I think we’re listening to, what’s that Katy Perry song? Oh, The One That Got Away. It was playing in slow motion, and then we just crashed down this hill and smash into a tree. The tree probably saved us, because if we didn’t hit that tree I think we would have gone into the water. So we smashed into the tree, and then everything stops. The hood is smoking, and I look back, and my friend who came out with me is like hanging out the window, and everything’s really scary. We’re no longer inebriated at that point everything was very sobering. And that was the craziest thing – I ended up being totally fine. I just like went home and tried not to tell my parents. My friend ended up having a bit of a hernia on the side and he was in the hospital for like a month, but he’s okay. Everyone ended up being okay, so we’re okay.

That’s very lucky.

Yeah, thank God. And that’s when I decided to right the ship and apply for university, that’s my long anecdote for that. 

So did you go to university? And where does acting come into this? 

Yeah, I got into university, I did not get into the business part of it – to my parents absolute dismay. I tried to transfer in the first two years, but I couldn’t because my math score was so low. So then I was studying psychology, and then I was studying history and then I was studying English, loved English, then went back to psychology and then I dropped out. Somewhere along the way between switching majors over and over and over again I just thought, okay, what do I really enjoy doing? and I thought back to drawing the sketchbooks, and playing out the different characters and like this weird expansive universe that I created for myself. I did the drama program in high school and I really loved it. And I thought, “I don’t know why I’m not doing that anymore” so I started taking acting classes secretly, on the low, and trying to find an agent for myself.

Who was it a secret from? Everybody?

Everybody. Yeah, I didn’t tell any of my friends, I didn’t tell my parents. I had this weird goal or dream maybe, which was that one day I just tell my dad “hey let’s go see a movie,” And then we’re sitting there and boom I’m on the screen, I’m like, I don’t know, a waiter being like “Here’s more coffee, sir.” That was gonna be my whole thing. But there goes that dream, because now he’s too aware of my career now.

So you’re taking acting classes in secret – did you get an agent?

It actually took me a very long time to get an agent. I didn’t know where to get headshots, and I think I did what a lot of people that aren’t in the industry or have friends or family in the industry do. I looked up how to do this thing and like, okay, get an agent. Get headshots. So I got headshots, and honestly the first set of headshots I got I went to the place where they do all the high school photos. They just basically took a school photo, and I submitted that to a bunch of places and whoa, who would have guessed it, nobody said yes. But then one agency did get back to me, and they basically said “hey, you have no experience why don’t you start taking some classes?” Really nice of them. So I took some classes, and I just kept reaching out. No agency would take me for like a year, maybe a year and a half until finally I met my agent, who I’m still with to this day, and, and the rest is history.

Did you submit to them and that’s how you met your agent?

Yeah, just submitted to them online. Nowadays I’m like I’m very open to fielding these conversations, having coffees where we can chat about this because it was very tricky getting into it without any knowledge and I always try to pay it forward in what little way that I can. So I signed with my agent, and in the first three months, I broke my ankle. On the exact same day of the car crash like it like two year anniversary.

What was it like going on auditions after that setback?

I just started to think, they just want to know if I’m the best person for the job. That’s all they’re there for. I think that a lot of times we walk in and we’re really anxious about it, but when you just walk in and you’re like, “Okay, well, let me help you help me help you. If I’m not the person for the job, I’m not the person for the job. I think that was the big pivot and the big thing that changed. I started raking in the little ones. My first credit, I think is Chinese Teen Boy. My second credit was Club Patron number one.

That’s good. Number one. 

Number one. Yeah, not number two. And then, little by little, I just started building up enough to go out for some bigger things. Things with more words involved.

So then what was it like getting cast in From?

Getting cast in From was kind of, it picked me up off the ground a little bit. Leading up to From I had it, honestly. This all started when I did I did a musical remake of Freaky Friday for the Disney Channel. And that was like my first real lead role in something that felt bigger, you know? I mean, I flew down to LA to do the screen test, and it was a whole thing. At the time, they really loved the movie. The Disney execs, they’re like, “We love this” you know, “This is gonna be the new high school musical. You’re gonna be the new Zac Efron.” And sure, I’d love to be Chinese Zac Efron, thanks. But alas, the movie did not do how they expected. But because of Freaky Friday, a lot of doors opened up, and I had a lot of new opportunities come up.

I started auditioning for some things that were a lot juicier, a lot meatier, things that were either really exciting and really fun or things that could have potentially been like life-changing opportunities for me and my family. The big one being a Marvel film. And I knew I was too young at the time, but I got an audition to play Shang-Chi. I look young now, and this was like, four or five years ago, I looked like I was 16. But I put my best foot forward, flew down to LA just to do the audition, and they brought me in for a callback. I met the director, Destin, who was really, really sweet. I still think to this day, that was probably one of the best auditions I’ve ever done. So I kind of went from thinking there’s no chance, I’m way too young for this to maybe yes? Maybe this could work? And then two days before San Diego Comic-Con that year, when they announced Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, I got the call. But that truly, in a way, without making it overly melodramatic, it really did devastate me. It kind of added, I guess, this darkness to what was a very optimistic, hopeful, a little delusional trajectory. You almost grieving the loss of this opportunity, because you start fantasizing about the opportunities that will come afterwards. And so it took a long time for me to get over that hump, and then from that moment on, it was just a alot of very close calls to life-changing opportunities.

So right before I booked From, that was the closest I’d ever come to quitting. I didn’t know if I was cut out for this. I didn’t know if I could keep doing it. But I got the callback, I met our showrunner and director Jack Bender for From. And then I got the call. And then I got the job. And it kept me from quitting. Just barely.

Do you feel like it was worth it? 

I do. I mean, especially when I booked it, From has been such a dream job because it’s like, I think it’s really well written. I think it focuses and cares a lot about its characters. And the character that I get to play, Kenny, has a lot of heart and he’s going through a lot. Even before everything that’s unravelled up to this point in the show, like, you know, from the pilot, it’s written that Kenny’s dealing with not only the circumstances of the town, but the circumstances as it relates to his father, who has dementia, and his kind of surrogate father figure in Sheriff Boyd. I just thought that that was really cool. And wow, this isn’t just like a surface character. Real human experience. So yeah, it’s been a dream.

Do you care a lot about people? You seem really interested in the kind of character-driven work. 

I think so. Art is like a tricky one for me, and I’m constantly trying to figure it out.

But I’ve always gravitated to the idea of storytelling. I think I’m a storyteller. 

And I think great storytelling is always about the people involved. It’s always about characters. And I think that that’s just how I’ve always related to people, even as a kid.

The people that kind of get pushed aside, or people that are kind of weird, I kind of want to get to know that person. Because is it at all possible for you and I to relate? Is it all possible? For you and I to have anything in common? I think that’s what great storytelling is. 

How does your partner feel about you being an actor? 

They’re actually completely removed from the industry. To the point that like, sometimes I’ll dump all my stream of consciousness, just blowing all my thoughts and she’s really understanding and supportive. She’s a good listener. But then, you know, she’s like, “I honestly would love to give you help or advice. But I don’t even know enough about the context.” And I’m like, “That’s fine.” And I kind of love that. I think everything I love about living in Vancouver, everything I love about my kids, my partner, my family is that it kind of grounds me and takes me away from the business and the work side of it. She’s super supportive. One of the first things I ever did was The Edge of Seventeen. One of the early things I did was Edge of Seventeen.

I had no lines. I was in it for like, five seconds at the end of the movie, and it was a reshoot. One of the characters, Irwin, screens his animated film, and he comes out and he sees all his friends. And I’m one of his friends. When we went to go see the movie, my partner was like, “Oh my god, that’s you!”

That’s very sweet. What do you think that’s going to be like going forward as you get more and more jobs?

It’s really tricky. We’re lucky that we have a lot of help from family. You know, my parents have been the best grandparents ever. But it’s like, it’s really hard.

I’m just still in such an early stage of my career, I’m absolutely still learning to advocate for myself. I’m still learning to speak up and be very definitive in terms of what is important to me. I honor my privacy so much, and it’s so important to me. But at the same time, I do love the people that support me, and I want to give them more of myself as often as I can. The, the trick for me has always been figuring out what the balance is. I want to be this prestige mystique actor, like a Philip Seymour Hoffman, and not be active on social media and just do my thing. That’s like one version of the dream. But then there’s also the other version of the dream, which is like, I want to engage with my fans and the people that support me and I want to give back to them as frequently in a meaningful way as I can. Every day I kind of wonder, is there a way that I can engage with the fans in a way that’s really meaningful and important and let them in on my life and still maintain my privacy?

Maybe that’s what it feels like, but you do seem like you have some of it figured it out. You do a lot of like behind-the-scenes content on Instagram, and sharing without getting too personal with it. 

That’s the perfect example. I used to have maybe like six posts on rotation. Like I’ll post and I’ll archive. I was just kind of like, well, I don’t want to rely on social media, So it can just be like a business card. Now it’s just like basically unarchived everything. I just let loose. I think I’m trying to let people in a little bit more while still maintaining a little bit of that privacy and integrity for myself. 

You also sing, do you plan on doing anything with that? 

I’m so self-conscious of that. I’d love to do a project, like a film project, a musical. I have nothing against that, but there’s something about just singing.

If you did, what music would you do?

I really like vibey, R&B, alternative, singer-songwriter type stuff. I am a sad boy at heart.

I can see that.

Yeah. Last year an artist that I really liked was like Bruno Major. And I also used to like a lot of Daniel Caesar stuff. Really melancholy adult alternative.

So for your future, where do you see yourself 5, 10 years?

In 5 to 10 years, my goal is, I’d like to continue to be a really good dad, and have a great relationship with the kids. I’d like to train for as long as my body can tolerate it. One of my big goals was to get really good at jujitsu, like grappling, because that’s something that I’m really into right now. And just be able to hang with some of the best guys. I don’t have to win, but I want to be able to give them meaningful rounds.

And in terms of work, I want to kind of continue to make things that are either really important to me, or really important to a community. Or just really, really, really, really fun. Those are my three main parameters that I’m focused on right now, something that’s impactful and important to me or impactful and important to a community, or it’s just like, undeniably fun for me and hopefully for the audience.