An Interview with ‘Turning Red’ cast and crew - Sandra Oh, Rosalie Chiang and Director Domee Shi & Lindsey Collins

Mai-Anh and Karlie Wu get to speak with Sandra Oh, Rosalie Chiang and Director Domee Shi & Lindsey Collins on the new Disney Pixar release ‘Turning Red’ - watch our video interviews or read the transcript below!

Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda! Directed by Academy Award® winner Domee Shi (Pixar short “Bao”) and produced by Lindsey Collins “Turning Red” launched on Disney+ March 11, 2022. 

Mai-Anh: Hi both so excited to meet both of you my name is Mai-Anh I'm from besea.n - it's an organisation that celebrates and advocates for people of East and South East Asian heritage in the UK. It's great to meet you both and Sandra I have to admit being a huge geek and uh wearing a t-shirt with your name on it - it's an honour just to be Asian! Back in 2005 you've gave a confused Vietnamese teenager a very positive role model with 'Cristina Yang' so thank you very much.

Mai-Anh: So in turning red the mother-daughter relationship that, you know, that we see there is so close and so very real there are moments of incredible bonding where Mei Lee and Ming have a lot of fun together, but also there are moments where the tension really builds up so I'd love to know how did you two prepare for that and how did you establish such an on-screen bond?

Sandra Oh: You know we were not able to do that while we were recording because usually an animation you record separately and also during the pandemic there was even more separation, but that really has to do with Rosalie's talent and Domee's Shi, our director's, eye for keeping that structure and that emotional through line - it was really being directed well.

Mai-Anh: Fantastic and Rosalie this is this is your first full-length feature film - congratulations! How was it working with Sandra and the rest of the cast and crew?

Rosalie Chiang: I mean unfortunately I wasn't able to record with any other actors, I was just by myself, but I've worked with very closely with Domee for the past four years and she's an incredible director and it was an honour to work with her and this is her first feature film too so we're kind of going through similar experiences.

Mai-Anh: That must be so challenging to record especially in the middle of a pandemic and to be quite separated so I'm sure there are a lot of challenges there. One thing that I loved in this film were the small details that offered a real depth of understanding of Asian diaspora, especially because the film is set in Canada, such as Ming bringing cut fruit to Mei Mei as a snack; but also because it went into the real issues that a lot of people in our communities face like acknowledging and making room for emotions instead of banishing them or saving face which is a tricky theme in a lot of Asian cultures and speaks to a lot of the conversations going on between older generations and younger generations. So how do you feel the film will have a positive impact among Asian communities especially Asian diaspora communities in Canada, the US, the UK and so on?

Sandra Oh: Oh I really hope so, I really hope so, because there's an actual full film about it - do you know what I mean? You could spend an hour and a half with her story and it's from a young girl's perspective you get to spend time with it you get to really spend time with her relationship with her mother and then her relationship with her aunties and I think Domee laid it out so well - the pull that many of us have for the love and the duty that we have for our parents and understanding what they've sacrificed.

But as the film is is about Ming finding her own independence and finding her voice even through the panda. And even through the panda she is honouring her tradition and honouring herself and I think that's a big thing that we're always trying to, in our community, always trying to find the balance for and I what I really hope is for kids who might not know how to say "I need space" from their parents, hopefully this will encourage them to be able to ask for space. And equally you know because Pixar films are are kind of done for multi-generations it's for you know people in my generation who have children to be able to recognise that they need their independence and not to worry, you know. Ming is very, very hyper-vigilant as I think a lot of parents are and a lot of Asian parents are - just take your foot off the gas a bit.

Mai-Anh: 100 per cent. I love the way that it wasn't so much just about that typical theme of filial piety it actually really went into in depth into that and, you know, it was so good to see that Mei Lee is actually just also a Canadian teenager so that really shines through and congratulations to you both.

Karlie: Hi Domee and Lindsey. I'm Karlie from besea.n which is 'Britain's East and South East Asian network' and we're an organisation that celebrates ESEA heritage, as well as raising awareness on the issues that affect our community within the UK so hi!

Karlie: So I wanted to say that you've both worked on films that shaped me, but 'Turning Red' was by far the most personal. For the first time ever I've seen a story that accurately mirrors my own home - from ancestor veneration, to Mei Lee's attitude towards studying, and even the tissue role on the foldable table being visible when they watch Chinese period dramas! All of it is very, very close to my upbringing so it's incredible to see a Disney Pixar film to represent this.

Karlie: So this leads me to ask how does it feel to be spearheading one of, if not the first, western mainstream animated film which features an ESEA lead that isn't set in an Asian location?

Domee Shi: Yeah it feels like it's a very momentous occasion and I just feel so honoured and I feel that that weight that responsibility (to be the first) and also that responsibility to be the first of many! And hopefully you know with this movie we're gonna see more stories by Asian storytellers and just kind of redefine what the universal stories what that even looks like or feels like, you know?

Lindsey Collins: I feel like it was - even to your point, to your question - even more specific to being the first generation and that's so in the story - that struggle between a generational struggle, but also between east and west. I think it's to your point about it not being set in an Eastern location that that was a very fundamental part of your story was the difference in the specificity of that experience and how it felt growing up in that kind of environment. So I think Canadians are super proud of this film too!

Karlie: I think that the same can be said for a lot of Chinese diasporas I noticed especially that Cantonese was included in the film and for me being a Cantonese speaker that really touched me because I even caught it in some of the background noise when some of the passers by shouted at Mei Mei.

Karlie: So I wanted to ask how has being part of a Chinese diaspora impacted the research and making of this film?

Domee Shi: It impacted it like a huge amount like you know Mei and her family live in Toronto Chinatown and it was important for us to get the the details right of the Chinatown residents - they're not just Chinese, a lot of the earliest residents of Chinatowns in Toronto and San Francisco and Oakland are from a specific region in china called Taishan and we wanted to make sure that we honoured that, that we heard that Taishanese Cantonese in the shots with Mei running through Chinatown and like even with the Chinese characters on the signs and stuff we wanted to make sure that there was a mix of traditional and simplified Chinese just to make sure we were being true to the actual residents of those Chinatowns. And that involved doing a lot of research because I am just one representation of one Chinese experience and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't the only Asian voice in writing and creating this story so it was important for us to go on research trips, to cultural consultants.

Lindsey Collins: Yeah, yeah.

Domee Shi: We talked to a lot of cultural consultants from Toronto Chinatown, San Francisco Chinatown, we visited temples there

Lindsey Collins: And we just made sure that we had a lot of internal Pixar cultural consultants too - so people who were East Asian or or people who had lived in East Asia. So we tried to pull as many people in as possible so that the experience was at least as informed and slightly broader than the individual experience for sure.

Karlie: Great. I mean that is also to be noted that the film obviously has been in the works for the past year four years but it goes by saying that it's now being released at a time of heightened trauma faced by our community as a result of the pandemic, which of course you'll know it has instigated movements like 'Stop Asian hate' and 'Very Asian', but also encouraged us to share our stories and joy. And we're now seeing increasing visibility of ESEA people in mainstream media so I wanted to ask as well what challenges did you come across when you first started and during the making of Turning Red?

Domee Shi: I mean making movies is hard. Making a movie like making a story for four years, the same story, has so many challenges but I think especially with this movie, for me personally, it was tricky to come up with the ending. I think like how to resolve that mother-daughter relationship in a satisfying but also truthful way because I don't think at the time when I pitched it that I had completely resolved my relationship with my mom and dad as well. So it was almost like I was going on the same journey as Mei was as I was making the movie. It was funny we found the ending probably in screening... Screening six?

Lindsey Collins: Yeah it was a long time.

Domee Shi: Out of eight screenings, it was the sixth screening where I think were we'd finally nailed that last conversation between Mei and her mom at the end. But up until that point we were just trying different things because my head was spinning - I was like "I just don't want it to feel like we're wrapping everything up neatly in a bow".

Lindsey Collins: That like feel authentic.

Domee Shi: It didn't feel authentic because I feel like that tension between like an Asian kid and their parent - it stays forever - but you also want to feel like there's some resolution and that there's growth at the end too, so how do you balance that?

Lindsey Collins: How do you answer what the audience is craving because they really do love it if you've done it right. They love these characters, right? And they're gonna want them to be better at the end of the film. I mean there's an easier version of this film that we easily that could have done, where everything is perfect, they've all changed, the whole relationship is different, "I love you!" And she kept being like "that doesn't feel right". So I think it was really the stronger and the more difficult choice was to be like "nope we're not going to wrap it all up in a bow but it's going to feel better. You're going to feel like you're glad that they are where they are and that they have a lot more to go."

Karlie: It's also rare for Asian parents to say I love you quite exclusively as well.

Domee Shi: Exactly and we kept getting notes about "why doesn't the mom say I love you at the end" I was like no! She has to feel it but she can't say it because that's not accurate.

Karlie: Great thank you so much for your time and lastly rice or noodles - is there a preference for either?

Domee Shi: Rice. Rice.

Lindsey Collins: Oh okay I was gonna go noodles but okay.

Domee Shi: Rice because it's so versatile you know you can eat it with anything.

Lindsey Collins: I feel like it's good - I feel like we could go out and we wouldn't fight over the same dish.

Karlie: A very diplomatic answer thank you so much Domee and Lindsey. I really appreciate your time today and wishing you all the best for the future thank you bye.