Hong Chau

When British or Australian actors perform American characters, we laud them and talk about how great it is they are able to do this other accent that is not their own. Americans have different relationships with other accents.

Asian-Americans, we're not a monolithic group. There might be some Asians who are second-generation, third-generation, who may not speak the language that their parents or their grandparents spoke.

We are surrounded by people with accents because America is a nation of immigrants. Beyond that, the people who made your iPhone and the shirt on your back are probably Asians, and we're really not that disconnected from each other; we have very intimate relationships with the world, whether or not we realize it.

I grew up speaking Vietnamese - that was my first language because my parents didn't speak any English, and I didn't learn English until I started school.

Growing up the way I did, being an actor in Hollywood was definitely never a plausible career choice at all.

With 'Downsizing,' a lot of the discussion hasn't been about the film itself, but about cultural and political conversations happening outside of it. It's being digested in the context of the time.

People who I've encountered who have had more given to them, they tend to be more disappointed and unable to carry on when something doesn't go their way, and that's not my parents.

In Hollywood, there's not a ton of roles for Asian people. So a lot of it is waiting and waiting and waiting.

I love public transportation! Who wants to sit in a car and be angry at other drivers for eight hours? I'd rather sit on a bus or train and read a book.

I like to be very simple in my lifestyle. My only extravagance is... I buy lots of toys and meats for my dog.

I think one in five Americans has a disability of some sort. That's 20% of the population, and yet we rarely ever see people with disabilities on-screen, and their stories and their resilience and their zest for life and their humor and their humanity.

I grew out of the habit of thinking or worrying about being seen as the typical Asian. I don't even know what that means anymore. I'm not really concerned with it.

For me, I do my best work when I feel completely relaxed and not being judged.

I appreciate people who sway to the beat of their own tambourine, like Iris Apfel and Helena Bonham Carter.

I'm never concerned about being first or on trend. I only want to feel like my most rad 'me.'

I love Chicago for several reasons, but one of the best is that I was so intrigued that you have wild rabbits running around in the city. I never had seen bunnies in such a large urban environment before.

The first time I went to Chicago was on a family road trip. We had our dog with us, and when we hit Chicago, I couldn't believe how many people kept coming up to us, telling us how handsome our dog was! He's a Rottweiler-Australian Shepherd mix, and he is a good-looking dog, but obviously Chicago is very dog-friendly.

I really want to work on characters that have a lot of complexity and you don't always get that in comic book movies because they're not character explorations. I have nothing against movies like that, but I do see them as kind of like a cheeseburger.

It's nice to have a quiet movie to give you time to meditate on an idea. A lot of movies don't give you the space to feel anything.

I don't like being watched, and I don't like being told what to do, so acting is a very poor professional choice.

I don't have any special skills or any hidden talents. I don't.

On 'Downsizing,' I had a trailer, and I got to bring my dog to work, and I thought, 'I've made it: I'm bringing my dog to work.'

I don't want anyone to think I took this role in 'Downsizing' because it was the only role available to me. I'm not a passive participant in it.

I did a regional car commercial and an internet potato chip commercial. I was seriously thinking I needed to quit and get a serious job where I can feed myself and it doesn't kill my soul.

My parents are Vietnamese refugees; they left Vietnam after the war. They were part of the boat people, and they ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand after being on the water for three days, and I was born at that refugee camp in Thailand.