I had the privilege of interviewing Garrett Wang, best known for his work as Ensign Harry Kim on Star Trek Voyager. I could go on and on about Garrett Wang and Ensign Harry Kim, but that’s what this post was for! Check it out here. It’s all about Garrett Wang and is a great prelude before you read the interview. AL stands for myself, while GW stands for Garrett Wang. Enjoy!
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AL: How did moving around so much affect your life and what was that like growing up and trying to discover who you are?
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GW: Yeah, I was born in California, moved after a couple of years to Indiana, onto Bermuda – six years there, onto Memphis, Tennessee – eight years there, and back to California and went to California for college. And now, Vegas. I think if anything, moving around helped my acting. I had a broader view of the world. And I think part of being a good actor is being a good people person. I would say that having all these addresses was an advantage when it came to my acting and also as a human being. I always suggest to people to travel overseas and see how other people live. It gives you a perspective regarding your own life when you see how other people live.
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AL: What did your encounters with William Shatner and Rick Berman teach you about being an actor both professionally and personally?
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GW: There are basically two ends of the spectrum when it comes to celebrities or people who are on TV shows at conventions. There are two ends of the spectrum. One end is the one that literally… a fan will be in the line saying ‘Oh my god, I got my sister on the phone, here can you please say Happy Birthday to her? Please, please, please, please!’ Some actors will say ‘sure,’ such as myself, ‘let me go ahead and do that for you. Let me go the extra mile.’ And on the other end of the spectrum is the actor who does not go the extra mile. That actor basically, as soon as they’re done with their time commitment at the convention is like ‘take me to my hotel room.’ Let me go there and lock every lock, deadbolt possible because I don’t want to be around the fans any more than I [have to be]. When you’re in line for a Shatner autograph, the staff come up to tell you before you walk up there and they’ll say ‘ok, when you get up to Mr. Shatner, make sure you do not engage him in conversation. Do not talk to him about blah, blah, blah. Do not try to ask for anything. Just hand him the article that needs to be signed and then move on. The majority of the time the man is just looking straight down at the table and signing, as the assistant takes the item to be signed. And he doesn’t even look up! So my feeling is that if you’re paying anywhere from $80 to $120 for a Shatner autograph, UM… I think Shatner should look up and say ‘hey, how are ya?’ Just the acknowledgement, that’s all! And so I hate the way he treats fans and then all of a sudden… you look it up on the internet and it says ‘Garrett Wang hates William Shatner,’ and it’s like OK… This is how press can blow things out of proportion. I don’t hate William Shatner. First of all, I love the character of Captain Kirk and I think that he does justice to it in his own quirky, staccato acting delivery. I mean everyone knows who he is, everyone knows what he’s done. I just dislike, strangely dislike the way he treats the fans. My feeling is that if you’re not even going to acknowledge them while they’re there… DON’T COME TO THE CONVENTION. DON’T USE THE CONVENTION AS YOUR PERSONAL ATM MACHINE. The fact that money is exchanged anyways at conventions, it’s just a little touchy feely there. You know actors need to come on out there and make a better living at times, I understand that, but you know you… Let’s face it, Captain Kirk is what put him on the map. That is what put him on the map and so I just feel that I would like to see him be a little bit more appreciative, that’s it. You know what I’m saying? Especially, especially since he charges such crazy amounts of money for an autograph, more so than anybody else out there, so that’s all. And he doesn’t have to have a conversation, ‘how’s your kids, blah blah blah.’ Just say ‘Good morning,’ ‘Good afternoon,’ ‘Good evening,’ ‘Thank you,’ you know that’s it! That little snippet after being in a long, long line is like a piece of gold to fans. You know, that’s all.
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AL: For sure, seeing your idol and kind of taking that extra mile is huge. Also, taking the time to recognize that being a celebrity is a two way street. As an actor, you need the fans, and as fans, you want the actor, because you enjoy that type of entertainment.
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GW: You know you can spend a lifetime idolizing somebody and it can literally take two seconds for that idolization to shatter, that image is completely shattered in one meeting. So you know that’s the sad part about it.
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AL: What finally led you to pursue acting besides Jenny Roudtree’s inspiration? Was there anything specific she did at UCLA that you were inspired by?
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GW: She didn’t play any favorites in class. She was just a solid acting teacher that really inspired me to continue in acting. I just love her style of teaching, the way she was as a person. Those are the beginning days of me having an acting instruction, and they’re wonderful days because I soaked it up like a sponge.
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AL: What unique secrets or stories can you share regarding Hollywood and the entertainment industry in general?
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GW: I would say advice for those who want to (and this is something inevitably in every convention I go to, there is always someone trying to get into acting, and ‘what’s your advice? What do you think?’) I think that Hollywood itself is a very difficult environment itself to succeed in. The biggest thing is if you’re Canadian, you do have Toronto, you do have Vancouver, you do have cities that are utilized by Hollywood to film shows in. You know, there are a lot of shows being filmed in Canada. So you know my best advice is study, and take acting seriously. Realize that show business is only 10 per cent show and 90 per cent business. And that you have to, even if some people are like ‘well, I’m beyond that, I’m an artiste. I don’t depend on that business.’ Well you’re just going to be an artiste, you’re acting for yourself! Because you have to realize that. And I always say get the training that you need, take acting classes, take improv classes, take scene study classes, do everything you can in your home town, wherever that is, and then go to areas you know, hopefully, Toronto and Vancouver that have acting productions going on and find an agent to represent you. To send you out on roles. And also, know your type, you know, sometimes people that are… a man who is 5 foot 3 and extremely… got a limp, says ‘well I want to play the hero.’ Well you don’t really fit that archetype. Or someone who’s 6 foot 7 and looks like glaringly, blaringly menacing and without them saying a word, it looks like they can really hurt you.
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AL: Shatner right!
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GW: Well not Shatner, but you know someone really, what we call a person who plays the heavy, instead of the bad guy. There are those guys who have hearts of gold and are like ‘I just wanna play in family movies, where I’m the dad,’ and it’s like NO! That doesn’t work! Because nobody is going to believe you as dad looking at you. So, always watch, make sure that you play your archetype to what people perceive you as. And if you make a living out of that, then you can call the shots and try to play against your type, which can work also, but in the beginning it doesn’t. So, I always say, stay in your own town, take classes there, go to whatever metropolis has some type of production work going on, on a regular basis, get an agent there, and give it a shot. That’s my advice there.
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AL: And finally, the last question, who were your idols growing up and who have you had the best experiences working with. Who do you want to give a shout-out to?
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GW: Yeah, you know, my idol growing up as a child, he’s not an actor, but he’s an impressionist, he does accents and impersonations of famous people, his name is Rich Little. Wonderful in terms of talent level and his uncanny ability to sound precisely like famous people around the world. It was basically a human being using their body as an instrument. An instrument to sound exactly like somebody else… Same pitch, same tone, same everything. And also to make the audience laugh and wow in amazement. That was my idol growing up. And pretty much anybody who worked on SNL (Saturday Night Live), because I like sketch comedy. I mean, let’s face it, drama is great and all, and you know Star Trek Voyager is definitely… they’re all dramas with some sprinkled in romance, and comedy. But if I had my choice, oh my goodness, I would only be on a sitcom, because I just love sitcoms. But back to what I spoke about earlier, sitcoms or comedic movies… Hollywood tends to think they got to be all about quirky looking people, not people who are like lady-man looking. So they don’t give Brad Pitt that many options and comedy, they don’t give all the guys that seem to be more lady-man looking comedy choices, so people in comedies is kind of something that I’ve always looked up to. SNL players, Rich Little the impressionist, so those are the ones that I’ve been inspired by. If you ask me to name a serious actor or dramatic actor, pound for pound, I would name Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in the LOTR (Lord of the Rings) movies. You know, for those model good looks, to have that high quality acting ability, is rare. So, big fan of him.
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AL: And so you’ve got to consider yourself like that too. One of the 20 coolest bachelors named by E!.
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GW: Yeah! I do put myself in there, but it’s also very difficult for me to say, ‘wow, I’m such a handsome guy.’ I’m a pretty humble guy when it comes to that, and it’s difficult for me to accept compliments a lot of times, but thank you. I appreciate that.
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Thanks for reading! Check out Garrett Wang’s twitter! The man is hilarious!
https://twitter.com/GarrettRWang