Grace Under Pressure
This Wharton grad made a film (loosely) based on the son of a former U.S. president.
In the 1990s, Fay Ann Lee kept running into John F. Kennedy, Jr. At the bank, tennis matches and the concrete jungles of New York City - wherever she was, he popped up. No, she wasn't stalking him, but it felt like it. The encounters got her thinking: would someone like him go out with her?
The actress and aspiring filmmaker started penning her ideas into a script for a writing class. It was originally titled "Searching for John Jr." In it, she poured personal questions of "what ifs" and "maybes" and created a world where chance encounters became a collision of two very different worlds.
The script started placing in screenwriting competitions, so Lee starting thinking maybe she had something. She began adapting the story into a film and 10 years later, "Falling for Grace" is working the festival circuit.
Class issues have always been points of conflict in romantic comedies, but this isn't "My Fair Lady." Lee is certainly not the Eliza Doolittle next door. The Wharton Business School graduate speaks with more of a fancy Katherine-style accent than the cockney Audrey Hepburn film version.
In addition to writing the script, Lee produced, directed and played the titular character, Grace Tang. She didn't want to wear so many hats, but she took the advice of Oscar-winning screenwriter Jim Taylor ("Sideways") who told her to hold onto her pet project because Hollywood has a way of plundering its soul.
The result is a charming love story about a clumsy Wall Street investment banker who takes a little case of mistaken identity and runs with it. Like any red-blooded female wouldn't do the same?
"The lack of self-confidence that Grace has is something that parallels my life. For a long time - and even now - I struggle with the thought that I'm still not good enough, not pretty enough, no matter what I am doing," said Lee.
The filmmaker also struggles with the perennial feeling of being an outsider, which she translates into Grace's many nervous gesticulations (think a little Lucille Ball with a lot of Jennifer Aniston). Lucky for Grace her insecurities get neatly bundled into a romantic comedy. Lee is still dealing with hers.
Creating Grace
Lee was born in the Yau Yat Chuen area of Kowloon, Hong Kong where she grew up watching American shows and building her dreams to become an actress. She learned to speak with an American accent even before immigrating to the United States in her teens.
Being the "good Chinese girl," Lee went to business school and started a career in finance working for Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles. In the evenings, she nurtured her artistic spirit by appearing in plays at East West Players where she once was an understudy for actress Lauren Tom.
Then Lee won a part in Broadway's "Miss Saigon" and she excitedly broke the news to her parents.
"My dad said, 'you're not going to take the job, are you?' Yeah dad, it's Broadway!" said Lee.
It took her 10 years to write the script, raise the money, film all the scenes and edit it together.
Along the way, she met some colorful people like two boxing promoters who liked the film so much they agreed to fund a "huge portion of the budget." When she went to go cash the check it bounced like a rubber ball.
"They wrote me a bad check! Since then I found out that they are under SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) investigation. I ended up getting money from elsewhere," said Lee with a laugh.
"I enjoyed the path from page to screen and I want to do it again, but I won't be in it," she added.
No Apologies: It's a Romantic Comedy
But "Falling for Grace" is not your typical independent film.
First, it assembles an unlikely cast of mainstream and Asian Pacific American actors in a series of subplots and cameos. Spotting familiar faces (Bobby Flay, "America's Most Wanted" Host John Walsh, etc.) is part of the fun.
But most of all, there are no scenes of prolonged ethnic angst or deep Freudian reasons behind casting.
"This is a romantic comedy. I'm not trying to change the world. I want to make people laugh and feel," she said. "I grew up watching romantic comedies. It's my favorite genre - sorry! But that doesn't mean I don't want to be considered a serious filmmaker."
She wants this movie to cross over to the mainstream with a predominantly APA cast.
"Falling for Grace" premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, a perfect venue since it was shot in New York's Chinatown. Next on the festival tour is the VC Film Festival in Los Angeles. Lee has also been screening at colleges across the nation.
The next stop for the film may be a limited theatrical release by the summer. She is currently negotiating with two different distributors. As for Lee, she's working on another script in the "kids" genre. This one hopefully won't take a decade to make.
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