‘Fast & Furious’ Star Sung Kang on Directing ‘Shaky Shivers’
If you’re a fan of the Fast & Furious movies, then you know who Sung Kang is. But did you know that the actor has always wanted to be a director? The 51-year-old Georgia native who fell in love with movies as a child of the 80s has finally achieved his longtime goal with the indie Shaky Shivers, which will have a limited theatrical release on September 21.
A hilarious deconstruction of 80s horror flicks, the no-budget mashup follows friends Lucy (Brooke Markham) and Karen (Vyvy Nguyen), who embark on a nutty journey after Lucy is bitten by a wild animal she thinks might be a werewolf. Along the way, they come across zombies, witches, a yeti and all kinds of other madness. It’s a crazy ride and is an impressive debut for Kang, who spoke to us from Los Angeles, thanks to the SAG-AFTRA waiver allowing him to publicize the film.
How long have you been wanting to direct?
Since I was a little kid. When I saw Goonies as a child, I told myself, this is what I want to be doing. For the rest of my life, I want to tell stories. I want to make movies that inspire other children to take adventures into the woods and look for treasures, to imagine, to go and play pretend. So, it was a seed that was planted early on.
So I started as an actor, of course, and now the world has changed, and there’s more opportunities out there. But as an actor, I don’t think I’ve been able to spread my wings in roles that I yearn to play, and instead of waiting for the phone call that’s never gonna happen, I realized I have to forge ahead and start taking the onus and make these stories happen myself. I needed to wait until I matured enough and had enough tools in the box to be able to start venturing out into directing.
Photo courtesy of Sung Kang.What was it about this particular project? Are you a horror guy?
Growing up, my filmography definitely was horror films. I mentioned Goonies, but also An American Werewolf in London was a big inspiration. The Evil Dead films, [A] Nightmare on Elm Street. All the horror films from the 80s were definitely part of my VHS Rolodex.
I didn’t think that a film like this would be my directorial debut, but two things really resonated with me when I read the script. My writing partner Aaron Strongoni and his buddy, Andy McAllister, did this short documentary about Gabe Bartalos, who did all of our practical creature-building in the movie. They fell in love with his spirit, his energy and his artistry. They realized that this art form is slowly dying because of technology. CGI has taken over.
Andy wanted to share this with his daughter, who was eight or nine at the time, without scaring the bejesus out of her. (Laughs) So they created these two doofus characters and Karen and Lucy’s journey in the film was something that I use as my North Stars: two friends who eventually become comfortable in their skin and and with who they are, no matter if they’re the most popular person in town. As long as they have one partner in crime, they’re good. I thought, wow, what a beautiful message, especially to tell young women of today. I thought maybe my first film would be this coming-of-age drama, a sad tear-jerker, but I wanted to laugh, and when I read this, I knew this was it.
Photo courtesy of Sung Kang.You mentioned Lucy and Karen, which is a great segue. Brooke Markham and Vyvy Nguyen both have extensive resumes, but I was unfamiliar with them. They’re also not stereotypical “final girls” that we’re used to seeing in horror movies. What went into the casting of the film?
Casting was one of the biggest challenges of the film. We met a lot of wonderful, wonderful performers out there, but I knew that because of our limited resources, I had to lean on the actors. They were the ones who were going to be able to bring this movie to life.
Brooke was introduced to me by one of the producers. They had worked with her on another project, and so I met her, and I knew right away this was Lucy. She was the first person we cast. Karen was the bigger challenge. We sent out many offers, but due to limited resources, most people said no. I pretty much gave up, but then a buddy told me about a short film he made for a thesis project at UCLA Film School and an actress who had been in it. When I saw it, I thought there’s something about Vyvy, that could really work with Brooke. We had a chemistry read, and the rest is history.
Photo courtesy of Sung Kang.Did you find your acting career made it easier to direct actors?
Absolutely. I was told early on in my career by other great directors, they said their job is really to surround themselves with people that are smarter and more talented than they are. So it made my job really easy. They brought the characters to life, there’s so much improv that they brought, all I had to do was call ‘Action.’ We had very little resources to put in front of the camera, but I knew that if the audience could focus on them and their performance, then we had a possibility of making something worthwhile. Years ago, I had the opportunity to work with Robert Rodriguez, and I asked him, what makes a good actor for you? He said, ‘It’s very simple. I just need somebody that is down.’
Like, down to go for it?
Ready to take risks, that trust me, allows me to trust them. Those were the type of actors I was looking for. And Brooke and Vyvy were down. They knocked it out of the park.
Photo courtesy of Sung Kang.Kang is hosting a screening of
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