Bruce Lee is my Hero

By Linda Lee

That is the bumper sticker that Linda Wang read the other day, right before she bumped into the owner of the car, none other than Bruce Lee's wife, Linda Lee (no relation to the writer).

The funny thing is, Bruce Lee really is one of Wang's heroes. This "die hard New Yorker" actress shared how her life has been a series of interconnected kismetic adventures, when we met for lunch in a quaint little patio at "The Cat and Fiddle" restaurant in Hollywood.

Imagine working at McDonald's at fourteen years old in Queens, NY, and then auditioning for the golden arches years later. Not only reading for a role that was originally meant for an African American actor, but then actually booking the part.

The director of the commercial (Sunu Gonera, director of "Pride" starring Terrence Howard) was so impressed by Wang's believability as the young mother of a young African American girl who read with her during the audition, that he added an additional character just for her.

"I am very thankful to the director, casting directors and executives who were able to be innovative in non-traditional casting," says Wang, who works with her agents to push the envelope to submit her for non-Asian-specific roles.

Very engaging and funny, she often ends her hilarious sentences with "...,am I right?!" It's easy to see how people are charmed by her wit and personality.

Wang has been able to wow others with her skills by landing parts not originally meant for Asian Americans. Her latest role was written for a Latino actress in writer/director Allyna Renee's short film "Red Betta."

"I was thrilled to play an older woman who had a younger lover," said Wang. "'Red Betta,' a film with very few words but the emotions of Liz has taken me to the next level to a point of no return. Juan excitingly brought Liz to life. She reaped the benefits of his fever-pitch of passion, only to realized her murmur to the red betta fish was too late."

This is the first short-length film that Wang has acted in since 1994, when she played a hostess in Brett Ratner's short film "Whatever Happened to Mason Reese?" "I was just a teenager then and was mostly excited to be working on a film narrated by Anthony Michael Hall, because I had seen 'The Breakfast Club' and loved the character he portrayed."

In "Red Betta" Wang plays "Liz" - a character who personifies the feistiness of a "Red Betta Fish" also known as "The Siamese Fight Fish," a fish that will fight with anything in sight, including its own mirror image, and therefore must live alone.

"The director had spent weeks looking for the right actress to play the part. We talked for the first time when I made a courtesy call to decline the audition - I was booked as a Geisha on a beer commercial for Spain at the time and couldn't make the casting - but after chatting for a while on the phone, the director said that she had to meet me in person." And just like that, upon meeting Wang, the director offered her the part.

It happened again when JANE Magazine was looking for someone to play the role of a "Caucasian man with metropolitan flare" for their online series. Wang wowed them at the audition and she landed the part.

These experiences echo the path of another actor who has been able to change impressions about traditional casting: Whoopi Goldberg. "She is my inspiration. A single mother living on food stamps, who broke out in
acting later in life. She was able to break the race and gender barrier when it came to roles. She's at the top of my list of heroes."

"One of the things that I'm passionate about is promoting diversity - everywhere, on film, TV, stage, and even commercial print and broadcast. I'm for pushing the envelope when it comes to how people think about things."

For more on Linda Wang, please visit: http://imdb.com/name/nm0910972/