Momo Chang is the Content Manager at the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Sounds like it will be a fun thing to do with your dad!
So he’s really, really excited to teach me how to skateboard. My dad is a big skateboarder and grew up in the 70s and 80s and he skateboarded everyday. We actually haven’t started filming yet.ĭo you skateboard or will you need to for the movie?
I saw that you’re cast for a new movie about skateboarding. Talking about it with them was really informative. I learned so much about it through my family. When we were doing the Asian and Pacific Islander video, my whole family chipped in. We still have extended family there, but I’ve never met them. I have never been to the Philippines, but I really, really want to. Every Thanksgiving we have lumpia, and things like that. All of those traditions have trickled down to our generation. My dad grew up in a house where they were always making Filipino food, his grandpa always spoke Tagalog. He’s my grandma’s dad, and my grandpa is also Filipino as well. My great-grandfather immigrated here from the Philippines when he was just a teenager. Can you talk about your Filipino American side of your family and heritage a bit? So last May, you and Madison and other Disney and ABC actors did a APA Heritage Month video. I’m still really young, I’m kind of going with what I feel is fun for me right now, and if that transforms into something bigger, then so be it. I don’t have any expectations of where it’s going to go. It’s a fun aspect of my life, doing music like that. I really just like sharing music with people. It’s been a really great outlet for me, seeing people’s comments and and requests for songs. I’ve always wanted to do it. One day I decided I was going to post my first cover on there. I noticed that you have your own YouTube channel, which mirrors the show. We have a four-person high school that we make on set so it’s kind of funny. None of us go to traditional high school. Yeah, we do on set and we have a teacher there who can help us.
That’s probably one of my favorite things. We say weird stuff when we’re doing math and we get frustrated. We can look back on it later and laugh at it. One of my favorite things about our cast is in our schoolroom, we have this wall of post-it notes of quirky things that people have said-funny thing. Oh gosh, everyday I’m just having so much fun. Do you have a favorite moment from the show? You guys seem like you have so much fun together, just based on Instagram and the other video clips you shoot for the show. I interviewed your co-star, Madison Hu, last year. All of the roles I’ve gotten have been all ethnicity, which is a nice thing for casting directors to do that. When you go to casting calls, do you go to roles open to all ethnicities? It was just a crazy thing that I got this movie for American Girl about a baker doll. Before I ever got this movie, my friends and used to have baking parties with our American Girl dolls. So I think all of that definitely paid off, because now I get to be on this amazing show.īefore Bizzaardvark, you were the lead on An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success. I started auditioning and went on tons of auditions, didn’t get lots of them, but I got Bizaardvark when I was about 12. So the teacher said, “Do you want to do this professionally, try some auditions.” I was pretty young so just totally open to that experience. I first started taking singing lessons, and my singing teacher said, “Wow you’re really expressive with singing, maybe you should take an acting class.” So I took a local acting class. I chatted with Olivia via phone about her experience auditioning for roles, her YouTube channel which features her singing, and about learning about her Filipina heritage.Ĭan you talk about how you first got into acting?
Paige is played by Olivia Rodrigo, who also starred in the American Girl movie, Grace Stirs Up Success, about a young aspiring baker. The two main characters are best friends named Paige Olvera and Frankie Wong who sing and vlog and attend a specialized high school. On Disney’s Bizaardvark, young Asian American women actors lead the show.
Two young Asian American women are leads on the Disney show.