CROSSFIRE Action Movie - Actor ‪@THEVWCEXPERIENCE‬ Victor Chen Interview

All right, we are here with Mr. Victor Chen. It's so good to have you. Thank you, having fun. Friend of mine, I'm so excited. You're actually here in Dallas, Texas for the premiere of Crossfire. How do you feel? It's great, first time in Dallas. I'm always excited to go to different cities. It's a lot of fun. I like the weather, I like just the environment, so I'm excited to be here. Good, I'm glad to have you here. So, I'm personally very excited about the premiere tonight with Crossfire. So, we're doing the screening, and of course we have some celebrities coming in. Are you a little nervous or no? No, it's always fun because I think really it's the networking. You meet with different creators, especially nowadays. That's the fun part I enjoy, is networking with everyone together. So, I probably don't know all the people in Dallas, but it's fun to say hello and just kind of go from there. I look forward to that. So, for Crossfire, you did act in the movie as well. Tell me a little bit more about your experience on set and your role. Definitely, yeah. So, Louis Vandelore, who is the main actor, he's the one that gave me a call and wanted some assistance. So, because of that, he kind of said, for free, we can kind of use your help on this. My first question was, well, what do you want me to do? So, very quickly, long story short, I met Louis almost three years ago. We were in Romania for another small indie project, and I only met him, like, maybe a couple hours. But, you know, we just chatted a little bit, and great guy, so we just kind of kept in touch briefly. So, fast forward to this, he called me up. He goes, you could help a little bit with the stunt coordinator. I said, sure, why not? So, that's kind of how I got on board. And then, we just kind of worked around it and just kept everyone safe, and a lot of good fun. And then, we met Yadu, the director, and so on. So, it all worked out well. Mr. Yadu Krishna, also, he directed and wrote Crossfire. Definitely. Double duty. Yeah, double duty. Yes, and it is action-filled. Tell me a little bit about what you did to prepare off-screen to get, like, this production across. Totally. Definitely, to prepare for this one, because the story is what I call, like, modern-based, it's not fantasy, we're not doing, like, animation, you know, that kind of genre. So, what I had in mind was first seeing what kind of story it is, what kind of characters there are, and also just what I feel looks good on camera for that type of story. So, it's very realistic, you know, they're centered, grounded individuals. So, I just automatically, in my head, picture what similar projects will look like. You try to modify around it, because that's what's gonna be realistic. That's kind of how I prepped it, you know, and it's not crazy where it's like a martial arts film, where you're just kicking nonstop. It's like moments of time, because the characters do something, there's a little bit of action. It could be driving, it could be, like, maybe a gunshot, something like that, but that's also included, too. We kept it as grounded as possible, and that's kind of the vision I had for it. It worked out good. I think it's not bad. Yeah, it worked out well, yeah. So, with all of the, of course, youth training and martial arts and all of that, anything relatable from production that you can take away that really kind of made you feel like, I can do this without even thinking about it? The cool thing about working on a production that you can relate to is, I like seeing what happens behind the scenes, too. So, that is important, because it creates the story, and then from that, you build, kind of, your vision to real life. So, I learned a lot, really, just working with Luis and, you know, Yaru and Sam and everyone. It's, they're different personalities. We kind of had to find a blend. Yeah. Because we're also shooting in Mexico, right? So, it's not like I'm in my backyard, where I can just walk in and pick up whatever I want to pick up. So, you have to kind of adapt to that environment. And once you do that, you kind of learn a little bit how to deal with, kind of, locals, how to deal with different people as far as what their interests are. Yeah. And those are the things I actually learned and picked up. So then, if I do something on my own, it'll kick back in and think, okay, I need to do these steps first before I do the next step. It's kind of like that. So, that, to me, is personally the most enjoyable part. Yeah. It's really, yeah. It gave a different experience, also being shot in Mexico. Yeah, it's behind the scenes. That's the hardest part that most people don't see. They just see what's in the front, you know? Yeah. And then behind you think, I gotta do, you know, 10 steps before we can, let's say, use this building to do an office scene or whatever it would be. So, there's quite a lot of work behind. So, I actually learned a lot along the way in doing that. How to be a little bit more polite, more aggressive at certain points, you know? You have to have that balance. Yeah. I really enjoy that. The understanding. Absolutely, yeah. So, the storyline was very dynamic. It covered drug peddling, sex trafficking. Intense. Tell me your thoughts. It's intense. It's a strong, you know, it's strong issues that we're really facing in the world today. You wanna touch base on that a little bit? I mean, I think with those type of topics, you know, where they are very realistic, newsworthy, you know? Anything that has, you know, drugs or sex-related, it catches your eye. So, I think what's cool about Crossfire is that it brings some of the realism in. For a film, too, right? So, it's not a documentary, but you bring some of those elements in and it makes people think, oh, you know, they might relate to that. Or they might have come across something like that. Or it's something from the news. So, I like stories that are like that. They're, in a sense, not relatable to me, maybe personally, but you can understand the trauma that comes from it and it brings out the different characters. That's why, you know, even from behind the scenes watching, you know, when the character is coming to life, you're like, oh, wow, you know? So, I really enjoy that part a lot, too. I think when people watch it, hopefully they'll see there's those elements that come from it, you know? I look forward to the screening. Anything on production, on set, that really was, that just you will never forget? And it's something that's never happened before on any other set. I think the one that I personally liked was, so there's, without giving it away, there's a particular part of, I think in the center of the movie, there's a little bigger, little action sequence that takes place and without giving it away, you know, Luce's character is trying to get his daughter back, you know, with Sam, and we had to prep that part of thinking, how do we create this scenario in the story that has a door that gets broken down? A door, like the door. So, because of the place, it doesn't have a door. We had to kind of like think, where can we put the door out? Anyways, the props had, you know, a door and the door was a lot bigger than I thought it was, a lot heavier than I thought it was. So, it wasn't like a, what you use for filming, a prop door. It wasn't a prop door, yeah. It was quite heavy for a prop. I said, wow, this is the door. Let me think about that for a second. So, they took it outside and they actually were trying to score it, which means they're trying to cut it, so you know, so it can break. It couldn't cut through. So, I think, yeah, this is probably not gonna work though. So, we had to improvise and without giving what it is, we disregarded that door per se, but I thought if we're using that door, Sam is such a trooper. She goes, I'll go through it. I was like, mm, I don't think so, you know, but that was the fun part. So, I remember that specifically. She was really adamant on it. She got really angry at me. She said, I wanna do it. I said, yeah, I know, but you still have a scene later on, you know? So, if you, you know, kind of hurt yourself, it's not so good though, but. So, you were the voice of reason on set as well. Yeah, well, it has to be, you know, in that sense. It's not because I'm cooler. It's because, you know, she's the main actress, right? So, if she gets hurt, I'm gonna continue the rest of the two days left or three days left, right? But also then, you know, everyone's gonna kind of think, you know, like, I'm obviously terrible, you know? I put her through that, you know? So, but yeah, it was interesting. Yeah, I saw that door. I still remember that door too. It was huge. I was like, yeah, this door, I don't know this. I think we learned a lot about dealing with a lot of different people on set for a long time, of course. How was your experience with Mr. Krishnan, the director? Always great. I call him like a brother because I only met him because of Louis, right? So, that connection and finding how difficult it is, number one, to shoot out of country, number one. Number two, an independent project nowadays is the most difficult thing, right? If you're what I call an A-list and you're a huge budget, you can do whatever you wanna do. You have all the, almost the luxury, per se. But as an indie, everyone has to kind of put their hats in together and you don't always match. So, going into Mexico, I didn't know him yet. So, I didn't know what they're gonna be doing, what kind of style they're shooting. I'm just going off of my imagination of like, okay, this can work out. I know what indie looks like. I've done a couple of those. It's gonna be a lot of hard work, but we just kind of clicked. A lot of good conversation, I can see his vision, and that's important. If you didn't have the vision, then I think none of this could go together. The vision's there. And then we just kind of worked hard, put through it, hours at a time. And some things don't work, kind of revise. So, we're able to communicate, and that's probably the most important thing. And then now, we're still, we talk daily too. Not just promote this, but what can we do next that's bigger and better? For those indie creators out there, until you hit something really substantial, right? But that's what I love about his vision. It's like continually going forward. Keeps me going forward too, because we get frustrated, you know? And sometimes I wouldn't like offer down days anyway, but he's still doing it. So, it makes me think, okay, I better step up my game too. So, that's what I really love, that vision, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think you answered my question on what you think makes a movie successful. Yeah, well, it really is putting everything together. Anything successful, it doesn't have to be a movie. It could be anything, right? You gotta have, like I said, the vision. You have to really want to do that. You gotta be a little crazy to do that, especially in this kind of world. And once you're a little bit crazy, I think that keeps you motivated. Like, you don't want to quit. And I think those four things together really can make a small little project or a large project a success or a failure. It's really having to jump right into the waters, yeah. So, I'm in all the way, you know? I'm here now, so. Hey, we look forward to it. I can hang out somewhere else, you know? I'm here, you know? So, it's all good. You're here with us. That's amazing. All right, Mr. Chen. So, any new projects you have coming up that you can let us know about? Yeah, sure. Yeah, there's so many things. So, okay, film-wise, I've done, you know, luckily, some other independent projects that I'm really proud of. One was the one in Atlanta I did almost two years ago now. Time went by. That was a documentary drama where I play a real-life Chinese healing master. So, we don't look alike, but it's the philosophy that matches. So, they're finishing a lot of last-minute touches and some reshoots of specific sections, but I hope that one really brings that kind of an audience towards looking at how a person who immigrated from China to U.S. and that struggle. So, it's kind of like that. I really resonated with that. And then the other two are something I did recently in Chicago. It's a three-part series, almost like a real-life story of family drama, family abuse into real life. I play the father that's kind of abusive, which is very different than me. Yeah, it's also half-English, half-Chinese, so it's even more challenging, too. So, it's very interesting. So, I look forward to seeing that, even just for personal interest. And the last thing is, yeah, looking at opening my own training facility. Oh, congratulations! So, I'm in California, so it's figuring out if that's a place I wanna open it, and then all the logistics with it. But I think that's gonna bring something of a foundation to get people to, one, get into martial arts that I love, exercise, health and fitness, but also a place where maybe actors can then do something in, you know? What's that? I mean, I've been trying to train with you for like three years. Yeah, so I have to make those trips back to Dallas, you know, and then get the ball rolling. It kind of builds the brand. Yeah, of course. That's kind of what I do anyways. I mean, if this wasn't here, I still be doing that anyways, to be honest. So, we're trying to have a success in that because that's the base for me, yeah. Well, congratulations on this movie, and I'm so excited about your upcoming movies. We'll see what happens. And thank you also for bringing me on to the project. Of course. I'm so happy to have sat down with you and discussed all these amazing things. I know, I'm glad we can finally meet, and you know, now it's gonna be, you know, really, it really crosses over. Yeah, no. It's good. I like that, I like that, I like that. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. Thank you very much. Thank you.