Producer Teddy Zee:
Hollywood Veteran
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THE 130 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS Teddy Zee GS: What percentage of projects to which you start devoting time ends up going into production? TZ: That's really hard to say. It's between one in seven and one in ten. If you're one in seven, it's great. But today if you're getting any movies made, it's a great accomplishment. Everybody strives to make great movies but oftentimes it doesn't turn out that way. The way this business operates is that somebody else is paying for your overhead, somebody else is paying to develop the project. The studios are actually laying out the money. At the end of the day, they'll decide whether your deal is profitable or not. GS: What about when it goes into production, what percentage actually ends up being released? TZ: I'd say that's a lot. 98% of movies that go into production will be released. GS: Which projects are you the most excited about? TZ: There are a number of them. We haven't announced it yet, but one is going to be shot half in Mandarin and half in English. GS: What's the title? TZ: I really can't talk about it but we're gonna start very soon. It's a really small movie. It's a cross between Big Fat Greek Wedding and Ang Lee's Wedding Banquet. It's so delicious. We've got a great cast. GS: Any stars attached to it you can mention? TZ: Again, I don't want to. If you hold off we can talk about this in two weeks. GS: Do you have any particular interest in working with Asian stars or Asian writers or Asian directors? Does that make you a little more willing to take the time? TZ: Oh, absolutely. I have great affection and affinity for working with Chinese, Asian talent. And over the course of my career I've sought out these players, and I take it as not only a part of my job workwise but a part of my reason for being on this earth. GS: Why do you feel that way, aside from the fact that you're Asian? Have you had any experience that makes you feel that way? TZ: Take a look around the landscape of Hollywood. There are not a lot of Asians in roles of determining what gets made and what gets put up on the screen. And growing up, the portrayal of Asians... It was embarrassing watching TV shows and movies. And if I can do my little bit to help that to change, it would be great. GS: Do you feel ambivalent when you see all these Asian writers accusing Hollywood, putting Hollywood in the role of the villain. TZ: I think it's a level of frustration that's earned. It's hard for Asian actors to get roles unless they're hiring for restaurant workers or hookers. It's terrible. It's hard for very talented actors to get work that's basically blind to color and race. So yeah, I feel like we actually need movies that bring greater opportunities to these Asian actors and writers. GS: So you feel some personal responsibility? TZ: Sure, absolutely. GS: Do you also share the anger toward Hollywood? TZ: I honestly don't feel any anger because Hollywood's been very good to me. It's a great place for me to work. As a semi-insider in the business, I have opportunity to not play it the way it was played. GS: Who are some of the bright Asian stars that you have an eye on? TZ: Let me just go over who I've worked with in the past. Terrence Chang and John Woo in producing The Replacement Killers. I gave Chow Yun-Fat his first role. I worked with Ringo Lam who was a Hong Kong director. It was a Jean Claude Van Damme movie [Maxium Risk]. I was an executive at Sony when we did these movies. And then I'm working with Alice Wu who I think is potentially an unbelievably great writer/director and I have complete faith in her. She's gonna have a long productive creative career. GS: Hollywood has been good to you and you've been successful a long time. What is it about the lifestyle that you love? TZ: Let me put it in perspective. My mom didn't speak English. My Dad worked as a kitchen worker in resorts and I know how hard they worked to raise four kids. Money was everything in the world to them, to accumulate enough money so they could scrape by. I didn't want to live like that. Everything they did to put us through cllege taught me I don't want to have to work for money. I want to work hard because I love what I do. And Hollywood has afforded me the opportunity to pursue my passion. GS: You mentioned that the money was not very good at the beginniing. Did you mean when you shifted from NBC? TZ: No, my first job out of business school was working as a management consultant for Touche-Ross. I was making quite a bit of money at the first job out of business school. At the time people were starting at sixty thousand -- this was 1984 -- which was a lot of money. And my first job at Hollywood, I took a big pay cut. Thirty thousand at Paramount as an executive. But money never became an issue after that. People would pay for those kinds of jobs. What you are making was the opportunity you are given. GS: What do you make at Overbrook? TZ: I can't talk about that. GS: How about at your last job? What's the ballpark that someone in your position makes? TZ: I don't want to talk about that. GS: But you're happy with the money? TZ: Yeah. |
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