"Baby Steps" Filmmaker Barney Cheng: "I'm a Parachute Baby"

Show Notes

Dennis heads to West Hollywood to interview Barney Cheng, the writer, director and co-star of the new LGBT-themed movie "Baby Steps," which hit VOD on August 15th. Barney talks about his inspiration for the story, landing Grace Guei AKA "the Meryl Streep of Asia" to play his mother, shooting in Weho, Tawain and India, the scene where he had to cry on camera, the six-month odyssey of getting the film made and the film's Ang Lee connection. He also discusses the reaction to the film when it screened in Tawain, from getting emails from young gay viewers to his mother watching the film for the first time to being invited by the U.S. State Department to screen the film at U.S.embassies in throughout Asia. He also talks about his breakout role as an actor as Woody Allen's right-hand in "Hollywood Ending," and what he learned from Woody about directing that he brought to "Baby Steps." Other topics include: the Tiger Mom phenomenon, what it means to be a parachute baby, the massage he got thanks to Tom Cruise, his dream of being a Broadway chorus boy and his surprising back-up career plan...farming. https://goo.gl/xYNKME