Aug 18, 2022
Dennis connects via Zoom with actor Rodney To who plays Uncle Arthur in the new film Easter Sunday, an ensemble comedy about a Filipino-American family in Daly City, California celebrating Easter together. Rodney talks about how he came to be cast in the film, working with star Jo Koy, the red carpet outfit he had custom made for the occasion and the pressure he and his fellow cast members to make sure the movie is successful so Hollywood will make more of them. He also talks about his second career on the faculty of USC, teaching acting and the business, and how it's made his creative life so much richer and taken the pressure off of his acting career. He also discusses the extraordinary opportunity he got earlier this year to be a "trophy presenter" at the Academy Awards and what it was like to right there when Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock. He also recalls moments with Anthony Hopkins, Jason Momoa, Venus & Serena Williams, Troy Katsur, Jessica Chastain and Will Smith's sobbing publicist. He also recalls the profound moment he had looking at the crowd. Other topics include: why he thinks his "Rodney-ssance" might be happening, working with Michelle Yeoh on the upcoming Netflix series The Brothers Sun, feeling the fear in casting offices, sniffing the elbow of a 90's supermodel in an elevator, the rule he has about hats and beds and the thing Marianne Williamson said to him that really stuck.
https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/rodney-to/