San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Filipino American life on big screen
first draft.
He and Koy “FaceTimed each other crying, like we can’t believe it’s happening,” Cheng recalled. “It was just such a tremendous faith being shown, and I think it’s a testament to Jo as a performer and a star, and someone who just really garners everyone’s attention.”
In casting, they aimed high. Stars include heavyweights like Tiffany Haddish, who plays a Daly City police officer and former girlfriend of Koy’s Valencia. Carrere plays Tita Theresa, foil to Valencia’s mom’s character Susan, played by Lydia Gaston. Lou Diamond Phillips makes a cameo.
Cheng said that the auditions for the film showed him “there are a lot of talented actors in the Filipino American community and AAPI community in general.”
Koy’s dream of debuting “Easter Sunday,” shot during the height of COVID, in theaters in time for the holiday was in question as the pandemic lingered. But going directly to streaming — even through services like Netflix, which has been a major platform for Koy’s work (his fourth Netflix comedy special is set to drop in September) — wasn’t an option as Koy was adamant about taking the film to the big screen.
“It’s relatable, it’s about a family that loves and cries and laughs together. It’s a basic ingredient for any family movie, so why wouldn’t this have a chance to be on a silver screen like everybody else?” he said. “We deserve that.”
Koy gets teary-eyed when he talks about the autobiographical parts of the film, particularly about the father-son relationship. Koy remembers feeling guilty for being absent when he was touring on the road, despite making sure that Jo Jr. was very much a part of his standup material.
“I missed birthdays,” he said. “I had to. I’m a comic; either I feed the family or we starve. And there’s this thing I’m doing, which is chasing a dream. Unfortunately, there was a lot of sacrifice. I felt like s— when I was on the road, but I had to.”
But Koy emphasizes that this moment is not just about him, saying he wants to see more diverse representation on the big screen.
“I’m not just talking about Filipinos, I’m talking about everybody,” Koy said. “I want to see more stories about other ethnicities and other cultures because that’s what we’re living in right now.” “Audiences very much want to see themselves onscreen, because it means to them they’re part of the country, that they matter,” Chandrasekhar added. “The dream is alive when you see yourself up there.”
As with his film inspiration “Friday,” Koy hopes that everyone can relate to “Easter Sunday.”
“I wanted to tell a story about my family, but most importantly, I didn’t want to just let people know that only Filipinos can get this,” Koy said. “At the end of the movie, we can all just look at each other and go, ‘Yo, my mom did the same thing to me,’ or ‘my son did the same,’ and that’s what it’s all about. We all want to be heard.”