Take Out Girl is a new film available On Digital and On Demand May 18, 2021. Take Out Girl follows Tera Wong, a 20 year old Asian girl, who is desperate to help give her family a better life and save their family restaurant. To try and achieve this she parlays her abilities as a Chinese food delivery girl into a profitable drug side hustle.
Hedy Wong On Take Out Girl
The Illuminerdi was able to speak with the co-writer and star of Take Out Girl, Hedy Wong, about the process of writing the script for the film and what inspired her to tell this story in the first place. Hedy wrote the first draft of Take Out Girl before meeting Hisonni Johnson, who co-wrote and directed Take Out Girl, and she reveals not only what inspired the story, but why she wrote it.
“When I started writing this I was going through a lot of rough times, tough times, unhappy times, and I felt really alone in my life. And I was going through experiences that I couldn’t really tell people about, but then I ended up telling it anyways, now because of the movie. [Hedy Wong laughs]
And I just started writing it down, just started writing these things that would go in my head about my family, about my upbringing, about my family’s restaurant, and just these things that were in my life. I was identifying them and even though I didn’t have solution to my pain then, it was therapy for me to just start putting it down on paper. And it’s not just the pain. I also put moments of my joy, too in the story.”
Take Out Girl covers some very real and intense topics, but Hedy Wong elaborated on why it was important to her to include those moments of joy in the story.
“No matter how things can get really bad in life or unhappy you get in the moment, you always have to give thanks and remember the good times. Because life is about human connection and when I started to sit down and start outlining the story, yeah sure it was about some things that I was dealing with especially with my Mom, but I had to put in the moments that were beautiful to me too and one of them is Nate. “
Hedy revealed that the character Nate is based off of her real friend who is also named Nate. Hedy Wong then talked about her friendship with Nate and why it is important to show this friendship in Take Out Girl.
“He’s such a sweet heart and I’m so happy that Hisonni found Dijon who was able to portray that gentle side. Nate is a writer himself, he’s a poet and Dijon just portrayed Nate so beautifully. And I’m also kind of happy that because Nate and I, we have a true friendship. Like we always joke around and say like, ‘Oh, our friendship’s kind of like Tupac and Jada.’ Where they’re just like really good friends.
And for me, as a girl, it was really important for me to show a relationship with a man that is just beyond the romance. There’s something really real there and the basis of any good relationship is a true friendship. And Hisonni did that really well just outlining that out.”
Take Out Girl is Hedy Wong’s first foray into screenwriting. And she explained the process of writing the first draft and then working with her co-writer and director Hisonni Johnson to create the film.
“So, I got the original draft to Hisonni and it was my first time writing a script ever, like I just looked up YouTube and learned how to write a screenplay that way. And my script just had a lot of notes because I’m not entering into a screenplay competition it’s meant to be read by a filmmaker who understood why I’m writing these things a certain way. And when Hisonni received it, he said that my material was a bit too long. He said it was almost like a docu-drama and it has so many characters in it that it could almost be a TV show.
So, with the help of Hisonni, we streamlined it where we centralized it on the family more, we made it a family movie instead of this a day in the life of a girl through this neighborhood. And I’m really happy with where the story is now and I’m really happy that Hisonni really just really amplified everything I wanted. Especially chapter three, I always told Hisonni I’m like, ‘Hisonni chapter three, moment to moment that’s what I wanted. That’s exactly how I wanted it.’
And he kept a lot of things that I originally wrote in there. And he would kind of just clean them up and streamline them and polish it. But everything we did, we spent four hours every day talking about how one scene should go. It was a passion project, definitely a passion project. A lot of time and passion and thought was put in. “
Hedy Wong continued to share her praise for her co-writer and the director of Take Out Girl, Hisonni Johnson. Making it clear how much she appreciated him and all of the work he put into making Take Out Girl which as she said is a project that had “a lot of time and passion and thought” put into it.
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“We’re here today because of him and all his hard work. He’s been such a wonder. We’re here today because of how he carried the pressure of making this movie. I couldn’t have done this without him. He’s been such a wonderful partner and such a fearless captain in guiding the ship, this whole team, through. And I’m so relieved today that we crossed the finish line.”
The time, thought, and passion shine through in Take Out Girl, which is a compelling story with edge of your seat moments of suspense and unexpected twists and turns. It is also, and perhaps more importantly, a story based heavily in the reality that many people live through in the United States.
TAKE OUT GIRL TRAILER AND SYNOPSIS
To give her family a chance at a better life and save her family’s failing restaurant, Tera Wong, a desperate 20-year-old Asian girl, parlays her Chinese food delivery expertise into a profitable drug hustle.
Take Out Girl is co-written by star Hedy Wong and director Hisonni Johnson. Take Out Girl stars Hedy Wong, Ski Carr, Lynna Yee, J. Teddy Garces, Lorin Ly, Dijon Talton, Mier Chasen, Lizette Hunter, Joe Rudy Guerrero Jr.
Take Out Girl is available On Digital and On Demand May 18, 2021. Are you going to watch Take Out Girl? What did you think of Hedy Wong’s comments? Where would you like to see Hedy Wong land next in her career? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media.
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