The actress and her co-star, Ross Butler, also open up about starring in Tubi’s first Asian American original film, “Worth the Wait.”
Lana Condor is sharing a heartwarming story that will give you goosebumps!
While speaking with TooFab at the virtual junket for her new film Worth the Wait opposite her co-star, Ross Butler, the actress detailed how she met the manager of the orphanage from where she was adopted in Vietnam as a baby.
As Worth the Wait centers on a group of strangers who become intertwined in one another’s lives, Condor, 28, revealed she’s seen an act of fate play out in her own life — recalling how a local newspaper article about one of her first acting roles led her to ultimately meet the man who gave her to her adoptive parents.
Worth the Wait Movie/Tubi
“I’m adopted from Vietnam, and I don’t have any, like, I don’t know who my biological parents are,” she told TooFab. “I don’t have any backstory of that part of my life. But I did a movie years ago, X-Men: Apocalypse. And in Vietnam, the newspapers had run this piece about, ‘Oh, there’s this new Vietnamese actress, who booked, you know, Hollywood American production. This is so exciting.'”
“And the manager of my orphanage, … apparently, he read the newspaper, and he saw me, and he saw my last name. And he knew that my parents, their last name is Condor,” she continued. “And he saw the last name, and he was like, ‘I’m almost positive that [she] is the baby girl [who] I used to care for.’ And so he reached out to me on Twitter, and he was like, ‘Hey, I know this sounds crazy’ — and very much broken English — but [he said], ‘I was the manager of your orphanage. I was the one who gave you to your parents.’ And of course I was like, ‘No, there’s no way. There’s no shot.'”
Condor wanted to, of course, know whether the man was who he claimed to be, and asked him a question only he would know.
“I was like, ‘What, if you don’t mind me asking — because you have to understand my hesitance in believing you — what was the gift that you gave me when you sent me off to my new life?'” she recalled. “And the answer was a silk fan. And he was like, ‘It’s a silk fan.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god!'”
“And then a couple years later, I was able to go back and meet him,” Condor added, before reflecting on the wild story. “That in a way is a really crazy … because he was a stranger, but wasn’t a stranger, and all these things, and how life can kind of bring the most unexpected people back into your life in a crazy way.”
Butler — who was enthralled by hearing his co-star’s anecdote — chimed in, “Wow, I never knew that. Huh. God, what a great story.”
“I got nothing,” he joked.. “Like, I dropped my cell phone once on the sidewalk, and a stranger came up and gave it back to me!”
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Worth the Wait — which is directed by Tom Shu-Yu Lin — marks Tubi’s first Asian American original film, starring an all Asian cast, and will be released on Friday, as part of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
For those who don’t know, Tubi is a free streamer, and therefore, everyone can watch it!
Condor and Butler — whose mother is Chinese-Malaysian — reflected on the significance of starring in Tubi’s first Asian American film, and their thoughts on the movie being released during AAPI Heritage Month.
“It’s such a joy, and I think the fact that … it feels like perfect timing. AAPI Month is kind of where I thrive — where we thrive — that’s our month,” Condor said with a laugh. “And I feel like it’s such a joy to be able to celebrate all the hard work that our other castmates and crew and filmmakers put into this film. And I think it really kind of encapsulates who we are as human beings and as a community. It’s really, it’s a joy and phenomenal timing, for whoever behind the scenes did that.”
Butler added, “It just feels special because literally all of us were Asian, the crew is Asian, the director, the producers, mostly we’re all Asian. So it just feels like it’s very … what do the kids say? Asian coded?”
Worth the Wait premieres on May 23 on Tubi.
Content shared from www.toofab.com.