Interview With Albert Tsai, Star Of ABOMINABLE

Although Albert Tsai is only 15 years old, his resume is impressively stacked and diverse for such a young actor. Born in San Jose, California, Tsai got his first television acting gig on an episode of How I Met Your Mother in 2013, followed by an impressive turn in Trophy Wife that landed him a Best Supporting Actor nomination for the Critics’ Choice Television Awards (the youngest actor to receive such a nomination). He has since starred in a number of television shows, and is currently promoting his newest film, Abominable.

The animated feature from DreamWorks Animation is set in modern day Shanghai, and follows a group of friends trying to reunite a magical Yeti with his family. I chatted with Tsai about Abominable, his experience as a young actor working in Hollywood and the importance of representation on screen.

Wilson Kwong for Film Inquiry: Did you always know you wanted to be an actor?

Albert Tsai: Well, I started to fall in love with acting when I was seven. I did a school play in second grade and that just made me catch the acting bug. I started taking some acting classes and doing some auditions, and then not long after, I got my first ABC show Trophy Wife from 2013 to 2014. But I always knew that I liked performing and I liked making people laugh, which is why I do a lot of comedy. It’s something that comes naturally.

What do you like specifically about the comedy genre?

Albert Tsai: I think comedy is just a really good genre because it’s meant to make you happy. It’s meant to make people laugh, and I’ve always enjoyed doing that. I think it’s just really great that through whatever entertainment I make, I can bring joy to someone’s day and make them happy.

What role models did you have growing up, specifically when it came to your acting career?

Albert Tsai: My mom was really a role model for me because she’s always taught me to never give up, be myself, and to always do what I love. She’s telling me to persevere and just to keep on going when things get hard. And in terms of celebrities, I’ve always really looked up to Emma Watson because she was able to do the Harry Potter movies while getting a college education. That’s something I want to do because I’ve always loved learning, so I would definitely want to get a college degree and keep on acting.

So it’s safe to assume that your parents were always supportive of your decision to pursue a career in acting?

Albert Tsai: Yeah, my parents have always been super supportive of my career and what I wanted to do.

Shifting hears to Abominable, the film first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. How was that experience for you?

Albert Tsai: It was so exciting and so much fun. It was the first time we saw the film with a full audience and we did it in this beautiful theatre in Toronto, and it was really cool to see how the audience reacted to the movie.

Was it nerve wracking at all to see all the audience reactions in real time like that?

Albert Tsai: I think I was just really excited to be at the premiere after having worked on this project for three years. I was cast when I was 12 and now I’m 15, so after having recorded for it for so long and forming this emotional attachment to the project, I think I was just really excited to finally show it to the world.

And I know that this was also the first time that you’ve done voice acting. Was it a very different experience compared to acting on screen?

Albert Tsai: It was a different experience because nothing was animated yet when we started recording, so it’s a completely different format. You’re in the booth recording, and you don’t have any of the other actors or sets. There’s nothing else to look at – just you in the booth, so you have to imagine it all in your mind. Whether that’s what your character is holding, thinking or doing, and then portray all of that emotion and dialogue through your voice.

So did that make the preparation work for this role a bit different compared with your previous roles?

Albert Tsai: Peng [Tsai’s character in the film] felt very similar to my own personality, so I wouldn’t say there was necessarily any sort of preparation other than just the usual reading of the script and getting to know the character. Also, before the recording sessions would start, they would bring me up to the animator’s floor and let me look at some of the clips that they had animated since the last time I recorded. They initially showed me some pictures of how they wanted things to look, but the character changed over time because they based some of his looks on what I looked like in the booth. This included his body movements and postures because they had a camera recording me while I did the dialogue. And since I’m an actor, doing all those body movements and facial expressions came naturally to me, and they imported that onto Peng.

Abominable is also unique in that its story focuses on a Chinese family, and features a lot of Asian actors voicing the film’s characters. Was this particular aspect of the film important for you?

Albert Tsai: It’s definitely important that there are more roles for Asian Americans and all people of colour and that there’s more diversity and representation on screen. It definitely matters. And I think Abominable is a major step forward for that because it’s currently number one at the box office. It’s basically the first story that’s featured a modern Chinese family and it’s set in modern China. It doesn’t have any of those stereotypes and instead portrays an authentic Chinese culture and authentic Chinese characters. So I think it’s definitely a big step forward for representation, and the fact that it’s number one at the box office definitely shows that audiences want that too. They want more diversity, and they want characters that look like them and act like them in an authentic way that’s normalized, and not forced into stereotypes. I think the fact that it was such an authentic story and that it represented a cultural exchange between Eastern and Western culture was definitely what attracted me to the project. And I’m really glad and grateful to be part of this push for diversity in Hollywood.

In the short years that you’ve been an actor, on a much broader scale, have you noticed any changes when it comes to representation in Hollywood?

Albert Tsai: I think there’s been so much change in the last couple of years and I’m really glad that I’m part of this push for representation in Hollywood. I think it’s important to make sure that representation and diversity is normalized. That seeing an Asian American family on television or in a movie isn’t just a novelty and isn’t just forced into stereotypes.

You’ve acted in a lot of different roles over the past few years, but are there any specific parts you’re still hoping to land?

Albert Tsai: I would love to do more feature films, whether that’s live action or animated, and also do more action or adventure type things. I’ve always loved Marvel and Harry Potter, or any sort of story with super humans, so I’d like to play that in the future.

What other projects do you have coming up right now?

Albert Tsai: Season two of my Disney Channel show, Coop & Cami Ask The World, is going to premiere in just a couple of days [October 5th]. So I’m looking forward to that and just continuing to promote Abominable.

Film Inquiry thanks Albert Tsai for taking the time to chat with us.