Interview With Yoshi Sudarso: Playing An Asian American Cowboy & Positive Change In Hollywood

Yoshi Sudarso is the star of new martial-arts infused Western Buffalo Boys, from director Mike Wiluan. The film opened in Indonesia last summer, and the Indonesian-Singaporean film was even selected as Singapore’s pick for the Foreign Language Oscar.

I was fortunate enough to chat with Yoshi about the role, and the rarity of seeing Asian-American cowboys on the big screen.

Samantha Celentano for Film Inquiry: I really enjoyed the movie. It looks like it was a lot of fun to make. What attracted you to the role?

Yoshi Sudarso: Thanks so much for watching the film! It was a thrill to make. One of the best three months of my life. What initially drew me into the part was how similar the character and story was to me. The character is Indonesian born, goes to America, becomes an American, but even in America he’s foreign. And when he goes back to Indonesia he has to relearn everything, And he’s a foreigner there, too. He has a moment where he doesn’t belong on either side, And he has to push through and realize he belongs in both. That’s something I’ve had to go through as well, and I think that it’s something a lot of third culture kids have to deal with all the time.

Although, The initial draw was that it’s a western, and I get to play an Asian American Cowboy!

I mean, yeah, that was what made me want to watch the movie! I was like Asian American Cowboys in Indonesia? I’ve gotta see this! So, that’s so true about how immigrant children feel like they have to find that identity with one or the other or both. What was the most difficult thing about the role?

Yoshi Sudarso: The most difficult thing about the role was learning the language. I knew as much as a child knew, I hadn’t spoken the language in over 20 years. Growing up in America I shied away from it to focus on learning English, because I would be bullied for not speaking English with the proper accent. There was that stigma that if you had an Asian accent, you were less intelligent or you weren’t as cultured, right? So, I didn’t want that. So, when I got back to Indonesia, I was like, “oh, great, I don’t know how to speak this language at all!” But I thought I did because I heard my parents speak it, but I didn’t have the right intonation, so we had to get a dialect coach.

Wow! Okay, that was going to be my next question, actually. I had assumed you spoke the language at home and that’s why you still knew the language, but, actually you had to relearn it!

Yoshi Sudarso:  Yes! But luckily with a script you can just look at it and focus on those lines. So it helps that I just had to know those words and say those words properly. But when it comes to an interview in Indonesia, I have to speak Indonesian and that’s a little hard for me although I’m learning a lot now.

So you’ve done a lot of stunts work in the past.  I saw that you were in the Power Rangers – so, this is actually pretty cool for me because I was a huge fan when I was a kid! Did you do any of your own stunts in the movie?

Yoshi Sudarso: So, I actually started doing it because I wanted to get into the industry to act. But there wasn’t many roles for Asian men. Even when there were, they weren’t looking for someone like me. I was darker and taller, I didn’t fit their type of Asian. So there weren’t very many roles but if I could be a ninja or I could do those stunts, I could be a stunt guy. But I learned when I was a stuntman that if my actor that I was doubling for said that he could do his own stunts, that meant they didn’t need me and I didn’t get paid.

So I see it from my point of view, if I do my own stunts, not only is it unsafe but someone else doesn’t have a job. I had many doubles on the Power Rangers and I had a great double on the Buffalo Boys. Also if I do my own stunts, and I get hurt, or if I get a scratch on my face I have to go to make up an hour early, and that’s a small thing but if I break my leg then I could be out of a job for 6 months. I don’t know if that answers your question!

You answered my question and more, and I love that! Thank you so much!  And that’s also interesting. We don’t think about the importance of stunt doubles as much, And, something that’s super important right now is how you mentioned that you did not initially fit into Hollywood’s “preference” of Asian man. That’s a big issue right now, so thank you for sharing that.

Yoshi Sudarso: Absolutely! I think it’s changing, one step at a time, and I’m excited to see the change! I know that some people are like, “it’s not enough change!” But, I think change happens slowly and that’s okay.

Film Inquiry would like to thank Yoshi for his time.

Buffalo Boys is now available on VOD in the US, via Samuel Goldwyn Films.