It may come as a surprise to some of my readers, but I do honestly watch more than just the Hallmark network, and while that network holds a special place in my heart, I noticed some recent buzz about a certain actor who was somewhat unfamiliar to me. That is, until now. Donald Heng has been acting for several years at this point, and his list of credits is solidly impressive. There is an excellent chance that you may have seen him in one of your favorite shows without even realizing it. Because I am one who believes in diversity and delving beyond my comfort zone, I reached out to Don, and he was quite willing to answer a few questions concerning his journey thus far within the world of film and television.
RH: Why did you become an actor and what kind of training have you had?
DH: I’m not sure exactly why I was attracted to acting in the first place, but I do know why I continued to do it. The first attraction to it was a combination of many things. I wanted to be a police officer when I was younger, and I looked up to them in a way that kids looked up to superheroes. I dreamed of the day I would don (no pun intended) the police uniform. I enrolled in my first drama class in high school quite frankly, because it was an easy elective. If I’m being completely honest, I began to love the attention that performances garnered, and it gave me the same satisfaction as playing sports. But being an actor was never a realistic possibility in my mind until years later. So although I often say that I think I was attracted to acting for the wrong reasons, I feel I did fall in love with it for the right ones. The realization of wanting to be an actor coincided with a very traumatic event in my life that involved me giving away my beloved German Shepherd. The teacher I had first studied with, Jeb Beach, was able to take a lot of that sadness and turn it into a performance in class. It was that moment that I realized that I’d found something in life that could effectively take all the negative things that life sometimes brought, and turn it into something good.
Jeb Beach was my first teacher and I still study with him from time to time. I’ve also studied with Matthew Harrison and Robin Nielsen at the Actor’s Foundry, Andrew McIlroy, and Ben Ratner. Accent is also something that I also consistently have to work on, and I work with Tony Alcantar for the standard American accent.
What was your first professional role in the business, and what are your memories of it?
Girl vs. Monster
My first three roles were for a commercial, a video game, and a TV movie respectively. The commercial was for BC Jobs, the video game was voicing various characters in Sleeping Dogs, and the TV movie was for Disney’s Girl vs. Monster. The commercial was a quick and easy shoot actually, but now that you ask, the coolest thing I recollect about that project is that I met a fellow Asian actor in the audition room named Ludi Lin, who performed the role of the Black Ranger in the recent Power Rangers movie. I remember losing my voice after working on Sleeping Dogs because of the amount of lines of dialogue I had to record over the period of six hours. And that was when I realized that everybody should take some voice lessons–hahaha! Girl Vs. Monster was one of the most fun I had working on a project, but my fondest memory was probably how this particular booking alleviated a lot of the concerns that my parents had for me pursuing a career in acting. It was the biggest turning point for my parents becoming fully supportive of my dreams becoming a reality.
You’ve guest-starred on three CW shows: Arrow, Supernatural, and The Flash. What have been your experiences with these respective shows on set? What has the fan interaction been like? Why do you think these shows have such a strong following after all these years.
Fans at comic conventions on these shows are absolutely nuts. Arrow and The Flash have, in the same way that Marvel has been doing with feature films, really taken the time to build their respective characters and worlds before doing crossovers. It has been such a successful way of blending the shows and creating a larger fan base. This is the era of storytelling that is very character-driven, and Arrow has largely been the pioneer of it in its own genre.
The Flash
Working on The Flash was particularly fun because I remember being scared for one of the only times on set. During the sequence where my character’s car gets dismantled by the Flash, the crew hooked me up to what could only be described as a car seat with sparklers underneath while being rigged to a pulley system. The screaming that came with the scene was not difficult to fake.
Supernatural in the same way, has capitalized on taking everyone’s favorite monsters and folklore and put them together in the same universe. Working on that show in particular really showed me why the show has been so successful being that it has been picked up for a fourteenth season. I have never seen two actors have more fun before, during, and after the director has yells action. Jensen {Ackles} and Jared {Padalecki} are arguably one of the most dynamic duos on television and their constant improv-ing led my experience to be one of the most fun on set.
Ghost Wars
You were in two episodes of Ghost Wars. What can you tell us about your role and how that fits in with the show? What did you enjoy most about working on this show?
Ghost Wars with Avan Jogia, Tim Guinee, and Luvia Petersen
Ghost Wars is written in a way where every human perspective in relation to the supernatural is illustrated. For example, there would be a religious explanation to the phenomena, a scientific explanation, a paranormal/psychic perspective, as well as the general population who are mostly in disbelief. I play Deputy Larry Foon, who is a non-believer of paranormal activity. Furthermore, the entire town shuns Roman Mercer (Avan Jogia), believing that he is a delinquent fraud. My relationship with Roman is further strained following the death of my mother, as I further blame Roman for the events leading to the incident. This was the project where I got to put on the police uniform every single day and the significance of this part realizing my childhood dreams was not lost on me.
Ghost Wars with Meatloaf and Zak Santiago
Ghost Wars with Jesse Moss, Tim Guinee, and Avan Jogia
However, the biggest joy I got was working with the cast members on this project. I have been a huge fan of Vincent D’Onofrio’s body of work and the experience of working with him and the conversations I had with him on set were just such a treat every single day. I also enjoyed working with Meatloaf as he brought such an unexpected intensity to his character that was fun to work with. Those are only two of the actors on the show, but production did such a great job bringing in such a talented cast, many of which were Canadian including; Avan Jogia, Kim Coates, Kristin Lehman, and Luvia Petersen.
You have an upcoming feature film, Fatal Visit. Please tell us about your role and the film and what makes this film so unique.
With Sammi Cheng from Fatal Visit
I play Ming, a longtime friend of Ling’s (Sammi Cheng). Ling introduces Ming to her friend Yanny (Charlene Choi) in an attempt to set them up after Yanny experiences a traumatic break-up. It was a unique experience in that it was the first project in which I didn’t speak any English. My character spoke three dialects of Chinese: Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanesee. Although I grew up speaking Mandarin, I hadn’t spoken the language in quite a few years, so it had its own challenging aspects in trying to become familiar with the language again.
with the director of Fatal Visit
This project also holds a special place in my career because my parents were absolutely freaking out to see my involvement in it. I grew up watching Sammi’s movies and my classmates all adored Charlene Choi when she made her name being a part of the duo pop-group Twins. My parents were huge fans of Sammi’s and although they were already fully supportive of my career path, it made me extremely happy to see them both so thrilled when I told them who I’d be working with on this project.
Do you have any other upcoming works?
I was actually just told that I have been shortlisted for another feature film. I’m not sure I am able to share which project it is specifically at the moment, But after seven years in the industry, I’ve learned to not hold my breath. You never really know the reasons why you do and do not get a role and thinking about it somehow always leads to the most negative possibilities.
For the past five years, you have done something special with your high school’s community event. Please tell us about that. Any other community/charity events that you support and/or feel strongly about?
Yes! It’s called Bare Bones Community Theatre and my high school teacher Fred Galloway started it after he retired. He had a passion for helping students pursue their dreams and this was his way of keeping that interest for his students after leaving high school. Performances are held in a small theatre that holds about one hundred people, and I really quite like the intimacy that comes with that size of audience and room. It’s been going on for about five years and I’ve been able to find some challenging scenes to tackle while partaking in the event.
As an Asian in the business, have you experienced any prejudice and/or typecasting?
Not too much actually. I think the reason is that the kind of prejudice that we experience is manifested in the lack of meaningful roles so it is hard to quantify. I do think things are changing and Asians are being afforded great opportunities more frequently. But among my Asian friends who are actors, it has really sorta become a communal accomplishment. I saw that you had interviewed Curtis Lum and he really is one of the most respectful, encouraging fellow actors in my circle of so-called “competition.” But we don’t really view it that way and I think it’s important that we don’t. In representing the Asian community, I really do believe that we only all benefit from the creation of Asian characters and these decisions are inevitably encouraged by strong performances by other Asian actors. So although we are often vying for the same role, I believe we feed off each other’s successes.
I understand you love dogs and you like to be in the kitchen. Can you tell us more about both of those pastimes?
I share an eight-year-old pug named Daisy with my girlfriend, and Daisy was the runt of the litter. She has a sassy personality and she loves vegetables probably more than meat. She attracts so much attention from passersby that it can be annoying to walk her–hahaha! The unfortunate thing is that she doesn’t like other dogs and would rather just keep to herself when we take her to a dog park. It is also unfortunate that she doesn’t get along with my mom’s dog, Simba, a white Pomeranian. Simba is a very different dog and has a very sweet, fun-loving personality. My brother lives with him still and has started to raise chickens and he has grown up around them so he gets along with the chickens very well and they like to follow him around. He is also eight but still acts like a puppy. Dogs are a huge part of my life and I will always have them. It is ironic that dogs are also what led me to fall in love with acting in the first place.
I love cooking. In fact, I think it was my first passion and acting is my second. But acting is where I’ve chosen to build my career; however, I do foresee myself dabbling in the restaurant business in the future. I would love to have a tiny little bistro that offers food that represents my multicultural upbringing. My mom is an amazing cook, but is limited to Asian cuisines. In trying to get her to try different foods, I used to cook one new western dish each week and that is how I learned how to cook. Coupled with my mom’s Asian recipes, I also love baking and personally believe I have some of the best recipes for a cheesecake or carrot cake (two of my favorites) ;).
As a young person in the industry, what is your advice to other aspiring actors?
Only pursue this if you truly love it, because while anyone can do it, it takes true passion to keep pursuing it. The industry is relentless to your feelings and doesn’t even try to let you down easy when it’s breaking your heart. Try not to take it personally, even though I know it’s easier said than done. But if you’ve accepted that you’re pursuing this career because you love it, then it really doesn’t matter what the outcome is.
Two influential people have said it better than I can–Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep. Jim Carrey said that he watched his dad give up his own dreams in order to get a job as an accountant for money security, but eventually his dad lost his job and he realized that you can fail at doing something that you hate, so don’t let fear of failing stop you from doing what you love. But even if you’re doing what you love, life can suck sometimes. To this, Meryl Streep said that part best when she told the world what Carrie Fischer said to her one time, “Take your broken heart, and make it into Art.”
One of the things I appreciate most about actors like Donald is their unconditional candor, and in that respect, this interview certainly did not disappoint. Donald has a profound understanding of his place within this extraordinary world of entertainment, and he regards his position pragmatically, earnestly, and humbly. While relative competitiveness is a necessity if one chooses the career path of acting, his outlook and demeanor are thoroughly accurate. Albeit, his journey to become an actor may have been a bit unorthodox, as I have discovered time and again, there is not one direct path to success, especially in the fickle, unpredictable world of the arts.
As I contemplate Donald’s heartfelt respect for the craft, I am fully impressed with the fact that he continues to give back in spite of the accolades he has attained thus far. He still views every experience as a marvelous opportunity to acquire new skills, and even his outside interests seem to correspond with his somewhat unconventional career path. I am further dazzled by his advice to young people who may be considering a career in this particular field. He could have proffered a standard response saturated with the typical, humdrum advice actors often give, but his counsel was succinct, straightforward, and monumentally personal.
I would invite everyone to check out all of Donald’s links below and consider following him on social media where applicable. Additionally, if you are so inclined, many of his shows are available on demand and various streaming services, and I would recommend watching his works that are of interest to you. While Donald may not have ascertained the notoriety that many equate with a career in movie and TV, in my unpretentious opinion, if young actors are searching for an appropriate role model/mentor in the business, I would suggest they look no further than Donald Heng. His sagacious advice and commonsensical experience is something that can undoubtedly stimulate and encourage others just entering this frenzied world. Moreover, I can only wish Donald even more success as his artistic star is steadily propelled higher towards the upper stratosphere of the entertainment universe. He is most deserving of all the commendations that can be sent his way, and as long as he remains true to himself, I tend to think he will be virtually unstoppable!
FOLLOW DONALD
