Discussions In Diaspora And Film: In Conversation With Stéphane Ly-Cuong And Clotilde Chevalier
- Zarah Hashim
- 4 minutes ago
- 10 min read
Stéphane Ly-Cuong is an inspiration to fellow aspiring artists, as his journey to fame was founded after he turned 40 years of age. He never gave up on his dreams of being a director and film maker and produced one of the most authentic, funny and poignant pieces of cinema I have witnessed in the last few years. His care for the story is reflected in his mastery of craft, and in this interview it becomes prevalent that this film is more than just his first feature: it is him being vulnerable with the world about experiences so unique, you cannot begin to understand. As part of the Vietnamese diaspora, Ly-Cuong raises awareness of the intricacies which live alongside this identity. He allows them to exist in his film in a way which critiques but also humours, and that duality is what makes this absolute quality cinema.
Director Stéphane Ly-Cuong and actress turned chef, Clotilde Chevalier, sat down with us to discuss their film Dans la Cuisine des Nguyen. The pair are on their press tour, visiting various countries as the film premieres and emerges onto the big screen. I was graciously invited to the London screening at Institut Français’s Ciné Lumière. The screening also included an afterword Q&A, which allowed us as the audience to discuss the film with the mastermind himself.
You explain that this is a Vietnamese diasporic story, what would be your message to the Vietnamese diaspora?
Stéphane: I would say embrace all the aspects of your identity. That's what makes you rich and it's a strength, not a weakness and be proud of who you are.
Fu Fen and Yvonne are polar opposites. Who do you see yourself as/ are you more Yvonne or Fu Fen? Can you be both, even?
Stéphane: I would say I'm more Yvonne, but I understand Fu Fen. At some point in my career and life I could have been like Fu Fen, if I really needed to. Sometimes you are really desperate for work or recognition and you would be ready to accept just about anything because for once you are seen. At some point it did happen to me; I was developing my film with another producer at the beginning and they expected me to do something much more commercial, like a big comedy. And when I was working with them I felt like I was losing my heart and soul, that is when I understood that I needed to follow what I wanted to do. So yes, I could have been Fu Fen, but I'm really Yvonne and I prefer to work with people I love and do the things I love like telling stories I want to tell.
What about you, Clotilde?
Clotilde: I'm team Yvonne, of course! I met Yvonne a few years ago in Lemon Twister the Musical and actually, this character changed my own life. The show was about origin and roots not a mother and daughter relationship like the film, but it was a real echo for me. I think Yvonne put something in me and I put something in Yvonne. However, I understand Fu Fen too. I even met someone like her in real life, but I don't think I'm stronger than Yvonne to continue to make an effort to be there because I myself gave up and chose another career. But I am glad to see a character like her.
I commented on how I didn't see Fu Fen as a “bad guy” and that I did in fact like her character, to which Stéphane replied: "I think I like her too. No, she's not the bad guy, but she could have been. When you first see her you say “oh, she's the bad one” but she is more complex than that. She helps Yvonne, she has an alternate view of her heritage, and she has a better relationship with her parents. So, she has worked on parts of herself but she also hasn't on others but she's not the bad one, she has both good and bad sides, like everybody else.” Clotilde then responded as well and said: “ Sometimes she's a mean girl but it's a small part of her personality. Fu Fen is ready to help and be part of the community which is a big thing in their profession.”
We further discussed Fu Fen and Yvonne's dynamic and Stéphane mentions how he wanted to (Stéphane:) “have a “sisterhood", not an obvious one however, because Fu Fen annoys Yvonne (and vice versa), but like friends or sisters sometimes. What I wanted to show, we see it when Yvonne says “congratulations, Lotus Flower” and Fu Fen replies “thank you, Yvonne Nguyen” is that Fu Fen sort of admires what Yvonne did, but she's also happy that she's going to get the part. So yeah, there is a sort of bond which will be challenged at some point but they also might help each other out at some point too. They both come from the same place, born of immigrant parents so they know what it is to be an Asian performer in France.”
I was wondering about Yvonne and her evolution throughout the film. Would you say that process was natural or do you think there were factors/people which influenced that and do you think in real life that could have happened organically or with influence from your surroundings?
Stéphane: I think it's many things. It’s things from the outside, people from the outside and situations too. All these things need to be processed and It's difficult to say, “yeah it happened because of this or because of that”. It's a long process and here we only have one hour and thirty-nine minutes. It took me many years to accept my heritage and be proud of it. When I was younger, it's not that I denied my heritage but I was just not interested in it. And little by little, I thought, well if I'm like this, it's because my parents are Vietnamese and it's interesting. And if I'm interested in fairy tales, it's also part of my Vietnamese heritage. It's similar to what George says to Yvonne, “well, what you were doing as a kid, all these Vietnamese shows for the community, maybe it helped you wanting to be an actress.” So, for me, it took time with many, many, many little steps to start to really embrace the richness of my identity.
Would you say you both had a similar journey like Yvonne’s?
Stéphane: Yes absolutely. In the beginning I was ready to just say yes to anyone who said "I'm going to make a film with you, but you have to change xyz. Yeah, yeah, yeah, anything you want.” and then I realised no, in fact I do not want to do this. I want to make my own stuff and it's hard to say this because as a minority in France, who doesn't come from a family in the arts, you always feel like an intruder and people can make you feel like that intruder. So you have to fight even more to have your spot. So in the beginning I was a yes man but then I started saying no, I will only say yes if I can do my own stories with my own vision. This film mostly reflects my journey as you have to stand up for yourself and you have to be proud of who you are and accept, embrace, and love where you come from and all the things which your heritage and family have given to you. Of course you're French, but you're also French-Vietnamese and you have this heritage and it's part of you and you cannot deny it so just use it!
Clotilde, I had a question for you about Yvonne and yourself. In the Q&A, you said that you don't speak Vietnamese, so how did you feel hearing ‘Ma’ say all those things to Yvonne about not speaking the language as someone who doesn't themselves?
Clotilde: I'm not familiar with Vietnamese but I have heard Stéphane speak in Vietnamese many times. I actually decided to learn lines in bulk to know the rhythm of it. I didn't understand exactly but I remembered the French translations to help myself. It was a hard exercise, a weird one too but every time I had a line with music, I knew “okay, she thinks this, she wants that etc.” An (the actress who plays ‘Ma’) is a really good actress and a very kind person. So it became easier for me to understand what she wanted to say. This made it easier for me during recordings but Vietnamese is really hard! In the main auditioning scene I had to record Stéphane and have him in my ears every night. It was a really big challenge because it's very important for the character to have the same difficulties, but to also speak at least some Vietnamese. So I was really glad to have done that in one shot. But yes, it was really challenging but I think it's really important for the character.
As we discussed the dry humour within white ignorance, Stéphane began speaking about how the audition scene came about. Stéphane: “I had written this scene before these situations had happened to me so when they did happen to me, I thought “well, I’m living the life of Yvonne now.” I had written these scenes as a work of fiction yet I'm now living them in reality.”
You mentioned in the Q&A that this didn't start out as a comedy. So how did it get to that point and what did it look like originally? How did you get to the point where you were like, "I want this to be a comedy?”
Stéphane: It was a long process. When I started to think about this project I was in film school in Paris and was already 40 years old. And this school is a prestigious one so I was thinking that I'd have to do something serious, like an art-house movie with not much dialogue and very little humour etc. But no one told me that. I was saying that to myself because I was thinking about what people were expecting of me but I realised that was stupid. And then I worked with my first production company and they wanted something very funny, constant jokes, jokes jokes, all the time. Some friends who knew the first version said we lost all the emotion and the relationship between mother and daughter and that was when I said “actually I like the emotion, I like comedy” and my style is a mix of the two so now I’m going to do what I want. However, it took time for me to accept this.
What was the inspiration behind wanting to be a film maker?
Stéphane: I studied film right after high school. I did a couple of short films and at some point after my second short film I thought I would do my first feature but it didn't happen. I don't think I was with the right people at the time and I also don't think I myself was ready but I didn't know it nor want to admit it. That's when I went into the musical theatre as I was already working as a musical theatre journalist. It is something that I enjoyed and for almost 10 years, I was doing shows just like Koko, in very small spaces with very small box office money. After a while I thought about how my first dream is to make films so I have to get back to this goal even though I was already around 39 years old at the time. That's when I joined the film school in Paris. Despite being older, I knew I needed to do this. I stopped theatre and journalism and concentrated on film. So, in fact, I came back to what I really wanted to do.
Who was the film made for? Who is its audience?
Stéphane: I want to make films for the widest audience possible but you cannot write and make a film saying "I want to please everyone” because it is not possible. So my way of making things is to be the most sincere, authentic and genuine and do things that are very personal and specific, and then we will see if it works with which kind of audience. Of course I want vietnamese diaspora’s to see and enjoy it but I also want musical fans to like it but also aspiring artists etc. its very diverse and working with a specific or even a wide audience in mind, just doesn’t work. You must tell your story first, concentrate on it and on how you want to tell it, not on trying to please everybody.
With the mother/daughter dynamic so central to the plot, would you say that any biographical aspects like your sisters and your mum, or perhaps things you'd seen and people’s stories that you had heard influenced this storyline?
Stéphane: Both. As I said, I have five big sisters, with strong personalities, just like my mum and sometimes I like to observe their dynamics. It's very interesting to see how each of them deal differently with my mother, and also with their heritage. So it does have its inspiration but sometimes I'm also inspired by others like friends, not necessarily from the Vietnamese diaspora but could be from another diaspora. I also take inspiration from my own life. Yvonne is a woman but im a man but i like to work on female main characters because i feel more freedom to incorporate personal things. I feel less inclined to censor myself because its a female character and I can do whatever I want. So yes, it's a mix of personal, biographical and external experiences I heard.
Clotilde, you said you took an acting break to pursue being a chef. How did it feel coming back into the space of being an actress again and being part of such a big production?
Clotilde: Being with Stéphane and with his team it was like being with a family. Every member of the team and cast chose to be in this project because they enjoyed the story and they respected and liked Stéphane. Yes, it was hard for me to leave my restaurant and my team for a few months and to also learn to roller skate and the dance routines! It was hard to combine both during the summer as I didn't live in Paris and therefore I had to move to Paris for two months for the project. So it was just a big bubble! And a magical one, of course. I told myself “okay, im here. It's okay if I don't sleep enough, I just want to be here. I'm so excited! Two hours of sleep, no problem. I want to be on set and live this magical adventure.” so actually it was easy. It was a lot of work but it was a pleasure to do.
Do you think that this has inspired you to come back to acting? Or do you think being a chef is more up your alley for now?
Clotilde: When I changed my career, I forgot how much I really liked, loved even, the artist’s life. During the recording I realised I was so happy to do this and be this character. But today, it's really hard for me to give up my career as the head chef at the restaurant because I have a team, a boss and I have built a lot of stuff for myself in La Rochelle. However, I think I'm staying open to opportunities presented to me by Stéphane or another person with a nice idea or story. Maybe I could continue this journey.
Dans la Cuisines des Nguyen had its UK release on the 29th of August.
Read our review of the film here.
Edited by Hannah Tang, Co-Editor of Film & TV
