VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘Joy Ride’ Stars Sabrina Wu & Stephanie Hsu On Asian Representation, Embarrassing Film Moments

Sabrina Wu and Stephanie Hsu, who both star in the new film Joy Ride, spoke about the importance of Asian and female representation and their experiences on set in their new exclusive uInterview. 

Wu and Hsu explained the scenes they were more embarrassed to perform on set. Wu detailed how she had to be a part of a K-pop music video in the film where directors continuously asked her to “add more swagger.”

“It was so hard for me to do the K-pop music video,” Wu said. “Like I am sort of an, like most of my life I’m an awkward comic … I was like what swagger? Like where am I gonna find this swagger?”

Hsu shared that personally, she was most embarrassed about the scene where a body double was used to reveal a tattoo that her character, Kat, gets in the film. She was mainly worried what how her mother would react when she saw the movie. 

“When I read the tattoo reveal on the page it was so hilarious and … all of a sudden when we were actually doing it and I was seeing the art being placed on the body, I was like, ‘my mom is going to see this, this is nuts, this is crazy.’”

Hsu also spoke about the importance of Asian representation in the film, as the four main characters are all Asian women. 

“I mean I think the big joy of our film is that it is completely specific, but the intention is just to have a good time and to be completely hilarious and fun and a love letter to this type of raunch com that we all grew up watching, but never got to see ourselves in.”

Wu cracked a joke that she tells frequently about “the sort of whiplash of press.” 

“One funny thing about promoting this movie is like half the time we’re like because, you know, we’re a rated R movie like we want to celebrate women a lot,” Wu said. “So we’re like, ‘yeah hey sluts this is for you!’ Like half the time we’re like, ‘big slut whore’ but also half the time we’re like, ‘representation is so important or like you know we’re raunchy, we’re nasty, we will stop Asian hate.’”

She specifically explained how important it is to her and the Asian community that the leads are all Asian – and are able to have fun.

“This movie is showing the line between like we’re having fun, and we’re being messy. I guess because that is something that is still pretty rare to see with faces like ours, it feels also really important. So it’s sort of both like just a really fun time and that is something that is missing, you know, with people like us and the movies that we make or get to make.”

Hsu pointed out that she feels many people have asked her what the film means, but when white men act in similar films, no one asks them the meaning. 

“I just think that the, you know, the groundbreaking nature of this film is inherent because it’s these four bodies but also what’s ironic is that nobody was asking the cast of The Hangover like what do you think this film means?” Hsu said.

Wu noted that the film demonstrates that there are many more stories to be told by people from differing backgrounds. 

“One cool takeaway is hey, broad comedies are not dead, actually, there’s still so much room for more stories in this like genre and in this style and like we should just fill it in with people of different backgrounds.”

Hsu did not forget to mention her most memorable moment when Wu, “was game to lift my dress up in the train car and pretend to put coke in my butt.” 

She notes that she will “never forget that moment because it was the last day of filming and it wasn’t just a little gag we thought was really funny … it was such a team effort of like us hive minding and understanding the sense of humor in the film.”

Joy Ride is currently screening at movie theaters nationwide.