ROSE & IVY Ally Maki The Big Door Prize and Asian American Girl Club

Ally is wearing a suit by Forte Forte; blouse by Meme Chose; tie is stylist’s own

Congratulations on finishing filming season two of ‘the big door prize’! It’s pretty incredible that the show was renewed so quickly!

We knew we were making something special. We were out in Atlanta and it felt like this magical project that was our very own. It was fun to jump into season two and feel like it was still our thing. I think that’s so rare when you have something that hasn’t been touched by people’s opinions. It is really fun and scary to embark on. Everyone who works on the show is such good people and that’s what is important to me, working with good, humble, and creative people.

When did you know the show was going to be something special?

The first time I knew it was going to be something special was the first time I read the sides for the audition. I remember just reading through the scene, it’s the one where Father Reuben and I dance in the bar. It brought tears to my eyes the first time I read it and that’s pretty rare when that happens. We were right in the middle of the pandemic being over. We had been holed up in our homes and I didn't realize how much I was yearning for community and human interaction again. Everything we did was over Zoom. Even through the Zoom screen—when speaking to our incredible showrunner and creator, David West Read, and the director of the pilot Anu Valia, who is the most empathetic woman of color director—I thought this is the kind of project that I wanted to be part of. It weaves emotion, comedy, depth, and makes people think, especially after something as massive as the pandemic. It changed everyone’s perspective, what are we striving for, why am I hustling so much, what’s it all for?

As I had mentioned to your lovely co-star Djouliet, the show makes you feel happy and good, that’s important these days.

Absolutely and that’s something again that Dave is so adept at, he comes from Schitt’s Creek. It takes place in a small town and you can see yourself in any one of the characters. Each person has the good, bad, the gray areas, and everything in between. I think that’s important, especially for Asian American characters and also being a woman.

your character, Hana, has something mysterious about her, something lies beneath the surface. What struck you most when you read the part?

Definitely her humor. I love that she uses humor as a defense mechanism, it’s something that I have always done. I have two older brothers so growing up it was using sarcasm and humor to defend myself. I related to that side of her but underneath that humor, you do see there is this depth of mystery. There is this longing for people, a deep well of loneliness that even I didn’t know how to process. I talked to Dave a lot about what I should know and what I shouldn’t know. I wanted to experience this character as she was experiencing it and not play the end. It was fun to experience parts of myself through Hana. It felt therapeutic.

I think that story line of loneliness is important. I was just reading how the Surgeon General said there is an epidemic of loneliness in this country coming out of the pandemic. We think we are so connected, but we are pretty fragmented.

She’s new to this town and surrounded by all of these people but still can’t connect. She feels lonely and I think that concept is interesting. It’s something that I experienced in my own life, whether it be social awkwardness or jumping back into these big social gatherings and not knowing how to connect with other people. I feel like it’s something that everyone is dealing with.

Completely agree. Some of my loneliest days were when I first moved to New York. There are millions and millions of people, but it’s hard to find your people.

I was talking to my therapist a few months ago. I said how I felt like I had lost my ability to connect with people, or maybe I never did. Maybe the pandemic made me question it.

Have you learned anything about yourself through playing her?

I think it struck me how much I used humor as a distraction. I always thought I loved sarcasm, it’s how I operate. She made me question, Ally is that your way of being afraid to be vulnerable, it tested that side of me. It made me go deeper and maybe you don’t always have to crack a joke or change the subject. Seeing the way that Hana used it sometimes broke my heart. Again, she wants to connect but then she’d crack a joke to turn it off. It made me analyze the ways that I might do that. She definitely helps me.

Potential is something that’s always a thread on r&i. I think it’s the bed rock to living your dream life. How has it factored into the way you live your life?

I think the idea of potential is so fascinating. I have always been a very shy person. I grew up in the industry, I moved out to LA when I was 14. It’s fascinating to look back and see how capped I thought my potential was. At the time, I thought my potential was so limitless, but looking back, I didn’t understand how capped it was. It all goes back to representation. I could only believe what I saw. By being in LA, I would think how I couldn’t believe the industry would allow me to be here. But now, as representation has widened and we are seeing just how limited it has been for people of color I think it’s grown my own glass ceiling. I love this idea of potential because it can keep raising the glass ceiling for me. I think looking at it through that lens is cool because it could bring something to you that you didn’t even think was possible for yourself. I consider myself a relatively optimistic person. When I was 14-years-old, my potential card would have said, sidekick. Now my potential would say, hero. I would hope that other people who look like me could feel that, too, and that’s progress.

That’s amazing. Talk to me about Asian American girl club! When or how did the idea come to you?

It’s exactly what we are talking about. Crazy Rich Asians was this potential card that got spit out and it was like, this is real, this can happen for your community. It was the first time I saw this explosion of support and we were selling out theaters. At that moment I feel like my ceiling rose ten feet. All I could think about was the strong Asian American women who raised me. My mom was an elementary school teacher my whole life and my grandmother was sent to the Japanese-American incarceration camps when she was a teenager. I was raised by very strong and resilient women. I wanted to find a way to pay homage to that and pay homage to the trailblazers who came before us. But also, most importantly was to unite the women who were right in front of me. I felt for a very long time we were separate and riddled with a scarcity mentality or there wasn’t enough room at the table, I wanted to combat that.

I love how on the site you say: A club shouldn’t feel exclusive. A club should give you an all encompassing feeling of belonging. Of being recognized for who you truly are inside.

For so long, a club to me felt scary and exclusive, like a place I didn’t belong. But when I thought about what the word meant, it’s actually a place for inclusivity. I never had that experience. Growing up in a predominately white area, I felt like I was always the odd one out. I could never find anyone that understood me and had that same depth of identity. I wanted to flip that on its head.

Can you share more about your mission?

I remember looking a while ago on Google for Asian American women and everything that came up Google Image were things that I felt perpetuated these stereotypes of over-sexualization and fetishization. It made me very sad. If you can look up Asian American girls now, you’ll see images of powerful women in AAGC, that’s so exciting. But secondly, we have our online community, book club, and so many great community events. My longtime goal is to start a production company. The last couple of years I have been developing, and pitching, it’s been the ride of my life.

Congratulations! How has it been building something like this?

It hasn’t felt challenging because I have been able to tell my story. I learned a lot over Zoom of just being how to pitch. It’s really about being authentic and telling your story. I have so many stories and it feels very fun. My goal now for the next five to ten years is to be able to create as many opportunities for women in front of the screen and behind the screen as possible.

How is it balancing both AAGC and acting?

It’s been a fun challenge balancing the company and going back to work as an actress. I think a lot of it was the pressure I was putting on myself to be perfect. It’s something I have always struggled with, it’s something I will be forever working on myself. But the more I am able to lean into the community and ask for help–I have gotten so much better at asking for help. Also, it’s about trusting people will love and support you—that’s what AAGC is all about. I always laugh because I am the person who needs it the most.

How can people get involved?

We always say you are already part of the club, you don’t need to ask for permission. Even allies, we love it when people who aren’t Asian American are a part. You can follow up on Instagram and join our community events. We have our Zoom book club, also this thing called the Tea House, which is a virtual work session.

Very cool! Is there anything else coming up that we should know about?

I am excited to take a second to breathe; sometimes I forget to breathe. Shortcomings is coming out August 4th, we will be at Tribeca Film Festival in June. It’s based on a graphic novel written by a Japanese-American writer named Adrian Tomine. He wrote this novel decades ago, it was way before its time, but it really resonated with a lot of Asian Americans. It’s Randall Park’s directorial debut, it’s his favorite book and he has been trying to get this movie made for over ten years. It follows a character named Ben, played by Justin H. Min, and his cynical approach to life. I play his girlfriend Miko, who is this imperfect person who is trying to find herself. My favorite thing about the movie is that each character has a major shortcoming and that’s important to show that Asian Americans can be completely flawed.

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stream ‘the big door prize’ on apple TV+

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A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THIS TEAM AND SHELTER PR

In Conversation With Ally Maki of 'The Big Door Prize' and Asian American Girl Club