James Hong is a legendary actor whose career spans nearly 70 years in Hollywood with nearly 700 titles to his name.
At 94, he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves.
Just last year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and made history as the oldest recipient of the star.
Now he’s in a big movie, “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” which has caught on in an extraordinary way this awards season.
“It popped out of nowhere in a sense of recognition because it seems like a different kind of movie and I didn’t know if people were going to understand it,” he revealed to KTLA 5’s Sam Rubin. “All of a sudden, the audience is praising the movie and we’re getting nominated.”
For the very first time, Hong is up for a Screen Actors Guild Award. The movie is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.
Hong is also excited about the film’s many nominations at this year’s Oscars. He mentioned that this will be the “first time in 70 years” that he’ll be sitting on the first floor of the ceremony.
While it’s been a long time coming, Hong believes he’s a better actor now than he was years ago.
“I’ve devoted all this time to acting and here I am,” he said. “Everything’s happening! I just can’t believe that it took this long. This is the busiest year I’ve ever had.”
When it comes to his professional longevity, Hong chalks it up to one thing.
“I guess it’s the desire to always become an actor. You can’t explain it because I was born in Minnesota and my mom had just come from Taishan, China,” he said. “She and my father didn’t want me to become an actor.”
And he’s not done yet.
He’s starring in a new adventure film called “Patsy Lee & the Keepers of the Five Kingdoms.”
“I’m so happy to work with talented young people. It gives a lot of Asian American actors a role and I do Chinese opera in it, I fight villains,” he explained of the new flick. “It’s sort of like a mix of ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ and ‘The Goonies.'”
The date of the movie’s release has not yet been announced.
