Randall Park Talks Centering “Complex, Flawed” Asian American Characters in “Shortcomings”

Randall Park can see himself in “Shortcomings.” The movie — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and hit theaters Aug. 4 — features an array of complex characters, many of them caught up in varying levels of chaos and creative frustration. And in plenty occasions, Park has been there, too.

“In certain times of my life, I’ve definitely been like each of these characters,” Park tells POPSUGAR. “Even in a lot of the smaller characters, I see myself. I’m thinking right now of Ramon, the organizer of the Asian American Film Festival at the beginning, I definitely could see that guy in me.”

“Shortcomings” indeed begins at a film festival, and its first frames are a clip from an exuberant romantic comedy. But the moment the movie-within-a-movie ends, the tone shifts. As he exits the theater, the film’s protagonist, Ben (Justin H. Min), eviscerates the clip, denouncing it as a “garish mainstream rom-com that glorifies the capitalistic fantasy of vindication through wealth and materialism.”

It’s the first of many gripes expressed by a character that Park says he relates to most of all. “I think particularly, with the main character, Ben, there were elements of him I could relate to, especially when I was younger and during a time in my life when I was a little less enlightened,” he laughs. Ben is a struggling yet impossibly pretentious filmmaker who spends most of the movie trying to find his way, while finding issues with everything, be it rom-coms or his frustrated girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki). He’s a distinctly unlikeable and obnoxious person whose personality seems to contrast the amicable and friendly Park. And yet Park’s life story suggests that there was also a time in his life when he may have been a frustrated creative, judging everything around him and yet unable to find his own success.

At 30, Park was a graphic designer living with his parents when suddenly, he found himself jobless and going through a breakup. But the gaps created by those endings created space for him to pursue a career in acting. “It was a very slow process to even get to a point where I could make a living off of it,” he says. “It was very tough. And there were a lot of times when I doubted myself and I thought maybe my parents were right. Maybe this isn’t the right path for me. But I just kind of kept at it and slowly built a career.”

That’s an understatement, as Park quickly became a star with his role as Louis Huang on ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat.” Stints on “The Office,” “Veep,” and “WandaVision” followed, as well as a co-writing gig with Ali Wong for Netflix’s rom-com “Always Be My Maybe,” among other projects. But with “Shortcomings,” Park stepped into the director’s chair for the first time. It’s clear that his career, in some ways, has been building up to this. “I learned a lot about myself by directing,” he says. “It’s definitely something I want to keep doing.” Park realized he actually loves being “captain of the ship” through working with a great cast and people like costume designer Ava Yuriko Hama, whose work, he says, also helped the characters “feel so real.”

Park’s decision to adapt “Shortcomings” was a long time coming. He first discovered Adrian Tomine’s comic book back when he was still a struggling actor, and remembers “just being taken aback by how real it felt to me,” he says. “I was around the same age as the characters, doing the same things, just hanging out in diners with my friends and talking about our lives. It just felt so authentic. And that feeling kind of stayed.”