Justin Chon One Of the Top 10 Most Influential Korean-Americans

Justin Chon (aka Eric Yorkie), has been placed on the top ten most influential Korean-Americans list by the Korean Beacon.

According to KB, “Justin Chon was one of the most searched people on our website and the two interviews we conducted with him had some of the highest traffic this past year.”

Chon, who portrays “Eric Yorkie” in the Twilight series, has had a fun career to watch unfold over the past few years. He’s taken on really serious films like Crossing Over, but he’s also had some fun with acting with films like Hack! Additionally, he went viral with a short (but very, very well done) film entitled Turbo recently.

KB notes quite accurately that Chon is “very appreciative of the Twilight fame but his ambition is to work harder and to challenge himself with bigger roles.  Justin had a great year in 2009 and we know you’ll see more of him in 2010 and beyond.”

SOURCE

Justin Chon Talks With Hollywood Crush About Writing a Screenplay

Justin Chon talked with Hollywood Crush about looking for a really good role to play and he decided to write it himself. Check it out -

“It’s up to us to make something; we’ve decided that we want a movie that doesn’t [focus on our race]…that being Asian-American is just circumstantial and it doesn’t have to be the main focus point of the movie,” explained Justin, who along with another Asian-American actor is currently writing a script that they hope will explode in a similar fashion. “[Things we get offered] are like, ‘Oh, I’m Asian, how do I deal with that?’ Like “My mother, she’s like a nagging Chinese woman!’ That’s not interesting anymore, you know?”

Instead, Justin and “Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” actor Leonardo Nam are hard at work on a film that won’t go down those same tired paths. “I’m actually writing something with my friend, Leo Nam…he was in the third ‘Fast and Furious,’” Justin revealed. “He’s a great actor; we’re writing a script right now.”

“What we’re writing is about a road trip down to Argentina, with three kids that grew up in Huntington; it’s a really cool story,” he explained, saying it’s part comedy, part drama. “There’s a little bit of everything. It’s like ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ meets ‘Lords of Dogtown.’”

“It’s a working title, but I think it’s called ‘The Glass-Off Memoirs’,” revealed the actor, whose short-film “Turbo” hit the web recently, and will return in both “Twilight” sequels as fan fave Eric Yorkie. “It’s called a ‘Glass-Off’ when you surf, towards the end [of the day], when the wind dies down and the sun goes down, and everything starts to calm down and the water becomes real glassy. That’s what you call a ‘Glass-Off.’ And then, this is kind of like a memoir.”

Read more here!

Justin Chon at Pusan Film Festival

Justin Chon (aka Eric Yorkie) attended the Pusan Film Festival and could only find one picture of himself.

He tweeted the above picture saying ‘ why did the pusan film festival invite me if they make it seem like i wasnt even there.only photo i scrounged.post it everywhere!!’ POST IT EVERYWHERE!!!! I WANT TO STICK IT TO THEM FOR BEING MEAN!!!

New Interview With Edi, Gil, and Justin from the Twilight Examiner

The Twilight Examiner brings us an exclusive interview from the Fantasy TwiLife event in Orlando this last weekend with Edi Gathegi (Laurent), Gil Birmingham (Billy Black) and Justin Chon (Eric Yorkie).

Q: With New Moon, you guys are doing promotionals that seem to be ten times more than with Twilight .. So how does it feel that this time around you guys as individuals are so much more important with the fans for the promotional aspects. So, how is that for you? Is it exciting, is it trying, or is it a part of you at this point …
Edi: I’d say it’s become a part of the job description now.
Justin: Yeah … but you know, you don’t really think about it too much. You just do it kind of … They ask you do to something and you just do it… It’s not that big of a deal.
Edi: Our whole lives are like you have an appointment on Thursday at two o’clock, you have an audition at x time, and you have press on this day …
Justin: Yeah …
Edi: And I think you just build it into the schedule of what you do.
Justin: Yeah, you don’t think about it.
Edi: But I don’t really feel like I’m doing more than with Twilight, I feel like I was really busy for Twilight.
Q: Really?
Edi: Yeah, and I think it’s because it just hasn’t started up yet, but from now on, we’re going to have a lot of press I think…
Q: And what kind of motivates you guys to do the conventions as opposed to some of your other colleagues who don’t choose to?
Justin: Um, I think it’s fun, and you get to go somewhere that maybe you haven’t been before. I mean, I haven’t been to Orlando in so long, and I’ve gotten to go to Europe twice. That’s pretty awesome … and meet people who actually want to talk to you.
Edi: You’re like loved as soon as you walk in the door.
Justin: That’s a good feeling.
Gil: Oh, I just love the fans. The fans are the best part of it. Just to have interaction and hear their stories and how involved they are with the series. There’s some fabulous stories I’ve heard and I’m completely touched by it. And from that way, it makes things all really worthwhile.
Q: In the books, some of the character ethnicity was a little bit undefined, so how has it been to approach portraying these characters with a diverse cast?
Justin: … the obvious one is ‘I didn’t know Eric was Asian.’
Edi: Do they say ‘I didn’t know he was Asian’ or do they say ‘he’s not Asian?’
Justin: ‘I didn’t know he was Asian’ or ‘When did Yorkie become an Asian last name?’ But I think those both are good things to worry about. You know? … being Asian, that’s cool too because it brings awareness that we need a cast that’s more diverse. And so I think it’s a good thing that people are talking about it.
Q: With the new cast, who’s obviously not here, how has it been to help them immerse themselves into this world you’ve been a part of since the beginning?
Justin: They’re doing fine.
Q: [To Gil] How’s it been for you, though, introducing them? Has anyone been like ‘you’re the Godfather’?
Edi: Yeah [Laughs]!
Gil: [In an ominous voice] Yeah, I’m the Godfather. [Laughs] I love it, though, because it’s like my whole family just got expanded, and in this particular place they’re just a bunch of puppy dogs anyways. You know, fighting, chomping at the bit, and they had a lot of personality and part of a perspective of the Native traditional roots that brought that whole legend to it.
Q: And now you have Boo Boo and Julia … I understand you’ve already worked with them?
Gil: Yeah. We’ve got Leah and Alex Rice, yeah, I’ve known most of them for years, and every time they cast somebody it’s just, it’s perfect. Their personalities are perfect for the characters. It’s great.
Q: [To Justin] And Anna [Kendrick] had an interview recently where she said that the humans were kind of expanded in New Moon and beyond. Can you give an example of that by chance?
Justin: I’m just grateful that they’ve included us at all because at the end of the day, it’s a movie about a love story and werewolves and vampires, but yeah it’s cool to see that they want to have more of a dynamic. It can’t be too moody the whole time, so we’re there to kind of bring levity to the whole thing …
Edi: This guy’s got such a brilliant moment in the movie that I won’t give away …
Justin: [laughs]
Edi: … but it’s like one of my favorite parts of the whole movie though.
Q: So, the comic relief?
Edi: It’s so good though … No such thing as small roles, only small people.
Q: Okay, so favorite scene in New Moon?
Edi: The meadow scene …
Justin: The meadow scene … [laughs]
Gil: The meadow scene …
Edi: Yeah! Bring Laurent back!
[All laugh]