Ezra, a once-famous trumpeter, now struggles to keep his career afloat, performing for scraps at the local small jazz club. After his family is killed in a horrific car crash, Ezra stumbles upon a lighthouse and is mistaken for the keeper by one of the workers. Drawn by the power of the lighthouse, he decides to stay, living as a recluse. Soon, however, he encounters a suicidal visitor, Sam, and finds solace in his presence, gaining the resolve to help the lost souls that stumble upon the lighthouse. As days pass, Ezra meets Hannah, a beautiful, enigmatic teacher who imbues his life with meaning and potential newfound happiness. But Sam, feeling excluded and threatened, becomes unreasonably jealous, leading to an inevitable clash that forces each character to confront their deepest selves, testing the limits of isolation and redemption in Ezra’s secluded new world.
Composed by two-time Grammy Award-winner Walter Afanasieff (Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”) and featuring an all-star cast headlined by Jack Huston and Abbie Cornish, I'M BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT is a reflective, emotional drama that showcases its central lighthouse setting as a multi-layered metaphor around the complexity of life, love and loss.
As the film arrives for its VOD release and exclusive theatrical engagement, Peter Gray spoke with actress Jamie Chung about her pivotal role in Konstantin Khudyakov’s thoughtful film, how she found her way into the character and what it is she loves about acting.
Composed by two-time Grammy Award-winner Walter Afanasieff (Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”) and featuring an all-star cast headlined by Jack Huston and Abbie Cornish, I'M BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT is a reflective, emotional drama that showcases its central lighthouse setting as a multi-layered metaphor around the complexity of life, love and loss.
As the film arrives for its VOD release and exclusive theatrical engagement, Peter Gray spoke with actress Jamie Chung about her pivotal role in Konstantin Khudyakov’s thoughtful film, how she found her way into the character and what it is she loves about acting.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00hello peter how are you hi jamie how are you wonderful i love your collection back there
00:08oh yep collect i'm a physical media person i like holding on to everything i possibly can i mean
00:14you're quite the cinephile that looks like i wish you were i wish my husband was as organized as do
00:18i will say alphabetical order i'm a i'm a are you really yeah the next time you're in la we'll ask
00:28you to with our media class oh i actually did that for a friend i was like i can't not see it and i
00:34i did it all and i was like i just look so much aesthetically pleasing to me
00:38will you marry me
00:41well thank you so much for for taking this out it's so i'm gonna say was it tuesday tuesday morning
00:50for you or you are yes yes when early wednesday morning here so you're gonna have a great day
00:57that's what i will say thank you um what i liked about it like this is i will say like a contained
01:04role but there's like such specificity that specificity to it but like i'm curious to know
01:11what initially drew you to to this film well first of all i knew that abby cornish was attached to this
01:17film already love her and um jack houston was also attached star and they're two very powerful actors
01:24and when i first initially read the script on paper it's i don't know i think maybe it's because i'm
01:31korean i'm like really drawn to like to sad shit excuse my french but do you know what i mean it's
01:39like you know and culturally we call it you know it's there's like there's certain sadness about life
01:45but and all these adversities but you know that's how you that's how you grow right um and literally
01:53whatever whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger such a cliche but i hate i hate myself
01:59for saying that but it's really true you know and i think i think the story the overall story of just
02:06how how one person's grief when if it doesn't kill you like what what pushes you to continue forward
02:17and that's that's what this story oh god why am i tearing up how do you caught me in a weird day
02:24um but no i just thought it was so beautifully written you know and um and you're right it is
02:29contained because it is a very small little indie but and it's so interesting that that it takes place
02:36at this lighthouse and you know all the characters that you meet it's kind of all about like new
02:41beginnings and and kind of finding your or climbing your way out of a hole and and trying to find the
02:48joy in life again and i just found that to be really beautiful so on page it was fantastic but
02:53knowing that jack and abby were attached to this film i knew that they were going to take it to the
02:58next level and their performances are so beautiful um again this is such a shoestring budget i feel like
03:04all the passion projects happen for like hate to talk about money but let's do it like a million
03:09thunder you know what i mean um and that's the only way these kind of films get made so i certainly
03:15want to be a part of it yeah no i'm just going back to the going back to you know the mention of
03:21you know what doesn't kill you makes you stronger like i i i can very much relate to that because a few
03:27years ago yes i was immensely tested with people that i thought were good for me that weren't and
03:34it sort of made me evaluate a lot of things and i sort of went to a really dark place and brought
03:40myself out of it and it is true it's one of those things where you go yeah you look at you look at
03:46your life and you look at what you could leave behind and you sort of think i'm not going to let
03:49these people win and you find you find sort of a strength that you didn't know you had so it
03:55really is it really is very true and it's like things like this that yeah like i i love going
04:01into films not knowing anything and isn't the best i did that with the nora oh my god i don't know
04:09and i was like my husband was like what is it and i was like i don't know he was like i don't like it
04:13i was like i bet you do but like i love that you can like you there's ways to like find yourself
04:19into stories that yeah they don't necessarily have anything to do with what you're going through
04:25but there's an emotionality to it and yeah that's like so i can absolutely relate and again as a
04:30cliche as it is it's like sometimes sometimes cliches are there for a reason so yeah i'm sorry
04:36i went through that i'm sorry i'm glad to hear that you're on the other side of that
04:40thank you you know i know i was re-watching the movie and i was thinking about it and i was like
04:44god it's kind of like um you know what everyone experienced in los angeles recently like
04:49everyone who's lost homes and you know sadly family members but like all the memories you know
04:55everything because your family is your home and then if you actually lose your your physical home
05:00full of memories like yeah sure there's the bright side of like my family is safe but it's still
05:06crushing equally because it's like all the memories that could have been made this is where my baby took
05:12my first you know baby took the first steps and it's just god like rising from the ashes another
05:19cliche um just like you know how do you how do you keep how do you keep moving forward you know
05:27you you take pieces of that grief it never it never fully heals but you try to find um you try to find
05:35the light again you try to find the positives you try to find the little bit of joy that keeps you
05:40going you know i think really the essence of that film is here is that is it's like looking at that
05:46is that kind of like is that part of the approach in making sarah feel as real and as lived in as she
05:53is like you know you've like you're working with a smaller canvas and like lesser lesser screen time
05:58but like she feels like someone that we know like are you sort of bringing that emotionality to her to
06:04make her feel like someone that we automatically unknow before me like a tired mom
06:09yeah who supports a husband that's in the arts and um you know and loving the fact that he still is so
06:20passionate and has a calling in life and you know is so passionate and talented at something but i think
06:27the stark realities of like okay well you know she's also the one having to um think about paying
06:35the bills she's more pragmatic right so although she wants to support her her husband she still needs
06:43to think about all of the basic necessities you know how are we going to get how are we going to
06:48get gas money how are we going to get food on this plate um yeah so it's um it was definitely fun to
06:55play yes and you do bring these personal matters um personal experiences into these characters but it's
07:00it's the constant like push and pull of like god i really do love you and i i love hearing you play and
07:05this is the reason why i fell in love with you and then the part of sarah who's like i just i know
07:10but i'm so worried and it's past her bedtime like how much longer are we gonna have to do this you
07:14know yeah when we off you know she's quite the worrier but at the end of the day she has her family
07:20and she's happy and i think you see a moment of that spoiler alert right before the crash yeah you
07:28know is it is it even if it's like something that's never spoken like did you have a backstory for
07:35sarah to help ground your performance was there something that you particularly brought to her like
07:39article of clothing like or a scent was there something that you created for her
07:43no it was more the walk like you know it's more it's the walk but it's like how she holds herself and
07:49she's it's late she had a full day and now she is you know taking her daughter to go watch
07:56um ezra her husband play and she's just tired but you know and then it's like tomorrow is another
08:03busy day yeah i just tired mom energy
08:06and when it comes to to leading roles versus supporting roles like is there a different
08:13preparation for you like are you and are you learning anything new about yourself as an actor
08:18when it comes to those two those two roles peter you know as an artist there's no small rules
08:26you know this um no and secondly like i think it's really interesting how this industry has changed
08:34you know um i think tech is taking taking away a lot of jobs the strikes and covet have really
08:41it's really slowed things down for us and and it's really quite limited in terms of like what
08:45people are making and you know does it have an ip is it going to go so in relation to that
08:51no like even when forget about like supporting roles or leading roles it's still a person right
08:58even if it's um even it's for for an audition like what i love to do and what i love about
09:02acting is thinking about who this person is what their history is do they have trauma what brings them
09:07joy you know like where where are they in their lives how's the relationship with their mother and
09:11their father you know like oh what is her profession what is it like to be
09:15the only female police officer in the 80s you know uh it's so fun to be able to do this research
09:20and really kind of nitpick of like god how would that make me feel what would i what would i be what
09:24how would i be like if i were in their shoes you know that's the shit that i love yeah i love
09:30breaking it down and and again it's really slowed down for for actors and every actor's going after
09:36the same jobs but the benefit of having a husband and other friends who are actors it's like
09:42okay what are you reading let's break it down together oh wow that's great i totally see you
09:46in that oh but what about this and it's like kind of playing and like really helping each other grow
09:51in these like um imaginative worlds it's like you know it's just fun i just love it is that it doesn't
10:00it doesn't matter whose role it is or if it's a supporting or a main character like i just
10:06in terms of the specificity of the characters is something that i really love yeah would like
10:11would you look at i guess would you say that that that love is what has kept you evolving because
10:18you know you look at your career like studio films indies voice work genre series like you look at the
10:24range like but is it is it always that like that love and like that just chasing them of what you that
10:30keeps you going the love but also like who wants to do the same thing over and over you know um and
10:37it's hard to kind of like i think it's okay to disappear for a little bit because you grow a lot
10:42every day you're growing every day you're changing having a family changes you um everything every little
10:48thing and so it's nice to kind of sometimes step back or try something new or really explore your range
10:56in in in voiceover and take vocal lessons which is freaking terrifying you know or you know going to
11:03more improv and that's also terrifying i mean it's just those are the things that really scare you
11:09are the things that are really going to help evolve you and so um yeah it's been it's been a lot of that but
11:18you know there's just sometimes and life life really is a funny thing um you know you're fighting and
11:26you're clawing at things and then and then something's just popped into your lap and you're like
11:31this is exactly what i needed and there's so much depth and this is something that i really just needed
11:36to get out of my system and pour my energy into and it's yeah it's a craft that will never love you
11:43but it's something that i that keeps me going and i really love yeah no well i mean this i'm the sort of
11:48same like i i love talking about films writing about films yeah i know i mean i could honestly
11:54keep i could keep talking all morning over here but like i know that you've probably got you know
12:00other interviews to get to but i i honestly just want to say it's been such a joy pleasure talking to
12:06you and i also want to say sorority row is incredible i love the movie so much you are so great
12:12in that movie and like this is just you're just so phenomenal and so fantastic to talk to and before
12:18you go what's your favorite michelle pfeiffer film so i can watch it oh for my the one that the one that
12:24i i fell in love with batman returns that was good that was my my one honey iconic fucking whip scene
12:32let's go i was an eight year old and then i also read that you like um jason momoa so what's your favorite
12:37jason momoa film oh maybe jason momo oh you know what like
12:45it's got to be aquaman just because it's the hair it's everything it's just it doesn't i get it
12:54i yeah oh it was so lovely speaking with you you too enjoy the rest of your day thank you so much
13:00cheers thank you very much peter thank you bye bye