Eva Noblezada & Diane Paragas of 'Yellow Rose' | TX, NC

On October 9, Sony Pictures' Yellow Rose makes it theatrical debut on hundreds of screens across North America. To celebrate, the film's star, Eva Noblezada, and writer/director, Diane Paragas, join Keith on a brand new Southern Fried Asian.

Diane starts off by talking about how growing up in Lubbock, TX informed parts of the film (2:30). She then talks about the process of casting both Eva (4:00) and fellow Broadway legend Lea Salonga (8:00). Eva joins the podcast at 9:35 and explains what it was about the Yellow Rose script that made her want to make it her feature film debut (10:30). Eva then talks about how much her upbringing in North Carolina did and didn't influence her performance (16:00), and Diane speaks to the film's political timeliness given that it was originally shot two years ago (20:00). The director is also adamant that her movie does not fall into the white savior trope despite some early criticisms (29:30) and goes on to explain her determination to tell a fundamentally Filipino American story (33:45). Finally, they share food memories from shooting in Austin, including Eva playing the Miss Saigon card at a Filipino bakery and Diane's revelation of a scene cut from the script involving adobo chicken fried steak (35:00).

Be sure to check out Eva's podcast, The Amarillo Project too!

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Our official theme music is the song "Top Down" by Chops, Timothy Flu, and Mic Barz. Podcast logo by Jef Castro.

Southern Fried Asian is produced by Keith Chow and Jes Vu.