CGA Rising Star Grace Chow Interview – Spotlight Report
The Spotlight Report got the chance to talk to CGA Rising Star recipient Grace Chow. The award-winning playwright and actor has been in the hit Australian shows Mystery Road: Origins and The Twelve. Grace spoke to Spotlight about finding out she was one of the recipients of the prestigious award, her upcoming role in US series Good Cop Bad Cop staring Leighton Meester and much more.
Can you tell us about when you found out you were a CGA Rising Star?
I feel very honoured and grateful to be recognised in this way, I was at a writers day and my agent called me and said check your email. It has been very affirming as an artist to receive this kind of feedback because so often you are creating alone, you do create in teams but when you go from gig to gig so much of your practice comes with you in a really solitary way. It’s nice to know that people are watching consistently.
You do many different things in the creative field, writing, acting, producing, and directing. Is there something you gravitate towards to more?
People always ask me this, I always chase what I am really drunken on and interested in at the time. If I get really obsessed with a social issue that I really want to platform then I gravitate towards that and maybe in that moment the best way to advocate for that issue is as a writer. Or, if there is a project that I am really passionate about and my participation is at the capacity as an actor then that is the best way I can contribute to that story. Writing and acting both excite me in equal parts and I really hope one day that that I am known as an actor who is both versatile with a really rigorous writing practice to match.
You are going to be in a US series Good Cop Bad Cop, could you tell us more about working on the series?
It was such a dream, I grew up watching Aquamarine which is a film the show runner wrote. I grew up watching SpongeBob so ofcourse the wonderful Clancy Brown is Mr Krabs in it. I grew up watching Monte Carlo which had Leighton in it, so it was kind of like having my first US romp with some of my childhood heroes which was so fantastic. It was such a joy to rock up to set everyday and it really felt like this is where I am meant to be. It feels like in this industry you get one international gig and suddenly the international market feels very open to you so I am very excited about it.
What was it like working with one of the shows leads Leighton Meester?
Leighton is so fantastic, I still throw her a few texts now and then because she is such a fashion icon. I remember the first day I met her she was wearing this red neck scarf, and later we became really good friends and I asked her about it and she said red is her power colour. So if I wear red I will just text her a little photo of it.
What do you think is the biggest difference between US sets and Australian sets?
I picked up a lot of lingo on the US set of Good Cop Bad Cop. I was recently on a gig and I started using it, thinking that everyone uses it like ‘new deal’. New Deal is a term for when they are setting up new shots, changing the shot or shooting the same scene from a different angle. The AD turned around from the set and said that’s very American of me. They also have the show runner model over there. In Australia we tend to hire different directors for every episode and there isn’t one consistent voice overseeing the entire show on the ground. Whereas in America, the show runner is usually also the head writer, and gets final say on a lot of the creative choices.
Could you tell us about your role in the show Good Cop Bad Cop?
I play a quirky dispatcher in a cop shop, in this tiny town in Washington. She’s really obsessed with gruesome things. So that’s really exciting when you work in a cop shop and get to be on the phone the entire time with people calling in with horrible mishaps and your just so into it.
Could you tell me more about the play you wrote, The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia?
That is a work commissioned by the WA Youth Theatre Company. When I first began writing it my immediate instinct was to dive straight into research, and as part of that research I happened upon the Australian Federal Police database. There are about 800 cases in there and all of them are long term missing people. When you go through that registry, those stories really spoke to me and I happened to start making connections with people that worked in that space. Such as Loren O’Keeffe who is the founder of the Miss Foundation. The show catalogues all of these cases but also takes you through verbatim text and through narrative stories to advocate for missing people in Australia in a way that we don’t usually pop culturally engage with. The reason I went to the WA Youth Theatre Company is that 50% of people that go missing every year are youths, it’s a huge issue, and 80% of people that go missing could have been prevented. We talk about missing persons like its after the fact, when as a community we need to start shifting our thinking about it to be why they go missing because for a lot of cases its preventable.
What film and TV are you watching at the moment?
I’m obsessed with Yellowstone and, I am also obsessed with Abbot Elementary. There is something dark to watch and some fun fairy floss when I want it.
Have you seen any plays recently that you recommend?
I am looking forward to seeing Blue by Thomas Weatherall, it’s coming to WA so I’m very excited to see that. I am really excited by new writing generally, so I can’t wait for next year when the different program seasons start popping out there new works, that will be really exciting for me.
