Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Right One’s Ken Mok

Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated writer, producer, and director Ken Mok is reinventing himself after spending over two decades in the world of unscripted television. Maybe you’ve heard of a little show he helped create called America’s Next Top Model? While it would have been easy for Ken to stay in that lane, he’s not one to be complacent.

This February, he’s writing a new chapter in his career with his feature film directorial debut: The Right One.

We caught up with Ken to chat about The Right One, how he stays creatively fulfilled, and why The Right One is the perfect film this Valentine’s Day.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts and storytelling?
Ken: I’ve done a variety of things in this business, from TV to film, from unscripted to scripted, and feature films as well. One of the through lines in that is how important storytelling is. Even with unscripted shows, you have to approach each show like it’s a narrative story. I never looked at it any differently from a scripted TV series or a movie, because you had to have the same storytelling technique, which is that you have to have characters you care about. You have to have a story arc for them. So, when you’re putting together and producing these shows, you have to think: “What’s the inciting incident for this character? What is the rising action? What is the climax? What is the descending action? What’s the resolution?” Because whether it’s unscripted or scripted, people really have to be emotionally connected to the story, and that is through good storytelling. I’ve always been interested in storytelling, from the very beginning of my career, to now in every aspect of it, and in every phase for the rest of my career.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Ken: Professionally, the person who has had the biggest impact on my career would be Tyra Banks. I’ve been doing a lot of TV shows, but the biggest show that I created was America’s Next Top Model, which is when I got paired up with Tyra. When we met each other, we hit it off right away. That show has been a real blessing for my career and has gone on for twenty-four cycles. There is some talk about bringing the show back now, which I’m sure it will at some point. That show really helped give me the freedom to pursue what I really wanted to do in terms of film.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout the years. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Ken: My career continues to evolve. The thing that I always like to do is reinvent myself every few years. I recently watched The Defiant Ones, the documentary series with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. It was so interesting when Jimmy said, “I like to reinvent myself every few years.” He started out as an engineer, then he became a producer, and now he’s running Apple Music. He likes to change it up every few years.

I feel the same way; every few years, I like to change it up and go in a new direction. If you look at my career, it’s very eclectic. You want to keep yourself creatively challenged, right? After a few years, it tends to become mechanical. It tends to become rote, and when you get into that area, you become complacent, creatively. It’s a dangerous place to go.

I had done unscripted for a while and had a lot of success doing it. But then, after a while, I thought, “What’s going to keep me creatively challenged now?” because it’s becoming rote. I started out in my career really wanting to write and direct features. I said, “Okay, this is the new direction I’m going to go in. This is something that I can get really excited about, I can get really passionate about.” For the last four or five years, that’s what I’ve been focusing on. It reignited my career. It’s gotten me completely re-engaged in the entertainment industry in a way that I wasn’t before. So, I’m so excited about this new phase of my life and directing and writing films now. It’s been a blessing.

The Right One

PC: You’ve got a new film out now. Tell us about The Right One and the inspiration behind it.
Ken: The inspiration for The Right One came from a couple of different places. I’m a big fan of this late English actor named Peter Sellers. He was in the Pink Panther series. What was really brilliant about him was he could play any role or take any part or do any accent. He could play British, or Cockney, or American, or he could play a Southern guy, or an Indian guy. He would be seamless in his performance of these people, but in real life, he didn’t have any sense of who he was; he had no identity. People talked about how he was very psychologically unstable because he was a cipher when he was not playing a role. He only came to life when he was in character.

That really made me think, “What would cause a person to have this weak sense of self-identity?” I kept on thinking, “Well, it probably was some sort of emotional trauma that happened to him. But what kind of emotional trauma would cause a person to have this psychotic break with themselves?” So, as I went down that path and started asking the questions, I came up with the gist of this idea.

What put it over the top was I read an article in the New York Times about this popular social influencer who suddenly quit, and the reason she said she quit was because everything that she was posting online on her Instagram and social media platforms was fake. She couldn’t deal with the pressure of that anymore because she wasn’t being authentic, and she left.

It really started making me think about identity in this culture. Social media is corrupting identity. We’re not presenting real versions of ourselves anymore; we’re presenting these very curated versions. I was talking to my daughter, who is nineteen, and she’s like, “Oh yeah, dad, I have an Instagram, and I have a Finsta account.” I was like, “What is a Finsta account?” She’s like, “That’s our real Instagram account where your friends get to see how you really are. Then your regular Instagram account is what you show the public.” I thought that was very fascinating. When I combined that idea with the idea of Peter Sellers and his identity, it naturally coalesced to help create the story.

PC: This is your full-length directorial debut. Did anything surprise you about the overall process? What was the biggest takeaway for you?
Ken: A couple of things. It was really, really hard to make this transition. I’ve talked to some of my colleagues and some kids in their twenties, and I’m like, “You have an easier time coming straight out of film school or directing/writing a film than I did,” because when I was trying to make the transition, I was coming from the unscripted world. People want to keep you in that box. They don’t know if you can direct. They don’t know if you can write, and frankly, they don’t want to see it. They don’t want you going into that world. Whereas if you’re twenty-three or twenty-four, you’re at USC, you have no baggage. You have nothing tied to you. You have all the advantages in the world because this industry is always looking for the young, fresh piece of talent. You have a clean slate going in.

I had a big obstacle that I had to overcome going from unscripted TV into this new space. It took an awful lot of tenaciousness on my part to even get people to read my material, to get people to believe in it, and then get people to allow me to direct. But luckily, I had worked so hard on the craft of writing, that eventually, I was able to get people to read the screenplays without any prejudice. I got people who really believed in it. They said, “Boy, this is really good. We really need to make this film.” Then, that’s what really got me over the hump. I think it’s the initial push to try to break out of the box that was the hardest part.

PC: With the film coming out now, what do you hope audiences take away after seeing it?
Ken: I’m very proud of this film. I’m really, really happy with the way this film came out because it’s listed in the romantic comedy genre, but it’s a very different take on the genre. Viewers who watch this film will not get what they normally expect out of a romantic comedy—it comes at it from a very different angle. But the great thing about the film is that it’s sweet, very funny, and most importantly, a feel-good film. The timing of the movie couldn’t be better, because after the year that we’ve all gone through and the horror of 2020, everyone is desperate for a feel-good movie.

It’s being released on Valentine’s weekend and is the perfect movie for you to watch with your girlfriend, your wife, your kids, your mom, your dad. It’s one of those films that once you finish watching, you’ll feel a little bit about humanity and the world around us. It’s one of those movies you can watch over and over.

To keep up with Ken, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch The Right One today.