Exclusive Interview: Sung Kang Discusses His Directorial Debut ‘Shaky Shivers’, Finding His Calling, and Collaborating with His Cast

Sung Kang is an award-winning storyteller who is best known for the character-driven narratives and roles he’s brought to life in projects including the Fast and Furious franchise, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Power, and Better Luck Tomorrow. This September, the critically-acclaimed artist steps behind the scenes and makes his directorial debut with the must-see horror comedy, Shaky Shivers.

After finding herself bitten by a mysterious animal, Lucy (Brooke Markham) becomes convinced that she will transform into a fearsome werewolf. Joined by her best friend Karen (Vyvy Nguyen), the two embark on a wild adventure filled with magic and mayhem, as they look to do battle with a throat-slashing creature ripped right out of an 80s horror movie.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Sung about Shaky Shivers, making his directorial debut, discovering his calling, and collaborating with his cast.

PC: It was the lack of opportunities that initially sparked your interest in directing and being able to take control of your own destiny. But it’s been a journey to find the right script to make your directorial debut. What was it about Andrew McAllister and Aaron Strongoni’s writing that resonated with you? What does being at the helm of this project mean to you both creatively and professionally?
Sung: Because I’m the product of the Sundance Film Festival, I thought my directorial debut was going to be some dramatic piece. But I was in a place in my life where I was looking for something that could make me laugh.

Aaron has been my writing partner for the past fifteen years. He and Andrew were off to Austin to get some accolades for the script. I asked him, “What are you doing in Austin?” He said, “I wrote this horror comedy. I know that you don’t watch a lot of horror movies currently and this wouldn’t be something that you want to direct, but we wrote it.” I asked, “How did this come about?”

Andrew and Aaron had done this short documentary on Gabe Bartalos, who did all the visual monster effects for our film. Gabe is a living legend. He’s a disciple of Rick Baker. He is a master of his craft and that art form is dying in Hollywood. So they did a documentary about Gabe and that inspired Shaky Shivers to do a homage to these wonderful craftsmen. At the time, Andy’s daughter was eight or nine, and he didn’t want to make a film that would scare the bejesus out of her, but he wanted to show her the practical effects and the art form. So they came up with this wonderful story about these two best friends. Thematically, aside from the monster stuff, the film is about the journey of two friends. It’s a buddy comedy. Their character’s arcs are about being comfortable with who they are and being comfortable in their own skin. If you have that one partner in crime, that’s enough. You don’t have to be the most popular person in town. I love that ethos. That spoke to me. That was my North Star. I thought the monster stuff was cool and it was a funny film, but I love that ethos. That’s what inspired me to go make Shaky Shivers my directorial debut.

I also wanted to explore: is this a fad? I was like, “Is it because of the lack of opportunities as an actor that I need to direct?” I have a lot of friends who started as actors and moved on to directing. They’ve done very well for themselves. I was like, “Is this something that I’m doing out of desperation?” I needed to see if it was my true calling.

Post-production was so unfamiliar to me. As an actor, you get to be part of pre-production for a bit and then the actual production. Post was very foreign. It was a language that I didn’t understand. I needed to understand if I even had the stamina and passion for post-production. Films are made in three parts: the script, production, and then it’s almost redone in post-production. I went through that journey and I realized I came out of it feeling more fulfilled as a director than I have as an actor. I feel like it’s my calling. Shaky Shivers was a great opportunity to put more tools in the tool chest.

PC: You’ve had such an illustrious career in front of the camera. What have you learned from your experiences as an actor that you wanted to make sure you brought to your directorial debut and how you worked with your cast?
Sung: Working with a lot of great directors, the ones that I responded to or connected with, were the ones that trusted the actors. The best advice that I’ve gotten early on from a wonderful director named Walter Hill. He is an icon and living legend and did 48 Hours. He said, “The most important job or skill of a director is to hire people who are better and smarter than you. That’s your job.” Then you let them do their thing.

As an actor, I always appreciated when a director would trust me and they would collaborate with me instead of treating me like a piece of furniture and being like, “This is your mark. Say it this way. I don’t want to hear any improv. I don’t want to hear your input. Just do it.” I felt like that wasn’t the right way to work. I allowed our actors, Brooke and Vyvy, to spread their wings and I depended on them as opposed to saying, “You work underneath me.” I said, “We’re colleagues and collaborators.” Because of our limited resources, I knew that I had to lean on the performances of our leads to lift the words off the paper. Without that, we had no chance because then you would see the limited resources we had.

If you look really closely at the ice cream parlor, there’s no ice cream. You never see ice cream at the shop because we couldn’t afford a refrigerator. I was laughing the whole time with our set director. I was like, “We have no ice cream. This is an ice cream shop.” [laughs] You never see any ice cream until you have to go to the back and grab it. We only had real ice cream on set for one day because the ice cream sundae in the film is also fake. It’s a plastic model.

Without the performances, we had no chance. My experiences as an actor and working with generous and trusting directors taught me to hire two great actors and let them bring these characters to life and do their thing.

To keep up with Sung, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Shaky Shivers is in theaters on 9/21 for one night only. Get your tickets today!