'Always Be My Maybe's' Ali Wong and Randall Park on their romantic comedy
It's a friendship that goes way back: Ali Wong and Randall Park first met at a college party.
Fast forward 15 years or so, and they're now co-starring in one of the most-buzzed about romantic comedies of the year, "Always Be My Maybe." Wong and Park recently stopped by ABC's "Popcorn with Peter Travers" to promote the film and talk about how they came together on screen.
"There was a New Yorker profile written about her," Park said of Wong. "And she kind of casually mentioned, 'Oh you know, Randall and I always talked about doing our version of "When Harry Met Sally."' And that section of the article got picked up by an online publication. And then next thing you knew there was high demand for this script that didn't exist."
That demand prompted the creative duo to get the ball rolling on the project. In the film, the childhood sweethearts grow apart and reconnect as adults only to find their lives are much different -- but there are greater forces that bring them back together with a few special surprises along the way.
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In real life, Wong and Park's paths have crossed professionally over the years. Park stars in the ABC hit comedy series, "Fresh Off the Boat," which will soon to move into its sixth season. Wong was a writer on the show until leaving for a co-starring role on another popular ABC comedy series, "American Housewife."
"I think about that show and I have such fond memories of the first season," Wong told Travers of her writing for "Fresh Off the Boat." "It was the first Asian American family sitcom in 20 years. And it was an enormous amount of pressure on the show. We were making and writing all of these episodes, and there was nothing like that first season -- it was my first time staffing on a show."
Travers pointed out that growing up, neither would have seen themselves reflected on TV and in films.
"I watched all the sitcoms, any popular movie that came out, and there were hardly ever any Asian Americans on screen," Park said. "But it wasn't a problem for me. I easily put myself in their shoes. And it wasn't until I came out into the real world that I realized that, 'Oh, I see myself as the lead of my own movie, but other people don't.' That's when I realized, it is a problem. We should see more of ourselves reflected on screen."
Watch the full interview with Peter Travers Ali Wong and Randall Park in the video above.
