Interview: Who IS Tony Giroux?

MIXED ASIAN MEDIA - JUNE 9, 2021

By Bri Ng Schwartz

The past two years haven’t stopped Tony Giroux, a French/Chinese actor based in Vancouver. Not only has he continued playing the role of Adil in Motherland: Fort Salem, but he is also the leading man of A Sugar & Spice Holiday, the first Lifetime Christmas movie to center an Asian American cast, director, and writer. Tony has used his multicultural identity to inform his roles in inspiring ways. 

Who is Tony? Both who we see onscreen and offscreen.

That’s a big question, who IS Tony?

In a nutshell, I was born and raised in France. French dad from France and a Chinese mother. My dad was traveling in North America, hitchhiking across Canada, until he got to Vancouver, where my mom was born and raised. My Grandparents are from China and immigrated to Vancouver in the 50s.

My dad ended up staying for six months, and then my mom moved to France. I grew up in a pretty small city in France, Grenoble, in the alps. In my teens I moved to Canada, and that was a big shift of culture.

How so? 

Everything I knew was gone. Everything I related to. Here I was living with my Chinese grandparents, where there were so many cultural barriers. I was in this new country that felt like a movie. I watched American movies, so I got here in high school and thought, “Oh, there are the cheerleaders, the big lockers, the jocks.” It was wild.

When I went back to France two years later, I wasn’t French to them anymore. “You’re the Canadian guy. You sound different too.” Out here people ask, “Do you feel more French, Canadian, or Chinese?” At first I was like, “I’m French, then Chinese, and then Canada is just the country I live in,” but  throughout all of the years, it’s been about reconciling each part of that within me. Of being mixed race. 

Sorry, I took it right to the “being mixed race part.”

No, this is great! 

Outside of all that… who is Tony? I love belting. Like, bad belting in the car.

What is your favorite song to belt in the car?

Just yesterday I was on a long drive and listening to Chris Stapleton.

Name a song!

“Tennessee Whiskey”. He’s kind of like blues/country. I’m usually more hip hop, R&B, Motown. I love belting Motown! Some Little Richard. Even some Marvin Gaye.

You talked about the compartmentalizing that happened, but how did that show up in your everyday life growing up mixed Asian? 

Growing up it’s like, “Oh, my dad is French. My mom’s Chinese.” All of the other parents where I was were mostly Caucasian. You don’t think about it too much... and then everyone calls you the Chinese kid. Because I was the only ethnic one. It wasn’t until my teens kicked in that those questions started popping up. Especially when I moved here. “Well, what are you?” And I started asking myself, “Well, what does that mean?” What am I?

Internally, the challenge for myself was understanding that I'm not half, but that I'm two cultures. In a lot of ways I think it taught me a lot to embrace and celebrate difference.

The French and Chinese, they are so different. Even just the etiquette of how you eat at the table. In France it’s a little more proper. At dinner time with family you set the table nicely and sit around the table. With my Chinese grandparents, you come, and my grandpa is burping at the table. You slurp your bowl of rice or soup. It taught me so much.

Tell me what’s unique about your role in Motherland: Fort Salem compared to other roles you’ve played in the past.

He has superpowers, which is pretty cool! In a lot of ways, Adil himself is a refugee who doesn’t have a home. He comes into Fort Salem for medicine and to look out for his sister, then gets caught into this bundle of “my home is no more, my tribe is gone. I have to learn to live here,” and that’s an aspect that is pretty unique to this character. I feel like a lot of his struggle is something that I've faced myself. Immigrating.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be? 

I always thought the Torch from Fantastic Four was awesome. He can create fire and fly! I always thought that was the coolest thing. I dreamed a lot about having superpowers. I’ve dreamt so many times that I was Spiderman.

I’m going to ask you about one of my guilty pleasures, the Lifetime movie you were in, A Sugar & Spice Holiday. Correct me if i’m wrong, but this is the first Lifetime movie to feature an Asian American couple at the forefront, right?

Yeah! I felt a lot of pressure. We started doing press for it and really realized the importance of what it represented.

And you got to work with Tzi Ma, who is known as “everyone’s Asian dad!” What was that like?

I know him from Rush Hour when I was a kid. We were at our trailers, and I'm thought, “How the hell am I going to work today? I’m not going to be able to focus.” We start making small talk. He’s super chill, super nice. I finally said:

“Tzi, I just gotta say something real quick. I’ve been a fan for a long time. You were incredible in The Farewell and it’s such an honor to be on set with you, and I look forward to sharing some scenes.”

He said, “I’m so excited. I’m always looking forward to getting to work with new talent and seeing what they bring.”

What would you say your favorite role has been to date and why?

I’d probably say Sugar & Spice. Being the lead, you have so much creative input. I really felt like I was part of the conversation. There was so much conversation around how to represent Asian culture properly with an Asian centered cast. The director was Asian, and the writer was mixed race as well. I even got to bring being mixed race to the character, Billy.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

Some happiness! Some joy!

We’re waiting to see about Motherland Season 3, but I’ve developed a documentary. I’m very excited to promote that. It promotes diversity. It talks about respecting one another through the politics of our first names; the anglicising of someone's identity. Like how people of Asian descent have a name and then in English they call someone “Jane.” Is that repressing culture in a way?

It’s been really exciting.

We’ll have to catch up with you again once that’s out! 

Sure!