Midori Francis: Rising Star And Relentless Optimist

Hapa Mag - DECEMBER 9, 2020

By Nathan Liu

It’s always somewhat intimidating speaking with a person who’s the same age as you, but far more successful. That’s why I felt nervous when I sat down to speak with Midori Francis, star of Universal’s Good Boys and Netflix’s Dash & Lily. Yet, within a few seconds, all anxiety was swept away as I got to know the thoughtful and immensely talented individual that is Midori Francis. I was already charmed by her work in Dash & Lily, but I gained a true respect for her by the end of our interview, during which she shared her thoughts on identity, representation, and — most importantly — pride in one’s self.

First of all, congratulations on the show. It’s always inspiring to see someone my age shoot to the top in the entertainment industry, and the fact that you’re Hapa makes it even more exciting. How’s it feel, starring in your own series?

Oh, it feels amazing. And I feel super lucky it’s this one, because there’s so much of Lily that I relate to, and could bring to the table. It’s great to play a supporting role and have your contributions, but it’s an entirely different thing to obviously be one of the title characters. There’s just so much to do, so much to work on, and so much to bring to the table. I love to act, and I love to work, so being called everyday is a dream.

What makes you Hapa? Do you identify with this word?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think I found this word later in life. Alex Chester, the founder of Hapa Mag, she’s a friend of mine. I met her a few years back at an Asian American theatre event in New York, and I was introduced to the word, and I didn’t even know it was a thing. So it was kind of like, “Oh wow, cool. There’s a word for people like me.” I don’t think I go around necessarily saying to people “I’m Hapa.” I generally introduce myself as Midori, and then if people ask, “What are you?” I say, “I’m American. My ethnicity is half-Japanese, half-Italian/Irish.” However, I find it to be a very cushy, cute, comfortable term, and, generally, the only people I use it with are other Hapas. Like, when there is a Hapa there, we’re Hapa. But in terms of the outside world, I don’t use it as much.

Where did you grow up? What was it like for you, being Hapa?

I grew up in, I’d say, a 95-97% Caucasian town in New Jersey. I think we’re more Republican than not. And I think I was the only non-white kid in my entire grade of like 200 kids from kindergarten through eighth grade. So, growing up, it was definitely difficult. I was teased a lot for being Asian, I was bullied, made to feel like I was ugly or weird. Those sorts of things. Especially, because, at the time, growing up in the ’90s and early 2000s, the representation for Asian characters — for Hapa characters — was so bad that if you didn’t know a lot of Asian people, that was your only reference point. In turn, people like me struggled on the playground. So yeah, it wasn’t the best.

When and why did you decide to become an actor?

I’ve always liked to play pretend. That was my escape. I didn’t do a lot of sports growing up, but I’d go into the backyard with a bunch of sticks and toys and just imagine stuff. I think I always loved that aspect of getting lost in an imaginary world. I think I wanted to be an actor from the time I was, like, 4. I’m not one of those interesting people who was in dentist school and then dropped out and tried acting. I’m just a cliché of a person who’s always wanted this and dreamed about it. I didn’t start acting professionally until after I graduated from college — BFA from Rutgers — and that’s where I really learned my craft, how to do what I do.

How, if at all, has your identity shaped your career?

So much so. I think part of me wanted to be an actor because that’s what I wanted to do. And I think, for sure, there was this other half, even if, at times, it was subconscious, that knew that there weren’t roles for me, that there wasn’t room for me. And that made it both a passion career and an activist career. I knew that, with every job I got, it would be a big deal for little girls who look like me. So it’s shaped basically every choice I’ve made. I remember when I first started auditioning, I would have to have hard conversations with my agent. Like, “Hey, if this is stereotypical to an unforgiving degree, I can’t do it. If there’s a harsh accent and no humanity, I can’t do it.” I remember when I started in Regional Theatre — I was the first Asian Molly in Peter and the Starcatcher — and I was very aware every time I took a role like that, that I was probably the first person who looked like me playing it. That made me feel a lot of pressure to make sure that I was very good, and also a lot of pride and gratitude that I was coming up at a time when I could get those roles because so many people for so many years couldn’t.

As someone who’s seen a lot of your other work — Good Boys, South Mountain, and Gotham — I was very intrigued by how different a character Lily is for you. She’s very bubbly, somewhat naive, and a hopeless romantic. What about this project and this role appealed to you?

As an actor, your job is to find the multitudes within yourself and everybody else and play off them at different times. There’s a Lily in Good Boys who’s a drug fiend bad girl. There’s someone like that inside me. There’s also a Lily from Dash & Lily who loves Christmas and is excitable and passionate and family-oriented. I was drawn to that part of myself to play Lily. I was definitely, as a kid and in high school, more innocent than my peers. It took me a while to grow up. So there was an immediate empathy. I kind of love the holidays. I go all out for Halloween. I’m filming a movie called Afterlife of the Party right now in South Africa, and everyone knows my house is the Halloween one with all the decorations, and now I’m slowly starting to shift gears into the Thanksgiving/Christmas spirit. I knew that there were some actors going out for that who might have to fake it, and I knew I didn’t.

Something I was impressed by was how accurate the casting is. You and Troy are both half-Japanese, and all the actors playing your Asian family — James Saito, Jennifer Ikeda, Jodi Long — are ethnically Japanese as well. Was that by accident, or was it something you and the show runners were really adamant about? Also, what, in general, are your thoughts on culturally accurate casting? Do you have a strong opinion on it?

That’s a great point that I’ve been bringing up in my interviews, just to let people know how special that is. So Lily is not Asian in the book. For all intents and purposes, both characters are Caucasian. But Joe Tracz, our showrunner, told me he did Be More Chill in New York, and had an Asian actress up on stage in one of his roles, and saw what that meant to a lot of kids who came to the show, and how much that meant to them. So he was inspired to bring some of that to Dash & Lily. He had an idea of “What if Lily’s Asian? What if Lily’s family was Asian?” And you’re totally right. Generally speaking, we’re lucky to get Asian people to play Asian people. That’s obviously changing, very, very recently. But the fact that they took the time — and, yes, it was intentional. Because we all know colorblind casting is a myth. “I don’t see color” is BS. So is anything like that happening without intention. Because the way that our power structures are built — the film industry, the TV industry — if you aren’t intentional about combating racism, about inclusivity, then there will always be problems.

Though our show is not a perfect example of inclusivity on all fronts, in terms of representing a half-Japanese girl, I think it’s pretty groundbreaking. She’s got her grandpa around. She’s got her brother around. There’s a full family of varied personalities and temperaments, and they’re all Japanese. Every Asian actor that they cast to be in my family is of Japanese descent… and it was special. It was special to have that feeling on set. We’ve talked about maybe doing Japanese New Year over at Jennifer’s house, who plays my mom. We got to have all these conversations. And, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting them to go that extra mile, but they did, and I definitely appreciated that.

Netflix has done a great job of highlighting Asian American talent. Always Be My Maybe, To All The Boys, Never Have I Ever, Patriot Act — I genuinely think they’ve done more to put Asian faces in front, and behind, the camera than any Hollywood studio. And in an age where people aren’t going to the movies because of COVID-19, they have more power and reach than ever. How do you think that will change the way movies are made and cast? The old excuse for not hiring Asian actors was, “Well, you don’t have box office appeal.” Do you think Asian faces have been normalized thanks to streamers?

I think that, just as we learned from this past election season of how hard we had to work to keep it in everyone’s attention and mind that this was going to be a close race, I think the same goes for representation. It’s not like, Crazy Rich Asians comes out, is a box-office success, and then it’s all fixed. It has to be a constant, conscious decision to think about these things. Netflix came along in the time of social media. One of the fastest growing Facebook groups is Subtle Asian Traits. I think that what social media, YouTube, and these other things provided was democratization of content. I mean, suddenly you have this Asian kid in Ohio starting a YouTube channel, doing impressions of her aunt, and that’s getting millions of views. Before, when power was so centralized, we didn’t have those opportunities. So I think Netflix is right on that wave of social media, and content coming from all different places. I think that it’s been a big blessing for actors of color and artists of color to get their voices out there, and I do think that Netflix has been a big champion of that, and continues to be. There’s so much more work to be done, on so many levels, but Netflix has certainly been a pioneer of more diverse programming.

Do you have any particular roles you’d like to play, or stories you’d like to tell?

Yeah, I do theatre, and I want to play Juliet in Romeo & Juliet before my youth is up. I feel like it’ll happen, but when it does, I want it to be the right combination of people and place and time. In terms of film and television — the fact that the two Lilies I played [in Good Boys and Dash & Lily] are so different — I would love to keep exploring all different types of characters and people. And I would love to, at some point, play a character who is in a same-sex relationship, because that’s something that I relate to, and feel passionately about. I would love to explore that type of relationship in a very nuanced, non-stereotypical way. I feel like that’s definitely in the cards for me, because, as you know, it’s getting more and more interesting out there in terms of what you can see. And I love Wes Anderson. It would be a dream of mine to work with him as well.

Finally, what advice would you offer Asian or Hapa kids growing up?

Well, first, I just want to add really quickly that I answered one of your questions earlier about being Hapa, and I only said negative things. So I’d also like to add that it was also incredible because all of my family lived in New Jersey growing up. I had my Japanese grandparents on one side of the Garden State Parkway, and my Italian and Irish grandparents a little bit south on the parkway. My parents worked every weekend, so I was constantly switching back and forth between these two places. Oftentimes, both sides of our family would meet up for the holidays, and to see this Japanese immigrant family sharing food with second- and third-generation Italian/Irish working-class people, it was very special. Because they were, and they are, very different. Ultimately, we’ve all come together, and become one family, and I feel enriched. I’m proud that I have so much of the world running through me.

So my advice would be, be proud of who you are born as, because anything less than pride, anything that makes you feel ashamed, that’s just a lie. That’s just a myth. And what’s real is your life, your ability to succeed. It’s your life, and you have every right to show up as yourself. Don’t listen to that feeling of shame or wishing you looked different, because there’s no reason to feel that way. As you get older, meet different types of people, and figure yourself out. Those feelings will get easier, and you’ll start to feel that pride.

*THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED AND CONDENSED FOR CLARITY