We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Genevieve Shi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Genevieve below.
Hi Genevieve, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Starring alongside Emmy Award winning actor Armand Assante in my feature film debut DON Q – inspired by the spanish novel Don Quixote and directed by Claudio Bellante. It tells a story of longtime Little Italy resident DON Q, feeding off decades of delusion and sets out to reclaim the neighborhood and its fleeting values. My character Li Ming is a Chinese restaurant waitress who has a naive overview of life and is romantically entangled with a vicious Chinese mafia boss. Through a small encounter with Don Q (Armand’s character), she sees the kindness in him and gives him a glimpse of light and purity in this world to pursue.
As most of our auditions are all self tapes now, DON Q was one of the very few projects that I auditioned in person for both initial round and callback. I received the script the night before the audition and prepared as much as I could with the limited time I was given. I did every single scene from the script with Armand reading with me (though I didn’t know who he was at that time) and I was thrilled to have the full freedom to interact with real humans and physically play with different possibilities, which is something I’m not able to experience taping auditions at home.
My favorite scene from the film was in Don Q’s fantasy, him standing in front of Little Italy and Li Ming standing in front of Chinatown, they both calling and playfully begging each other to come dance in their part of town. It brought me to tears reading that scene. I understood deeply the innocence and sincerity buried between these characters and prayed to the Universe – please let me be the one to give life to Li Ming. There was something so magical about “expressing yourself and singing your feelings through your eyes and body language without saying a single word”, and I had a hell lot of fun playing that scene with Armand in the audition and was grateful I got the part a week later!
Beyond the audition process, the whole journey of being on set was such an adventurous journey. After knowing about Armand’s background, I was even more inspired by his kindness and humility, he always made me feel included in the room despite the camera rolling or not. I learned so much as an artist to follow your instinct and as a human to treat everyone equally.
For films, especially independent filmmaking, time is money. Most of the scenes I shot I had only 2 takes to get it right, so the stakes were quite high. The only 2 scenes we experimented with multiple takes was one: a 5-minute long scene with one single shot (no cut in between) moving through different angles involving a full room of characters. Another one was a scene of huge arguments spiraled into a bloody fight. It was vocally and physically exhausting after a while, but we were all striving for excellence so every take I gotta give my full passion and strength.
“Trust” is a huge part of collaboration. Armand trusts that no matter what kind of crazy emotions or bold actions his character throws at my character, me – the artist Genevieve is fully able to take it and respond accordingly with spontaneity. His trust in me encouraged me to do the same for him and everyone else. Same with my director and cinematographer, who allowed me the freedom to make my own character choices and I trusted them to capture the essence of the storytelling.
Besides all that, it was really cool to wear the fiery fantasy red dress, which was custom designed for my character. And I’m also a huge fan of DON Q’s music composed by the wonderful Jeremy Adelman. I’ve been enamored by movie soundtracks ever since I was a little girl, so to be able to exist in a film with such beautiful music was definitely a dream come true!!!
DON Q is available to watch on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a New York based bilingual actress & singer who’s passionate in both musical theater and film acting! My upbringing in Chongqing, China, and lastly in the heart of NYC has led me to bring a vivacious, diversified, and spicy flavor to the stage & screen.
CAREER OVERVIEW:
On screen I created a 17-award winning romantic short film RORY HOME; Starring alongside Emmy Award winning actor and 4 time Golden Globe nominee Armand Assante in my feature film debut DON Q; I worked with Scott Rosenfelt, the producer of HOME ALONE, on the pilot MAIN STREET. My most recent project was ORIGINAL SOUND directed by Gregory Jbara, opposite David Lambert and Laura Marano.
I’ve worked as a Judge for Bergen International Film Festival, NY True Venture Film Festival, Revolution Me Film Festival and NY World Film Festival.
I’ve done commercials for Delta Airlines, SK-II.
On stage I performed on Off-Broadway for shows “Comfort Women”, “Green Card”, “Dream Reunion”; I sang at Carnegie Hall for American Protege Winners Recital, I was invited twice to perform at the Oscar China Night in Beverly Hills and I also self produced my own concert in Upper West Side NY!
BACKGROUND (how I got started and my goals):
I was born and raised in Chongqing, China – a city famous for spicy hotpot and nicknamed “Mountain City” because of its twisted geography. I’ve been artistically affected since I was a little girl. Growing up I loved painting, sketching, playing the piano and later I got into classical singing during high school. I was lucky to have very untraditional Chinese parents who never pressure me in school and they let me choose to do whatever I have interest in. I was surrounded by Disney and Hollywood films. After watching Spiderman saving New York on screen and being deeply touched by his courage, I thought to myself – I wanna live in the city that he saves one day! Eventually I made it to New York all alone for my artist dream, hence begins my journey as an actress & singer in both musical theater and film industry!
I love that acting dives so deep into humanity and what it means to be a human on earth. I love how flawed humans are. It teaches me empathy towards others, to be curious about what forms someone into who they are, what provokes their words and actions. Acting teaches me to embrace who I am as well, as I am the instrument I use to create characters. The deeper I know myself, the more I can utilize myself to serve the storytelling.
My dream is to tell meaningful stories on screen and on stage, to make an impact on the audience, bring them joy or tears, or provoke them to reflect on themselves so they make a little shift in their lives towards the better.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
RORY HOME is a whimsical romantic short film I directed, produced and starred in as the lead. Winning 17 international awards in NY, LA, Chicago, Paris, Singapore and Vienna. Including “Best Actress” in Los Angeles Film Awards, “Best Romance Film” in Oniros Film Awards, “Best First-Time Director” in New York Movie Awards, “Best Editing” in Crown Point International Film Festival.
RORY HOME tells the story of a long distance romance between an imaginative Chinese artist Cecelia and her American boyfriend Rory, explored through 3 major phone calls, as she fights through her loneliness to stay true to her creativity.
The world we live in is full of division, racism, separation, and I wanted to create something that’s light and joyful, something that reminds people the sweetness of love and hope.
I was inspired by the horror film SAW, shooting the entire story in one inner space and I wanted to do the same for RORY HOME. Shout out to my singing student Shanxiao who kindly provided his lovely apartment for my film!
Because we were chasing certain film festival deadlines, RORY HOME was created within an insanely short time – 2 months and 27 days (from the day I discussed ideas with writer Megan Magee till the day we finished post production)! Usually a short film would have at least 3 months in post production alone, so to push this baby out within such a tight timeline was achieving something I never thought could be possible!
Lesson 1 I learned – sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of till you are faced with “I have to”:
Having only worked as an actress before, being a director and film producer was brand new to me. I worked my ass off to earn budget for this film;I reached out to as many people as I could to form my crew members; I interviewed different composers to see which one aligns with my vision the best; I searched Rory out of 300 actors auditioning and learned what casting process is like behind the table; I bought and borrowed tons of props and measured if the colors of each prop would go well with the colors of wardrobe on screen; I juggled between wearing different hats, discussing lighting choices and camera angles with my crew and then when the camera was rolling, jumping right into an emotional scene as my character; I learned to lead a team and make sure everyone is well fed and taken care of on set……
I realized that when you have to make something happen, all cells in your body will come out to help you. You no longer think about if you could make it happen or not (because you basically have no time for doubt), you just do everything you can to make sure it happens.
Lesson 2 I learned – The beauty of commitment is heavenly delicious!
I’ve always considered myself to be hardworking, but the level of commitment I needed to make RORY HOME happen in such a short time was on a level I’ve never experienced before!! I remember the moment when we wrapped the film, everyone was packing their bags and I was just standing there in the room being overwhelmed with tears appreciating everything around me – it was surreal! It made me feel all the struggles and pains that came before me were all worth it and they all led me to where I was. I know we live in a digital saturated world, some people may have never wanted to give their full commitment to one passion or one person. But I truly wish every person on earth could experience the beauty of commitment before they leave this world, it makes life so worth living and fighting for!
Lesson 3 I learned – There’s no wasted knowledge.
I never thought that me loving drawing as a kid would serve me doing graphic design for this film; or me knowing how to play the piano could be useful when it comes to communication with the composer, telling him what specific notes I’d like him to adjust and change; or me creating content on YouTube has lend me editing skills which made it easier to collaborate with editor during post production; or me reading books on human dynamics would one day help me out when it comes to negotiation and leading a team.
There are things you never thought you’d ever encounter again, but at some point in your life, they rise up to help you out when needed. No knowledge or experiences are ever wasted, even the ones you deem as not useful at the time. They are all restored within you waiting to be summoned at the right moment and help you move forward to your next destination!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Learning about who you are and fully embracing who you are, including all your flaws.
Though my parents gave me the freedom to learn arts, 90% of the time I was still being disciplined in the Chinese academic school system, which doesn’t encourage individuality and creativity. My value as a person was decided by how many scores I got from academic exams which I happen to be not good at. I was different from everyone else in school and I always thought something was wrong with me.
I had math teachers who told me I’m not smart enough to make it in the academic world, and also music teachers who told me I was born an introvert therefore I wasn’t meant to be on stage. For years, I bought into their words and felt shattered in my adolescence. What kept me going wasn’t that I had unshakable faith in whatever bright future I could have, but the hunger in me – to sing, to perform, to create – that hunger exceeded what my body could contain so I have to keep pursuing what keeps my heart alive.
After I came to New York, I saw different possibilities. What makes you different makes you YOU and you’re not supposed to be like everyone else. I saw that people with different body shapes and personalities are all celebrated. Acting taught me that all human emotions are valuable, including your pains, your jealousy, your sexuality… the ones you hide from the world, are all gold in the art, it’s what makes us human. And by embracing all of you and sharing it with the audience, you connect with them and make them feel less alone and then we all heal and grow together.
I don’t blame those who brought me down in the past because they didn’t know better, but I had to unlearn what others told me to believe in, and take my power back and discover who I wanna become.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://genevieveshi94.wixsite.com/genevieve-shi/rory-home
- Instagram: @gennichka
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@genevieveshi160
Image Credits
Photographer for RORY HOME Stills: John Robert Hoffman