Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheng-Hsien (Bin Bin) Kuo.
Hi Cheng-Hsien (Bin Bin), please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in Taiwan as an only child. As a kid, I always loved role-playing where I could be a doctor with my friends one day and a chef the next. My parents were very supportive of my creativity at a young age, and as entrepreneurs themselves, they often served as my inspiration for the wide range of characters I wanted to play. From running a hotel to owning a restaurant they wore many hats, and I got to as well. I found that I really enjoyed this pretend world, even today my mom always jokes that I have been training to be an actor from birth.
As a young adult, I enrolled in Film Studies, received a BFA, then joined a theater company in Taipei to learn acting. It has been over a decade since then and I have been featured in films, TV specials, and commercials for leading brands helping to bring those various characters to life. In being all those characters, and playing so many unique roles, I realized there was more I wanted to explore about acting, maybe find a new part of me to unleash on the character. With that, I paused my career so I could work towards a Drama MFA in America which also helped fulfill my teenage dream to study in America. With this next step, I found myself chasing the vision I had from seeing so many movies, it felt like the role of a lifetime to be this boy from across the Pacific Ocean living out his dreams. America as shown in TV and films is a place where you can make it if you work hard. I know it might be cliché, but I saw it as a chance to chase my own slice of the fabled American pie. So here I am, living so many firsts, like performing on an NYC stage, being cast in my first English language play, and waiting for whatever comes next. For me, like the moment I started acting, it still feels like a series of dreams-coming-true moments.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been rocky, and I am so grateful to be where I am because of the support from my friends and family who encouraged me through the slow start to my career. Early on it was audition after audition but no roles, this went on for a while until that magic moment I was finally cast in a commercial for a popular mobile game in Taiwan. This first job gave me some needed confidence, but financially I know I needed more since I did not want to rely on my parent’s generosity for long. It was difficult taking their support knowing how hard they worked for their money, that gave me the extra motivation to go to every audition I could find to get more roles. This helped me secure many roles over a short period of time while building a reputation as the comic relief. Perhaps this pushed me to be seen only as the funny guy for a while, but recently I have started to make a pivot to more serious roles where I can.
Coming to America for school has also created new challenges, some familiar such as the financial challenges putting my full-time career on hold, and some new including learning complex acting techniques in a language that is not native to me. It has been 10 years since I left undergraduate school and to be a full-time student again has been a transition for me. But I try to see it as a part in the sitcom of my life. Still, sometimes, it felt a little bit overwhelming at first without any connections or resources in America. I had to start building a network and support system here and have been making progress in creating my “cast” including pronunciation coaches to help with the language, movement coaches to help ground me in the work, and other actors to help deal with the new challenges I am learning about from our profession.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am mostly known for my popular, comedic television commercials but have worked both televised live events and feature-length movies. To date, I have been featured in more than 30 TV commercials from leading consumer product goods companies in Taiwan, including Google, Samsung, EVA Air, Mars Wrigley Confectionary, and Pepsico. My filmography includes full-length movies “Fall in Love at First Kiss” (New Classics Media) and “The Village of No Return” (Warner Bros.) in which I was so fortunate to have had screen time with legendary actress Shu Qi. Even though most of my credits are from screen acting, I look for opportunities to expand into performances on the stage at theatres in Taiwan and New York. Recently I just finished the performance, Playing the Other at The Wild Project Theatre in New York City, and previously in imaginative director, I-Chen Wang’s MFA project, Dress In Code at The New School as well as musical theatre such as The Unprofessional Wishing Well from the Greenray Theatre company in Taiwan.
I remember when I went to an audition, a casting director told me when I audition, think about “What sets you apart from other actors, what can you, and only you bring to the role.” I have never forgotten that advice. I try to focus on what I can bring to a role, especially when it comes to fulfilling the director’s vision for the character, no matter the screen time. For instance, the commercials have taught me how to use limited screen time to create meaningful connections with the audience, which helps me shape my characters in film and theatre so as to leave a memorable impression on the audience. This simple piece of advice, about being different, has helped me become what I hope is a more agile actor who can switch between different performances among different media.
In the future, I want to further embrace my funny guy roots to do more comedic roles in films. I really love to bring people joy and make them laugh. Actors have this magical opportunity to transport the audience to somewhere else, I would love to be their gateway to a place that makes them smile and leaves them happy. I love receiving messages from family, friends, and strangers on social media after seeing my performances, letting me know how my character made them laugh. This feedback means the world to me and it motivates me to want to bring more positivity into the world, one line at a time.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
On this journey, I have been the lucky one, blessed to have many friends and my parents who support my dreams. In Taiwan, I was lucky to work with many supportive producers, directors, casting directors, agents, and actors who stay in contact and recommended me for roles they were involved in over the years. This luck continues, as I was in Taiwan visiting my parents for a few weeks when a production team I worked with recommended me for the new Google Pixel phone ad campaign. I feel so lucky that this has been the community of people I met along the way.
Now in America, I am experiencing similar things with friends, classmates, professors, and others who help connect me to opportunities. MFA cohort and my friends are very supportive of me. They are very generous to share those opportunities with me. I feel like my American dream is coming true in large part because of their support. So, I think luck is the result of what you put out in the world, and what you give others. I feel so lucky to have this support network in two countries and I want to be in a position to be the one who passes this luck to other dreamers. I know it feels lonely sometimes walking on this “being-an-actor” path. But if we walk along together, we will walk further and happier.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/binbin_kuo - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/binbinkuofans - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/@binbinkuo - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/
name/nm7156828/
Image Credits:
PLAYING THE OTHER, 2022, Photography by Nathaniel Johnston Photography Dress In Code, 2022, Photography by Nathaniel Johnston Photography
