Today we’d like to introduce you to Ella Rouwen Chen.
Ella Rouwen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born and raised in Shanghai until I moved to LA for theater school. Growing up, I loved dancing and that gave me a big appreciation for performance in general. I’ve always loved acting and from time to time wanted to be a child actor, but it didn’t seem realistic nor did my mom approve of it. During high school, my school in Shanghai and an American high school had an exchange program. I did the American Literature and Theater Program for three weeks at that American high school, and it was life-changing to say the least.
From then on, I can’t imagine my life outside of the acting/theater world. During my senior year, I applied for many theater schools here in the States and ended up going to UCLA, School of Theater, Film, and Television.
Since graduating, I’ve stayed in Los Angeles and have been involved in many projects that I’m really proud of.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wish it had been! There have been two distinct periods in my life that were really tough for me. One was when I first started college. The other was when I was freshly graduated.
Like I mentioned before, I traveled across the Pacific Ocean to attend theater school. Thrilling – for sure, but it also came with its challenges. On top of the usual freshman challenges of leaving home, I was also living in a new country, speaking a different language, and studying a new field. Even though I have done quite a bit of theater and acting compared to my peers back home, my training was way behind compared to my American peers. The specific track I got into at UCLA was also somewhat limiting at first. I wasn’t able to enroll in acting classes nor did I get accepted into the directing class – the two areas that interested me the most. It seemed to me that I was wasting my time and the tuition my parents worked so hard to pay for. Fortunately, with a lot of work and me consistently showing up, I was able to get into the directing track in the end. And I was starting to earn a name for myself as a director within my class – something that I thought I really wanted, and it did make me happy. For a while, I got complacent with my director identity. However, I soon realized that I still had a deep desire to perform and act: to be in the story myself. Acting scared me more than directing. That told me something about where my heart is. Luckily, our department structure was changing. And with support from the department and a lot of professors, I ended up being able to take almost all of the acting classes and got a lot out of my college education and training.
And then COVID!! I graduated in June 2020, amidst the height of the pandemic and the protests of George Floyd’s horrific death. For a short while, I felt a bit lost. The pain and losses in the world were so prevalent that what I was doing — trying to find representation, auditioning, and such, seemed trivial and irrelevant. On top of that, I only had one more guaranteed year to stay in the States as I was on a student visa, so I needed to figure out how to stay in the country too. I gradually reached the realization that what we do heals the world — which is something I’ve always known, but took some time back then to regain that belief. And those tasks I had, even though it wasn’t directly affecting the world, they were paving the way for me to do so in the future. The pressure of getting a work visa was also real and daunting. The clocks were ticking, but the pandemic kept going on, impacting the entire industry. I decided to take matters into my own hands and create opportunities for myself instead of waiting for auditions and bookings. I did get my work visa eventually.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Most recently, my short film “de closin night”, which I wrote, produced, and acted in, was a finalist at the AmPav Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival this year and is now available on Omeleto. Check it out here!
“de closin night” was also an official selection at multiple Oscar/Canadian Screen Awards-qualifying festivals and collected a few awards along the way. This was my passion project, and I got to work with the most talented cast and crew. All department heads were Asian female filmmakers!
I am also making my feature debut in Swallowtail and Dragonfly, opposite Vanessa Yao and Naomi Matsuda, set to be released in 2024. In addition, I’m set to star in “Tranquil Waters, Boundless Skies”, a Kung-Fu Fantasy short film to be directed by Sean Yang.
In the upcoming months, I will also be a member of the screening committee at the Mint Chinese Film Festival that will take place from February 1st to 4th, 2024 at the Keswick Alhambra Cinema in Cumbria, the Lake District, UK. We are currently accepting submissions!
https://filmfreeway.com/MINTChinesefilmfestival
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Passion. Passion is what pushes me through the hardships in this career. Some of my friends would describe me as “tenacious”, a compliment I greatly appreciate. However, for me, it boils down to my love for what I do. I can’t imagine not doing it! I’ve had months and years where things didn’t go my way and where I was filled with crippling self-doubt. Especially when I was first starting out, I didn’t like my own performances because they weren’t up to my standards. I wasn’t even sure if I would get better eventually. I just kept on doing it because I loved it. And lo and behold, I got better at it!
Entrepreneurship also helped me significantly. Quoting the best Issa Rae “Entrepreneur means: I did that shit by myself.” Well… not exactly just by myself, but I initiated the progress in my career. I took the hold of the driving wheel and pressed on the gas pedal. I wasn’t just passively waiting for things to happen for me. When nobody saw my talent, I put in the work to showcase it. When there were no readily available opportunities, I created them for myself! I encourage everyone to do the same for themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9213937/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellarouwenchen/
Image Credits
Makela Yepez James Depietro
