Go Into The Story Interview: Aaron Chung

My interview with the 2019 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Aaron Chung wrote the original screenplay “Princess Vietnam” which won a 2019 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Aaron about his background as a screenwriter, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to him.

Here are links to the entire 6-part which has run this week.

Part 1: “I don’t like the idea of being pigeonholed into a specific genre, because I feel like that would just tire a writer out.”

Part 2: “It’s something that I think a lot of especially Asian American children around my generation feel. They can’t feel like they’re a part of a certain group, and they beat themselves up because of it.”

Part 3: “If I wanted to tell this in the most honest way I could, I had to approach it in a different way.”

Part 4: “Stories are one of those rare universal languages that anyone in any culture or any language can latch onto.”

Part 5: “I have to envision a really strong character first and then craft the story around them and what they’re going to do, or it would be an issue that I would see today that’s happening in our society, in politics or anywhere in the world.”

Part 6: “You also have to find something that speaks to you, that says something. Once you find that, once it becomes important to you, you will write it till the very end. Your voice will spark out. That’s how you develop your voice, it’s finding that important story.”

Aaron is represented by MGMT.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with 53 Black List writers, go here.