Interview (Part 1): 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.

Today in Part 1 of a 6 part series to run each day through Saturday, Aaron talks about his early interest in stories, attending film school, and the importance of empathy as a theme in his writing.

Scott Myers: You were born and raised in Tampa, Florida, South Korean parents and an older sister. Growing up, how important were stories to you and your family?

Aaron Chung: I know that my parents loved telling personal life stories. They would always talk about their family history.

That would interest me because I was always willing to hear more about who we were and where I came from and the unique and strange experiences that my parents and their parents, and then their parents…All the people that are oceans away from me, but still…Have all these unique moments and memories.

I would say that I grew up watching everything. I would watch all sorts of movies and TV shows. I would play with my toys and then invent stories around them. My dad, bless his heart, he didn’t have a filter to what he would show me. [laughs] We would watch R‑rated movies all the time, and not have any sense of what I’d be seeing.

Some things would inspire me as a kid, wild action movies, and some things would traumatize me, like a lot of horror films. In any case, stories have always been a part of me.

Scott: When you say you play with your toys and make things up, at some point did you transfer the storytelling instinct to writing?

Aaron: I don’t know. It’s a question that I often explore myself because even I don’t know where it started. The earliest memory that I can think of where I would really want to write a story was, I was in elementary school.

I believe around third or fourth grade. It was crafting fantasies that got to me. It’s me who wanted to write my own fairy tale when I was a child. I never really got the chance to do that. That curiosity and interest grew and grew and grew until finally, I decided to pursue writing itself in the most basic form in college.

Scott: You went to Florida State University which is a very well‑established and well‑known film school. You got a BA in both English Creative Writing and Media Communications studies. What were you writing there?

Aaron: I was mostly writing short stories. I was writing my own YA novel, but it’s not very good. I need to slip back on that someday. I just really want to learn how to perfect storytelling in general. I don’t consider myself a good writer per se, like a short story writer. I’m not very well‑versed and thorough. I’m certainly not very good at poetry.

I eventually leaned into screenwriting because screenwriting didn’t demand poetry. Not in the sense that we expect from well‑versed authors and novelists. Screenwriting has its own technique where we need to simplify that language and yet capture a visual image. That’s all I can ever think of when I craft stories, what does it look like.

Scott: Movies and TV, primarily a visual medium. You got an MFA from Florida State. How important was that master’s program, your teachers and writer cohorts in developing your voice and learning the craft?

Aaron: Very, very, very important. I think that program really solidified what I want to write and who I want to be as a writer. It’s not just the teachers and the professors. There were lots of people around me. My classmates helped me develop that voice. I’ve made some very good lifelong friends from that.

The school, the program itself really does well in what the industry is like and what people are looking for in screenwriters. They prioritize mostly the self, and that is what I enjoyed most about the program.

Scott: Typical advice for a writer trying to break into Hollywood is to focus on one genre, but as I understand it, you’ve written several scripts across multiple genres. Is that more about you were simply writing stories you were just interested in, and they just happened to be different genres, or perhaps is that a conscious choice on your part to try and develop your voice by exploring different genres, or maybe both?

Aaron: Yes to both. I would say that as a general lover of stories and a person who really wants to explore everything, I don’t like the idea of being pigeonholed into a specific genre, because I feel like that would just tire a writer out.

I feel like I just need to explore every avenue as possible in my growth, because I’m still a young guy, and I’m still figuring things out for myself. I think I’m going to do that for the rest of my life and my career path.

When I want to write a specific story, no matter what the genre is, I just want to write it. Genres always become a blend to me. They never become a specific thing. If it’s an action movie, it’s going to be an action comedy. If it’s a sci‑fi, it’s going to be a sci‑fi comedy. If it’s a horror, it’s going to be a horror drama, etc.

Scott: In your Nicholl acceptance speech, I was especially struck by these comments. You said, “I want to connect everyone’s problems and struggles and conflicts, and show that we have a lot more in common than we believe. We have this amazing superpower to empathize and connect and understand each other in ways no other living creature can.”

That’s a beautiful sentiment and a really powerful one for writers to embrace. Where do you think that comes from via your own life experience? Were there any key events, or was it just the familial and social upbringing that you had that led to that personal philosophy as a storyteller?

Aaron: That’s a good question. When it comes to the matter of empathy and how I approach not just my writing, but my life with it, it doesn’t come from one singular moment or memory.

In all honesty, it’s something I had to learn and develop and teach myself because, years back, I didn’t connect well with others. When I was younger, I was saying and doing rotten, inappropriate things without thinking twice. I stumbled and made so many stupid mistakes that it wasn’t until college that I finally got my shit together and learned how to be more thoughtful of others.

A lot of it, also, has to do with the stories I saw and read, and like you said, the social upbringing I had. I think a lot of minorities can understand when I say that we often follow along with characters who look nothing like us, and even though there’s that distance, we still connect with those characters. It came easy for me to empathize with Spider-Man, Sarah Connor, Elle from Legally Blonde, that my curiosity and perspectives grew, but that also meant I felt more and more alien.

If I recall from my speech, I mentioned that it was a shame that many of us didn’t use empathy more often, especially when it comes to approaching stories starring a woman or a minority, or anyone who doesn’t look like ourselves. Stories are the best way to understand another person’s experiences and emotions and tribulations, and yet we don’t make an effort to connect with them.

That’s why I love writing stories with protagonists who look nothing like me, to expand what I know and don’t know and try to understand the people who have so much distance between us.

Here is video of Aaron accepting his 2019 Nicholl Award last November:

Tomorrow in Part 2, Aaron reveals the inspiration behind his award-winning screenplay “Princess Vietnam.”

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.