LA Libertad Interview: Aaron Simon Louie

Aaron Louie works on film and television sets in various capacities, including actor.

WMV:  With a name like "Aaron," are you Jewish, or were your parents Christian?

Aaron:  Funny thing is, I don’t think my parents actually knew the significant meaning behind that name, and they’re as far removed from anything kosher, much less Christian, as far as I can recall, id est, they being traditionally Chinese! In fact, the other irony here (behind my first name) is that my dad supposedly/allegedly was fiercely opposed to having either my sister or me - especially me, coming to know Christ (to use
Christian jargon), which was my mom’s idea, or so I’m told!  As for how I ultimately came to know Jesus after my Dad’s death, more on that later.  The only plausible explanation behind how I came to have this unusual choice of first name, being Chinese, was some obscure, 1975 Gordon Parks Junior, Blaxploitation movie called “Aaron Loves Angela,” which, coincidentally, my sister shares the latter name of said movie!

WMV:  What's it like having three "first names"?

Aaron:  Beats me; the only hypothesis I can come up with is perhaps (in part to having a full name that’s five letters each), could be the old, Chinese tradition of numerology, id est, the Chinese way of writing the number "eight," sharing the same character as the Chinese word for fortune, whereas the Chinese way of

writing/saying "six," sounds vaguely/phonetically similar to the Chinese homophone for death!  I’ll just say this:  Had my full name contained sic letters per name, I would probably be mistaken for Ronald Reagan, considering the then Christian eschatological theory that Reagan was probably the Anti-Christ, given the

Gipper’s full name is Ronald Wilson Reagan - six letters each - plus surviving a would-be assassin’s bullet by a Jodie Foster-obsessed nut!  Personally, I don’t look forward to testing my luck with dodging death by a point-blank range, thirty-eight caliber slug!

WMV:  Why Aaron, why Simon, and why Louie?

Aaron:  Apart from my bizarre origin theories for my first name, Simon is actually the phonetically literal way of pronouncing my Chinese first name, which literally translates to "world scholar" (something my English-illiterate Dad wished upon me); too bad I think he failed to take into far-sighted account, that being a

literary savvy scholar didn’t usually include being numbers (id est, mathematically) savvy!  So….  I guess that’s my only metaphysical/metafictional excuse for struggling with math all throughout my then academic life, AND I’M CHINESE!

As for my surname, I think it’s a story that’s not unlike the genealogical history of anybody who’s of Eastern European Jewish blood, id est, the Ellis Island stories of how many of the newcomers had to make due with a more Anglicized-sounding name, so as to not pose an impediment for native-born Gentile speakers whom otherwise, have no linguistic skills on pronouncing last names that don’t sound [White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant] W.A.S.P.-ish!   In context to my Chinese last name, well, try pronouncing my Cantonese last name that probably, linguistically, sounds like "Lui."  You would have to grow up learning the Cantonese diphthongs!

WMV:  Your e-mail address indludes the word or phrase "sengoku."  What does that mean?

Aaron:  When I signed up for my very first e-mail account (in my senior years of college, no less), I was trying to find the most original email name that’s simultaneously not only easy to remember, but more so (pragmatically) with getting an e-mail address that hasn’t been taken already!  "Sengoku" is in reference

to not only an early ’Nineties video game from [Shin Nihon Kikau] S.N.K.’s  NeoGeo series, nor only the name of an anti-heroic protagonist from the anime series, ‘Cyber City [Office of the Executive Director for Operations] O.E.D.O. 808, but also to a feudal period in Japanese history.  Sengoku is literally translated as "Warring States."  I figured in giving this email address some distinct spunk, it will juxtapose the Asian and Christian part of me, so, "Say hello to a new, (sub)urban legend!"

WMV:  Okay!

Your Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/aaron.s.louie

indicates that your religion is Baptist - specifically, Southern Baptist.  Have you ever been to the Southeastern United States?

Aaron:  I’ve had the opportunity/privilege of going to my church’s Navajo Missions outreach in Arizona, given how it’s tied to the Southern Baptist denomination’s vast missionary programs, which inevitably includes the Indigenous/Native American/First Nations variety Stateside.

WMV:  Southwest, southeast - close enough! It's all southern, right?

More specifically, your Facebook indicates you worked at the First Chinese Baptist Church of Los Angeles.  What is or are your ethnicity or ethnicities, besides Chinese?

Aaron:  One hundred percent Chinese, as far as I can know.

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates that you speak Cantonese, Français [French], "French and French," as well as Franglais.  Why the emphasis on French?

Aaron:  I guess I’m a person who’s into options on Facebook, but, regarding why French, I guess back then, when I was transferring from one high school to another, due to commute/logistical reasons (I was originally opting for German), BUT, when the high school I was entering no longer had German, I
figured, move towards the next best thing, French.  Maybe it’s because I’m something of a Francophile who also has a thing for French women, BUT the funny thing about it is, when I was conversing with a friend about Israel, and how it seems the three main languages in use are Hebrew, English, and French, my

friend commented that it’s something of a universal language of diplomacy.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’m sensing a pattern, involving all things Jewish/Israeli and Christian, alongside French and Chinese.

WMV:  French is the next best thing to German?  I can hardly wait until our French readers take a look at this interview!  Heil Deutschland, mein Freund!

Your Faceboook seems to indicate that you've traveled to France, Italy, Greece, and India.  Where else have you visited?

Aaron:  Actually, I think it’s some kind of glitch on Facebook.  There have been times when some of my online friends decided to tag me in past events, photos that may have taken place in those overseas locales. But still, it’ll be an honor to actually visit these places, if I can get the money for it!


WMV:  You're the third person I've interviewed whose Facebook indicates they were in India although they deny it.

Where are your favorite travel destinations?

Aaron:  That I can’t say since I’ve been stuck here on Limbo, oh, excuse me - Los Angeles!

WMV:  Where would you like to visit, that you haven't visited already?

Aaron:  Pretty much anywhere outside of the California/Nevada/Arizona borders thus far!

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates that your hometown is Los Angeles, California.  Where were you born?

Aaron:  According to my birth certificate, some hospital in Burbank, California.

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates that your birthday is January 15. 

What year, or at least in what decade, were you born?

Aaron:  1976.  So, yeah, I’m technically a Gen-X-er of the latter stage/bicentennial wing.  I may even say that I’m probably the luckiest part of Gen-X to actually graduate from high school, just in time, as pop music/rock music as we knew it, started to suck, circa 1994!  I mean, I still distinctly recall where I was when I heard about Kurt Cobain’s suicide.  Wanna hear what it was like to remember how there’s such a thing as a Cold War, Yugoslavia, and yes, the Soviet Union?

WMV:  No need!  The U.S. Army decorated me for my service during the Cold War, and I distinctly remember kicking myself for not going to Yugoslavia my first summer in West Germany, before the Berlin Wall fell, and Tito died, and it was too late...

Your Facebook indicates that you currently reside in Los Angeles.  What part of L.A. do you live in?

Aaron:  Chinatown.

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates that you are politically conservative.  You seem particularly concerned with paying for other people to play, so to speak.  Do you think most of the people in Los Angeles are mooching off the minority who are wealthy?

Aaron:  Well, as a Reagan conservative, id est, someone willing to use short-term, tactical pragmatism to fulfill the longer-term ideals, sort of like that Reagan meme where it states, verbatim, you will have to learn how to compromise like Reagan, just so you can show the world how to defeat the big-spending Statists. And if negotiating to have more government spending and federal growth is what will ironically, (IRONICALLY!) bring about a bigger surplus (and thriving job market, with across-the-board tax cuts) at the end of your second term, then it’s well worth politicking hassles, and I haven’t even begun on the

longer-term gains of creating the ‘Reagan Democrats (out of J.F.K. [John Fitzgerald Kennedy] Democrats, or the end of the Cold War/U.S.S.R. [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] a year or two later!

But if one were to seriously want to gauge the REAL issue of fiscal mooching, I recall from a John Stossel special, discussing how it’s not really a minority issue (id est, the black or latino welfare dependents), nor is it a class issue (id est, big, corporate welfare), nor, for that matter, a rural/regional issue, (id est, farm/corn subsidies); it’s an entitlement issue.  And as someone who believes in a truly capitalistic society, (id est,

someplace where a fair market is actually a free market first, independent of state collusion, public/private cronyism), I can see how we, as a nation, will have to take realistic, baby steps, with weaning away from the breast milk of the fed.  I should know; as someone who’s currently under Social Security and S.S.I. [Supplemental Security Income], I can see how much of a devil’s deal it can be to be under the dependency of the state.  As someone who had to be under such government assistance, due, largely, in part, to my family history, id est, both blood parents deceased (on separate occasions), plus having a stepmom who was given an ultimatum by her husband, to sever all contact from her prior life with my late dad, id est, me, who’s

there to support me while I’m trying to learn how to ultimately support myself, and, possibly, any future dependents, disadvantaged, et cetera.  If anything, it’s not just the taxpayers who are paying the price of my family’s bad choices, et cetera; it’s me as well!

While I can see the Reagan-esque pragmatic reality of having to be under such welfare assistance, I too can see the Reagan-esque reality of what it’s like to be under the yoke of the state; id est, having a condition where, if you have more than two thousand dollars total, whether it be in the bank, an investment account, or on hand, they’ll start reducing your monthly payment - never mind the fact that, a) two thousand dollars today is worth A LOT less than when such welfare assistance was implemented, or b) such a maximum does more to increase dependency and federal costs in the longer run than say, the opposite. But hey, chalk it up to L.B.J. [Lyndon Baines Johnson]!   Something about how he hoped to keep the newly franchised blacks on welfare, just so he can continually have a reliable Democratic voter base...  Somewhere down the line, I can see how L.B.J.’s calculating policies have also done more to keep many other demographic/minority

groups under that yoke of modern day serfdom - even a member of a supposed, "model minority!"

WMV:  Okay!

Your Facebook indicates you studied at California State University in Los Angeles, and graduated from there and Pasadena City College.  What diplomas, certificates, and degrees have you received?

Aaron:  Bachelor’s in English (Arts & Letters), while having an Associate's degree.

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates your worked at C.S.U., N.Y.F.A., A.F.I., CalArts School of Theater, U.S.C. School of Cinematic Arts, and Loyola Marymount University.  What exactly did you do for them?

Aaron:    I’m just a freelance P.A. [Production Assistant], grip, swingman, or what not, being a production jack of all trades, hopefully mastering some for the longer run objective:  becoming a director of my own

personal work (that I’m trying to write, hence putting my English degree to real world use).

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates you worked for the First Chinese Baptist Church in Los Angeles.  What exactly did you do for them?

Aaron:  In the past, I’ve done various odd jobs, washing dishes for the senior citizens' ministry, some gardening (if gardening means getting rid of weeds), or what not.  So, in a way, prior to my foray in paid work study, paid temp work, et cetera, these church/odd jobs are the stepping stone for me to go somewhere in life, and now I’m thinking of it, I haven’t looked back since.

WMV:  You have more IMDb pages than anyone I've ever known; you've even listed four of them on your Facebook's About page, and you claim that all of these are you:

Aaron Simon Louie
Aaron Louie (I)
Aaron Louie (II)
Aaron Louie (III)
Aaron Louie (IV)
Aaron Louie (V)
Aaron Louie (VII)
Aaron Louie (IX)
Aaron Louie (XI)
Aaron Louie (XII)

Who do you hold responsible for you having so many IMDb pages?

Aaron:  I don’t know; maybe it’s whoever the director/producer/writer, et cetera is, with the project of the

moment (when they post IMDb credit).  Or perhaps it’s just me trying to figure out how to deal with the obfuscating software when trying to manage my IMDb account; or perhaps the only way I can

merge all such separate IMDb accounts will require me to pay for an upgraded account, the likes of which, always leaving me hesitant, given my life/family history of living below my means.

Go figure!

WMV:  As of April 4, 2014, I have succeeded in consolidating (or perhaps merely eliminating) all of the above IMDb pages except the one for Aaron Louie (I).  Let me know if I inadvertently eliminated any of the credits on your filmographies, and I'll make an honest attempt to get them back for you.

You often post pics of dogs and cats on your Facebook. 

What pets, if any, do you currently own?

Aaron:  None such, maybe, in part, because I can't afford having a pet; and that’s before we start discussing if I’m living in a no-pets-allowed apartment.  But, hey, I’m just an animal lover.  After all, you’re talking to a onetime Humane Society volunteer.

WMV:  Your Facebook has a cover photo of several plush toy animals.  Do you collect plush toy animals?

Aaron:  Yup!  Something to complement my collection of somewhat high-end action figures, based mostly on actual spec-ops, paramilitary units.  Maybe it’s my paternal instincts at work.

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates that two of your favorite quotations are, "Jewishness cropped up and has never successfully been put down since," and "Harvard has been almost as important to the American Jewish community as the pork-sausage industry." 

Who said those things?

Aaron:  P.J. [Patrick Jake] O’Rourke.

WMV:  If you were the Prime Minister of Israel, and you could have your way, where would you draw the borders of Israel?

Aaron:  No, but as somehow who tries to hone in on my skills on prescience and recent Israeli history, I’ve commented openly on Facebook with the following:

Memo to... Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi:  Try any funny business against Israel, and don’t be surprised to find the formerly Occupied Territories of the Sinai reoccupied under an Israeli flag!

Given the perpetually fluctuating Mideast peace situation, with borders constantly redrawn every so often, I’ll say to anyone,"Give it some time, and Hamas/Hezbollah will give Israel the moral high ground to retake land in Gaza, the West Bank, and maybe even the Sinai!" 

WMV:  Shabat shalom!

Do you feel you are treated with greater prejudice in Hollywood because you are Asian, Christian, or politically conservative?

Aaron:  Years ago, when I was in high school, I would mull/muse about how big of a disadvantage it is to be all three things in Hollywood, given the following:

a) being stereotyped as the asexual dorks or baddies (who can’t satisfy our own women),

b) being stereotyped as someone who’s affiliated faith being associated with backwards repression, bigotry, sexism and worse, and

c) Ibid, albeit in a more non-sectarian world of economics, taxes, military spending, et cetera,

BUT, given how, now-a-days, we’re seeing an increasingly seismic shift in Hollywood, id est, the democratization of digital movie technology, especially with new media, the rise of the faith-based

movie market, the further rise of giving more tax and cost-friendlier places to film, far outside of L.A., California, like, say, in Atlanta, Georgia; Vancouver, British Columbia; Eastern Europe; and, more recently,
New Zealand, with, possibly, Hong Kong not that far off, and, oh, yeah, how the rumors of closeted conservatism in Hollywood may be more prevalent than previously admitted (see the Friends of Abe, I.R.S. controversy), I’m starting to see how it seems to be increasingly harder for the traditional Hollywood monopoly to continue its business as usual; otherwise, why would an industry titan like Spielberg pen a provocative op-ed, describing a potentially imploding Hollywood system, which may, ironically, include the art house subsidiaries of the already established, big name studios?

And, if you’re Asian, how can you not see this as a strategically possible opportunity to finally start breaking into movies?

WMV:  Your Facebook indicates that one of your goals is to win a "Palme d'Or at The Cannes Film Festival."  What awards have you won already?

Aaron:  That goal mentioned on my header - it’s actually my cute idea of a dream, for me to be  the first guy in my church to win something as high-browed and European as The Palme D’Or.  Perhaps it’s something to give the youth ministry at my church something to talk about generations later.

WMV:  Who are some of your favorite celebrities, including actors, athletes, and politicians, as well as musicians?

Aaron:  Let’s see now… 

ACTORS – Robert De Niro, Ken Takakura, Beat Takeshi, Harvey Keitel, Chow Yun-Fat, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Stephen Chow Sing-tse, Kevin Spacey, John Malkovich...

POLITICIANS – Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Pim Fortuyn, Nicolas Sarkozy, George W. Bush, Angela Merke...

WMV:  I'm a fan of W. myself.

What do you think happened to the people on board Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370?

Aaron:  It’s hard to say.  I can attribute this to the red flag-raising questions of the two pilots and/or the Malaysian Government themselves, since Malaysian Air is a state-owned enterprise.

WMV:  As a conservative, how would you handle Putin's invasion of the Ukraine, if you were the President, and you could have your way?

Aaron:  I would assert the leverage of reinstituting the so-called "Star Wars" initiative around Poland, the Czech Republic, et cetera, next to stationing a land-based missile-defense/dome around those former Warsaw Pact countries, give my tangible backing to not only to Ukraine and said former Warsaw Pact
nations, BUT also help Western European N.A.T.O. [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] states in whatever

soft power usage of putting the combined military of Euro-American forces on high alert, and the utilization of the Keystone Pipeline, to give our allies there an alternative energy source, outside of Russia.

WMV:  One of your IMDb pages seems to indicate that you currently have a recurring role at the Treelore Theatre.  How did you land that job?

Aaron:  From mandy.com. Last time I’ve checked it was on the table with getting some kind of interest with some financiers, but I don’t know if that deal fell through or not. But still, if it’s still a marketable possibility, I would be more than happy to come on board again with the family that organized this project.

WMV:  One of your IMDb pages indicates that you worked on a film entitled The Wrong Guys for the Job.  What job?

Aaron:  Various jobs involving being a mechanic or cleaner—and I don’t mean by means of Windex or Jiffy Lube.

WMV:  One of your IMDb pages indicates that you worked on a film entitled Temper's Karma.  Do you believe in karma?

Aaron:  The way I see it, in life you can choose one of two things:  grace or karma - and, as someone who grew up in a traditional, Chinese home, YOU don’t wanna live according to karma.  ‘Cause as my dad used to say incessantly that, if you don’t live an good life, you’ll reincarnate as livestock, or some lower life form of such low regard - especially dogs, and I think it’s not just relegated to being the secret ingredient to a

Mongolian hot pot!  But, as I look back (via my Chinese Christian lens), I’ve learned the painful irony of how being a human being - especially a Chinese human being - can be the most degrading, dehumanizing existence.  I mean, if my people have always had a grisly track record of tyrannical oppression,

organized misogyny, cannibalism, human rights violations galore, organized crime, ultraviolence, et cetera,  maybe reincarnating as a piece of unkosher, barnyard critter or poultry wouldn’t be as undignified of a life as my dad always says, and don’t get me started with the abortion-versus-animal rights angle!

WMV:  Apparently, you have a lot of experience as a production assistant, a boom operator, a grip, an electrician, and even as an artist.  Do you feel these jobs have helped you network and get work as an actor?

Aaron:  Tremendously!  In fact, I’ve mused that being an all-around P.A./swingman provided me far more practical education in movie-making than traditional film schooling!  Maybe that’s why one film school student I collaborated with years ago, thought I was the one who took the smarter route!

WMV:  One of your IMDb credits is for "key art design."  What exactly is key art design?

Aaron:  If you’re referring to “Fireflies,” I was helping out with set design, to sort of match the film’s title’s theme.

WMV:  Where can our readers find examples of your artwork?

Aaron:  Hmmmm…  I’ll have to wait until the movie’s a final product (id est, with production stills); in the meantime, I can always lead folks to my Facebook pages, that may include various amateur stills/photography on set.

WMV:  IMDb indicates that you are known for your work on Members Only.  What exclusive clubs, if any, are you a member of in reality?

Aaron:  As far as I can tell you, just my church.

WMV:  Do you think people should be allowed to have private clubs or schools which exclude people based on their gender, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, or ethnicity?

Aaron:  Well, if someone like William Donahue can’t bar open gay expression in a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, then Mozilla should forcibly accept a pro-Prop 8 [pro-traditional, heterosexual marriage, anti-same-sex marriage] C.E.O. like Brendan Eich.  If not, then leave it to the private sector to effectively sort things out.  After all, if indeed times are changing for more open tolerance of all things demographically different, then let the free market prove it.

WMV:  As someone with such a variety of experience in the film and television business, how do you see ObamaCare affecting it?

Aaron:  Well, the only closest thing I can immediately fathom is that, within the big league studios, productions, it will further exclude the desperately needed cast/crew talent that Hollywood

can no longer afford to ignore.  Even those handsomely-connected/protected production/actors' unions will have to realize how big of a long-term impact it’ll be on their own bottom lines (see also a past, First Post U.K. [United Kingdom] article, describing how today’s A-listers will have to negotiate for ever-shrinking salary demands).

WMV:  As a native of Southern California, what thoughts, if any, would you like to share on earthquakes?

Aaron:  Even though I have had more than my fair share of experiencing tremors, every new Richter scale disturbance still feels like the first one:  nerve-rattling!

WMV:  As a Christian conservative in the film and television industry, what are your thoughts on the controversy about the exclusion of the word "God" in Noah (Darren Aronofsky, Director)?

Aaron:  I have yet to see Aronofsky’s depiction of Noah, but if I can make a cool-headed, productively critical argument (that straddles between the creative and Christian in me), it’ll be this:  If you want to portray how unsettling it was to be the guy chosen to save the last remnants of Creation for forty days and

nights of uncertainty, Okay, I can accept the real world notion of how big a personal toll it can be for a family tasked with such a global burden (tending to the seeds/flocks for repopulation).

After all, you’re talking to someone who’s faith fits Benjamin Franklin’s squeamish adage of sausage-making.

But if you take your own artistic license far beyond what’s in the text, like having stone giants helping out with the ark’s construction (at least that’s what one guy from E.W.N.T. [Eternal World Television Network] suggests), then yeah, it totally defeats whatever intentions of serious national conversations over theology.  In short, you’ll wind up having the very cartoonish portrayal of  The Flood epic you’re supposedly trying to avoid, and don’t forget; we already have that unintentional farce regarding NBC’s adaptation of Noah starring Jon Voight and F. Murray Abraham!

WMV:  One of the links on your Facebook, which is broken, is to a

Xanga site.  Who or what is Xanga?

Aaron:  A one-time, popular social network for blogging, AT LEAST UNTIL it wound up becoming a last vestige for immature people of serious mental/personality disorders!  It’s pretty much the MySpace of blogsites, much in the same way Detroit is to the auto industry.

WMV:  Ew!  Ouch, ouch, and OUCH!

What Internet links would you like to share?

Aaron:   Dunno yet; maybe wait until there’s another social network that’s more professional, like perhaps on Stage32 or so.

WMV:  How did you celebrate Saint Patrick's Day this year?

Aaron:  I dunno; I’m neither Irish nor Catholic, but one thing for sure is, I doubt Saint Paddy would like seeing the holiday named after him being more synonymous with leprechauns and inebriation, as opposed to reflecting God’s grace in Irish history.

WMV:  Touché!

What are your plans for Easter and Mother's Day?

Aaron:  Usually it’ll be at church for Resurrection Sunday; as for Mother’s Day, maybe get a few close friends to meet me at my mom’s grave out in Boyle Heights, a few rows below my dad’s grave, and some rows in between my grandma’s/grandpa’s graves.

Interview by William Mortensen Vaughan