<Begin Segment 20>

SY: So in all this time that you, well, left New York -- well, no. Are you still in New York living with your...

TF: No, no. I live now right on Wilshire Boulevard. And unfortunately, my husband has got dementia or Alzheimer's had it for a number of years, and he's been having fainting spells and breaking his bones. And so in June he broke his left shoulder and has a rod down his left shoulder, and about five weeks ago he fell, fainted in the bathroom, and he's got a rod down his left leg, and he's just... you know, he's not in great shape and right now he's in a rehab hospital, and so I've been spending most of my time with him there when I'm not doing something. And I just got a call today, he's going to be discharged next week, but I don't know quite where he's, if he's going to come home or if he's going to be accepted in another place or what. So everything is in turmoil at the moment. And it's the last part of the journey, I guess, and it's never easy. But it's hard because the other person is going by inches and no longer the person you know.

SY: But you have some pretty wonderful memories.

TF: I have wonderful, I have wonderful memories, yes I do.

SY: You really do.

TF: We've done a lot of interesting travel, and I always credit him for making me be strong and independent, 'cause I think I am now. He was always so busy with his own work, and so I was never one to... up to the time I was with him, I was always working myself, but I know what he does and I know it's not a nine to five job. And being creative, I saw how he worked. So he always had the freedom to do whatever he wanted and when, but he always tried to make it a rule we wouldn't be apart more than every couple of weeks at a time. But in the meantime, I developed my own life of doing things I liked to do when I want to do it. And then, because my first husband was so fussy about food, I didn't even let him know I cooked at first. So if I'd cook anything, he'd be grateful. [Laughs] 'Cause the other one, whatever I made, was always so critical. So I thought, okay, that's not gonna be what's important.

SY: And in the meantime, your career really has maintained.

TF: Well, you know, when I got back here, once I got together with him, I had time now to do what I wanted to do, and I thought, I love acting and so I've gone back to that.

SY: So there was a period where you weren't acting at all.

TF: No, it's just I was too busy trying to survive and make a living. I guess I always did some things on the side. Now, I always joke that they retired me, they didn't tell me. But I'm still doing, you know, I get involved with a lot of young people and ultra low budget films. I played Brad Pitt's secretary in Moneyball, so I don't know if you've seen that. I had a good time being a pirate lord in the third Pirates of the Caribbean. But now, this particular year, I'm in one, a movie written by Lily Mariye, who is a Sansei or Yonsei, and it's based on a true story which is really interesting. It's about a Japanese American man married to a Caucasian woman, and they have two Amerasian children. And the mother gets involved in drugs, and she doesn't go buy the drugs herself, she sends her kids out. And, of course, one of the children, they get involved with the people who are selling it, and one gets killed. And I play a grandmother who'd been in camp and who tries to stay in touch with them. Chris Tashima is in it, too.

SY: It's wonderful, though, you get these roles that probably there aren't that many people who can play them.

TF: Well, that one, anytime it has to do with camp or from that era, I really want to be a part of it if I can. I mean, I understand the woman a little more, I think, than someone who's never lived through that period. And then the other part, I just finished it, is called Hotel Arthritis, and it's a slasher film. And again, it's an ultra low budget written by some twenty year olds, and I get to play an angry Chinese woman. And I've been ostracized by the rest of the community because they say I cheated in mah jong, but they need help in helping to solve the murder when all these people are being killed.

SY: So it's a comedy.

TF: It's a comedy; it's a very funny comedy. And so I, also when you're with all these young, creative people, the good thing about the acting community, you don't notice the age. You're all actors. You have one common love. So I don't know -- I just want to be with someone who has a passion for what they're doing and who is serious about what they're doing and can laugh, and I want to have a good time. And the interesting thing I find about getting older is -- and I wished I'd known it years ago, because I'd always say to my mother, she was fifty or sixty, "It's your birthday. What can I get for you?" And she'd say, "Oh, no, I'm too old. I don't need anything. I don't need anything." And I'd think, god, my daughter brings me a little nail polish, it's the shatter, and it's glamorous and fun, and I think, oh, this is so exciting, I love it. And then she'll just, the youngest one is very thoughtful about little things. Or this week, this charming young twenty-four year old boy who was in the Chronicles of Narnia, handsome, charming, serious about his craft, and we have gotten so we love to go to the movies together or go to the theater. And what I like is often our reactions are the very same. I took him to the cast party, and it was Moneyball, and he knew what this cinematographer had done and what this director had done, he knew all about their work 'cause his father is the same. So I find that I enjoy his company. And he's leaving for England on Friday morning, and then so he sent me an email, and on Thursday he wants to pick me up and take me to see a young friend of his, a big star from the Ukraine, take me to dinner and see it. And I think, aren't I a lucky woman? Really. The other nice thing is, I think, what a gentleman. He took me to his private club, and I thought, you know, his friends, what are they gonna think? He's got a little old Japanese lady with him. And he knows that I like to listen to speakers connected with the film, it was to see Robert Evans, they were showing his film, and it's so elegant and, my gosh, very posh. You would sit, it's like a couch, and a cashmere blanket, and you could have water or whatever you want to drink, listen to the speaker. And then I get to this place, it's an elegant, it's the Soho Club, so posh, beautiful young people. And here's this little old me coming in, right? So I go to the bathroom thinking, "I'll just stay out of the way." But then he sees me, and then he doesn't say, "This is my tai chi teacher," or he doesn't go into any... he just says, "Oh, come and meet my friends." And I thought, that's classy, isn't it? I think if I were a young person, I probably would be making an explanation if I were with some old person or old man. And I thought, "This is a very special person."

SY: That's great.

TF: And I find when you're in a business like show business, it's a little different from some other things. The age difference, if you have a passion for something, doesn't really matter. And then if you can think of being friends.

SY: Yeah, it's true. So you picked the right profession, really, when all is said and done, but it just came naturally to you.

TF: It came naturally and it came from camp days. If I hadn't had my mother to introduce me to all of that.

SY: But there's a, yeah, there's a certain degree of talent involved, too. I'm sure that you probably...

TF: Yeah, but how would I have even known that? If I had stayed on in that little town, would I have seen... I remember the first time I went to Broadway to see a play, and the feeling that I got when I saw West Side Story. I used to sometimes take a bus in from Massachusetts, get there in time so that I could see a matinee and an evening. I think I'd get there in time so I could see a Tuesday night show, see a Wednesday matinee, Wednesday night show, catch the all night bus and be back the next morning. And when I saw West Side Story -- and I never bought my tickets ahead of time, I'd always go at the last minute -- I sat in the last row and that character got shot, I jumped up in my seat, I thought I'd been shot myself. I was in pain and I thought, I would love to go to see something today and have that same kind of passion. Now, I've seen so much, but I still want to have that same openness. So I try to go with people who don't have an opinion ahead of time and are so jaded they think, oh, you're gonna go see that. I want an openness, and so I like to go with someone who has an openness. And I find if I go to see a play with William, he's got that same openness. I don't want the negative feelings coming in. It's easy to be critical. So if I have just even a second or two of something that touches me, I'm happy.

SY: There's one thing, though, going to see plays and really getting that connection, but there's also a total different thing in actually doing a play, actually putting...

TF: Oh, I love doing a play. I did Velina Hasu Houston's Tea. That is one of my favorite plays. I saw it the very first time when they were doing it in San Francisco, and I've become very good friends with a couple of the girls who were in that original production. I kind of had lost the desire to do plays for a while, and then when I saw that I thought, "I want to get back to doing plays." And every night, I just felt like it was a chance to tell that story all over again. And it's never one hundred percent perfect, but the next night, you've got to let it go. Whatever mistakes or things that happened, you have to just let it go and keep going, 'cause otherwise you're gonna forget where you are or you're gonna make more mistakes. But I love that challenge, and then I love that feeling of being connected. There was one scene in which I don't talk at all, but I felt like there was a golden thread connecting us. And that I was important in that scene with whatever the connection. It's such a great feeling. And another one I did called GR Point, it's where soldiers are collecting dead people, and I'm this old woman who's just cleaning up after them. I think some of the best reviews I ever got -- and it's not a role where I had a lot to say, but I love the way the director went around. You feel connected to the whole piece. He made me feel, and I felt like whether I said anything or not, I was so important to the whole story. And you don't make any money doing plays. You're doing it for the love of it, you know, the passion that you have for it. So I go to see some of my friends, and I just admire them so. I'm such fans of theirs. And you know when our friend Marilyn performs, it's just...

SY: Marilyn Tokuda.

TF: Yes. I really love watching her and seeing her talent and seeing what she brings. I'm so glad that I can be friends... I don't feel like I'm ever competing with my friends. At first it seems so strange to come here, and you all go out for the very same part. But you know, we are all so different. We bring different life experiences. So we say the same words, but I think it comes out differently. So I tell myself I'm not competing with them, I'm trying to get the part the way I feel. If I feel at least I did a job where I don't feel ashamed of, I don't get it, I don't get it. Because I think they're all talented. I think we can all do the part, but one of us is gonna have something that they want.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.