Actress Lana Condor addresses the challenges actresses of color must navigate Friday evening while accepting the Maui Film Festival’s Stella Award at the MACC. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Returning to Maui, the island she first visited as a baby, actress Lana Condor said she was thrilled to be honored for her brief career.
“My entire career is very short. I’ve only been professionally acting for eight years,” said Condor, who received the Stella Award at the Maui Film Festival on Friday night. “My focus is, what is my mission? Why am I doing all this? For me it’s representing my people.”
The Stella Award recognizes an actress for advancing the status of women in the film industry.
“I feel very grateful,” she said. “Working in the entertainment industry is one of the most joyous, challenging and rewarding jobs. My goal and mission as an actress is to create a space for the audience to feel less alone, to feel seen and feel safe. I feel we’re making great headway in the industry when it comes to representation and telling diverse stories with diverse casts.”
Born in Vietnam, Condor lived her first months in an orphanage before she was adopted by American parents. Her breakout acting career took off with the hit teen rom-com “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” With Condor playing an endearingly awkward Korean American high school student, it earned 80 million views worldwide.
It was a groundbreaking part for a young Asian American woman to star in a lead romantic role, and she received rapturous reviews. New York Magazine praised, “Condor is a ready-made star.” Variety reported, “So much of the movie’s charm owes to Condor’s lead performance, which balances the character’s timidity with her lovability.”
Condor said she had no idea the movie would take off and lead to successful sequels.
“We weren’t expecting it at all,” she explained. “When we made it we didn’t have distribution. We were hoping it would be seen. When Netflix picked it up, it was crazy. It was very exciting to keep doing it for a while.”
She followed up with “To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You,” and then “To All the Boys: Always and Forever,” with Netflix reporting that the film was watched by 51 million households during its first quarter in 2021. Paste Magazine noted: “At the heart of all three To All the Boys movies is the charming Condor, who infuses the movies with validity and radiates happiness.”
The acclaim continued with her latest romantic comedy “Moonshot,” with The New York Times proclaiming, “Condor is note-perfect.”
Asked if she feels gratified to keep getting great reviews for her performances, Condor laughed. “I don’t read the reviews, but I feel good.”
The 25-year-old actress currently stars in the Netflix supernatural teen comedy “Boo, Bitch,” which was released on Friday. “That was my first show where I executive produced it as well,” she said. “We came to Netflix with the pitch, and they bought it. It was a chaotic whirlwind, so amazing and fun. I felt grateful that Netflix trusted me.”
Condor’s film credits include “Alita: Battle Angel,” “Patriot’s Day” and “X-Men: Apocalypse.” She will next be seen starring opposite John Cena and Will Forte in “Coyote vs. Acme,” based on the Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
Condor has also sought to elevate women off the screen as well. Her philanthropy work includes The Asia Foundation, where she established a scholarship to send underprivileged girls and women to school in Vietnam. In 2019, she traveled to Vietnam with Michelle Obama and Julia Roberts, in support of girls’ education.
Helping inspire young women, she recalled attending a Netflix convention in Brazil.
“There were thousands of girls in the audience and someone held up a sign saying basically you saved me,” she said. “I think it was about representation. She was seeing herself on screen. And that’s the joy of filmmaking.”
- Actress Lana Condor addresses the challenges actresses of color must navigate Friday evening while accepting the Maui Film Festival’s Stella Award at the MACC. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
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