Ep13 Emelia Hartford

All right, welcome back to another episode of Car Stories.

This episode is a very special episode because this is the origin story of how Amelia and I know each other.

Yeah, and this episode was actually filmed before the understanding that I was going to co host with you too.

I think Car Stories. I was feeling like, I don't

want to do this anymore. I started losing that northern

star of that purpose. And then you know when they

say things happen for a reason, or people come into your life for a particular reason. That was those moments

where it all kind of made sense, you know.

Yeah, I always say that and I believe it wholeheartedly that everything happens for a reason. And yeah, it was

a great conversation. I felt like I had known you

my entire life. But people will understand where our kind

of foundation came from after they listened to this episode.

Yeah, everything happens for a reason.

That it does.

Definitely this episode did. So hopefully you guys enjoy. I'm

sitting here today with Amelia Hartford. We had a kind

of a coffee sit down like a few months ago, got to know each other and I was super impressed by her story, her ethos, you know, her journey in life.

She's a fellow actor, and she is a car lover or car aficionado, and she's a true rarity in this world because she's a young woman that actually wrenches on her own cars. It's not just lip service and saying

that I like cars or you know, and I like ferraris and take pictures of it. She actually wrenches and

thank you. And it's awesome that she also has a

grand national which I have, and she loves that.

To be fair, it's a limited it's not a real one.

But I am such a fan of gea bodies body. Yeah.

Same same, same, same same thing. Yeah. So I don't

know if you want to share, Amelia. You know, we

actually have a connective tissue and it's up to you to if you want to share this, because that was a really compelling story and I feel like you know something.

Yeah. I mean, I am a pretty open book, so

I feel like I really have no reason not to share.

I should preface I lost my dad at a very young age due to suicide, so mental health has been so important to me, and growing up, I watched my dad live breathe bleed by trying to become a movie producer and he was able to do two movies that unfortunately didn't make a return whatever, But he tried. And

I just watched him every night, come homework on the script every night, try to try to make something out of it. And I think that's where I grew up

to see a lot of my drive. But in one

of the films that he did, he had cast you in and it was called Forbidden Warrior. And I had

actually met you when I was a little child and didn't put that together until much later in life. And

that was pretty wild. And this is before the Fast

franchise and everything. This was well year, This was in

like two thousand and six, seven.

Two thousand and five, two thousand and five, two thousand and five.

How crazy is that?

Yeah? So since then, what's what's your journey?

Ben? I lost my dad probably three years after that

had happened. I had this rude awakening that I was

going to be alone in my life. I didn't have

a dad to tell me like, this is what you should do with your money for financing, this is how you should say for retirement, you know. And one of

the first decisions I had to make in my life was the first car I was going to buy myself and I couldn't go to my mom. I didn't have

anyone in my life to go to, so I resulted to the Internet, and at the time I didn't realize the race car forums would be biased towards race cars.

I thought that was just oh die hard car enthusiasts, and these forums had told me that I should get something that rear wal drive and manual, and something bigger than a four cylinder. So I listened to the Internet,

which I'm thankful I did. My first car was in

Infinity G thirty five and I had never driven stick a day in my life. I picked up this car,

roasted the clutch on the way home, but fell in love with wanting to perfect how to drive stick, and that was just something that I was able to divert my attention from having just recently lost my dad to then having the sense of freedom and being able to go on drives and really wanting to shift down match and park on a hill and see if I can pull forward without it rolling back. And it was something

that occupied my time and my mental And then it was shortly after that that I moved to Indiana, where I met the Bloomington Car Crew known as B Crew, and these guys took me under their wing. They were

big brothers to me in a time where I really needed that. And instead of I was going through a

really dark time and instead of partying on the weekends, I had this community where we would work on cars, one specifically a DSM an Eagle Town that was just constantly breaking down, so there was always an excuse to get together and we'll work on cars. I am so

grateful of that time in the community because when I lost my family, I felt like I had this newfound family and wherever I went, I could find that car family.

So that was a huge pivotal time in my life to feel like I'd always be safe somewhere. But it

wasn't too long after that where I couldn't turn on the television without feeling guilty. I would get mad at

myself for not pursuing film and television, not pursuing being an actress, because that's something that meant the world to me, and it's all I've ever wanted to do. The earliest

thought in my head was I want to be an actress when I grow up. I love creating, I love

living in the moment. I just love everything about it.

And at the time i'd since lost the G thirty five.

I was doing SECA races with it. One day on

the way from the track, someone had hit me at a stop totaled the car. The guys helped me kind

of put together this two forty sx ls swapped. It

was I love the car, so Nissan was a big part of that, as well as Chevy small Blocks. But

I packed this little Nissan of mine with everything I owned in it, drove cross country, got a little apartment in Hollywood, and have just been pursuing the Hollywood dream for ten years now. I worked as a waitress, living

paycheck to paycheck. For six years of that was on unemployment,

food stamps, just trying everything in anything I could to catch a break. It wasn't until nine years after being

here they got my first role in something. But that's

where the car community came back into my life again.

Was when I moved back. I was able to look

on the forums find where the local car meets were.

It was nice that I always knew I could go somewhere and find that community. And then probably about six

years into it, as when I started youtubing. I had

a lot of pressure from peers from my mom actually too, And it was so funny for my mom to tell me to start youtubing, because I'm like, what do you know, Mom, YouTube please? But she was right, and I started my

first video just walking around my two forty. I had

been daily driving it to auditions with no air conditioning, constantly breaking down, and I just walked around the car and said, I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to rebuild this car and learn how to drift in one month, then follow along. And I've

been doing three videos a week ever since. It was

only this past year that I started tapering down to one a week so I could really devote more time into acting. But that's the long winded answer of what

I've kind of been doing the past fifteen or so years now.

Well, and you have a pretty big movie coming out pretty soon, can we say? Can we say? Yeah?

We can say. I'm so blessed and thankful to have

the opportunity to be in the new Grand Turismo adaption.

It's awesome.

It was that such peace on this project because I'm like, I'm literally living a dream that I've only imagined of getting to blend the world of both cars and film.

That was really cool. Wow. It was also really nice too,

being on a set where everyone was just so kind because you hear all these stories. But thankfully, I couldn't

have been more blessed with just how awesome everyone was.

The opportunity was great, and I got to live in Hungary for a couple of months.

That's so cool. Yeah, I met your father. I mean,

your father would be so proud of you. And you know,

my memories of your father. I remember you asked me,

You're like, hey, I don't know if you have good experiences with my pops and hopefully it doesn't affect coffee that we're having. But no, he was. It was such

a great supporter and it was like one of my earlier films and it was like a pretty big role for me. And you know, memories of him were always

it's every everything's positive, you know, because he had he did.

He had such great energy when he came to say you could tell that he was so enthusiastic and passionate about he you know what he was doing, you know, So I did not I don't have one single like negative memory. Unfortunately, you know, just this the nature of

this business. Some movies work and some don't, you know,

and you know we were limited by money and all that, you know, But I every memory of that film is positive.

You know.

It so trippy to me that that used to know my dad, that you guys got to work together. It's

just I didn't really have anyone aside from my mom who he really knew him. So it was so trippy

to hear you just even talking about him. And it's nice.

The memories are good because obviously I've talked about it.

He had a drug addiction, alcoholism, and towards the end things did get pretty ugly. But it's really nice to

hear that least at work doing what he loved, and all he had been trying to do was it sounds like he was genuinely very happy.

And I can relate with that. Issues with fathers, you know,

because I grew up with the stepfather and I never knew my biological father and the only thing that I ever heard of him was negative things. Yeah, my whole life.

You know, my relatives on my mother's side would say, you know, just don't turn out to be like your father. Yeah,

fuck are you talking about?

I'm there.

I met this dude, you know, and I actually met him.

Did you? Yeah?

I met him.

It was that like, And how long ago.

I met him? Right after college? Was so? It was

like ninety five, ninety five, ninety actually around ninety six.

You know. I had so many like issues with my

stepfather growing up, you know, and with my mother, you know, I don't I don't think they were ready to be parents, you know. And then I felt like I needed to

know who my biological father you know was, and I you know, kept asking them. I was like, how do

I find this guy? And my stepfather actually had his

Korean Social Security number and he was able to track him down.

Really yeah.

And then my mother contacted his sister who was living in Washington, d C. And somehow they got a hold

of him, and then he flew out to LA to meet me.

Was this after your success?

No? No, no, no, no, that was I was like, I

had like ten jobs and living in some like cockroach infested apartment, and uh, you know, I had a you know, a million jobs just to survive. And in my mind,

I had this idea of what my father was going to be like, you know, I thought he was going to be like mister Rogers, like show up in a Carnigan and he was gonna, you know, say all these like wonderful things to me, and you know, we're gonna go throw the baseball together, and they were gonna live happily ever after.

Well, you're gonna have to create some narrative, right, having no idea what to go into it.

Yeah, especially having such a you know, tough relationship with my stepfather. You know, I mean he was really tough

on me. First of all. I never felt like I

was his son and I never felt loved right, So you know, I had this idea, imaginary idea of what the perfect father would be. And he showed up at

the airport. I picked him up at Lax and it

was like out of a like a bad Yakuza movie.

He showed up in like a red blazer with like gold glasses, sunglasses, and he and he had this like woman next to him and he's and he pulled out this like Virginia slim cigarette, you know, it's like a woman's cigarette, and he lit it up inside the airport and he looked like straight out of like a Japanese Atkuza movie like straight out of this gold watch, right, And then I couldn't see his eyes because it's like he was wearing gold sunk like Porsche Carrera sunglasses, right,

and I'm like, oh, that's not him. But as soon

as I saw him, I was like, I think that's my dad because my mother and all my relatives, my aunts would talk about how you know, he was like, you know, kind of like a he was a thug.

You know, he was like straight out like he went to jail, Like he literally went to jail for like a prostitution ring, and you know, like he beat my mother.

You know, he was like that dude, like he got my mother knocked up purely just to get like money out of her family. Right. So I heard all these

stories growing up. And then I see him. I'm like,

I hope that's not my biological father. And he sees

me and he walks up to me and he's like, hey, song Hoo, which is my full Korean name, sung Ho? Right,

so Koreans have like two names, like it's sung Ho or song he.

I was actually gonna ask you about why you shortened yours.

So I can answer that it was basically I had to shorten it because nobody enjoyged it could pronounce it right.

So yeah, the song was just easier. And so then

I take him to the hotel and this woman that was next to him was his translator because he thought that I didn't speak Korean and he barely spoke Oh, he didn't speak any English at all, but I spoke enough Korean at that time to be able to talk to him, you know, and too basic conversation. And then

we go to lunch, and this is comedy. He takes

off his sunglasses and I can't stop staring at his eyebrows, and he goes, I know you're staring at my eyebrows and I'm like, yeah, they look like green onions. Like

what is wrong with your eyebrows? Are they tattooed? And

he goes yeah. That woman that came with me kept

saying that I don't have a lot of eyebrow and she said that, you know, Asian women are tattooing their eyebrows and if I do it, it'll make me look better.

And the dude fucked it all up. I just I

was about to lose it. I'm like, this dude is

like gangster, but he has these like green onion eyebrows, right, and he puts his and then he puts his sunglasses back on, and he's such a ladies man. The waitress,

the Krane waitress came over and he's like, you know, he's florred with her, and she's all smitten. And I'm like, oh,

I could see why my mother, you know, like you know, fell for him. And and then he he he starts

to do this like like half ass Oscar performance about how he's been looking for me my whole life, and takes off his glasses and he's trying I'm an actor, right, Like he's so he's trying to cry, right, And I'm like, if we had a camera on him, he would have been a comedy, right, And I'm like, what is he doing.

He's like he's trying to cry, and he's trying to convince me that you know, he's like a great dad, and like you know he he I'm like, what's the catch?

And my mother kept saying it's like, hey, watch out, because he's gonna there's gonna be something behind everything he does.

Did he want something?

Oh yeah, totally. And then he starts to ask questions

about my mother and it's like, hey, I heard that your mom, you know, she has some like real estate and she's like doing all right, And I'm like, yeah, yeah, well what's it to you? And he's like, you know,

I have a sister who lives in Virginia, and you know, I was wondering if you know, father and son, like, you know, we could do something together. And I'm like

do what? And he goes, you know, maybe you should

forget about this acting thing. You know, I don't know

if that's gonna work right. You know, he's like, you

should go to Korea. I could take you to Korea.

You can like go, but I'm I barely speak Korean, Like that doesn't make any sense. He goes, well, we

should do some business together, and I'm like what kind of business? And he's like, you know, I have a

friend that has a strip club, and you know, I think if we open some strip clubs together, you know, we could do well, like you could, you know, translate, you could, you know, take care of the English bar.

And I'm looking at him, going the fuck is this guy talking about strip club?

Right?

So he had me take them to every strip club in La really yeah, to go do research. And then

that what during the process, I was like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Is he just met me

and he's like hagging me to all these strip clubs.

That's going to be so hard to like have this not expectation, but this perceived reality of what you're going to go into and then just be completely shocked.

Yeah by c Yeah. I mean when I tell the story,

it's very entertaining because you can't make this kind of stuff up right, And he looked like.

No, this sounds like it could make a great film.

Yeah, And he was at home because he looked like a yakuza gangster, like you know, the way he's sad and he like smoking in there, the way he kind of addressed the girls and stuff.

He just it paints a picture that I can vividly see.

Yeah. Yeah, And I'm like, you know, and he has

this like woman that's doing all his bidding, like translator stuff and like assistance, and I'm like, this is just odd.

And and then he drops it on me. He's like, well,

first of all, he gives me this gold card, this credit card, this visa card, right which later I tried to use it and it it was kept. It was declined.

There was no money. He's like, you know, here's here's

here's a old card for you to use for all these years I've never been there. And it's like the client.

I try to get something at Big five, like a baseball, a of it, like the client. But he asked for

six hundred something thousand dollars.

Wow.

Right, He's like, could you ask your mom if she could loan us six hundred thousand dollars so I could open the strip club in Virginia? Right? And I'm like,

she's had to work her whole life, right, like as like a housekeeper and a cleaner. She's not going to

give neither of us or anybody in this world six hundred thousand dollars to open a strip club? Are you

out of your mind? Right? And after that, you know,

I kind of said, I don't think I need to be around this dude. And you know, after some of

the Fast and Furious movies, I got a.

Call from I was going to say, did he reach out?

Yeah, when he was dying. He was dying he had

some type of like fatal cancer, and they asked. You know,

I had a cousin on his side that reached out to me and said you know, he wanted to see me, and I was like, see me. And I was in Georgia.

I remember I was in Georgia, Atlanta shooting and we were wrapping a Fast and Furious five and I remember where I was at the I was having like drinks and the sandwich Burgers across the street from the hotel with Paul, Paul Walker and you know, in a couple of guys that were working on the movie. And I

get this call and I was like, I stepped outside and I was like, I came back in all frazzled, and I remember I asked Paul. I was like, what

do you think I should do? And this is where

you know, Paul was like so sweet, like you should go see him, and I'm like, I don't know, man, I feel like there's something up. And then I called

my mom and she's like, don't go because they're going to probably give you the bill right for because I'm sure he doesn't have insurance right And it was one of those weird things. You know, It's like it sucks

because you know, I wish we had like a relationship, but he turned out to be like, you know, like the worst. I mean, you say that your cars are

your kids. How many cars do you have now?

Oh my goodness, I think I'm at eleven eleven right now?

Maybe twelve?

Wow?

Yeah, and finding parking for them is just half the fun.

Yeah. Where do you park out these cars all over

the place?

Yeah, at my shop, and then I keep a couple at the house too, so I'm constantly just moving cars around and shuffling and figuring that out.

I met you downstairs, and let's talk about that child that.

You drove over here, your daily driver. That was like,

that's pretty impressive. Yeah, my Twin Turbo Z six. I

think it might still be the only Twin Turbo Zo six.

I haven't been on the internet forums lately to see if anyone else has Twin turbod theirs. But yeah, I

love the car.

I really enjoy it.

That's pretty cool.

I mean, if people want to see it, I helple the videos on YouTube. I do stupid things with fun cars.

Yeah, it's pretty impressive. It's pretty impressive that you wrench.

Like the other day, I was texting you and you're like, oh, changing breaks on my grand National.

Buicke Right, Yeah, I saw College GNX though it's technically a fake GNX. But yeah, when we're texting, I was like,

my hands are covered in grease because I'm packing the bearings and I'm like trying to respond. But I just enjoyed.

There's something so therapeutic about working on a car. Yeah,

it's nice to be able to take something apart and then put it back together better than what it was when you started. And of course it has to go

right otherwise you're just banging your head on a wall.

I trying to, you know, need it to go take a walk because you can't figure out why, you know X isn't working.

But do you feel pressure to have to record everything you're doing around your cars?

You know, it's funny you ask that. Yeah, I mean

I feel guilty in a way. Even if I'm driving

my cars, I don't at least bring my camera or like if I go on car rallies or even just Sunday drives, I need to be able to record it or capture it. So sometimes it pulls me out of

being in the moment because I'm constantly thinking, Oh I should have shot that, Oh that would have been a cool shot. Oh wait, this would have been a great

thing for this. But yeah, I do that thought does.

It definitely cross my mind constantly because at the end of the day, you know, you're telling a story in these twenty minute episodes of this is what we're doing today, this is how I'm going to do it, this is it finished, and this is how it performs.

You know. Social media I have this like weird relationship

with it these days, Like, am I actually really afraid of it? Because it gets me like super bummed out,

you know why. So I end up like comparing myself

to like other people and going, hey, I don't have this many followers, I don't have this many likes, and then you know, it's not like I don't have any but then I go, well, what am I even thinking about it? And then it starts to like trigger all

of my insecurity.

So I do feel like a big reason for people struggling with so much mental health in today's world is because of social media. You're constantly comparing yourself to other people,

You're constantly seeing things you don't have a big reason of why I started youtubing was well, one, of course, I wanted just to make a good living for myself.

I didn't do it for the money, but I was like if I can do anything else and just get by instead of being a waitress, then I'd be happy.

But also because other servers in the restaurant, because the joke it's like, oh, you're an actor, what restaurant do you work at? I would see other servers and friends

of mine lose roles and opportunities to people who had a following social media. So that was a big factor

in me being like, well, if I could make a living to still be able to do auditions, do something actually joy doing, working on cars, and not have to waitress, and I can build a social media presence at the same time, that just made the most sense for me, And I'm really glad I did that because it would have been very easy for me not to have and I don't know where I would have been been today if not.

So for someone that is trying to start a YouTube channel or build content, right, just because you put stuff out there doesn't mean that it's going to be successful.

I mean you are successful and you have a following, like a legitimate following. I mean you have like like

a million subscribers or something like that, right, right, So, like, I mean what do you think, why is it you think people gravitate towards you, you know, and your your content, like what is the what is it like the ethos or the theme that you try to put into your content.

Going to answer that in two parts. So one thing

mister Beast talks about whom I highly respect, everything that he's done in the world of YouTube and other platforms.

He talks about, if you're going to start YouTube, do one hundred videos just to post, and then from their start tailoring back, looking at which ones did the best, and then from there try to figure out what did the best, why did the best, and then start dissecting and then putting a plan and moving forward. And a

lot of just doing the one hundred videos too, is more the commitment of actually not only filming, but editing.

There's a joke that everyone wants to be YouTuber until it comes to time to edit. But for me, I

was very fortunate that the first video got an audience.

The first video today that I ever produced has about half million views because it got shared online. Because I

was first to market in the field that I was doing, specifically LS content in the female space in the male dominated industry, specifically with my two forty in the trying to rebuild that, and from there I would do simple things like I couldn't afford, Like I was living paycheck to paycheck, I couldn't afford things. My friend would let

me install coil overs on his car that he bought for the video, and I would be working on friends cars.

I had one shop in the very beginning allow me to have a small part in the garage in exchange for promotion and just helping them with marketing around the shop, and I was able to work in my car and get some used parts to be able to do builds.

But I think from the very beginning, which it's pretty crazy to watch my first episode just to see my mannerisms, how shy I was, how soft spoken I was, to where I am today, I think what I've seen continued success from is one doing stuff that I'm passionate about.

I could not continue to do the YouTube grind for so long without just one thousand percent loving what I'm doing, so picking the builds that excite me, but also I like kind of pushing the boundaries of things and especially the boundaries of horsepower and finding what the limits of cars are. So I saw a lot of success with

the with the eight sting ray platform from you know, at one point being the world's fastest disclosure I'm not today, and then also building one of the highest horsepower cars and all this being done and my small garage. I

was basically living in the shop during that period of time because I was just so happy and so excited with everything I was doing. Unfortunately, I had a team

behind me that as the company scaled, I've been able to hire my friends and individuals that are just as passionate.

So I think for me, what's worked is doing things that I just you know, that keep me up in eight because I'm thinking about it because I'm just so excited about it.

Did you have any pushback from like men out there going, you know, what is this girl, like you know, trying to do with cars?

Definitely, Even still to this day, I've always struggled with men and sometimes even women challenging me like, oh, it can't be real, she's not doing it, she's reading a script, blah blah blah. But I just try not to focus

on that. I really just focus on what I'm doing

and the people I surround myself with, Like I don't think I'd be doing it today. If I didn't really

love it, you know. Yeah, but even in the beginning

my first couple YouTube videos, if you go back and look at the comments, I think it was, like really the third and the fourth had some like seriously terrible comments that made me contemplate even continuing YouTube. But I

can I can only I can only hope that it helped to pave the way for other women. You know,

I'm not saying that I was the trailblazer in that, but I can only hope that what I did helped to inspire anyone out there to create content and put themselves out there.

Well, what is the parallels of, like you working on a car, because it's a meticulous, you know, passion right, and you have to have a level of OCD. Are

there any like lessons you've learned building cars that you apply to your work as an actor.

Aside from the give it one hundred and ten percent at all times, I think something that was actually probably more challenging for me to grasp for acting was trying to figure out a process because with cars it's very linear.

You know, you have to if you're swapping something, remove xpart, replace it with Y part, and then you have Z where it's acting, it's not so linear like that. It's

a little more modular of sometimes just you know, having the space to think and build out the character's past.

And just because you spend thirty minutes doing this doesn't mean you're going to get thirty minutes work out of it.

Sometimes you could spend for acting hours try to build out a character and get nowhere where some days you get really far with it. I have to remind myself

to be patient with the process because it is a process.

With cars, it's you know, if it doesn't work, I hit it with hammer and sometimes I can get the same result.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Do you mind me asking what your process is as an actor?

One thing that I love to do is to create a backstory in history, right. And that's why I love

old cars, is that I'll look at an old car and now fabricate like a history of like you know what, what kind of memories happened within that car? Right? And

and I think, you know, when you attack a character, you have to create like a bible of the character's DNA.

If you play like a character in Star Wars and none of it's on screen, like your backstory, you still have to create it like where was he born? What

does he eat?

Like? What was his Do you write all that down

or do you keep it in your thoughts?

I do? Yeah, yeah, I create like a bible, and

you know, it's like a journal. And I don't know

if you read that book Artist's Way, you know, like every actor.

That's part of the curriculum.

It's a good it's a good for for the you know, for artists or anybody. It's a good book to read it,

and you know, you put your thoughts in it. But

then I walk around and I talk to myself, you know, and I figure out like how this guy walks, like, you know, was he bullied? Was he the bully? Like

you know, what's his favorite food? If he does eat

or not?

You know, do you memorize things very easily.

In terms of like lines and stuff like that.

Or do you very don't memorize them because you don't want to get them stuck in your head? A certain way.

Depends on the kind of lines. If it's exposition, it's

very difficult for me. Right, Like I played in an

attorney and it's like you know, like legal jargon. It's

like super difficult. But lines that have an emotional route

to it. Yeah, they are very easy for me.

Yeah. I feel like once you have that clear intention

and objective and then if you can relate to the character you found that grounding, that's when it becomes easier to memorize. I think that was something I started doing

the very very beginning of I had to memorize everything before I worked on the character. And now I'm like, no, no, no,

I was doing that backwards. I got to build out

the history like memorizations almost the very last thing.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, and also, you know if

when you start working with you know, seasoned actors, you know, like you think like there's going to be this linear process right when you come to set, right like everyone's going to have their lines like memorized, and the you know, the director is going to know exactly what's gonna what SHOT's going to be going on, and how they're going to approach, you know, which lenses they're going to use.

But my favorite process is when you show up and you know they have a general there's a lot of preparation, there's been pre production, but they let the artists and the actors and everybody collaborate and go, let's feel. Let's

feel like what's going on, Let's hear the words. And

instead of telling you you're going to stand there, this is your mark, it's like where would the characters make his entrance and where would he sit? And how would

you feel? And and when you get to work with

you know, really seasoned actors that you know, carry that merit, that influence, it's it's it's amazing. You know, it's like

you have the general sheet music and then you come together and you play and you create.

Yeah, that's a perfect way to describe it. Yeah, that

was all that was so cool about Out Grand Turismo.

With the director that I had the opportunity to work with, Neil Blancamp. He was very improv friendly and that was

something that I wasn't used to. But I actually at

first I was intimidated as an actor here improv but then I grew to love it because it really allowed us to be free and open and just work with the other actors. And it was it really opened my

eyes to this different world of not being so heavy on the text.

The hardest part for me in my career has been having to convince the creative or the sometimes he's a director.

Sometimes it's the producers, right, the people that are in power that I'm a three dimensional human being. You know,

you and I we have a different entry point. You know,

you're pretty white girl that comes in, big eyes, blue eyes, right, You're very American, right, And I come in even though I'm from Georgia and I'm American as apple pie. They

look at me and they're like, why why are you here?

You know, they need to explain that they need to go.

Well, do you still feel like that today or.

Is that more? I mean, I mean, I think it's changing.

You know, it's like it's wonderful that these conversations are happening of inclusiveness. But you know, I've been doing this

three decades and you know, you know the whole point of this podcast is to be transparent and have like real hard conversations. Is you know, I don't there's no

opportunities for me as an actor. You know, That's why

I'm I'm going behind the camera, you know, because I feel like my face doesn't affect, you know, decision making in Hollywood when you're a director. You know, I'm grateful

for many of the roles and opportunities I've gotten but you know, I want to have the opportunity to dive into a role that merits an oscar, you know, but I feel like it's so far away, you know what I mean. You're like, you know, in success, like even

with the Fast and Ferience franchise, a lot of times I don't feel like it helps me because they're like, yeah, he's the Asian dude that you know, he's a he's a stunt driver. And I'm like, I'm not, like, you know,

I'm not a stunt driver. Like I'm an actor. You know,

I've done. My career started with you know, independent films

that went to Sun Dance, you know, but and and with directors like I've had to you know, answer certain questions.

It's like, you know, like you know, they asked me like what martial arts do you know? And I go,

why does it have anything to do with the decisions of where my character goes within this? And it's like, well,

I don't know where to put you. And I'm like

what does that mean. It's like, well, because you're Asian,

and I'm like what. And then within like I did

a TV show and it's like every time I showed up, if I had anything to say. It was, you know,

like the character went to Chinatown, right, and I'm like hmmm.

And I used to really really like eat me up, and you know, like I used to get super down and like you know, and then that would turn into like just you know, like anger. And I realized anger

doesn't serve because it shuts everybody down. And you got

to you know, understand the rules and then you got to you got to win that game, and then you've got to be in that position where you can make change. Right.

And also we're in America too. You know, there's like

five percent of Asian people in America, so you know there's a demographic that show business has to serve. So

you know, I understand that, but you know, I envy when I hear things like you know that you've never had a bad experience because you're treated like a human being when you're invited to set, and a lot of times, especially when I started my career, like I was not I'm not treated like an equal, you know, and even to this day, you know, it's.

Just to communicate. Its difficult with directors on set. Obviously,

I've had terrible experiences with terrible humans in my life. Sure, sure,

especially being a woman in the male dominated space. But

obviously I can't relate or even begin to put myself in your shoes for what you're telling me. I'm you know,

that's really heartbreaking to hear a lot of that. You say,

the franchise you fear could have hurt you doing Oscar nominated films, but I believe that you could be cast in one tomorrow. Sincerely, I don't know if your future

entails you continuing to be in front of the camera, if you just want to fully be behind it, or maybe there's a world where you're producing the stories you want to tell that you also star in. But I

do see a world there for you.

Well, thank you. I mean, that's why I'm still in

the game, right. I'm still on the field trying to hustle,

and I am optimistic, but I also don't want to wait for the phone calls to never happen. Yeah, and so,

and then it's as I get older, it's less about like me, and it's about like how it's my contribution to the world and even this business, and you know, give other people opportunities, right, And it's not like I'm on a soapbox going Okay, I'm only going to cast like Asian American people. It's not that it's like give

any everybody that is marginalized an opportunity and like have empathy when you come in. But then also understand the

business of show business and there is an economy behind it.

And the more successful the movie is, you know, the more opportunities you have to make change, right, And instead of complaining about it, it's like what can I do to like, you know, contribute, right, And I love storytelling, I love collaboration. I love being on set. Like every

moment I'm on set, like I'm so happy. And that's

why it hurts, because you know, as an actor or the roles that I you know, get to be a part of, You're there temporarily. There's just a part of it,

you know, like real quick, you're like an appetizer and then you know you're you're You're never the main course, right.

So I like to be the first one and the last one on SAD and I like to talk to everybody.

I like the whole process, from pre production to production to post production. So I'm okay not being in front

of the camera. It doesn't have to be about me.

And any actor that says like I don't care about fame.

It's like when you start out, like you know, it is part of the allure, you know, and I don't think I need that anymore. And I love like you know,

I directed a feature during COVID feature film, my first one, and it's just an amazing feeling to be part of the process of making a film and then also seeing other people's dreams come true and being a part of that well also.

To create something from beginning to end right.

Yeah, just like a car.

Yeah, like a car.

Yeah, just like a car. And you know, like a car.

I've realized, like you can't do everything by yourself, and there's always something that you can learn. And if you

keep your mind open, you know, there's a wealth of community out there. And if you have this like empathy

and respect for other people, this willingness to learn. It's

amazing the community within the car culture. And I think

that's why I've always used the car culture as a well of community. Like you know, it allowed me to

go have direct access to individuals that aside from Hollywood, like I would just be able to look up to as fathers, as friends, you know, as masters of their craft, and the world doesn't know them, like, you know, they don't have a TikTok or YouTube. They just like dudes

in a little garage somewhere, you.

Know, can't smoking cigarettes, working on.

The car, eating tacos, right, But then you hang out with them and they're real life superheroes. You know. They're

like they're the father that I always wanted, you know, And you know, I think that's why I love the car community so much. Yeah, yeah, Do you think the

kids today are wrenching like they used to? Or is

it it could be you know, all the old timers saying they're not kids, don't even know how to drive manual anymore. But then you go to these car meets

and you go to like you know, like Sema or tokyotis on. It's like a lot of young folks out there.

I think because we live in the city, we're gonna see it a different way where sure, more kids are taking uber and there's a lot of quote unquote car pollution, so a lot of people don't want to drive as much.

But if you go outside of the city, I feel like there's just as many kids who are just as passionate about wrenching on cars and wanting to customize it to make it their own, to kind of, you know, tell their own unique story with it and personalize it.

But I also don't think things like street takeovers are helping the forward progression of the automotive industry and things like that. But I do feel like there is still

a large group of kids who are interested in cars.

It just might not be what it was twenty years ago.

It's a different way.

I mean, is it growing, is it doing these I.

Don't I don't know if it's growing. I see a

lot of racetracks starting to close because they can't keep the business. And you know, I guess if you really

look at it, how much wrenching does an evy car really need unless you're changing the brakes and whatnot. I

don't know. Maybe I just am a pretty optimistic person

or I forced myself to be, but I do believe that there are still a lot of kids growing up who are passionate about cars, who want to wrench. Is

it as much today as it was back then? I

don't know.

That's the catch twenty two with these street takeovers is that the dudes that are doing it are wrenching on their cars. What's the thing with these street takeovers? Like

why why are these kids like into it?

I don't know.

Maybe I'm just too old.

That I've never been to one, so I couldn't tell you what the hype is. I just see these horrible

videos online of kids doing donuts and intersections and some bystander getting hurt from being there.

Well, it seems like they like that getting hurt. It's

like a badge of honor, or, like getting swipe, like like you know those videos like these kids being flipped upside down.

The only thing that helme ever said, the only thing I try to think of is like, okay, so you know, back in the nineties when people were drag racing, shutting down roads in the valley or something like that to go drag racing, and the cops would come and they everyone would scatter, and you're placing bets on who's going to win. Like that was kind of frowned upon back

then too, you know, but it didn't seem as reckless as what's happening today. So I don't know, is that

just my age coming in and looking at the generation like all these kids are doing this when maybe we were doing the same things at a different point in our lives, but it was just different because it was drag racing firsus donuts. I don't know. It's with the.

Drag racing, there's a point like it's like, you know, it's like who's fastest, Who's biggest, Who is the biggest, fastest, most powerful? Right, and then you bet you're like I

win and I beat you man, I get your pink slip or I make the money.

Right, it's all clout right, I'm I would think, so who can do the craziest donut or smoke the most tire and then run from place afterwards? I'm speaking like

I like I know this. I don't really. I've looked

into trying to create a film, trying not to glorify it as much. It appears that it has more to

do with social media following and doing crazy shit with your car.

But so what, like where does it? I mean, going

fast is one thing. It's like like I make clicks,

you get because you beat so and so, or you went you went two hundred miles an hour, Like that makes sense, But then the most smoke then then.

Or the most views on a video.

And then what clout.

I don't know. Cloud's a hell of a drug.

Yeah, because you got the most smoke on your car kids points. How do you continue that? You just do go?

I don't know, Like I'm not condoning it, but I would like to understand the psychology behind it. Yeah, Like

why do people get off on this because they look like they're having a blast. Yeah right right, and I at.

Least from the videos that I've seen online.

Yeah, even the dudes that getting like swiped by the car as they get up and they're like giving each other all was so cool. It was the best, like

broken leg.

I don't understand it.

Well, maybe we're just getting older, you too, So where can people find you?

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. If you just search my name Amelia Hartford,

it's spelled E M E L I A. It'll try

to auto correct you. That's where you can find me.

All right, Well I'm excited.

I know me too. Thank you so much for.

Having me of course, thanks for being here. Yeah, this

was great, awesome,

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