John Cho (actor, Steve): My first impression of the script was this is a very fascinating tale of a subcommunity of people that the public isn’t aware of.

Parry Shen (actor, Ben): The script reminded me of Goodfellas. These kids were going through such a downward spiral, but you still wanted them to get away with it.

John Cho: As all good films do, I feel like they shine a light into lives that you didn’t know were there.

Jason Tobin (actor, Virgil): When I read the script, I was blown away. I never had an opportunity to play such vulnerability in a character, a guy who seemed so brash, funny, and violent on the surface.

Parry Shen: They were three-dimensional characters.

Margaret Cho (actor, comedian): It was a really profound experience to see Asian-Americans in a movie without any kind of stereotyping. I watched a lot of Category III Hong Kong films in the ‘80s and ‘90s and Better Luck Tomorrow had the kind of plot twists and intricacies of those movies. I really appreciated that.

Jason Tobin: I kept thinking about the scene where Virgil breaks down and cries in the car after he beat up another kid. That scene made all the difference. It showed how scared he was deep down, and I connected with that.

Parry Shen: I related to Ben, 100 percent. When I was in high school, I did very well academically and as a result I was left alone a lot. If I missed a test, they would just let me take the test on my own, honor system. Nobody was watching me. I remember kids that were doing really well and they would write other kids’ papers for $50.

Justin Lin: I remember we were shooting in Orange County and doing crazy hours. My parents had sold the house we grew up in there and I asked them to keep it for one more month. That’s where the cast and crew slept, in sleeping bags next to each other, in the house I grew up in which had no furniture in it anymore.

Parry Shen: We shot Better Luck Tomorrow during TV pilot season, where actors make their money. I remember my agents cursed me out. They were like, “Are you even getting paid to do this movie? What is this thing?” I remember sitting with the cast and I was like, “Do you regret not being available for pilot season?” All of us were like, “Fuck no. No way.”

Jason Tobin: I’d heard it so many times that the industry thought Asians weren’t good actors, like they weren’t good drivers, and I was so ready to step to the plate to prove all those motherfuckers wrong.

Justin Lin: I didn’t want to make an Asian-American film. I wanted to make a movie about Asian-American characters.

Parry Shen: Woody Allen had wanted me to read for a role and my agent said, “You need to fly out to New York, who cares about this movie you’re shooting right now just go.” And I told them, “I’m one of the leads in this movie and it’s a very special project.”

Jason Tobin: I was part of something bigger than just being an actor in a film. I was part of a movement and it was a culmination of all the battles I had fought before that to get Asian faces on the big screen.