For a special in-person interview in New York City, we are joined by the co-leads, co-writers, co-directors, “co-everything” as they put it, Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung to chat all about their new film Extremely Unique Dynamic. The hilarious and heartfelt buddy comedy is filled with meta-commentary as the pair play two friends who are making a movie about two friends that are making a movie about– you know what? I’ll just let them explain how the movie came to be.
“We crafted this crazy social campaign for Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey and it was our first time working together,” Harrison shared. “That led to us thinking that we can make our own movie. A lot of the experiences that we had together inspired the film itself and the meta-ness of it. I play a film marketer and an actor. Ivan plays an actor and a rapper. It’s about our final weekend together before my character moves to Canada, which happened in real life too. So all of it was based on our own experiences.”
“It was really fun and inspiring that we could just take control of our own careers,” Ivan added. “As actors, we’re waiting for our opportunities a lot. We’re waiting to get an audition. We’re waiting to get booked. We’re waiting on set. When you’re a filmmaker, you get to be all-encompassing. You’re never bored, you’re always being creative, you’re always doing something. It’s really fulfilling.”
The two actors have dozens of film and television credits between them, appearing on hit series like Grey’s Anatomy, Superstore, Criminal Minds, and American Horror Stories. Putting their directorial debut together was no easy feat, but one they were able to tackle together and finding the right team to support them was a key to their success.
Extremely Unique Dynamic is also co-written and co-directed by Katherine Pudas with cinematography by Steven Shulgach, editing by Michael Scotti Jr., and music by Ian Mackley, to name a few of the many collaborators they had on the film.
Filled with improvisation and off-the-cuff moments, Extremely Unique Dynamic came from a twenty-five-page scriptment (a cross between a full script and a detailed treatment) that outlined the events of the film and left Harrison and Ivan room to add their own flare to each scene. “The script came together in a week. We were really inspired and just wrote what we knew. That part came easier than expected,” Harrison explained. “Because we’ve known each other for so long, everything came together really naturally.”
Production on the film started in February 2023 and as if the universe had their back, they finished filming the day before the 2023 WGA strike, which SAG-AFTRA soon joined until resolutions were found later that fall. “During the strikes where there was literally nothing going on, we were editing this movie. So it kind of just all worked out in a weird way.”
A key takeaway for Ivan working on the film as both star and co-director, he learned to speak up and advocate for himself more. “As actors, you come into a show as a guest and you don’t want to step on any toes you want to you want to make sure that you’re respectful. But because we were also the directors, I had to learn to speak up a lot more.”
“I think you’re just conditioned as an actor for the longest time,” Harrison added, “You’re auditioning for someone else’s project, you’re throwing your tape out into the ether, you may or may not hear back and it often feels like you don’t have a voice in the room because you’re like the lowest end of the totem pole. It was nice to regain that authority [on our set].”
“After doing this project, I’m not just an actor anymore,” Ivan shared. “And now when I step on set on other people’s set, I feel like a peer to everyone.”
You can watch our full interview with Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung above, and stay tuned for more updates on where you can see Extremely Unique Dynamic. You can visit their website http://extremelyuniquedynamic.com for more info.