Amid countless conversations lamenting the death of the rom-com, Taiwanese director Tom Lin has premiered a fresh new addition to the beloved genre. Titled Worth The Wait, the film boasts an ensemble cast of big Asian and Asian-American names, from Lana Condor, Ross Butler and Andrew Koji, to Karena Lam, Osric Chau and Singapore-raised Lim Yu-beng and Tan Kheng Hua. Set between Seattle and Kuala Lumpur, Worth The Wait follows four families whose lives become intertwined after a fateful encounter.
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“In the marketing [for the film], we talk about it being an all-Asian cast. But within five minutes of the movie, it’s immaterial,” says Tan. “Some stories, some characters that you feel closer to will move you more.” While it is fronted by Asian faces, the film is, above all, a tale of budding romance, confronting grief and overcoming heartbreak. Below, ELLE Singapore speaks to Lim Yu-beng, Tan Kheng Hua and Ross Butler about their time on the set of Worth The Wait, working on the cross-cultural project and what kind of representation matters most to them.
The film begins with a chaotic opening sequence, when Malaysian businessman Kai’s (Ross Butler) ride-share is hijacked by Teresa (Karena Lam), who is about to give birth, her husband Nathan (Osric Chau) and her domineering mother Mary (Tan Kheng Hua). Winding up at a local hospital, Kai crosses paths with nurse Leah (Lana Condor), and immediately falls for her. He starts a relationship with her despite having to return to his father Yun-han’s (Lim Yu-beng) law firm in Kuala Lumpur. This sets the story into motion.
“Kai is trying to make this long-distance relationship work, and at the same time, he’s finding it difficult to follow his father’s legacy,” Butler explains, adding that their love story is one that also showcases the uglier sides of love. “It’s a very realistic portrayal of what love is—how hard it can be, but then how rewarding it is. I hope that is what people take away from it.”
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While Kai and Leah love blossoms in more traditional rom-com fashion, the stories that simultaneously unfold delve into emotions of grief and trauma. When Teresa and Nathan’s baby is stillborn, the fallout forces Teresa to reckon with her difficult relationship with Mary, and how it has shaped her decisions in life. “It doesn’t matter what culture you come from. Our scenes were all about miscarriage, marriage and children, parents being parents—every human being experiences these things to some degree. We just go for the common denominator, which is humanity,” says Tan. “And that’s what is really going to stand the test of time.”
Love and humanity, the cast share, are the strings that transcend cultures to tie the characters of Worth The Wait together. Even so, working halfway across the globe with an all-Asian cast proved a unique experience for the seasoned actors. Having experienced the “uphill battle” of navigating Hollywood as Asian actors, Butler explains that the cast shared an unspoken camaraderie stemming from their mutual struggles. “We felt like the mission for this movie was of a higher purpose, and that’s what drove us. There was no drama, no ego. I think that’s why we shot so quickly.” The actual acting, Lim shares, came naturally from there. “It’s like a universal language. If you get a bunch of doctors from different places together to perform a surgery, sure, there are some adjustments, but it’s a universal language. We had that, so it was immediately easier.”
Behind the scenes, Butler shares that he and Condor, having grown up in the West, took the chance to reconnect with their Southeast Asian roots through food in particular. “A funny story for me was Lana trying durian,” he shares, explaining that the actress chose to do it while filming a scene where her character tastes durian for the first time in Kuala Lumpur. “The take in the movie was her first time ever, and my reaction was also genuine. And it hit me that the way I was laughing wasn’t just because it was funny. A big part of it was being able to see Lana connecting with her heritage as well,” he explains.
As an adoptee, the actress had few opportunities to connect with her Vietnamese culture, much less that of its neighbouring countries, he shares. “A lot of the joy was seeing that connection, because I’d just recently reconnected with my Southeast Asian roots. Being with her as we explored the local stalls, helping some of my Asian-American compatriots experience what I did was joyful,” he adds. “I will say, I’ve never been part of a cast that’s so open and willing to try whatever food I put in front of them,” Tan laughs. “Anything I put in front of Ross, he’ll just eat it. Everybody is just so open.”
Having acted in and out of Hollywood productions, the cast shares how their expectations and hopes for representation have changed. Now ten years into his career, Butler says: “I see some change, but it’s not where I think it should be. I think we have to approach it from the outside now, where we have to show Hollywood we can have successful movies in Malaysia or Singapore or Taiwan, and show them that it makes money.”
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Lim shares this sentiment, adding that a different filmmaking perspective also makes for more interesting explorations in tried-and-tested genres. “A lot of people enter the world of film through an American lens. It’s fun to see how individual artmakers from different places have a different take on it,” he says, offering the popularity of Asian zombie movies as an example. Butler recalls the success of South Korea’s Train to Busan, and how the cultural implications of South Korean society took the genre in a fresh direction. “It brings into question how a zombie outbreak changes in a high-trust society. So that, in turn, is something new, which reinvents the genre. That’s what people want to see,” he says. “That’s why I think approaching from the outside is the next solution, because in America, a lot of movies are just retelling the same story in the same cultural context.”
Looking beyond Worth The Wait, the cast agrees that the ultimate goal is to reach a point where there is no longer a need for constant conversations and pushes toward representation. “We all look to the day when there is no need for a quota, even just a socially imposed one, to redress imbalance,” shares Lim. To that end, Tan says: “I want to see a time where making a film with casts from all over the world is normal, and has nothing to do with defining it in any particular category. It’s just about good, authentic storytelling.”
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.