Answers with Jodi Long

Answer 1

Your parents were both performers. Your mother didn't want you to be an entertainer, but you made your debut on Broadway when you were only 7 years old. How did that happen?

*She Laughs* I auditioned! That happened. My father had an agent and he got a call for an "oriental kid"... that's what they called us in those days... and my father coached me, and I auditioned, and I got the job!  Once I auditioned, they decided not to take a lot of kids, they just took one, and that was me.

Answer 2

Ok Cha has a very strong personality with a number of quirks -- she can be very frugal and intimidating at times. How similar are you to Ok Cha?

Well, I think that she's a strong person and I'm also a strong person. I'm not obsessed with money... I can be frugal, but I'm not only about money. And that part of the character is really based on Steve's mom. I think I'm very straightforward... maybe not as blunt as Ok Cha. She's got very specific views of the world that are not my particular views. So we're similar because she's a strong woman, but I think that's where the similarities end.

Answer 3

In 2008 you released Long Story Short, a documentary about your parents. Can you tell us about the story?

My parents were vaudevillian entertainers in the late 40s and 50s, and my father was in the original Flower Drum Song on Broadway. When I was cast in the revival of Flower Drum Song back in 2001-2002, I started to get interested in what my parents did as performers. They were on The Ed Sullivan Show, so I wanted to share that with the cast so I went to this website and found the show and I finally got to show it to my parents. The reason why that's so special is that - and people don't realize this - in 1951 The Ed Sullivan Show was filmed live, and there was no TiVO or VCR so they had never seen themselves perform. It was a really special moment and that moment is captured in the documentary. We won awards for the documentary, like UCLA's Top Ten Documentaries of the Year and an Audience Award in LA. It also inspired the novelist Lisa See to set her next novel, China Dolls, during that period of the Asian-American entertainers and the "chop suey circus". She saw my documentary and she thought it was an interesting period in American history that not many people knew of. She called me and I got her in touch with my mother and several other performers from that era. She ended up writing China Dolls, and I did the audiobook. It just came out about a month ago. Now it's number 5 on the Bestseller Lists.

Answer 4

What are some of the things Answers users will love when they check out Sullivan & Son?

The main reason is that they're going to laugh. There's times when it's pretty silly, but it's all in great fun. I think they'll recognize somebody from their lives on our show. Watch it because you're going to laugh and you're going to feel better. I have a great job, I get to make people laugh, make them smile.

Answer 5

What's the funniest thing that has happened on set?

I was just reminded of something... and maybe you get to see this through our blooper tape. They put together a blooper tape and I had these billy clubs that the police use. They fold out as you flick them. We were doing this scene and I kept trying to open them. And I would open them and they would slide back in! I must have done it a dozen times, and by the last time, Steve and I could not keep a straight face. The worst part is they filmed it all!

Answer 6

You mentioned your mother. How did you win her respect?

It's funny. My mother just passed away, and I know I had her respect, but she was still hard on me. It was just her way and I think that's why I connected and understood Ok Cha Sullivan so well. It's not that she didn't love me, I know she did! I think that's how I earned her respect - and this is going to sound so cliche - by being a very good daughter.

Answer 7

What would Susan Sullivan have to do to win the respect of her mother Ok Cha?

*She laughs* Interesting question! The reason Ok Cha doesn't give [Susan] all her respect is so that she becomes successful. By withholding it, she makes Susan try harder and makes her achieve more. I think that's very true with Asian mothers. I know that was my mother. Obviously it wasn't [like] Ok Cha and Susan's relationship, but I think there was a certain amount of withholding because they never want you to get a big head and think you're great, so that you try harder and achieve more. I think that even if Susan became the President of the United States, Ok Cha would still find something that's not quite right with that!

Answer 8

The show doesn't generally make a big deal of Ok Cha's interracial relationship with Jack Sullivan -- how close do you think society is to not even thinking about such things?

I don't know! ...maybe in [some places] people think it's weird. I think it's less weird now, but we don't make a big deal out of it because Steve's [real life] parents don't make a big deal out of it. You can acknowledge the cultural differences and I think that's kind of the fun in the show, because our show is also very diverse. We don't just single out one group to make fun of... we make fun of all of them! I think that's the dialogue that America needs to have. I think we all have prejudices in our lives and if we can laugh at them, then they're not so bad anymore. If we can laugh at people who have those prejudices and say these politically incorrect things, we can look at it and say, "people believe that and look at it that way... but look at how silly that is." In the end, we're all human beings.

Answer 9

Have you ever done stand-up comedy?

No... I've never done any stand-up. I'm really an actor... give me 20 lines and I can deliver them. But I did introduce the boys who were doing the Sullivan & Son Comedy Tour last year. They were in New York and I was in New York and Steve wanted me to go up and introduce Owen Benjamin. I was like, "No! I don't do this kind of thing!" but I ended up doing it anyway. However, I went up as Ok Cha! I looked like myself, but I went up with the accent! Steve looked at me and said, "Oh my God. You're Ok Cha now aren't you?" So I get up there, and with my accent I said, "Steve is this guy any good? Because if he's not, we have to give them their money back!"

Answer 10

You had a prominent career in theater, and even had an award-winning one-woman play! How does the theater compare to acting on film and TV for you?

I was only 7 when that happened, so it was a long stretch of time before I acted again, because my mother did not want me to do that. I went to school, I graduated, I went to a high school of performing arts. So how did I get to this point? ... Well, I went to a conservatory program at Purchase College and pretty much a year or so after I graduated, Alan Schneider, who was one of my teachers there, got a play called Loose Ends that was written by Michael Weller, and he brought me in to audition and that play went to the Arena Stage in Washington D.C. and then Broadway. So I did that play for a year, and it starred Kevin Klein. I was kind of on my way pretty fast. And for award winning one-woman show Surfing DNA, after a while you start to think, "If I want to see certain stories on the stage, I'll just have to write them myself." So that's what I did.