February 2, 2023 • 40 mins
Ros and Eric welcome Christina Chang and they get after it!
Christina dishes on how she first met her husband at a party…when he was with his Ex! Find out what parenting issue they don't necessarily see eye to eye on. Then the conversation takes an emotional turn as they discuss caring for their aging parents.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is he said with Eric Winter and Rosalind Fantev.
Good afternoon, Hi, good afternoon. I'm happy today we have
another good good friend, Maga talented. You want to make
the introduction. Yeah, Christina Chang. You might know her as
Dr Audrey Limb, chief of surgery on the Good Doctor. Um.
(00:24):
I mean she's been working for such a long long time.
This was a great gig that we were so happy
to see her land and be a part of such
a great show. Um. And they're just looking forward to
chat with her about so much life, family, the business.
It'll be great. Let's bring her in. Did we meet
(00:45):
doing dragon it? That's how we meet drag it. Oh
my god. So then you were right. That's Christina has
been a long time, long time. It's each other for
a very long time, like pre our spouses, yes, obviously
our babies. Yeah, but for all the greatest parts of
your lives. Uh, we're presented to you. We were lost, yeah,
(01:09):
and then you found only had one another, and and
then the world opened up to yeah you found some
and myself and your children and now like the world
is your oyster. You two are happy. Oh my god,
look at you guys. These by the way do I
need these? You sound great? So I think you're fine.
I think you're fine. This is a blurred background because
this is my bedroom. It's okay, So you're How is life?
(01:33):
You know? We we used to Seecrestine all the time,
and then she booked a big show called The Good
Doctor and just moved her life to Vancouver. And we
never on such tiny little shows. We never see you
anywhere as you live in Canada. I do know. I'm
not Canadian though not. Do you love it though? Are
you used to it by now? Yeah? We love it.
(01:53):
That's great. Vancouver is stunning expensive though. Every time we
go to onecouvers and Vancouver's expensive, but it is, But
I guess it's I mean, what is l A and
New York? And it's comparable? I think it's it's fairly comparable.
Now it feels like I don't know, real estate, still
pretty outrageous, but more like New York. Um in l
(02:14):
A is you know bad? It's softening here. I don't
know what it's like there right now. Um, but I'm
sure it's been easier now that you you know, you
got um the family up there right because you were
doing the back and forth for a long time, which
makes it pretty brutal and insane to maintain. We talked
about that on our show a lot, you know, ross
in Puerto Rico four and a half months out of
(02:34):
the year, and it's it's a lot to juggle. And
you were doing it on a network uh you know,
more of a traditional uh show what you're doing at
least eighteen episode she does, which is a little more manageable.
But now, I mean, you guys might even do more
than eighteen now and I don't know, but it's a
lot of episodes, so it definitely helps having the family there.
Let me ask you something. I want to go back
(02:55):
to the very beginning, right, So you grew up in Taiwan,
correct until you were a teenager or what time that
I graduated high school there, but I did go to
in an international school with an American curriculum. So I
left at the age of seventeen and then and came
to the States to go to university. And that was
always the plan, Like that was my parents always knew
(03:16):
we were gonna, you know, grow up overseas and then
come to the States for for college. And when you
say college, you already knew that you wanted to be
in the business or you went to college for something else.
It was just like you know, back in the eighteen
forties at that school, you know, especially our school. I
mean we had like a nine nine percent rate of
(03:38):
everybody going to college, you know. So, um, I didn't
know what I wanted to do or be. I just
my mom said, you're going to college, Like that's just
what you're gonna do. You're gonna get your education, college degree.
So what is your bachelor's? Oh? Your masters? You have one? Yeah?
I have both. Um, Christina is actually very smart. Christina
(03:59):
is like, I'm a doctor in real life as well.
My art and my life just imitate one another. No,
I got a be a in theater, like in fine arts,
and and then I got like, my, um, I'm minored
in Chinese, in fluent, but you're fluent in Chinese, right.
I was to be honest with you, you know, when
(04:21):
you don't live it and speak it with everybody, it
goes it's really not fluent. And even growing up there,
like using even growing up there and using it all
the time like you. I'm sure that was your first
language growing up, right, I mean, you're an International school.
So is it English speaking at the school. Yes, it
was an American curriculum. Okay, alright, that's why English is
so beautiful. There's no accent, no accent, Yours is going away.
(04:44):
My accent. Thank you for English. That the things that
I that I have a thick accent, I don't think
I have it at all. I'm going to be honest, though,
when I met you trever years ago. Uh, it was thicker,
of course. Yeah right, I mean no, no, when I
(05:08):
I know it came along way when I moved here.
When I moved to the States at twenty one, I
was able to understand everything, but I was petrified of
speaking in English. And my accent was super thick. It
still is, you know. That's the difference that you didn't
grow up speaking English, whereas Christina grew up. I never
had a conversation, yes, and English a lot. I never
had a conversation in English until I was movie twenty
two years old because because yeah, like you go to
(05:32):
in Puerto Rico, you this. I went to a bi
lingual school and it was private Catholic school. Um, but
you're not talking in English to nobody. It's funny. The
new generation my nieces and my nephews. They speak with
no accent. But it's this new generation because all they
watch is American TV and all the books are in English.
So they they and they love it. You know. They
actually communicate between each other in English, which is a
(05:54):
trip to me. I'm going, guys, what are you doing
speaking Spanish? Anyways? Um? Okay, So what was your first
what was your first gig in the business? In the business, Well,
you know, I studied are we talked about long ago?
Was my first job? Do you remember, like you booked
your first not commercial, I'm talking about a guest star
(06:17):
or were you minored in theater? So you're starting to
know that you wanted to be an actor. That's you
knew at some point in college that that's what you
wanted to pursue. Yep, it was. I was I think
nineteen or twenty when I decided like, I'm probably going
to try to make a go of this. Um. I
originally wanted to be a dancer. Really I didn't know that. Yeah, look,
(06:37):
ballet I did. I was just starting on point at
the age of thirteen. Uh, and then I found out
that I my scoliosis hadn't gotten a lot worse, and
I had to wear a Milwaukee back brace goes from
like here all the way down to you know, your hips,
(06:58):
So that curb that dream, right then? Okay, so then
I did, of course, you know, I thought that's what
I was gonna do. And then a thirteen, when your
dreams or dashed, you don't know what you're gonna do.
So I found expression through theater and that's when I decided, Okay,
maybe I will actually make a go of it. And
that's that's how I decided. But I thought it would
(07:21):
be theater. I never thought television or film. Okay, now, okay,
so talk to us about your and I feel. It's guys,
we know on each other for so long and we've
been I mean, we've got married, we've had kids. You know.
She Christina was at our wedding. Um Samara, her daughter
is friends with Sabella. They don't see each other anymore
because you're in Canada, but they have so many pictures
(07:43):
and so many many memories of them as kids, you know,
just having play dates and it's just beautiful. Um. So
the good doctor. Okay, how was that process you read
it your audition? How was the process of getting that
that role. So, you know, when I auditioned for it
and hadn't aired yet, so I didn't know, like tonally
what it was. I didn't, you know, I just knew
(08:05):
that like Freddie him More was the lead and it
was about a you know, a young man with autism.
And I thought, okay, I'm gonna you know, I was
always auditioning for like the doctor, the professional, right, so
I thought, okay, let me just go in and kind
of do what I do and you know, and it
was just for a guest star with a potential three uh,
(08:29):
And I went in an auditioned and you know, and
then like a week or two went by and then
I got the call like, oh, you got it. And
at the time I was excited to just at the
prospect of being like, you know, mom of a toddler,
of just kind of getting to go away for three
or four days and being in a hotel room and
working and feeling like, oh what it was before. Um.
(08:49):
So that's actually how that started. And I you know,
came up to Canada and did it and enjoyed everybody
and had a good time and kind of thought, well,
by maybe I'll see you, maybe I won't, um. And
then they brought me back again, and they brought me
back again, and then you know, about four months later,
I got the call with the offer for you know,
(09:10):
joining the cast as a regular, which was a dream,
fast way to enter a show for sure, especially when
that you're premiered and it was a smash hit that
it was like, oh my god, to be a part
of a show that's a hit, not just to be
a part of a show that may or may not work,
but you know, this show is working, So you stepped
into a sweet position at that point. I really did.
(09:31):
And you know, come on, guys, we've done this for
so long, and that the prospect of those screen tests
and doing that, you know, just that rigorous process. You know,
it's just it's you put so much into it and
your your heart gets broken and you stressed out. And
so this was really like a true gift, blessing, you know,
(09:52):
to be able to enter the show that way, and
like to your point, Eric, it's a it does very
well and globally, so it's such a gift. You know.
It's funny somebody asked me this the other day regarding
(10:13):
our kids, and and you know, we know this sort
of you know, we've talked about this amongst us as friends,
just the ups and downs of this business and how
difficult it can be. And you know, it's like to
hit the lottery and get a show that's been on
for five six years, right and all this it's it's
an anomaly. It doesn't really happen um very often. If
if samorrow is to come to you and I don't
(10:34):
know if she's this, conversations come up and she's I
want to be an actress, wants she wants to you guys.
It came up at least a year ago, and she's
asking what can I be understand? Can do? Oh my god,
I just can you just ask them? And I was like,
are you is this a joke? What's happening right now?
(10:55):
This is no? Uh? And then I thought, you know what,
don't say no, say if you feel ready to audition,
there's a part that comes up, you may audition. So
then we started talking about when she goes over my
life with me sometimes and she's like learning how to
say these very complicated medical terms, and you know it's
like should she come on as a resident And I'm kidding,
(11:15):
but you know I did say listen, I will ask
the show runner if there's a part that's you know,
age appropriate, and you know the size of the part's
got to be pretty small. Not had any experience, you know,
I mean, I don't want to get her an age
in and do all that stuff. Is she taking classes though?
Up there? If you put her in anything, it's called
(11:37):
it's called a natural ability. But she I'm but I'm
saying that there's ways of obviously exploring the grind of
learning as a kid when it comes to that kind
of with this kind of craft, right Like some people
gett into classes and go like, oh, this isn't what
I thought it would be, or because that's really what
it is, right Like acting, A big part of this
business is the process. It's not even getting the job.
It's the acting classes, the studying, the learning line and
(12:00):
then never getting a job and then doing it over
and over and over and then when you actually get
the gig. That's actually the fun part, the thing with
the thing with the process. And that's why kids, you know,
we have to protect them that the process, it's fun
and it's fantastic. You're working on your craft is an exercise.
Every time your audition, it's a lot of fun that
part of the process, until it doesn't become fun anymore.
(12:21):
You know, when you do it for so long, it
gets to the point that you're like, what am I doing?
What am I doing? You know, it's it's very it's
very tricky, and to be honest with you, the reason
that I haven't done much with it, and it's also
because I think, well, I take the level of interest
that lead from her. If she asks me and says
I'm really interested, and then it goes away. How interested?
(12:42):
Now if she were coming after this every day, every
other day, every week and saying I want to take class,
I want to learn how to do this, then I
would pay more attention to it. I think she's just
now exploring the idea of it. I think, you know,
and someone I talked about this. We think she's interested
because it's what mom does. And then every week on
TV she's oh, look there she is in the or
(13:03):
in the commercials when you have the TV going, oh
there's there you are on TV. That part is what's
exciting to her, which is not the reason to get
into serious about that. Then sure, I'll entertain that, but
I'm not interested in closing her to the process right now,
of unless she wants to take like YadA, you know,
if we go back to the play and we want
to join YadA or something like that. Okay, but I'm
(13:26):
not sure I'm interested in encouraging it unless she's bringing yeah, yeah,
that we we follow in the same you know, belief system.
As far as that goes. We're not pushing. We would
never push up. We would never even it doesn't even
come to our mind to bring it up. The opposite
is I will never I like, so not interested, I
think because it's what I do. Funny enough, like you
(13:47):
have something, you have something, right, Bean intrigued right because
I see mom on TV, so I think this is
cool and glamorous. Sabella is if you're doing it, I'm
not doing it. Well, No, But she also has her
passionate sports. She's we're just yes, she's doing really well
at tennis and she just loves support. Like at school,
she's playing the soccer team right now, she was in
(14:07):
basketball team. Now she's doing volleyball. Like. She loves sports
and that's sort of her her thing. Um. And it's
funny because she gets embarrassed and annoyed when we get
recognized around her. She's like, oh my god, another person
asking DA, and like, it doesn't it's not to her.
It's not a glamorous thing. It's just like he's kind
(14:29):
of funny. It's interesting. It finds it a little more interesting.
But he's so shy. He's getting better, but I don't
know that he's getting So he said to me he
wants a little commercials, so you're for real he wants
to Yeah, he wants to do like he wants to
be on TV. I don't know if he understands exactly
what he's talking about. But I keep taking all these
pictures because he's so freaking cute. So every morning I'm
(14:49):
gonna take a picture, and he's like, why do you
think that any picture than me? I'm going because you're
very cute. And then little, I know, it's a little
by little, he's been saying that he wants to like
be on TV. But I think it's more I don't
think he doesn't know what he's talking about. You know,
he's only five five years old, so little, but also
like that could be the thing that he does, you know,
I mean, how are we supposed to know when we're seventeen?
(15:14):
You go to college eighteen whatever the ages these days
if they go to college, like, how do you pick
a major? How do you how do we get here?
You know, it's so I want to talk about how
did you meet? Maybe daddy? Yeah, I don't remember. How
you guys met? Yeah, well, because it's pretty ordinary. We
met at a Fourth of July barbecue. We had mutual friends.
(15:37):
Mutual friends. They were New York friends because you know,
he's from there and I lived there for a while
and we had never met there. But we went to
this and I had gone to an earlier party on
the Fourth of July with a friend of mine whose
girlfriend had just broken up with him, and so I
was kind of like, come on, Mr heartbroken, come with me.
Let's go to this party. It's going to be super fun.
If we get there, it was horrendous. So we're like,
(15:58):
where do we go? Where to go? Some I'm texting
friends and like, oh, we're having just a very simple,
easy backyard barbecue, like a great loki. Let's do that.
So I brought him to that and we're all just
kind of chilling people, drinking beers, just not very music,
playing very chill, and then in walks some with this
woman who's like five ten, he's like six three and
a half. Looked at nice looking, tall couple. And I
(16:20):
remember them coming in because the house had like it
was the house and then to the back was like
stairs down, and then all of us were kind of
down in the yard. So when they arrived, they were
like up on these steps, you know. So I remember
when they didn't make an entrance, but they just kind
of stood there, kind of looking around for whoever they
might know. And so he struck me, and I was like, well,
he's handsome, but he's with somebody or whatever. Uh. And
(16:42):
then you know, then pretty soon were introduced because I
know so and so and I don't know, and he's
standing next to me, and I can feel that he's
flirting with me a little. It's so inappropriate, like he's
with a woman. What about over there? Yeah? What about
a little over there? What's you have a fight today?
What happened? No? And uh, I think I must have
(17:06):
said something. Unfortunately don't recall, but he said to me, oh,
oh no, no, that's my No, that's my ex. We're
just friends, okay. That's was that a flag of like, wait,
what are you at a party with your ex, Yeah,
that's with benefits or are they just friends? I did
(17:27):
wonder this is a good topic, right, I would have
been like, wait, hold on, why is your ex with
you at a party? And who's the X? What your relations?
Well my assumption because of course I knew nothing about
this guy, right, so I assumed like, oh, they're comfortable.
But I'm like, she flew in from New York and
was staying with him in his roommate, So I was like,
of course, it's like, yeah, of course right, like of
(17:48):
course never and I believe him. He was just like
she literally flew in and we did. They shared custody
of a dog, so they like hung out and they
were to this day. Like they don't speak as much,
but like, I'm actually kind of friends too with some
of my exes. Friendly, Like we're not friends like you
(18:10):
see them friendly friendly, friendly for sure, and like if
I come into town wherever they live or vice versa,
we'll get together and he's fine with that with that,
that's good. Ros and I are opposite on most things
in life. This is the one thing I think that
we're not opposite on, Like we neither of us are
close to exes, and I don't think either of us. Yeah,
(18:34):
knowing both of us, we wouldn't be like, oh, yeah,
go see your ex for dinner, like we would both
of us wouldn't think that it's kind of a weird
going to happen. But I'm glad A lot of people
I know they do do that. And like my dad
was like that. He was friends with every single ex
he ever had, So like, I totally get it, and
I know a lot of people that maintain like very
close friendships with their exes. So you guys had that
(18:55):
Fourth of July, it was at the beginning, or you
didn't see each other for a while before you started dating. Yeah, no,
we didn't see each other again until I think the
end of August, I want to say, or we get
the middle of August or something like that, because I
took yeah, I don't know why, but because we didn't
exchange numbers. Okay, you find me over social media, and
(19:17):
the way he tracked me down was I posted a
photo from that night and tagged a friend, right, Okay,
that's how he found me. Okay, Oh my goodness. So
then he messaged me that way and was supers and
(19:38):
let me ask you, you guys are like a by
racial couple. How do you guys? You you white American,
your mom was white, your dad was Filipino or Chinese
Chinese and Filipino Chinese, Filipino white. He's full Indian, right
fully Indian. And then so how is that in terms
of of of differences differences you guys were both from
(20:01):
the States. Totally. We celebrate Devoli, we celebrate Lunar New Year,
you know what I mean, we celebrate Um, everything that's
great grows up with so much sort of diversity in
that regard, right, It's like it's embedded in who she is.
But she gets to celebrate all these cultural specificities, which
(20:21):
I think is very nice. And she's also you know,
it's interesting being here in Vancouver. Um, there's a large
Southeast Asian population as well as Chinese. So it's nice.
You know, we go to school with a lot of
people who have the same experiences. She speaking the language,
(20:42):
she doesn't speak, you know what, though she loves Bollywood films,
she knows a lot of songs. Okay, she's seeing things
in Hindi. She doesn't always know what they mean, but
sort of that's a wonderful way that son Samara connect
is that music? Um? And we'll be playing like Bollywood
(21:02):
or Indian music in the car and I have no
idea what the song is, what they're saying, but they're
both doing data, you know, They're like singing, and I'm like,
what does this mean? And then I had Smara taking
I mean, I've got to get her back into it.
But we had like a Mandarin tutor last in grade
three okay in the house and kind of starting to
(21:24):
do that because it's I can speak to her that way,
but she doesn't. It's terrible. I'm sure you speak to
your children in Spanish and it works out perfect. Who
speaks Oh, come on? Do we do? But they're they're
more comfortable. Well, I do you don't speak Spanish? You do?
I do? Very please? Anyways, next topic anyways, but do
(21:49):
they take it in class? I mean, this is you know,
don't Let's started now in fifth or fourth grade and
basically the Sabella is bilingual, um. And I think a
lot of that had to do because del Mier nanny
spoke only Spanish to her the entire time when she
was traveling with us. And I was in Vancouver, for example,
and Roses in Atlanta and del Me was with us
(22:10):
a lot, so she only was spoken to in Spanish
by Dell me Me. Roz would kind of go in
and out and I'm being honest, don't lie, don't get upset.
She would go very in and out. And I was
always this, you know, funny enough, the white guy going
just speak Spanish, just speak Spanish, like I just wanted
these kids to be spoken to in Spanish. I don't
know what the in Grandma like she likes to say,
like what it was with her that she couldn't just
(22:32):
do Spanish with them. But if Puerto Rican friends came over,
it was all Spanish. But then if like to the kid,
it was English. And maybe it's because I don't speak it.
So she felt she had to inspect of community. But
I don't care. I was like, just spak Spanish with Dylan.
He understood. Are they talking about me? Fine? I Dylan's
understands a little bit. But this doesn't want to speak
(22:53):
given close to like Sabella, I have to work. When
they were still without words like whatever one and A
have to you know, when they were starting to learn,
like dog, can't you know that stuff? And a little
bit past that, I would speak in Mandarin to her,
and I what I noticed was that she had like
a a little bit more of a delay linguistically. I
(23:14):
now understand that it's probably because she was trying to
synthesize Mandarin and what is English. I should have stuck
with it and not worried about whether or not she
was going to be delayed, um, And I think what
I did was like, you know what, I'm just going
to pick a lane. You know, at the time, I
was like, I just want her to like be able
to speak with her peers. So I picked a lane
(23:34):
and it was English because that's also what Dad speaks, right,
So they say the best method is that if one
parent picks a lane and that lane is that language, like,
just picks Mandarin, just pick Spanish. Don't go back and forth,
just stay with that so they understand, I need to
learn whatever this is you're saying, because I can't communicate
with mom if I don't understand what you're saying. And
(23:56):
then if Dad is just speaking English, then boom, these
little sponge is just absorbed everything coming at him. And
it might actually like Sabella never delayed her way if
she was always very communicative with with language in general,
so I don't every think she had a delay, um,
but it was because Delmi was really like around a
lot and it was Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, and there was
(24:17):
no way to talk to her nanny if she didn't
start communicating in Spanish. It was like that. And of
course that's the way to go. And if I had
found someone who, you know, was a nanny that spoke Mandarin,
you know, I mean, we just needed to find somebody
who could actually take care of our daughter at the
time and what we needed, and trying to find someone
who could speak Mandarin and Lay at the time was
an extra challenge, right, But absolutely that's the way to
(24:39):
go about it. And when I was growing up in Taiwan,
that's what my dad did. So before I started going
to school, I would play with the neighborhood kids and
they were all Chinese and my dad only spoke Mandarin
in the home, so I had one parent, like you
just said, who only spoke Mandarin. And then of course
my mother only spoke English. Um. And of course, like
a family dinners every night, we would speak English because
(25:00):
that's my mom was there. But for the most part,
my dad spoken Yeah, if you want to communicate with
your dad. That was the natural reaction. You'd speak in managing.
And also like we would we Savella a lot. We
would do cartoons in Spanish, so when she was little,
all the cartoons would be set in Spanish. So she
and she get mad, but it was like, well you
want to watch it, figure it out. Yeah, talk to us, um,
(25:22):
Christina about Asian representation because I know that you must
be so incredibly pleased and happy. You know that finally,
because you know, as Alatina, that's our main issue and
complain in the business is we don't get enough parts,
you know, so we we're waiting. Were always were here,
we here, we here, you know. Um, I still feel
(25:42):
that way, okay, you know. I mean, of course, this
is a fantastic time, um, and a lot of progress
has been made, but obviously we have some way to go.
But is this an exciting time with everything everywhere all
at once? For example, getting those a lot and nominations
Fantastic or Home Child getting her nomination for Best Supporting
(26:05):
Actress in the Whale, Like, this is an exciting time. Um.
I just was in Sundance last week, not with a film,
but one of the exciting things was that Daniel D. Kim,
who's company three a D Media, partnered with gold House
and the Asian American Foundation to create the very first
(26:25):
a p I house on Main Street. It's and this
is the first time in all the years that Sundance
has existed that a p I had a presence on
Main Street. So that was really exciting. Um, just have
that there, you know, and there are other houses, there's
a Latin X House, Black House and Macro Lodge, but
(26:49):
there wasn't an API house, so that was exciting. Um
to witness, you know, to bear witness. That was really cool.
And it happened to fall on the lunar New Year weekend,
so that was like double the celebration. But I mean,
of course it's exciting and at the same time, let's
go that's how I'm feeling, you know, like Okay, it's like,
(27:11):
you know, it's it's about a lot could be said
on this topic, but you know, no, I know, I know,
to finalize, I want to talk a little bit. And
this is more we're not going to serious note because
it's it's a topic that is very relevant that I'm
(27:33):
sure many people we relate listeners. I'm sure they have
a family member or somebody or they have known of
somebody that suffers or suffer from the disease. So you
were super super close with your mother and then know what,
how many years how old was she when you started noticing,
my mom is forgetting things and my mom is showing
(27:54):
symptoms yea of all timer Yeah, so yes, she was
diagnosed with all AMers And uh it was she was
probably seventy one when things started to look a little
bit that's considered young. Like I just recently posted a
photo of her um zip lining for her seventies a
(28:19):
year before she was diagnosed. She was zip lining, Yeah,
and there was didn't appear to be any issue. So
to bullet point this because again this could be like
a whole long episode. But she was about seventy one
when we noticed. And I think it's because I was
pregnant with Samaraw so the red flags where my mom
was not living in the same city or state as us,
(28:40):
so I wasn't able to keep tabs on a daily basis.
And so at first I thought, oh, maybe she's like
a little bit depressed living by herself. Maybe we should
get her to visit more often, Maybe we should think
about having her moved to l A, you know, but
the big red flag was she couldn't wait to be
a grandmother. And the mom that I grew up with,
if was the kind of woman that would fly out
(29:02):
and help you decorate your baby's room, right, And when
I offered that, I was like, would you like to
come and help me? She was like, no, you've got it,
and that's um. And then when we did meet up
for a trip at a like a relative's birthday, she
was really quiet. Kept her also not my mom, and
(29:23):
she was really quiet with her head been and just
kind of like shoveling food during meals and little tiny
things that don't necessarily signify Alzheimer's, you just kind of like, oh,
she's sad, she's quiet. So it was at my my
baby shower, um, when a friend of mine whose father
had been battling Alzheimer's for a while, she's the one
(29:44):
that pulled me aside and said, your mom seems to
be exhibiting signs of dementia or Alzheimer's And I wasn't.
I just didn't know very much about that disease. So
I was like, no, no, if this is something maybe
like depression or maybe there's something else going on with her,
Like she's just quiet, she's not forgetful, you know, she's
not whatever I thought Alzheimer's was. And my friend said,
(30:08):
but it presents differently in everybody, right, and it's you're
about to have a child, and if you want her
to help you with the baby, like you need to
make sure she's like fully. And my mother was very
resistant to it. It was a big fight to get
(30:28):
her to go get the CT scan, and I unfortunately
had to say to her, if you do not get this,
you will not get to meet your grandchild. It was
a terrible stance to take, but I thought there was
She was so resistant that she was absolutely defiant. I
was like, there's nothing wrong with me, nothing wrong with me.
Cut to we get the scan and the doctor calls
(30:49):
October one and says, and it's a you know, my
mom's in the room with the doctor. And he called
there in Florida and they call me and they say, yes,
she has Alzheimer's. And then I gave three days later.
Three days later. You gave birth three days later, a
few weeks earlier than my due day. So you know,
(31:09):
how does that work in terms of Alzheimer's because I
don't know enough about the disease either. Are there stages?
So when they read the CT they're like, you're at
stage one, stage two? Or how does that work? Like
you know the severity of it at the time, Yeah,
it was not described to me that way. Um it
was She's an early stages have like early and then
(31:30):
medium and then kind of advanced, And they can't give
you timetables. I'm sure everybody's different of how fast the
disease can progress. Correct, Although at a certain point they
were like, your mom has like another five years and
I was like five years of memory or five years
of prey or life, and they were like life, really,
and what was that accurate? Was it five years? Yeah?
(31:54):
We got that, so mom had it for nine and
a half years. Explained that part, Christina, because something that
I think people can learn a lot about myself included Alzheimer's.
You know, you often just think someone loses their memory,
can't recall things, you know, those those sort of actions.
But no one just automatically thinks that they could dive
from Alzheimer's. What is the impetus for someone passing away
(32:18):
in five years due to Alzheimer's. Is it because the
body can't function properly anymore because the brain is not
feeding the organs and everything else. That the correct response
to do X, Y and Z. Correct, that's what it is.
And you know, dementious sort of the general term like
the umbrella to all the more specific diseases. And so
I don't I'm not well versed on some of the
other ones. My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I'm I'm
(32:42):
not sure exactly, you know, because only one neurosurgeon said that.
Another one was like, it's confusing because her mother's brain
looks perfectly intact, but it's like, she certainly had a
neurological disease and it presented as Alzheimer's, so we're gonna
go with that for out it could have been vascular
dementia and like not entirely sure. And actually when she died, um,
(33:07):
we donated her brain to studies to research, Yeah, for studies, Yeah,
for research. Yeah. So uh and that was two years ago,
and they said it's about a two or three year
weight to get information, to get what And I'm nervous
because I don't know what they're gonna reveal. And if
(33:29):
that means it's genetic. If I'm predisposed, I'm not. I've chosen,
by the way, not to be tested for certain things
because I think, unfortunately we don't have a solution. And
to me, that's like the dangling sword over my head.
If I know, for example, that I have, say a
(33:49):
chance of getting it, then I'm just going to focus
on When we talked about that, because you see that
the Chris hemswork. We haven't seen this docuseries that he has,
but you know he found out he's you know, directly predisposed,
and and we were talking about on the podcast would
you want to know? And I said, I wouldn't want
to know, because I would just live with that fear,
that anxiety of like it's gonna happen one day, It's
(34:10):
gonna happen on day, instead of just enjoying all of
these days leading up to when it happens and I
can't control it anyway. You know, well exactly the point.
And you know, if it was some other disease that
they have a lot of research and a lot of
you know already like medications preventative or otherwise in place,
then I potentially would write like I know a lot
of people who get tested for the Brocka gene and
(34:31):
if they it's a high percentage of something, maybe they
surgically removed something, or they that I can't surgically remove
my brain that you know what I mean, It doesn't
work that way. And so in this particular case currently,
I don't want to know. That's just where I am. Yeah,
you know what I'm dealing um with my dad. My
dad had a stroke maybe seven months ago, um, and
it's being left changing for the whole family and from himself.
(34:54):
But even before it happened, and now more than ever,
and my mom tells me all the time, like you
your dad's his mind is just leaving. He's going, he's going,
And so what do you say that? And she said,
because he doesn't remember. Like it's getting to the point
that you give him lunch because he's on a wheelchair.
You know, he's completely can function by himself anymore, So
you give him lunch. And then within fifteen twenty minutes
(35:16):
he goes, did I eat lunch? Give me lunch? Oh no,
if I you just eight And he forgot But and
I realized because I went to see him and we
had incredible conversations. He's so lucid, and he remembers everything
from years ago, so past memories, it's okay. The problem
is the immediate stuff, which is so crazy. It is crazy,
(35:37):
and I think particularly with Alzheimer's, one of the first signs.
I mean, what what it's doing to the brain initially
is you're losing the part of your brain that has
the ability to learn. That's why the short term stuff goes,
So the long term the stuff that's been ingrained in
you since you were five, whatever that's there that you
(35:58):
know feels like innate, that's you're able to remember. But
sure stuff that you just learned is going to go.
Are there some charities that you work with or um
and you want to share with the listeners that are
great tools or resources that people can you know, look into. Yeah,
I didn't lean uh as much as I probably should
(36:19):
have on Alzheimer's organization. I am an ambassador for them,
and I just can't say enough. I mean, it's it's
not a very old organization was started in it has
there's this is something you know. Obviously, our brain is
the most mysterious organ in our body currently and I
think we just need more funds, you know, and like
(36:40):
the FDA just granted this, you know, the approval for
this particular drug for example, that you know now we're
fighting Medicare two allow for because right now, the only
people that have access to this new drug, which basically
removes the plaque in your brain, you know, increases Alzheimer's.
Um Like, we need Medicare to allow us to get
(37:04):
this drug at an affordable rate. Otherwise, you know, only
the rich can have access to this. And it's just
it's this huge battle. I mean, it seems to be
happening to so many people, you know. Unfortunately, I can't
pull the statistic right now how many people get it?
Like every you know, like every minute, so and so,
you know, how how many people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
(37:24):
I mean I have three close friends. You your mom.
Then remember Brenda, my publicist in Puerto Rico, that is
a close friend friend of mine. She was one of
the rights maids. Her mom just passed away a couple
of weeks ago. But I'm telling you, when she showed
me the picture days before she passed, it was a
different human being. It was a skeleton. It was just
the most traumatic thing. Um So yeah, you know, it's
(37:47):
like it's so it's very freaking. He's becoming more and
more common, and it what a horrible disease, you know
what I mean, It's like for everybody involved, go, oh
my god, it is. It's terrible because the person isn't
and the thing is too. Part of it is the
dignity of it. You know that they want to help
them keep their dignity as they slowly lose their faculties.
(38:11):
I guess it's the best way to put it. It's
a very difficult disease to witness and for obviously the
person that is going through it. And you're right, the
you know, the day my mom died, it's an unrecognizable
she was she was like eighty pounds and she was
five nine, and she was just a skeleton, you know,
(38:35):
And it was and she lost her ability to walk
and then eventually move and then and speak. She lost
her ability to speak before she I mean, just it
all goes just and then they're just kind of she
for her anyway, she was just kind of like a
silent Oh my god. Anyways, I'm so sorry. Well, thank
(38:55):
you for sharing. Ending on this note, this is a
listen the good thing is that she's so happy. She's
so proud of you. And you know that, Christina, she's
proud of you what you've done, what you've done with
your life. She has a stunning granddaughter that is just
going to be an incredible little lady. You know, you're
happily married, you have a great job. You know, she's
(39:16):
you've seen you your ups and downs and your struggles
and now you're in victory and you're vibrant and and
life is looking up and smiling at you. So she's happy.
That's what matters. Absolutely, Yes, wonderful to you guys. By
the way, we'll do it again on the next podcast.
We won't see you until then. They'll be like h
(39:38):
only on the podcast, never in person, and some are
with us the Good Doctor on ABC. Make sure you're
checking it out. Bye. Well that was It's always great
to catch up there. It's funny how this podcast is
allowed us to catch up with so many of her
(39:58):
friends that are close friends, but we don't get to
see that often, and we do it on our podcast. Yes,
I mean we're very close to Christina and so um
and like you said, Sibell and Smart grew up together.
But you know this business, uh you know, pulls people
a Parkard. You can't you can't be in the same
place all the time. So um this I know. I'm
so happy for her because guys, like I said, we've
(40:19):
known each other for so long when ups and downs
and both not working and freaking out and and she's
so talented and and just elegant and so smart. So
when she got The Good Doctor and it was a
hit show, it was like, oh my god, I was
happy for Christine. And she's so deserving of this moment.
Now she's killing it, he's killing it. That was fun.
Love you, thanks for listening. Don't forget to write us
(40:42):
a review and tell us what you think. If you
want to follow us on Instagram, check goes out at
he said, was that email Eric and Ross at I
Heard radio dot com, he said, is part of I
Heard Radios Michael Podcast Network. See you next time.
This is he said with Eric Winter and Rosalind Fantev.
Good afternoon, Hi, good afternoon. I'm happy today we have
another good good friend, Maga talented. You want to make
the introduction. Yeah, Christina Chang. You might know her as
Dr Audrey Limb, chief of surgery on the Good Doctor. Um.
(00:24):
I mean she's been working for such a long long time.
This was a great gig that we were so happy
to see her land and be a part of such
a great show. Um. And they're just looking forward to
chat with her about so much life, family, the business.
It'll be great. Let's bring her in. Did we meet
(00:45):
doing dragon it? That's how we meet drag it. Oh
my god. So then you were right. That's Christina has
been a long time, long time. It's each other for
a very long time, like pre our spouses, yes, obviously
our babies. Yeah, but for all the greatest parts of
your lives. Uh, we're presented to you. We were lost, yeah,
(01:09):
and then you found only had one another, and and
then the world opened up to yeah you found some
and myself and your children and now like the world
is your oyster. You two are happy. Oh my god,
look at you guys. These by the way do I
need these? You sound great? So I think you're fine.
I think you're fine. This is a blurred background because
this is my bedroom. It's okay, So you're How is life?
(01:33):
You know? We we used to Seecrestine all the time,
and then she booked a big show called The Good
Doctor and just moved her life to Vancouver. And we
never on such tiny little shows. We never see you
anywhere as you live in Canada. I do know. I'm
not Canadian though not. Do you love it though? Are
you used to it by now? Yeah? We love it.
(01:53):
That's great. Vancouver is stunning expensive though. Every time we
go to onecouvers and Vancouver's expensive, but it is, But
I guess it's I mean, what is l A and
New York? And it's comparable? I think it's it's fairly comparable.
Now it feels like I don't know, real estate, still
pretty outrageous, but more like New York. Um in l
(02:14):
A is you know bad? It's softening here. I don't
know what it's like there right now. Um, but I'm
sure it's been easier now that you you know, you
got um the family up there right because you were
doing the back and forth for a long time, which
makes it pretty brutal and insane to maintain. We talked
about that on our show a lot, you know, ross
in Puerto Rico four and a half months out of
(02:34):
the year, and it's it's a lot to juggle. And
you were doing it on a network uh you know,
more of a traditional uh show what you're doing at
least eighteen episode she does, which is a little more manageable.
But now, I mean, you guys might even do more
than eighteen now and I don't know, but it's a
lot of episodes, so it definitely helps having the family there.
Let me ask you something. I want to go back
(02:55):
to the very beginning, right, So you grew up in Taiwan,
correct until you were a teenager or what time that
I graduated high school there, but I did go to
in an international school with an American curriculum. So I
left at the age of seventeen and then and came
to the States to go to university. And that was
always the plan, Like that was my parents always knew
(03:16):
we were gonna, you know, grow up overseas and then
come to the States for for college. And when you
say college, you already knew that you wanted to be
in the business or you went to college for something else.
It was just like you know, back in the eighteen
forties at that school, you know, especially our school. I
mean we had like a nine nine percent rate of
(03:38):
everybody going to college, you know. So, um, I didn't
know what I wanted to do or be. I just
my mom said, you're going to college, Like that's just
what you're gonna do. You're gonna get your education, college degree.
So what is your bachelor's? Oh? Your masters? You have one? Yeah?
I have both. Um, Christina is actually very smart. Christina
(03:59):
is like, I'm a doctor in real life as well.
My art and my life just imitate one another. No,
I got a be a in theater, like in fine arts,
and and then I got like, my, um, I'm minored
in Chinese, in fluent, but you're fluent in Chinese, right.
I was to be honest with you, you know, when
(04:21):
you don't live it and speak it with everybody, it
goes it's really not fluent. And even growing up there,
like using even growing up there and using it all
the time like you. I'm sure that was your first
language growing up, right, I mean, you're an International school.
So is it English speaking at the school. Yes, it
was an American curriculum. Okay, alright, that's why English is
so beautiful. There's no accent, no accent, Yours is going away.
(04:44):
My accent. Thank you for English. That the things that
I that I have a thick accent, I don't think
I have it at all. I'm going to be honest, though,
when I met you trever years ago. Uh, it was thicker,
of course. Yeah right, I mean no, no, when I
(05:08):
I know it came along way when I moved here.
When I moved to the States at twenty one, I
was able to understand everything, but I was petrified of
speaking in English. And my accent was super thick. It
still is, you know. That's the difference that you didn't
grow up speaking English, whereas Christina grew up. I never
had a conversation, yes, and English a lot. I never
had a conversation in English until I was movie twenty
two years old because because yeah, like you go to
(05:32):
in Puerto Rico, you this. I went to a bi
lingual school and it was private Catholic school. Um, but
you're not talking in English to nobody. It's funny. The
new generation my nieces and my nephews. They speak with
no accent. But it's this new generation because all they
watch is American TV and all the books are in English.
So they they and they love it. You know. They
actually communicate between each other in English, which is a
(05:54):
trip to me. I'm going, guys, what are you doing
speaking Spanish? Anyways? Um? Okay, So what was your first
what was your first gig in the business? In the business, Well,
you know, I studied are we talked about long ago?
Was my first job? Do you remember, like you booked
your first not commercial, I'm talking about a guest star
(06:17):
or were you minored in theater? So you're starting to
know that you wanted to be an actor. That's you
knew at some point in college that that's what you
wanted to pursue. Yep, it was. I was I think
nineteen or twenty when I decided like, I'm probably going
to try to make a go of this. Um. I
originally wanted to be a dancer. Really I didn't know that. Yeah, look,
(06:37):
ballet I did. I was just starting on point at
the age of thirteen. Uh, and then I found out
that I my scoliosis hadn't gotten a lot worse, and
I had to wear a Milwaukee back brace goes from
like here all the way down to you know, your hips,
(06:58):
So that curb that dream, right then? Okay, so then
I did, of course, you know, I thought that's what
I was gonna do. And then a thirteen, when your
dreams or dashed, you don't know what you're gonna do.
So I found expression through theater and that's when I decided, Okay,
maybe I will actually make a go of it. And
that's that's how I decided. But I thought it would
(07:21):
be theater. I never thought television or film. Okay, now, okay,
so talk to us about your and I feel. It's guys,
we know on each other for so long and we've
been I mean, we've got married, we've had kids. You know.
She Christina was at our wedding. Um Samara, her daughter
is friends with Sabella. They don't see each other anymore
because you're in Canada, but they have so many pictures
(07:43):
and so many many memories of them as kids, you know,
just having play dates and it's just beautiful. Um. So
the good doctor. Okay, how was that process you read
it your audition? How was the process of getting that
that role. So, you know, when I auditioned for it
and hadn't aired yet, so I didn't know, like tonally
what it was. I didn't, you know, I just knew
(08:05):
that like Freddie him More was the lead and it
was about a you know, a young man with autism.
And I thought, okay, I'm gonna you know, I was
always auditioning for like the doctor, the professional, right, so
I thought, okay, let me just go in and kind
of do what I do and you know, and it
was just for a guest star with a potential three uh,
(08:29):
And I went in an auditioned and you know, and
then like a week or two went by and then
I got the call like, oh, you got it. And
at the time I was excited to just at the
prospect of being like, you know, mom of a toddler,
of just kind of getting to go away for three
or four days and being in a hotel room and
working and feeling like, oh what it was before. Um.
(08:49):
So that's actually how that started. And I you know,
came up to Canada and did it and enjoyed everybody
and had a good time and kind of thought, well,
by maybe I'll see you, maybe I won't, um. And
then they brought me back again, and they brought me
back again, and then you know, about four months later,
I got the call with the offer for you know,
(09:10):
joining the cast as a regular, which was a dream,
fast way to enter a show for sure, especially when
that you're premiered and it was a smash hit that
it was like, oh my god, to be a part
of a show that's a hit, not just to be
a part of a show that may or may not work,
but you know, this show is working, So you stepped
into a sweet position at that point. I really did.
(09:31):
And you know, come on, guys, we've done this for
so long, and that the prospect of those screen tests
and doing that, you know, just that rigorous process. You know,
it's just it's you put so much into it and
your your heart gets broken and you stressed out. And
so this was really like a true gift, blessing, you know,
(09:52):
to be able to enter the show that way, and
like to your point, Eric, it's a it does very
well and globally, so it's such a gift. You know.
It's funny somebody asked me this the other day regarding
(10:13):
our kids, and and you know, we know this sort
of you know, we've talked about this amongst us as friends,
just the ups and downs of this business and how
difficult it can be. And you know, it's like to
hit the lottery and get a show that's been on
for five six years, right and all this it's it's
an anomaly. It doesn't really happen um very often. If
if samorrow is to come to you and I don't
(10:34):
know if she's this, conversations come up and she's I
want to be an actress, wants she wants to you guys.
It came up at least a year ago, and she's
asking what can I be understand? Can do? Oh my god,
I just can you just ask them? And I was like,
are you is this a joke? What's happening right now?
(10:55):
This is no? Uh? And then I thought, you know what,
don't say no, say if you feel ready to audition,
there's a part that comes up, you may audition. So
then we started talking about when she goes over my
life with me sometimes and she's like learning how to
say these very complicated medical terms, and you know it's
like should she come on as a resident And I'm kidding,
(11:15):
but you know I did say listen, I will ask
the show runner if there's a part that's you know,
age appropriate, and you know the size of the part's
got to be pretty small. Not had any experience, you know,
I mean, I don't want to get her an age
in and do all that stuff. Is she taking classes though?
Up there? If you put her in anything, it's called
(11:37):
it's called a natural ability. But she I'm but I'm
saying that there's ways of obviously exploring the grind of
learning as a kid when it comes to that kind
of with this kind of craft, right Like some people
gett into classes and go like, oh, this isn't what
I thought it would be, or because that's really what
it is, right Like acting, A big part of this
business is the process. It's not even getting the job.
It's the acting classes, the studying, the learning line and
(12:00):
then never getting a job and then doing it over
and over and over and then when you actually get
the gig. That's actually the fun part, the thing with
the thing with the process. And that's why kids, you know,
we have to protect them that the process, it's fun
and it's fantastic. You're working on your craft is an exercise.
Every time your audition, it's a lot of fun that
part of the process, until it doesn't become fun anymore.
(12:21):
You know, when you do it for so long, it
gets to the point that you're like, what am I doing?
What am I doing? You know, it's it's very it's
very tricky, and to be honest with you, the reason
that I haven't done much with it, and it's also
because I think, well, I take the level of interest
that lead from her. If she asks me and says
I'm really interested, and then it goes away. How interested?
(12:42):
Now if she were coming after this every day, every
other day, every week and saying I want to take class,
I want to learn how to do this, then I
would pay more attention to it. I think she's just
now exploring the idea of it. I think, you know,
and someone I talked about this. We think she's interested
because it's what mom does. And then every week on
TV she's oh, look there she is in the or
(13:03):
in the commercials when you have the TV going, oh
there's there you are on TV. That part is what's
exciting to her, which is not the reason to get
into serious about that. Then sure, I'll entertain that, but
I'm not interested in closing her to the process right now,
of unless she wants to take like YadA, you know,
if we go back to the play and we want
to join YadA or something like that. Okay, but I'm
(13:26):
not sure I'm interested in encouraging it unless she's bringing yeah, yeah,
that we we follow in the same you know, belief system.
As far as that goes. We're not pushing. We would
never push up. We would never even it doesn't even
come to our mind to bring it up. The opposite
is I will never I like, so not interested, I
think because it's what I do. Funny enough, like you
(13:47):
have something, you have something, right, Bean intrigued right because
I see mom on TV, so I think this is
cool and glamorous. Sabella is if you're doing it, I'm
not doing it. Well, No, But she also has her
passionate sports. She's we're just yes, she's doing really well
at tennis and she just loves support. Like at school,
she's playing the soccer team right now, she was in
(14:07):
basketball team. Now she's doing volleyball. Like. She loves sports
and that's sort of her her thing. Um. And it's
funny because she gets embarrassed and annoyed when we get
recognized around her. She's like, oh my god, another person
asking DA, and like, it doesn't it's not to her.
It's not a glamorous thing. It's just like he's kind
(14:29):
of funny. It's interesting. It finds it a little more interesting.
But he's so shy. He's getting better, but I don't
know that he's getting So he said to me he
wants a little commercials, so you're for real he wants
to Yeah, he wants to do like he wants to
be on TV. I don't know if he understands exactly
what he's talking about. But I keep taking all these
pictures because he's so freaking cute. So every morning I'm
(14:49):
gonna take a picture, and he's like, why do you
think that any picture than me? I'm going because you're
very cute. And then little, I know, it's a little
by little, he's been saying that he wants to like
be on TV. But I think it's more I don't
think he doesn't know what he's talking about. You know,
he's only five five years old, so little, but also
like that could be the thing that he does, you know,
I mean, how are we supposed to know when we're seventeen?
(15:14):
You go to college eighteen whatever the ages these days
if they go to college, like, how do you pick
a major? How do you how do we get here?
You know, it's so I want to talk about how
did you meet? Maybe daddy? Yeah, I don't remember. How
you guys met? Yeah, well, because it's pretty ordinary. We
met at a Fourth of July barbecue. We had mutual friends.
(15:37):
Mutual friends. They were New York friends because you know,
he's from there and I lived there for a while
and we had never met there. But we went to
this and I had gone to an earlier party on
the Fourth of July with a friend of mine whose
girlfriend had just broken up with him, and so I
was kind of like, come on, Mr heartbroken, come with me.
Let's go to this party. It's going to be super fun.
If we get there, it was horrendous. So we're like,
(15:58):
where do we go? Where to go? Some I'm texting
friends and like, oh, we're having just a very simple,
easy backyard barbecue, like a great loki. Let's do that.
So I brought him to that and we're all just
kind of chilling people, drinking beers, just not very music,
playing very chill, and then in walks some with this
woman who's like five ten, he's like six three and
a half. Looked at nice looking, tall couple. And I
(16:20):
remember them coming in because the house had like it
was the house and then to the back was like
stairs down, and then all of us were kind of
down in the yard. So when they arrived, they were
like up on these steps, you know. So I remember
when they didn't make an entrance, but they just kind
of stood there, kind of looking around for whoever they
might know. And so he struck me, and I was like, well,
he's handsome, but he's with somebody or whatever. Uh. And
(16:42):
then you know, then pretty soon were introduced because I
know so and so and I don't know, and he's
standing next to me, and I can feel that he's
flirting with me a little. It's so inappropriate, like he's
with a woman. What about over there? Yeah? What about
a little over there? What's you have a fight today?
What happened? No? And uh, I think I must have
(17:06):
said something. Unfortunately don't recall, but he said to me, oh,
oh no, no, that's my No, that's my ex. We're
just friends, okay. That's was that a flag of like, wait,
what are you at a party with your ex, Yeah,
that's with benefits or are they just friends? I did
(17:27):
wonder this is a good topic, right, I would have
been like, wait, hold on, why is your ex with
you at a party? And who's the X? What your relations?
Well my assumption because of course I knew nothing about
this guy, right, so I assumed like, oh, they're comfortable.
But I'm like, she flew in from New York and
was staying with him in his roommate, So I was like,
of course, it's like, yeah, of course right, like of
(17:48):
course never and I believe him. He was just like
she literally flew in and we did. They shared custody
of a dog, so they like hung out and they
were to this day. Like they don't speak as much,
but like, I'm actually kind of friends too with some
of my exes. Friendly, Like we're not friends like you
(18:10):
see them friendly friendly, friendly for sure, and like if
I come into town wherever they live or vice versa,
we'll get together and he's fine with that with that,
that's good. Ros and I are opposite on most things
in life. This is the one thing I think that
we're not opposite on, Like we neither of us are
close to exes, and I don't think either of us. Yeah,
(18:34):
knowing both of us, we wouldn't be like, oh, yeah,
go see your ex for dinner, like we would both
of us wouldn't think that it's kind of a weird
going to happen. But I'm glad A lot of people
I know they do do that. And like my dad
was like that. He was friends with every single ex
he ever had, So like, I totally get it, and
I know a lot of people that maintain like very
close friendships with their exes. So you guys had that
(18:55):
Fourth of July, it was at the beginning, or you
didn't see each other for a while before you started dating. Yeah, no,
we didn't see each other again until I think the
end of August, I want to say, or we get
the middle of August or something like that, because I
took yeah, I don't know why, but because we didn't
exchange numbers. Okay, you find me over social media, and
(19:17):
the way he tracked me down was I posted a
photo from that night and tagged a friend, right, Okay,
that's how he found me. Okay, Oh my goodness. So
then he messaged me that way and was supers and
(19:38):
let me ask you, you guys are like a by
racial couple. How do you guys? You you white American,
your mom was white, your dad was Filipino or Chinese
Chinese and Filipino Chinese, Filipino white. He's full Indian, right
fully Indian. And then so how is that in terms
of of of differences differences you guys were both from
(20:01):
the States. Totally. We celebrate Devoli, we celebrate Lunar New Year,
you know what I mean, we celebrate Um, everything that's
great grows up with so much sort of diversity in
that regard, right, It's like it's embedded in who she is.
But she gets to celebrate all these cultural specificities, which
(20:21):
I think is very nice. And she's also you know,
it's interesting being here in Vancouver. Um, there's a large
Southeast Asian population as well as Chinese. So it's nice.
You know, we go to school with a lot of
people who have the same experiences. She speaking the language,
(20:42):
she doesn't speak, you know what, though she loves Bollywood films,
she knows a lot of songs. Okay, she's seeing things
in Hindi. She doesn't always know what they mean, but
sort of that's a wonderful way that son Samara connect
is that music? Um? And we'll be playing like Bollywood
(21:02):
or Indian music in the car and I have no
idea what the song is, what they're saying, but they're
both doing data, you know, They're like singing, and I'm like,
what does this mean? And then I had Smara taking
I mean, I've got to get her back into it.
But we had like a Mandarin tutor last in grade
three okay in the house and kind of starting to
(21:24):
do that because it's I can speak to her that way,
but she doesn't. It's terrible. I'm sure you speak to
your children in Spanish and it works out perfect. Who
speaks Oh, come on? Do we do? But they're they're
more comfortable. Well, I do you don't speak Spanish? You do?
I do? Very please? Anyways, next topic anyways, but do
(21:49):
they take it in class? I mean, this is you know,
don't Let's started now in fifth or fourth grade and
basically the Sabella is bilingual, um. And I think a
lot of that had to do because del Mier nanny
spoke only Spanish to her the entire time when she
was traveling with us. And I was in Vancouver, for example,
and Roses in Atlanta and del Me was with us
(22:10):
a lot, so she only was spoken to in Spanish
by Dell me Me. Roz would kind of go in
and out and I'm being honest, don't lie, don't get upset.
She would go very in and out. And I was
always this, you know, funny enough, the white guy going
just speak Spanish, just speak Spanish, like I just wanted
these kids to be spoken to in Spanish. I don't
know what the in Grandma like she likes to say,
like what it was with her that she couldn't just
(22:32):
do Spanish with them. But if Puerto Rican friends came over,
it was all Spanish. But then if like to the kid,
it was English. And maybe it's because I don't speak it.
So she felt she had to inspect of community. But
I don't care. I was like, just spak Spanish with Dylan.
He understood. Are they talking about me? Fine? I Dylan's
understands a little bit. But this doesn't want to speak
(22:53):
given close to like Sabella, I have to work. When
they were still without words like whatever one and A
have to you know, when they were starting to learn,
like dog, can't you know that stuff? And a little
bit past that, I would speak in Mandarin to her,
and I what I noticed was that she had like
a a little bit more of a delay linguistically. I
(23:14):
now understand that it's probably because she was trying to
synthesize Mandarin and what is English. I should have stuck
with it and not worried about whether or not she
was going to be delayed, um, And I think what
I did was like, you know what, I'm just going
to pick a lane. You know, at the time, I
was like, I just want her to like be able
to speak with her peers. So I picked a lane
(23:34):
and it was English because that's also what Dad speaks, right,
So they say the best method is that if one
parent picks a lane and that lane is that language, like,
just picks Mandarin, just pick Spanish. Don't go back and forth,
just stay with that so they understand, I need to
learn whatever this is you're saying, because I can't communicate
with mom if I don't understand what you're saying. And
(23:56):
then if Dad is just speaking English, then boom, these
little sponge is just absorbed everything coming at him. And
it might actually like Sabella never delayed her way if
she was always very communicative with with language in general,
so I don't every think she had a delay, um,
but it was because Delmi was really like around a
lot and it was Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, and there was
(24:17):
no way to talk to her nanny if she didn't
start communicating in Spanish. It was like that. And of
course that's the way to go. And if I had
found someone who, you know, was a nanny that spoke Mandarin,
you know, I mean, we just needed to find somebody
who could actually take care of our daughter at the
time and what we needed, and trying to find someone
who could speak Mandarin and Lay at the time was
an extra challenge, right, But absolutely that's the way to
(24:39):
go about it. And when I was growing up in Taiwan,
that's what my dad did. So before I started going
to school, I would play with the neighborhood kids and
they were all Chinese and my dad only spoke Mandarin
in the home, so I had one parent, like you
just said, who only spoke Mandarin. And then of course
my mother only spoke English. Um. And of course, like
a family dinners every night, we would speak English because
(25:00):
that's my mom was there. But for the most part,
my dad spoken Yeah, if you want to communicate with
your dad. That was the natural reaction. You'd speak in managing.
And also like we would we Savella a lot. We
would do cartoons in Spanish, so when she was little,
all the cartoons would be set in Spanish. So she
and she get mad, but it was like, well you
want to watch it, figure it out. Yeah, talk to us, um,
(25:22):
Christina about Asian representation because I know that you must
be so incredibly pleased and happy. You know that finally,
because you know, as Alatina, that's our main issue and
complain in the business is we don't get enough parts,
you know, so we we're waiting. Were always were here,
we here, we here, you know. Um, I still feel
(25:42):
that way, okay, you know. I mean, of course, this
is a fantastic time, um, and a lot of progress
has been made, but obviously we have some way to go.
But is this an exciting time with everything everywhere all
at once? For example, getting those a lot and nominations
Fantastic or Home Child getting her nomination for Best Supporting
(26:05):
Actress in the Whale, Like, this is an exciting time. Um.
I just was in Sundance last week, not with a film,
but one of the exciting things was that Daniel D. Kim,
who's company three a D Media, partnered with gold House
and the Asian American Foundation to create the very first
(26:25):
a p I house on Main Street. It's and this
is the first time in all the years that Sundance
has existed that a p I had a presence on
Main Street. So that was really exciting. Um, just have
that there, you know, and there are other houses, there's
a Latin X House, Black House and Macro Lodge, but
(26:49):
there wasn't an API house, so that was exciting. Um
to witness, you know, to bear witness. That was really cool.
And it happened to fall on the lunar New Year weekend,
so that was like double the celebration. But I mean,
of course it's exciting and at the same time, let's
go that's how I'm feeling, you know, like Okay, it's like,
(27:11):
you know, it's it's about a lot could be said
on this topic, but you know, no, I know, I know,
to finalize, I want to talk a little bit. And
this is more we're not going to serious note because
it's it's a topic that is very relevant that I'm
(27:33):
sure many people we relate listeners. I'm sure they have
a family member or somebody or they have known of
somebody that suffers or suffer from the disease. So you
were super super close with your mother and then know what,
how many years how old was she when you started noticing,
my mom is forgetting things and my mom is showing
(27:54):
symptoms yea of all timer Yeah, so yes, she was
diagnosed with all AMers And uh it was she was
probably seventy one when things started to look a little
bit that's considered young. Like I just recently posted a
photo of her um zip lining for her seventies a
(28:19):
year before she was diagnosed. She was zip lining, Yeah,
and there was didn't appear to be any issue. So
to bullet point this because again this could be like
a whole long episode. But she was about seventy one
when we noticed. And I think it's because I was
pregnant with Samaraw so the red flags where my mom
was not living in the same city or state as us,
(28:40):
so I wasn't able to keep tabs on a daily basis.
And so at first I thought, oh, maybe she's like
a little bit depressed living by herself. Maybe we should
get her to visit more often, Maybe we should think
about having her moved to l A, you know, but
the big red flag was she couldn't wait to be
a grandmother. And the mom that I grew up with,
if was the kind of woman that would fly out
(29:02):
and help you decorate your baby's room, right, And when
I offered that, I was like, would you like to
come and help me? She was like, no, you've got it,
and that's um. And then when we did meet up
for a trip at a like a relative's birthday, she
was really quiet. Kept her also not my mom, and
(29:23):
she was really quiet with her head been and just
kind of like shoveling food during meals and little tiny
things that don't necessarily signify Alzheimer's, you just kind of like, oh,
she's sad, she's quiet. So it was at my my
baby shower, um, when a friend of mine whose father
had been battling Alzheimer's for a while, she's the one
(29:44):
that pulled me aside and said, your mom seems to
be exhibiting signs of dementia or Alzheimer's And I wasn't.
I just didn't know very much about that disease. So
I was like, no, no, if this is something maybe
like depression or maybe there's something else going on with her,
Like she's just quiet, she's not forgetful, you know, she's
not whatever I thought Alzheimer's was. And my friend said,
(30:08):
but it presents differently in everybody, right, and it's you're
about to have a child, and if you want her
to help you with the baby, like you need to
make sure she's like fully. And my mother was very
resistant to it. It was a big fight to get
(30:28):
her to go get the CT scan, and I unfortunately
had to say to her, if you do not get this,
you will not get to meet your grandchild. It was
a terrible stance to take, but I thought there was
She was so resistant that she was absolutely defiant. I
was like, there's nothing wrong with me, nothing wrong with me.
Cut to we get the scan and the doctor calls
(30:49):
October one and says, and it's a you know, my
mom's in the room with the doctor. And he called
there in Florida and they call me and they say, yes,
she has Alzheimer's. And then I gave three days later.
Three days later. You gave birth three days later, a
few weeks earlier than my due day. So you know,
(31:09):
how does that work in terms of Alzheimer's because I
don't know enough about the disease either. Are there stages?
So when they read the CT they're like, you're at
stage one, stage two? Or how does that work? Like
you know the severity of it at the time, Yeah,
it was not described to me that way. Um it
was She's an early stages have like early and then
(31:30):
medium and then kind of advanced, And they can't give
you timetables. I'm sure everybody's different of how fast the
disease can progress. Correct, Although at a certain point they
were like, your mom has like another five years and
I was like five years of memory or five years
of prey or life, and they were like life, really,
and what was that accurate? Was it five years? Yeah?
(31:54):
We got that, so mom had it for nine and
a half years. Explained that part, Christina, because something that
I think people can learn a lot about myself included Alzheimer's.
You know, you often just think someone loses their memory,
can't recall things, you know, those those sort of actions.
But no one just automatically thinks that they could dive
from Alzheimer's. What is the impetus for someone passing away
(32:18):
in five years due to Alzheimer's. Is it because the
body can't function properly anymore because the brain is not
feeding the organs and everything else. That the correct response
to do X, Y and Z. Correct, that's what it is.
And you know, dementious sort of the general term like
the umbrella to all the more specific diseases. And so
I don't I'm not well versed on some of the
other ones. My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I'm I'm
(32:42):
not sure exactly, you know, because only one neurosurgeon said that.
Another one was like, it's confusing because her mother's brain
looks perfectly intact, but it's like, she certainly had a
neurological disease and it presented as Alzheimer's, so we're gonna
go with that for out it could have been vascular
dementia and like not entirely sure. And actually when she died, um,
(33:07):
we donated her brain to studies to research, Yeah, for studies, Yeah,
for research. Yeah. So uh and that was two years ago,
and they said it's about a two or three year
weight to get information, to get what And I'm nervous
because I don't know what they're gonna reveal. And if
(33:29):
that means it's genetic. If I'm predisposed, I'm not. I've chosen,
by the way, not to be tested for certain things
because I think, unfortunately we don't have a solution. And
to me, that's like the dangling sword over my head.
If I know, for example, that I have, say a
(33:49):
chance of getting it, then I'm just going to focus
on When we talked about that, because you see that
the Chris hemswork. We haven't seen this docuseries that he has,
but you know he found out he's you know, directly predisposed,
and and we were talking about on the podcast would
you want to know? And I said, I wouldn't want
to know, because I would just live with that fear,
that anxiety of like it's gonna happen one day, It's
(34:10):
gonna happen on day, instead of just enjoying all of
these days leading up to when it happens and I
can't control it anyway. You know, well exactly the point.
And you know, if it was some other disease that
they have a lot of research and a lot of
you know already like medications preventative or otherwise in place,
then I potentially would write like I know a lot
of people who get tested for the Brocka gene and
(34:31):
if they it's a high percentage of something, maybe they
surgically removed something, or they that I can't surgically remove
my brain that you know what I mean, It doesn't
work that way. And so in this particular case currently,
I don't want to know. That's just where I am. Yeah,
you know what I'm dealing um with my dad. My
dad had a stroke maybe seven months ago, um, and
it's being left changing for the whole family and from himself.
(34:54):
But even before it happened, and now more than ever,
and my mom tells me all the time, like you
your dad's his mind is just leaving. He's going, he's going,
And so what do you say that? And she said,
because he doesn't remember. Like it's getting to the point
that you give him lunch because he's on a wheelchair.
You know, he's completely can function by himself anymore, So
you give him lunch. And then within fifteen twenty minutes
(35:16):
he goes, did I eat lunch? Give me lunch? Oh no,
if I you just eight And he forgot But and
I realized because I went to see him and we
had incredible conversations. He's so lucid, and he remembers everything
from years ago, so past memories, it's okay. The problem
is the immediate stuff, which is so crazy. It is crazy,
(35:37):
and I think particularly with Alzheimer's, one of the first signs.
I mean, what what it's doing to the brain initially
is you're losing the part of your brain that has
the ability to learn. That's why the short term stuff goes,
So the long term the stuff that's been ingrained in
you since you were five, whatever that's there that you
(35:58):
know feels like innate, that's you're able to remember. But
sure stuff that you just learned is going to go.
Are there some charities that you work with or um
and you want to share with the listeners that are
great tools or resources that people can you know, look into. Yeah,
I didn't lean uh as much as I probably should
(36:19):
have on Alzheimer's organization. I am an ambassador for them,
and I just can't say enough. I mean, it's it's
not a very old organization was started in it has
there's this is something you know. Obviously, our brain is
the most mysterious organ in our body currently and I
think we just need more funds, you know, and like
(36:40):
the FDA just granted this, you know, the approval for
this particular drug for example, that you know now we're
fighting Medicare two allow for because right now, the only
people that have access to this new drug, which basically
removes the plaque in your brain, you know, increases Alzheimer's.
Um Like, we need Medicare to allow us to get
(37:04):
this drug at an affordable rate. Otherwise, you know, only
the rich can have access to this. And it's just
it's this huge battle. I mean, it seems to be
happening to so many people, you know. Unfortunately, I can't
pull the statistic right now how many people get it?
Like every you know, like every minute, so and so,
you know, how how many people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
(37:24):
I mean I have three close friends. You your mom.
Then remember Brenda, my publicist in Puerto Rico, that is
a close friend friend of mine. She was one of
the rights maids. Her mom just passed away a couple
of weeks ago. But I'm telling you, when she showed
me the picture days before she passed, it was a
different human being. It was a skeleton. It was just
the most traumatic thing. Um So yeah, you know, it's
(37:47):
like it's so it's very freaking. He's becoming more and
more common, and it what a horrible disease, you know
what I mean, It's like for everybody involved, go, oh
my god, it is. It's terrible because the person isn't
and the thing is too. Part of it is the
dignity of it. You know that they want to help
them keep their dignity as they slowly lose their faculties.
(38:11):
I guess it's the best way to put it. It's
a very difficult disease to witness and for obviously the
person that is going through it. And you're right, the
you know, the day my mom died, it's an unrecognizable
she was she was like eighty pounds and she was
five nine, and she was just a skeleton, you know,
(38:35):
And it was and she lost her ability to walk
and then eventually move and then and speak. She lost
her ability to speak before she I mean, just it
all goes just and then they're just kind of she
for her anyway, she was just kind of like a
silent Oh my god. Anyways, I'm so sorry. Well, thank
(38:55):
you for sharing. Ending on this note, this is a
listen the good thing is that she's so happy. She's
so proud of you. And you know that, Christina, she's
proud of you what you've done, what you've done with
your life. She has a stunning granddaughter that is just
going to be an incredible little lady. You know, you're
happily married, you have a great job. You know, she's
(39:16):
you've seen you your ups and downs and your struggles
and now you're in victory and you're vibrant and and
life is looking up and smiling at you. So she's happy.
That's what matters. Absolutely, Yes, wonderful to you guys. By
the way, we'll do it again on the next podcast.
We won't see you until then. They'll be like h
(39:38):
only on the podcast, never in person, and some are
with us the Good Doctor on ABC. Make sure you're
checking it out. Bye. Well that was It's always great
to catch up there. It's funny how this podcast is
allowed us to catch up with so many of her
(39:58):
friends that are close friends, but we don't get to
see that often, and we do it on our podcast. Yes,
I mean we're very close to Christina and so um
and like you said, Sibell and Smart grew up together.
But you know this business, uh you know, pulls people
a Parkard. You can't you can't be in the same
place all the time. So um this I know. I'm
so happy for her because guys, like I said, we've
(40:19):
known each other for so long when ups and downs
and both not working and freaking out and and she's
so talented and and just elegant and so smart. So
when she got The Good Doctor and it was a
hit show, it was like, oh my god, I was
happy for Christine. And she's so deserving of this moment.
Now she's killing it, he's killing it. That was fun.
Love you, thanks for listening. Don't forget to write us
(40:42):
a review and tell us what you think. If you
want to follow us on Instagram, check goes out at
he said, was that email Eric and Ross at I
Heard radio dot com, he said, is part of I
Heard Radios Michael Podcast Network. See you next time.
Host
Roselyn Sanchez
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.