Vlad Bunoan

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Here in Hollywood

Yong Chavez

ABS-CBN News North America

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1755246224953BROLL.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Actor Alain Uy with Yong Chavez</div>At the &quot;Ballard&quot; red carpet premiere at the Culver Theater, Alain Uy does not take space the way actors who have learned to project themselves into every camera lens often do. He doesn’t need to. His black suit hangs with the ease of someone who knows himself. A collarless white undershirt softens the formal frame. He poses when asked, smiles when prompted, but the air around him is quiet and sort of like the way character actors of color in Hollywood often learn to move: taking space without taking too much.“I was just really excited to be a part of it,” he says about joining the &quot;Ballard&quot; ensemble. The Maggie Q-led new Prime Video series is an adaptation of a Michael Connelly novel. His enthusiasm breaks through his otherwise measured cadence. It’s not false modesty; it’s survival instinct. In an industry where celebration for a new show can quickly turn into a hasty goodbye, excitement is best kept in the present tense.Uy is not new to this. He has been in Hollywood long enough to know that careers are less rocket-launch than slow, grinding trek.He played an aswang in NBC’s “Grimm” in 2014 when I first did a story on him. This was years before calls for more Asian stories and talents started in the industry. Having a primetime TV series that features Filipino folklore felt groundbreaking at the time.Born in Dagupan, Philippines, Uy’s family moved to America when he was six years old but never forgot their roots. “It&#x27;s not often that you get the chance to do something that&#x27;s really close to home. Especially in Hollywood where a lot of the parts are kind of general-Asian. When it&#x27;s specific like that, specifically Filipino, it was great to read the story,” he shared back then.We spoke again in 2021 when he booked the lead role in Bao Tran’s &quot;The Paper Tigers.&quot; He shared that more than 20 years earlier, fresh from an Oxford study abroad program in English and History, he stumbled into theater and never left. Before that, he was a dancer — jazz, lyrical, hip hop, breakdancing — until a car accident left him unable to walk for six months. Acting, he said, “was wonderful, and in many ways, cathartic. It got me out of my depression.&quot;<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1755246289215new-AlainUy20250842-Edit.jpg" style="width:750px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Alain Uy</div>During that interview, he also opened up about his name, a subject that carries its own history.“All the time, people mispronounce (Alain Uy),” he said. “When I was a kid, it would be like: you have a girl’s name, Eileen. Or: ‘Your name is Alan?’ So in school, I would just say my name’s Alan to keep it simple. But my mom always called me Alain. Friends would come over and go, ‘Wait, your name’s Alain? Why do you say Alan?’ But also the last name Uy? I get all kinds of wrong pronunciations.”He added, “Back in the day, you kind of acquiesce to people not caring to learn your name or your culture. Now I say, ‘No, that’s not right. Here’s how you say it.’ And it feels good when people do, because it’s an introduction to who you are and where you come from.”&quot;The Paper Tigers,&quot; his first lead film role, was the kind of project Hollywood often reserves for white actors. The film went un-produced for years because Hollywood studios wanted a non-Asian action lead, but the filmmakers refused to compromise. “They stuck to their guns,” he says. “It’s a uniquely Asian-American story. Before, there’s nothing that’s ever really been cooked and baked and come alive in America, specifically the Asian-American experience.”When the film premiered, the industry was already positively shifting under the momentum of &quot;Crazy Rich Asians&quot; and &quot;Black Panther,&quot; but it arrived in the middle of the pandemic, when audiences were largely at home. It found a second life a couple of years ago when it began streaming on Netflix.Through it all, Uy remains pragmatic. “I’ve been able to support myself financially for years being an actor. It&#x27;s wonderful to be able to have certain casting directors now see me in a different light, as opposed to something that&#x27;s just more of like a day player or a guest star. I’m very appreciative of everything that&#x27;s come my way, but I&#x27;m also understanding that I&#x27;m just two bad auditions or two bad roles away from just going back to square one. This is how this industry is,” he said.Between auditions, he writes and develops projects, not only to tell his own stories but to usher in others.<div> <img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1755246333273new-AlainUy20250442-Edit.jpg" style="width:750px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Alain Uy</div>But beneath Uy’s Hollywood story is the quieter, harder story of how his parents uprooted their family to America and pressed into him an unshakable sense of purpose.“My parents would always tell me, ‘You’re here for a reason,’” the actor shared. “‘There’s a purpose to what you’re doing, why you’re so passionate about certain things.’” His father, the panganay (first-born) in a Filipino family, carried the weight of obligations on both sides of the Pacific. He rarely had time to be more than a provider. “Before he passed away, I got to know him really well. He told me how proud he was of everything I’d accomplished,” Uy says, voice catching, when we spoke at &quot;The Cleaning Lady&#x27; set visit last March. The memory still opens something raw.In the fourth season of &quot;The Cleaning Lady&quot; that premiered earlier this year, Uy parachuted into an already humming ensemble as Feng, a man with both a protective streak and an unshakable hunger for the American Dream. He describes joining an established show as “being the new kid in school.” Still, the cast welcomed him in, and Feng became another in a growing gallery of complex characters he’s drawn to.It’s stable work that actors dream about, but the timing is bittersweet. A few months after its premiere, &quot;The Cleaning Lady&quot; — one of the only primetime dramas willing to put undocumented immigrants at the center — was canceled. It didn’t survive the current Hollywood crosscurrent: a collision of industry contraction, political climates, and executives chasing safer bets.In the meantime, he keeps showing up. On carpets, on sets. In rooms where his name is now said correctly. He slips into character after character, some noble, some morally gray, all carrying a sliver of the journey his parents began.For now, Uy is still playing the long game. He is blessed with the patience of a dancer who once measured time in beats. He is the pragmatic son of immigrants who worked hard for their dreams. And he understands that in Hollywood, the wind shifts without warning, and that the way to survive is to keep moving, quietly but relentlessly, toward the next thing.<div> </div><div>&#x27;Here in Hollywood&#x27; comes out every Friday. Have a question about Hollywood celebrities? Contact Yong on Instagram: @yongchavez</div>

Prime Video’s ‘Ballard’ castmember Alain Uy talks about the sacrifices of his Filipino immigrant parents, his Hollywood dreams, and how a paralyzing accident led him to acting.

Prime Video’s ‘Ballard’ castmember Alain Uy talks about the sacrifices of his Filipino immigrant parents, his Hollywood dreams, and how a paralyzing accident led him to acting.

Here in Hollywood: A Filipino actor’s Hollywood story: ‘You’re here for a reason’

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Here in Hollywood: A Filipino actor’s Hollywood story: ‘You’re here for a reason’

Yong Chavez,

ABS-CBN News North America

Published August 15, 2025 05:00 PM PHT

Read More:

Alain Uy

Ballard

Yong Chavez

ABSnews

The Cleaning Lady

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