From 'Jump Street' to 'Finishing the Game'
Is Dustin Nguyen (gulp) experiencing a comeback?
It seems like only yesterday that Dustin Nguyen fought crime with his gravity defying hair on "21 Jump Street."
Has it really been 16 years?
"Ah, the Duran Duran hair!" said Nguyen with a laugh from his Los Angeles, Calif. home.
Now 45, Nguyen's career biographies are often accompanied with adjectives like "veteran" and "seasoned." Yet he's still most recognized for his four-year stint as Harry Aoki, an undercover police officer who infiltrated the hearts of teenage girls all over the world alongside co-star Johnny Depp.
And it seems Nguyen's fans are renewable resources - younger generations of viewers are getting introduced to his television characters on "21 Jump Street" and "V.I.P." through DVDs and international syndication.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm on candid camera. People come up to me and I think, 'you still remember?' It's flattering but strange."
Overcoming Tragedy
He calls his relationship with wife Angela Rockwood-Nguyen a "movie cliché." There he was an actor in his prime, training at a local gym and across the room was a woman with a martial arts background who was training just as hard. They were introduced by a mutual friend and the attraction was undeniable.
"It was one of those things that sort of happened," he said. "I wasn't particularly looking to settle down, but there she was."
Rockwood-Nguyen auditioned and won a role on "V.I.P" and they started planning a dream wedding in 2001. But if this were truly a movie, some foreshadowing would've given them clues about what was about to happen.
On Sept. 4, 2001 - months before their wedding - Rockwood-Nguyen was on her way home from San Francisco with two friends when the car flipped five times and snapped her neck. At their Los Angeles home, the hollow sound of the phone ringing in the middle of the night delivered the bad news - she was a quadriplegic.
"It was quite surreal. I got in the car and drove up there in three hours. I was in a state of panic. In a split second your life changes," Nguyen said.
They never had their wedding. It took a back seat. But the tragedy has become their platform for activism. They're both spokespersons for the Christopher Reeves Foundation and proponents of the stem cell research bill, which recently suffered another defeat with another veto from President George W. Bush.
"We're surrounded by people who would benefit from [stem cell research]. It's frustrating. Decisions are being made with little knowledge of the subject matter. I don't think the president is very educated about this particular field and the public is being misguided," he said.
The couple is also passionate about bringing awareness to the Asian Pacific American communities through their work with the Paralysis Resource Center's Minority Communities Outreach Campaign.
"I think Asian culture as a whole perceives paralysis as a source of shame. They tend to keep it internal. It's a grave mistake. I'm not sure you should run around flaunting your own pain, but suffering in silence and solitude is not the answer.
"Part of our job is to break through taboos," he said.
Becoming a 'Rebel'
Creativity has blossomed for Nguyen in the past year. Coming off a critical success of playing a heroin addict in "Little Fish," Nguyen returned to his birth country of Vietnam for the first time since escaping the war torn country to film "The Rebel."
The action-packed feature length film set in 1920s Vietnam during French Colonialism was shot entirely in Vietnam on the northern border under the constant scrutiny of the local media.
"It changed my life in a lot of ways. You couldn't ask for a better way to return to a country. I wouldn't have had the access that I did if I had traveled alone," he said.
"The Rebel" premiered last month in Vietnam and is a runaway hit. It's also been sweeping up awards in the American film festival circuit.
Nguyen also stars as Troy Poon - the real actor who turns his nose up at playing Bruce Lee's body double for a more dignified career selling vacuum cleaners - in Justin Lin's "Finishing the Game," which has recently been picked up for theatrical release.
He is also currently filming a horror flick called "A Gauntlet" and penning a complex follow-up film in the similar genre of "The Rebel."
"It will be a dark character fable that explores the role of a man in society," said Nguyen.
But the million-dollar question is: will there be a "21 Jump Street" reunion?
"I doubt it!" he laughed. He ran into Depp two years ago at the Toronto Film Festival where they swapped family pictures and talked about old times. "We laughed about [a reunion]. It's not going to happen, at least not with us."
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