Chinese-American cult film star Bai Ling is at AFM this week talking about her directing debut My Quarantine Romance With Toilet Paper to the industry, poolside at market hub, Le Méridien Delfina.
Bai, whose acting credits include Red Corner starring Richard Gere and The Crow with Brandon Lee, self-funded the completed film that began shooting in Beverly Hills in August 2020. Inspiration, she says, came from her experiences of the pandemic, having arrived back in Los Angeles after a trip to Kazakhstan, only to be met with lockdown and the ensuing toilet paper shortage.
“I had no toilet paper, I was cutting my socks [to use],” Bai recalls. “I have a lot of fans on Instagram and they were saying they want to meet me. I said, ‘Do you have toilet paper? If you do, I’ll meet you.’”
From here she had the idea to make a film about a woman who meets 12 men online in the pandemic and gets them to give her toilet paper in return for sexual favours. “It’s actually a love story,” she confirms.
Bai’s 22-strong cast is made up of non-actors, who she found via social media and Craigslist. Bai stars, wrote the script, the soundtrack and produces through her US-based outfit White Spirit.
“This is a new language of film. I’m like a female Quentin Tarantino,” says Bai.
She is now looking for theatrical distributors and would like to see it made into a Broadway show.
Bai is happy to see how the industry is evolving for Asian-American actors and filmmakers. “Streaming has changed the industry. It has given more openness to normal people to create art.”
She is also busy with acting projects — she has five films shooting at the moment, and has recently starred in Pig Killer, based on the true story of a Canadian pig farmer, that Encripta has picked up from Silk Road Entertainment; Nate Ki’s debut Back Home; and TV series Great Kills. “I’m very excited about life right now,” she beams.
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