Parry Shen is known to many audiences from his role in the film, “Better Luck Tomorrow.” It would be his role in that film that would shoot him to fame. However, it’s Shen’s portrayal of the cocky, smarmy doctor, Brad Cooper, on ABC Daytime’s “General Hospital,” that has proven his popularity with television audiences.
“I always saw a potential for Brad when I was reading these lines. There could be some humor in the snarkiness. I did this a couple of times, and it seemed to work. Whenever I would get a script, I would try to find the funny, but not be too outrageous. The first one that really hit was really early on. It was a scene with Bradford Anderson (ex-Spinelli), where he asked me, ‘How did you get that job over Ellie?’ My line was supposed to be, ‘Maybe because she took all that time off after getting hit by that CAR, that’s why she lost the job.’ Instead of saying ‘CAR,’ I gestured and said, ‘BEEP-BEEP.’ It would make Bradford elicit more of how callous Brad was, and the writers liked it. Now when I get the scripts, the writers are writing that stuff in! I’m all, ‘Oh, good! I don’t have to come up with it anymore!’ *laughs*”
Fans on social media have been responding positively to the potential story between Felix (Marc Anthony Samuel, Brad, and Lucas (Ryan Carnes). We talked a bit about where this could possibly head:
“You have fans of Felix and Brad because they have been set up for these past nine months. ‘When are they going to get together?’ or having these close calls, kisses, and even got punched. However, you have fans who are fans of Brad and Lucas/BRUCAS. This guy basically accepts Brad from the get-go. Even though he doesn’t know everything about what Brad has done with the Felix situation, Brad has to prove himself to Felix as Felix KNOWS Brad. It’s a very different dynamic and fans don’t know who to root for. I think that is the point. You have two people who are very different and are great guys to be with. However, I think it was smart for Ron (Carlivati) to put Brad in the middle because no one would be rooting for Brad. *laughs*”
Aside from acting, Shen also directed his first film entitled, “Unidentified,” which is now available by Dark Sky Films.
“My fellow producer, who is also one of the actors in the film, came to me and said he wanted to create something together. He had four ideas, and the first three he came to me with, I guessed the ending before he finished the pitch. For the fourth one, he said, ‘You know in Vegas that dark part of the road before you hit the strip?’ They are by themselves, and all of a sudden, they stumble upon aliens who are there. In a real-world situation, what would your friends really do? Basically, it deals with that. We created this film as a first-person perspective. The first part starts off as a ‘Hangover’ comedy, then it gets you really invested in the cast, and when bad things happens, it becomes ‘Paranormal Activity.'”
We also talked with Parry more about his time speaking at over 100 universities across the country to help others understand about being an Asian American in this industry.
For more information about “Unidentified,” visit http://www.unidentified-movie.com, and you can find out how to purchase the film.
Visit Parry’s official website at http://www.parryshen.com
Follow Parry Shen on Twitter: @parryshen
Download the full podcast with Parry Shen below:
