Joanna Pang 2002 interview
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Secrets of Isis
JP2005 — 19 years ago(August 30, 2006 09:22 AM)
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jefgg — 10 years ago(May 13, 2015 12:03 PM)
Here is the text from the interview.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
JOANNA PANG
conducted Friday, 26th July, 2002
I had the great fortune to be able to speak with Joanna Pang about her time on Isis and what she was up to before and after that time.
When did you become interested in acting?
Joanna Pang: I started performing when I was very, very young, about five years old. I started at San Francisco Ballet and I sort of grew up in the ballet world. Besides studying ballet, my brother and I became interested in musical theatre. We auditioned for a theatre group in San Francisco and started performing in musical theatre productions. We really enjoyed doing that. My brother and I danced together and we became a ballroom dance team. Before I was even 13 years old, we performed on a show called The Ted Randal Show, which was like American Bandstand, but taped in San Francisco for KPIX. After Randal left, it became Dick Stewart's Dance Party and we danced on that TV show every day.
So, did you grow up San Francisco?
JP: Actually in Berkeley and Oakland, the Bay area.
Who were some of your role models?
JP: I guess my mother was and still is one of my role models. She had been a child performer [near the tail-end of the Vaudeville era] on the movie circuit. She sang and danced and later, she joined San Francisco Ballet and was asked to teach. She taught at San Francisco Ballet for many, many years. I always admired her teaching ability, her performing ability and her role as a mother and mentor to many of her students.
What was your first professional acting job?
JP: My first real professional job was when I was five years old and I was the youngest person to perform with the San Francisco Ballet and actually get paid. My first professional acting job when I got my SAG card was an old movie called "Once a Thief" with Ann Margaret and Alain Delon. I had an agent in San Francisco and I was sent to audition. It was my first movie and I think I had four lines. It was great, I loved it!
The first time I said my line, I was projecting my voice (having come from a theatrical background) and the sound man said, "Oh, my God! Not so loud!"
What led to you being cast on Isis?
JP: I was living in New York to pursue a career in the theatre. When I moved to New York I had an agent already and it turned out I had a lot more work in TV and film than theatre. I had been performing in a TV series for WCBS in New York, The Patchwork Family. It was syndicated in many cities around the country. I did that for a couple of years and I also did a couple of specials for CBS. One that I really liked a lot was CBS Festival of the Lively Arts. It was a Chinese opera and I was the on-camera narrator for it. I did a CBS Daytime 90 special (as an airline stewardess). I seemed to be working for CBS quite a bit!
I think it was those two productions that made CBS Children's Programming executives aware of me and consider me for Isis. One of the heads for children's programming for CBS called my agent and I went to meet him in New York. He said they were doing a TV series called Isis and told me a little bit about the series and asked if I would be available to fly out to audition [because] they were interested in me for the part of Cindy Lee.
I said, "Yes, I'd love to!" I was very excited. I flew out in the morning. The next day I had my audition and that very afternoon, the producers told me I had the part. It all happened really fast. I had maybe a week's time to fly home, pack up some stuff and move out there.
I'm not really familiar with Patchwork Family. What was that about?
JP: That was a wonderful show! It was hosted by a woman named Carol [Corbett] and her sidekick was a puppet named Rags. They had a bird lady, a plant lady, a math lady and my segment was music and dance. Sometimes I would have a small group of children and I would teach them (on-camera) a dance and then I would say to the camera, "stand up and dance with us." This was a way to get the audience actively involved in the show. Sometimes, my segment was with John Canemaker, an animator who has since gone on to do animation for Disney and other studios. He and I would do some music and song segments together.
How about your appearance on CBS Festival of the Lively Arts?
JP: The Chinese opera [which was the subject of this broadcast] had been performed at a theatre off-Broadway in New York and I was not involved in that. A CBS producer saw the production and thought it would make a great TV special. They felt a Chinese opera for children needed a narrator, so before each segment of the opera, I would come out and explain what was going to be happening with the characters. They had me dressed up in a beautiful Chinese jacket and my hair done with two buns and long braids hanging down.
At the point you signed up for Isis, was it still a detective/crime solving setup or had the concept already been changed to the school setting we're familiar with?
JP: I was very surprised to hear that the wh -
jefgg — 10 years ago(May 13, 2015 12:07 PM)
Here is part two of the text from the interview.
Do any memorable incidents stand out in your mind of doing Isis?
JP: One time I had to drive a car and I didn't know how to drive a stick shift and they had to help me. I enjoyed "Fool's Dare" (where Cindy gets trapped in the junkyard). I remember the two boys who played my friends, they were fun. All the shows were fun.
One interesting experience I had as a result of Isis: there's a big cherry blossom festival in Medford, Oregon and the people who ran it contacted me and asked if I would be the grand marshal of their parade. My mother travelled with me, we arrived in Medford, I looked out the
window, turned to my mother and said, "I wonder who's on the plane? They have a red carpet and musicians out there!" My mother looked at me and she said, "I think it's for you!" I had no idea that they had done all of this for my arrival. I thought it was really exciting.
Anything else going on that you'd like to share with us?
JP: 12 years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was really tough on me and my family. I had to have a 13 hour surgery [and go through] six months of chemotherapy. After that, though, I felt fine and I've been fine ever since then, until April, [when] I was diagnosed with breast cancer again. It was a shock to be diagnosed with cancer again. After surgery, all my test results came out so good, I'm not going to have chemo.
I wasn't sure whether or not to bring the experience up, but I talked it over with my husband, and he said "it's not a secret that you had breast cancer twice, and you can be an inspiration: you've had it twice, you're recovering, you'll be teaching and performing again and you're doing fine."
If you saw me now, you'd never think that I had been sick. I'm doing much, much better and now I am teaching and performing again.
I'm glad to hear that! Do you think you'd be interested in doing some convention appearances?
JP: It would be great fun. I'm thrilled that people are interested. I'm thrilled that you're interested. It's great that people still like Isis.
Thanks, Joanna!