'The New Guy,' Parry Shen

Parry Shen, what an interesting guy. Parry is a young actor cast in an upcoming movie called The New Guy with DJ Qualls (Road Trip). Parry has also been in several TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Party of Five, Caroline in the City, and The King of Queens. He also appears in the film Starship Troopers.

Read on to find out how Parry Shen got his first role in Hollywood and how he wound up co-starring the upcoming comedy, The New Guy.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Hi Parry, can you tell me about your new comedy movie, The New Guy?

Parry: The New Guy is a new movie from Columbia Pictures. It's with DJ Qualls from Road Trip and we are life-long friends and we're band-mates. We play in a funk band. Basically were are a very tight group of friends and then one day DJ gets in trouble and somehow he ends up going to jail for a day and he meets cellmate, Eddie Griffin. Eddie teaches him how to change his image and become a really tough guy, becoming real confident, spiking his hair up. He transfers to a new school and becomes the new guy. No one knows him so they think he's cool and everything and he changes his image. He's torn between his new cool group of friends and us.

Can you tell me about your character, Glen?

Parry: Glen is very high strung. He needs a girlfriend really bad. He makes a lot of comments where he has to defend his sexuality because he's just so into girls that he will make comments and sort of retract himself and say, 'Oh, does that sound gay?' that kind of stuff. He is very wary about that. And he's never had a girlfriend in his life. But he talks all slick and his friends think he has more experience than he has. He plays keyboard in the band.

Is the band a central feature to this movie?

Parry: Yeah. It's basically the heart of it. DJ's name is Dizzy Gollestie Harrison and he really loves music. He's just grown up, and we've all have grown up singing funk music. That's the thing, our band plays funk music, songs from the '70s that weren't even in our era. We're singing Play that Funky Music and Love Machine and stuff like that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but were you in Starship Troopers?

Yes I was. That was my very first gig. Actually I ended up getting written out of the part. But you can still see me when Casper Van Dien is walking out of the classroom in the beginning of the movie with Neil Patrick Harris and you can catch a glimpse of me noggin' this kid's head in the background. But it's kind of like, "That's all he's in?" you know?

So you were in a lot of the filming originally but they just cut you out in the editing process?

Parry: It was my very first gig and I was an extra. They needed to fill in a spot and they thought, "Here's a really good spot for a speaking part" and they upgraded me. They gave me one line or something like that and then they took it away from me and reduced me to noggin this kid's head in the background.

There's an interesting story about you coming to Hollywood. I understand that you hadn't won many roles so you quit and became a waiter before returning after winning The New Guy role. Can you tell me about your mind set at that time?

Parry: I had always gotten a lot of guest star appearances, like on Caroline In The City and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was working at a Boarding School so I could get free room and board and that way I was able to audition during the day and at night I would take care of the kids. But I wasn't hungry enough so I purposely quit my job. That was my security. I bought a house because I would have never rented, and I have always been a snob about being a waiter. I didn't want to be a statistic actor, being a starting actor and being a waiter. Just having to take other people's attitudes. But then you have the pressures of real life and the roles just aren't coming and there was that SAG Commercial Strike where a lot of the money comes from the commercials.

Then I said, "You know what I think I'm going to start concentrating more on writing screenplays or do something to stay creative" but I was thinking about seeking out other venues. I'm not going to sit around and wait for things to come to me. I'm just going to try and power through them.

So I took a job waiting tables at Applebee's and I've never had a waiting job. I lied on my resume saying I worked at all these restaurants. I auditioned for The New Guy before I went to work, my first day, and I was already an hour late because they kept me there auditioning. Obviously they liked me so they kept bringing me back and giving me more scenes. I'm looking at my watch and they were like, "Do you have to be some where?" and I'm like, "Yeah, I've got my first day at Applebee's and I'm already an hour late." They were taping me and they were loving this because it was a great story and they were saying, "This is a lead of a film" and I got my act together.

I did a solid audition. I'm driving to work and changing into my Applebee's apron in the car, and I show up. I'm busting my hump because I want to make up for being an hour late. Such a bad first impression. So I'm busting my hump, working hard and then three hours later my girlfriend calls me on my cell phone so I turn it off because I'm working and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I can't do this" and all of a sudden there's a call at the bar for me and I said, "Oh my gosh, it's my girlfriend," and I say to the manager, "I'm so sorry, this is so unprofessional and it will never happen again."

The call was from my agent and he says "You've got the part but you have to fly out tomorrow to Texas for two months to shoot." And I was like, "Oh my God!" And I hung up. I still started waiting tables again just thinking that I have to be in Texas tomorrow and I had to pack! I'm telling the waiters that I've got the role because they were all actors too. I'm telling this great story and they're like, "Dude, why are you still here?" and I said, "I work here, I'm not going to shirk my responsibilities" and the manger said, "You know what, just go, celebrate, you have to be on a plane. Let me know what's going on." That was my first and last day there and I still have a check waiting for me worth $20.13.

Why are you so driven to be an actor and a screenwriter?

Parry: When I went to college I majored in business. I've always been practical-minded. I always like to have a plan. When I was in college I wanted to take the safe route. I've always wanted to do something in movies or creation. I see how it affects people. I watch movies over and over again and that's my goal, to create something that people can have an emotion to. They'll watch a favorite movie and I would like to be in that favorite movie.

When I was in college I interned for HBO and Marvel Comics, the entertainment side of business, and I still saw people behind desks, trapped behind desks and they're getting older and it's getting harder to leave and when I was in college I said, "You know what, I have to do this while I have no ties whatsoever. This is the only chance I will ever have." So I did the first unpractical thing ever! I got my life savings and I told my mom, "Look, I'm a driven person and I'm a hard worker, I'm not going to be some actor, I'm going to work hard at it. I'm just going to have to trust myself." I came out here and it was tough. The first three months out here I was in a theatre group but I had no job. I kept pushing back my return ticket. First I gave myself two weeks. I was that cocky! I was like, two weeks, no problem. Then later after two weeks I was like, "Maybe I'll push back my ticket a month, maybe." And then after three months I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is not working." I actually stopped pushing back my return ticket and then a week before I was about to leave back to New York where I'm from, the boarding school called me and said, "Hey would you like to work for us?" It just saved me. I'm so thankful, it keeps letting me do what I want to do because it is so rare that people get to do that.

Would you ever be able to return to the business side of entertainment, like working at Marvel Comics?

Parry: Um hmm, Marvel Comics. I interned there for the licensing program. Licensing meaning that they take story ideas and put them in the comic books and cereal and stuff like that. We also handled MTV's licensing of Beavis & Butthead back than. We did the Beavis & Butthead comic and I got to answer the fan mail and stuff like that. Actually I still integrate a lot of my business skills. A lot of actors don't like the business side and I really dig that side and I really get it and I know how to invest and how to manage my account.

That's an advantage for sure.

Parry: It just gives you another level cause you're going to have to deal with business sides and negotiations. Just being smart about things. I was a marketing major so I advertised myself and came up with my own press kits and promos before I got a publicist. I work a lot with my publicist with ideas actually.

I'd like to talk about the TV shows that you've appeared on in the past such as Buffy and Party of Five, Suddenly Susan, and Caroline in the City. Would you like to be a regular on any of these shows?

Parry: It would have to be The King of Queens. They're so funny. I got to do a scene with Jerry Stiller. He played George Constanza's dad on Seinfeld. He's a genius, just watching him. He said one line where he shouted in the beginning and then he calmed down and he reversed it. I didn't even think about doing that. It was just so much more funny! I had a scene with him in the supermarket and he comes to me and asks me where the big yams are. He goes, "I know you're hiding them in the back for the VIPs!" And I go "There's no big yams in the back, ok? We're not holding out on the yams." And then he goes, "If you're so smart why don't you bring a few of them out here?" So then I take his small yam and I go to the back and the camera follows me and I bring back his same small yam. I give it to him and he would yell, "Now That's A Yam!" But then he switched it! He yells, "Yeah If Your So Smart Why Don't You Bring A Few Of Them Out Here, Smarty!" So I grabbed his yam, I go to the back, bring back the same yam and he goes "Now that's a yam (spoken softly)." It was just hilarious! Usually you expect him to shout it but he was just like "Now that's a yam (spoken softly)." That show is just really funny, those guys are just really good.

You're originally from New York so I'm wondering what you think is the strangest thing about Los Angeles?

Parry: The freeway. Everybody's all sectioned off from each other and they're all driving their little (cars). There's like millions of them! You're stuck in traffic and it's so jammed pack. You'll stay in traffic for 2-3 hours. Nobody looks at each other. People sing in the car and they pick their nose because they think nobody is watching. That's the funny thing.

I saw an ad on TV where they were advertising minivans with TVs in them. I'm thinking, you know that's perfect for a big city because you're stuck in traffic all the time. Basically what they're doing is turning your car into your living room because you spend so much time there.

Parry: That's true. I just saw one with a refrigerator in the back.

The last thing I want to talk to you about is another talent that you have, performing magic shows. I hear you perform for kids in your spare time?

Parry: My girlfriend is a schoolteacher and when I have some spare time I'll come in. Since I'm not a pro magician, the little kids are easier to fool than adults! I'm pretty good but kids are just easier. They'll suspend belief more than an adult. I do that and they'll get a kick out of it. I'll go on and do the beginning part of magic and then I'll teach them one trick and watch them click and they will all go home and show their parents. It's just fun.

I do a puppet show on the second half. I do a Kermit the Frog impersonation with a Kermit the Frog doll. It's great! I think it's the suspense of disbelief that I love. At one point they can see my lips moving and they know I have my hand up Kermit's butt. They can see it. But at one point I'm talking to them like Kermit the Frog and then a girl would ask me a question and I would answer and then she's like, "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to him!" So that's just great.

Last question for you, Parry, you mentioned your girlfriend, I'm wondering what she thinks of you being an actor?

Parry: We worked at the boarding school together so she has seen me since my first audition, which is years ago. She's seen the progression and she's really proud of me. It's tough. She's in a different profession and there are questions like, "Does she understand what I'm doing and does she think I'm doing them for the wrong reasons."

But she knows me. It really hit me when I got the part in The New Guy. The day before I had been crying because I thought I screwed up my audition for the New Guy. I said, "I wish they would give me another chance!" That day they ended up actually calling me back and that's when I got it. I was crying and having all these doubts. Can I do this? Why isn't it working out? She was ready to support me 100% if I had no money. She said, "I'll take care of us, don't work." I was calling her, driving home from the restaurant and I'm like "They had me go home early! I'm coming back to you!" When I came in the door she had a star on the door with my name on it like a little Hollywood dressing-room star. I went in and we didn't say anything we just hugged each other and we just started crying. There were no words that needed to be said. All of that had come to this. All that I had dreamed for was here.

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