I was raised in a dominantly Filipino family. I didn't know I was 'mixed' until I got older and started asking questions about my grandparents, the origins of our middle and last names. We were kind of textbook Pinoys. A lot of the Filipino stereotypes that were joked about by me and my friends rang very true with my family.
And I'm a believer that you take a negative and turn it into a positive, and as it turned out, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. And so I do appreciate the Ranger staff and the Ranger organization for giving me that opportunity.
I was trying to get an audition for 'Walker, Texas Ranger' and they wouldn't see me. And I was crestfallen, because I really needed money. And to be told you're not good enough to be seen by 'Walker, Texas Ranger' is a tough blow.
It'd been about four months since shooting 'Power Rangers,' and 'Stranger Things' was the first thing I saw that made me think, 'I need this.' I had one day to get my act together, so I made a short film rather than a self-tape. It had an opening score, opening titles, and I may or may not have put on a g-string and danced to 'Hungry Like a Wolf.'
I came to 170 and I got motivated and finally they started giving me ranked opponents.
I win by submissions, knockouts. There's guys ranked above me, but no one's interested in seeing them fight. They want to see me fight.
I don't think I've made my favorite film yet. But I loved 'Bamboozled.' 'Bamboozled' to me is off the chain. It's definitely in the ranking. I loved 'Bamboozled.'
Of course my family and friends are incredibly valuable to me. They keep me sane, they teach me things and I love spending time with them. I think that ranking what you value is a sort of western and linear way of looking at things.
When doing comedy, I do what makes me laugh. The first person I learned from said I should talk about things I am passionate about - that I love or hate - because the audience likes to see passion. The stuff I rant and rave about stems from a place that really pisses me off.
Ultimately, if someone's paying hard-earned money to see me play live, they don't want a rant about what's happening on the other side of the world. They don't want to know which way they should vote.
Don't even get me started about how much I hate the Internet, 'cause I'll rant for hours about this.
Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?
Rap music was and is, for me, everything.
Rap music was a savior to me.
Serious rap music puts me to sleep.
I don't look at my instrument as having one specific role; I was raised to go as far as you can. But Raphael Saadiq hated my bass. He told me to throw it away. And playing in Snoop's band, there was a time when my bass was more annoying to everyone than helpful. They would get on my case: 'Can you make your bass sound like more of a bass?'
When I finished Westlife, we had - Louie Walsh is still managing me - I was lucky to have options from different labels such as Sony and Universal. When we met Capitol and Nick Raphael, I just believed in them the most, and it looked like they believed in me the most.
Fighting Raphael Assunaco isn't that exciting to me. I have nothing against him; he's a good guy and a good fighter.
Why don't you compare me to Sally Jessy Raphael?
Raphael Saadiq said to me, quite often, that Chuck D was his history teacher. And so he got a lot from the music, things that he wasn't getting maybe in school. And I feel the same way with regards to Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder.
