Bringing Empathy into Everything with Melanie Chandra
Rom-com-versations is an interview series with people from the entertainment industry discussing all things rom-coms
Hi Meet Cuties,
This week I had the pleasure to chat with Melanie Chandra, an actress, producer, and philanthropist who is on a mission to bring more empathy into the world through her work. Melanie graduated from Stanford University before landing a job at McKinsey & Company – a consulting job that many young grads covet. However, she eventually quit to pursue her dream of acting and modeling. She is best known for her roles in CODE BLACK, HOT MESS HOLIDAY, and her most recent movie LIE HARD. Melanie is also a producer for several different projects and shows. One of her latest projects, with South Asian women in the forefront, is currently in development with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. She is the co-founder of Hospital for Hope, which provides health care services to under-served villagers in rural India. Let’s dive in!
💕 Naomi: What is your favorite rom-com and why?
🧡 Melanie: There are two comedies that wouldn't be considered rom-coms that I love and want to give an honorable mention to: Amélie and Coming to America. Both are a joy to watch for wildly different reasons, but ultimately it comes down to - am I truly enjoying watching this human overcome the obstacles in finding their soulmate? Yes. But my favorite rom-com of all time is Love Actually. It makes you both laugh and cry, the chemistry between all of the couples is so palpable, and it has one of my favorite movie moments of all time: the cue card scene. For those that haven’t seen it, it's when Mark, the best friend of a recently married man, goes to Keira Knightly's door, the new wife, and confesses she's perfect to him over cue cards. It's really a beautifully constructed scene.
💕 Naomi: And it has so much derivative power. Love Actually was released in 2003 and even though we are so many years past that, people still use the cue cards as a reference for so many things, which I think is such an iconic, powerful artistic tool. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey into Hollywood? I think it's important for people to hear when others make a decision to change the trajectory of their life in another direction.
🧡 Melanie: I grew up as a complete outsider to Hollywood. Just like you, I'm a child of immigrants, first generation Indian American. For me, education was really the only thing that mattered and I happened to have a knack for math and science. Through the encouragement of a plethora of Indian uncles and aunties, I pursued engineering and ultimately got my degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Right out of school, I landed a great fellowship in tech, and then I transitioned into management consulting here in New York City. But something felt off. It had for a long time, and that uneasy feeling only grew when I had committed to a corporate career.
My whole life I’d always been extremely creative. I played the piano, I danced, and I always dreamed of being an actress, but cultural expectations dismissed that dream and nudged me in a path more traditional.
But when I was in college, I experimented with improv comedy through classes and being on stage. There was this South Asian Student Association that put on a big Diwali celebration and various shows throughout the year, so I would always volunteer to be the emcee. I would do these comedic sketches with a friend in between all of the performances and kind of fell in love with the idea of being on stage. When I moved to New York, I was grateful for my job and super proud I was earning a real income for myself. But, I was just so intrigued by the theater world there that a part of me thought, "Well, I'm here. I might as well give it a try and see where it goes." But the other part of me didn’t want to tell anyone in fear of being judged. I could hear them saying, "Who are you? What right do you have to be an actress?”
Anyway, I decided to take courses after work hours. I’d write and put up small shows of my own, and I got some really positive feedback. While I was working my corporate job, I had an assistant to an agent at a big talent agency reach out to me and say, "Hey, I think you're very talented. What are you doing working in another career? You should really consider becoming an actor. You could be one of the few that make it." I said I would keep it in mind but was going to stay with my job a little longer. He responded, "Well whenever you're ready to quit your job, you give me a call." I spent another year working by day and continuing to train in my acting craft by night, writing, and performing. One day, I made the decision that I'd saved up enough money, I had completed a year and a half at my firm, and it was now or never. I quit my job, I called up that agent, and I ended up auditioning and slowly booking work. The rest is history.
💕 Naomi: That is incredible. You felt pressure, whether culturally or socially, to stick to the path you were on, but yet one conversation, or a few conversations, gave you the mindset shift that actually pushed you to try something and take a risk. I'm sure that's a story many of us can relate to in some way. Fast forward to today, most recently you were in Lie Hard, which came out on August 16th. For those that haven’t seen it, it’s about a pathological liar who borrows $4 million to purchase a mansion, to impress his girlfriend's wealthy parents, not thinking about the fact that all of these debts need to be paid back. Comedic elements are very much present, and it has the elements of a rom-com: a little bit of romance, a crazy plot, lots of comedy. Would you consider this a rom-com?
🧡 Melanie: I would consider it a rom-com in the way that you could make the case that Coming to America is a rom-com. It's the driving force of the movie, but there's so much else happening. With this movie, I would describe it as a comedy of errors, with the goal being: getting the girl. But it has all the elements of a mob movie within a world of zany characters. But ultimately, it's about the length that this guy is going to go through to impress the love of his life.
💕 Naomi: Were there any memorable moments from filming this movie or like behind the scenes moments that you can share?
🧡 Melanie: I want to be an actor that can say, "I always do my own stunts." I would say I haven't had to do too many stunts in projects. But in this one, there is a scene where the lead, Rob, is showing his fiance this house that he bought for her, that is apparently a $4 million mansion, and he's taking her out of the car. We improved different ways that I would get out of the car blindfolded which included me bumping my head. I'm a very giving actor and always like to give the director many takes, and so I did multiple versions of me bumping my head. The best one made it into the film, but it did not come without some physical pain.
💕 Naomi: That's a great story! I feel like people don't appreciate all the improv or the creative takes that are necessary to get the perfect shot and this is like an exceptional example of that.
You've also worked on a short film, Surina & Mel, which actually is a very dear place in my heart being a South Asian woman. It’s about two American born South Asian women living in New York figuring out what life looks like when you are not quite a model minority or a Bollywood star, but you're in the middle. This short film then gave way to Hot Mess Holiday, which aired in December 2021. A lot of your work aims to bring representation to minority groups, but these two take a slightly different approach highlighting early first or second generation people who are in the United States; not completely American, not completely Indian, but in the middle. I'm curious, how did your personal experience shape both the creative of these two films and also the characters?
🧡 Melanie: They always say, "Write what you know." Surina Jindal, my co-creator and co-star behind all the Surina & Mel content, and I have been friends for over a decade now. All of these stories have come out of our real life experiences being first generation South Asian American living a life in Los Angeles and New York. We got together one day and started writing because we had gone out the night before and had a hysterical interaction with a guy trying to hit on us. I was being sweet, polite, and not really saying no, but gently pushing him off, while Surina would be like, "Ugh, this guy. Go away!" We had the complete opposite reaction. We would start telling stories of our night out to other people and they'd say, "You both have great dynamics. You should write content together." So we started writing about absurd situations we've been in, different boxes people have put us in, different dating stories, and just topics at hand that made us laugh. But there was always an element of truth to our writing. We started doing it because it was fun and cathartic for us, but it turned into this thing where, when we would put out our content, so many South Asian girls would really resonate with it. At that time not many brown women were on screen just being themselves, it was this cultural representation we hadn't yet seen. We thought, “We have to keep going.” We met another writer and developed our material into something beyond webisodes. We made a short film, getting more eyes on the project, and eventually sold the idea to a network, and turned the whole thing into a holiday feature film, Hot Mess Holiday. It's a predominantly South Asian cast, but we were mindful to have characters born from different experiences living in the US, while avoiding tropes at all costs. In fact, we subverted a few, including the trope of the Indian auntie. There's a big turn in the movie where you might think, oh, they really can be progressive and empathetic!
💕 Naomi: I love seeing expectations for how South Asian people are represented on screen get subverted and flipped because the truth of the matter is that for every Indian auntie that's not empathetic, there's one that is.
🧡 Melanie: As actresses and performers, we were also a little tired of reading scripts or seeing auditions for all the stereotypical roles, like the daughter whose parents are forcing her to get into an arranged marriage, or pressuring her to become a doctor or engineer or lawyer, or a girl with an accent. There was one year where a good chunk of television scripts were casting for South Asian women, but in the roles of terrorists. So we needed to show that South Asian women can be leading ladies in mainstream Hollywood. I think it's starting to happen.
💕 Naomi: That perfectly dovetails into my next question: We've recently seen a lot of shows that portray the Indian or South Asian perspective, like Indian Matchmaking, Never Have I Ever, Wedding Season, which just came out on Netflix, and then of course, Hot Mess Holiday. Is there a specific moment that you thought things were starting to shift in mainstream media and a lot of these projects were starting to become green lit? Is there a story or a perspective that you think should be told next that hasn't really been captured or portrayed yet?
🧡 Melanie: I think one of the first milestones for South Asian representation on screen was Slumdog Millionaire in 2009. Granted that wasn’t specific to the Indian-American experience, it was the first time Hollywood saw an Indian actress as a leading lady in a widely successful mainstream film, Freida Pinto. She does such a great job in the movie, and that year there was this subtle shift in interest for South Asian actresses here. Then, you have Mindy Kaling who came along and did The Mindy Project, which was a huge step forward in the realm of network television. Other pioneers, like Kal Penn, also kept representation alive on screen. There have been loads of small wins along the way over the last decade - TV pilots sold with South Asian creatives behind them and more South Asian characters as series regulars. But I think the biggest wins of late have been Never Have I Ever and Ms. Marvel —they have challenged the traditional narrative in so many ways. And of course you have Indian Matchmaking (which is amazing) whose reach is so vast and has everyone curious about dating in our culture. But really, hats off to Mindy Kaling —Never Have I Ever has been so widely successful having a teenage South Asian protagonist. I can't even imagine what my childhood would've been like had if I had these shows growing up.
💕 Naomi: I totally agree. Also Amrit Kaur on The Sex Lives of College Girls. I resonated so much with her character too becasue she's very outgoing, sex positive, and not the stereotypical soft spoken ideal that a lot of older shows might have propagated when it comes to South Asian people. Also, I just want to call out in Hot Mess Holiday, the story that you mentioned about emceeing Diwali at Stanford and then doing a movie about Diwali is so perfect because before that, the only Diwali reference that my friends knew was from The Office. When you bring South Asian people and stories into mainstream media, you also get to open up the door to storytelling about important cultural moments, holidays, and traditions that people wouldn't know about otherwise. All my friends ask me about Indian wedding traditions now because they've seen it so often on TV. Granted, I don't have all the answers, but I like talking about it.
🧡 Melanie: In talking about how things have shifted over the last few years, I also want to give a special shoutout to Janina Gavankar. She’s a true artist who’s constantly working on incredible projects while lifting up fellow South Asians along the way. Most recently, she starred in Big Sky on ABC, where she fought to get more South Asian parts on the show. I think that was such a big win and I'm in awe of the advocacy she's doing behind the scenes. People like her are really “walking the walk” and helping pave the way.
💕 Naomi: I have two more questions for you. First, you bring a lot of empathy into your work, even in the shout out that you just gave and the way you think about who has made an impact on the industry, but you're also involved in a nonprofit called Hospital for Hope. How did you come to find Hospital for Hope and what has your involvement been like there?
🧡 Melanie: I'm one of the co-founders of Hospital for Hope. It was something that was born out of my time at Stanford through a volunteer organization there called Project Dosti. They would send a group of volunteers to different parts of India every summer. I had always wanted to visit India in a capacity like that, so I went one summer and taught English, learned about reforestation, and got to work with kids of this amazing village out there. After graduation, a couple of us in the organization wanted to continue helping the village. We knew that one of their greatest needs was an accessible, functioning hospital. We were all young professionals at that point and decided to put our minds together to build them this hospital. Through partnerships and a lot of fundraising, we were able to break ground and build the hospital, which is currently serving an area of about 100,000 villagers in Jharkhand.
💕 Naomi: Before we wrap, are there any upcoming projects that you can give us a little peek into that you're working on or that you're excited about?
🧡 Melanie: There's nothing specific I can mention unfortunately, but I am excited to be developing multiple projects right now as potential TV series and film, both as an actor and as a storyteller. Fingers crossed!
I hope you enjoyed this rom-com-versation! To learn more about South Asian representation, plan a weekend to binge all the movies/shows mentioned above– you’re in for a real treat!
Stay tuned for my next Rom-com-versation.
xx,
Naomi