Leading up to the premiere of The Tiger’s Apprentice on Paramount+ today, Dorkaholics was invited to speak with Brandon Soo Hoo and Diana Lee Inosanto who voice Tom and Horse in the animated feature.
Brandon Soo Hoo related to the Dorkaholics mission of bringing everyone’s inner dork out into the world, as he shared “I wear my dork on sleeve.” He even recognized the Pokémon Gengar in the background.
Andrew Nguyen: Throughout this film, we see the different zodiac animals and their personalities as well, and their powers. So if you could choose which animal you would want to personify yourself, which one would it be?
Brandon Soo Hoo: Oh, I mean, I think I’m really happy with the animal that I’ve been selected at birth. I was born as a pig, and I strongly relate to that. Pigs are supposed to be very fortunate, and I feel blessed in this life to do all these awesome things. Also, pigs are rather gluttonous, and I’m an avid consumer of all kinds of foods. I like to eat. I’m blessed with this metabolism; otherwise, I would look like a pig, but I eat a lot, and I definitely feel very piggish in that sense.
Diana Lee Inosanto: And for me, like him, I was always happy being born in the Year of the Horse. The Year of the Horse is about stepping up to the front, leadership, and they say the horse is popular. So, I grew up being in all kinds of clubs and getting to know socializing. But if I had to pick a second animal, I find the dragon fascinating. No, I do think that dragons are really cool. And then, you know, my godfather was born in the Year of the Dragon, Bruce Lee.
Andrew Nguyen: So, my second question is about the clever Easter eggs of Asian culture within this film, like having charms around the house to ward off evil spirits. Were there any superstitious beliefs that you thought were silly before but now practice in your daily life?
Diana Lee Inosanto: Yeah, Feng Shui. I always like my furniture and learned this from my grandmother, facing certain ways, east-west. Yeah, I’m totally into the Feng Shui.
Brandon Soo Hoo: I think growing up in America, Christianity was a big part of shaping our society, but as I got older, I resonated a lot with Eastern spirituality, Buddhism, and Chinese medicine. I started embracing that. My parents would always say, “Don’t eat spicy food; it’ll give you hot air.” We called it “yeet hay,” and I thought it was baloney, but now it actually makes a lot of sense to me. I apply a lot of Chinese medicine into my own life.
