In this conversation with Terry Hu (they/them), a Chinese-American queer actor from New Jersey, I had the opportunity to talk with them about their recent work, including Hulu’s comedy movie “Prom Dates” in which they play as a love interest, and a Max drama series called “The Girls On The Bus” where they play the role of Angie. Both of these premiered earlier this year.
I already knew Terry on the big screen from the Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” and I was very pleased to have such an interesting conversation with them.
You majored in Neuroscience and actually got into the top physical therapy schools in the U.S. before getting into your acting career. What made you change your path in life?
Right after I graduated in June, I went into this open casting call where anyone can audition, you don’t need an agent or a manager. I was there for an agency: actors need agents to start getting auditions, but it’s really hard to get one. If you call and email them, no one replies pretty much. So when I had the opportunity to do that, I signed with this agency commercially. Even if theatrical [work] was the one I wanted to do. I thought “Oh, this is like getting my foot in the door.”
I had the option to defer for a year, so I gave acting a chance; I probably needed the courage from having an agent to actually make that decision. Also, at the end of that year I deferred, I won ABC Discovers, so it was like a boost of confidence; then I found another job to support me. Therefore, I believe a lot of things had to align: honestly, I believe I wasn’t brave enough to do it on my own, I was really scared.
In “Prom Dates,” “Zombies 3” and “Never Have I Ever” your character is non-binary or queer. How much is this representation in movies important to you?
The past five years things have changed a lot, but there is still a long way to go. We are definitely going in the right direction: when I was a kid, I could not have imagined characters like this. I also believe it’s really important to have a representation that isn’t just about this character being queers. For example, in Prom Dates, it’s not really brought up. It’s not like “Oh cool, this is like a queer character, this is how they became queer or their struggles.” it’s very normalized and I think that’s very important. I had the honor to have a lot of roles where that’s not the center of attention, which I think is really nice, but of course I believe it’s really important to have representation that does talk about the struggle, trauma and stereotypes. I love being part of it.
How do you use your popularity from acting to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community?
I think I have done a lot of press and stuff specifically for this, in particular when “Zombies 3” came out. There was a lot of press since I was the first live-action non-binary character on a Disney series. It was really amazing.
I also think about getting aid things. Like if a trans kid is struggling because they were evicted from their family house, there is GoFundMe and mutual aid is really helpful, where our community can help each other and I would often post it on my story or similar.
I had the honor of playing a lot of queer characters. Due to social media, I had fans able to reach out to me saying that it meant a lot for them, so I always try to reply to fans and stuff. There are a lot of levels to it, and actually playing a queer character is high up. Then we have the smaller things that are action-oriented, for example, mutual aid, funding each other and helping each other out right now. And, of course, I also speak up whenever I have the chance.
Terry Hu in a photoshoot. Credit: Jordan Geiger
You also recently acted in a Max drama series, “The Girls on the Bus,” released on March 14. What do you like about your character and what did you learn from it?
In this series, I got to film with one of my best friends, Natasha, who plays one of the leads, so it was really cool. I won’t give any spoilers, but I do admire my character’s ambition! To a certain extent I think it’s a good lesson on how our ambitions sometimes can take us too far, and we have to make sure to keep it in check with our humanity, I suppose as well. The show is very cut-through on politics, so I think it speaks to that a little bit, but I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I will just leave it up to that. I found it a very personal rewarding experience because I was filming in New York and I was only into four episodes out of ten; it was really nice to kind of experience a really solid work-life balance. I suppose that happened when everyone else on the set also had that: the main cast are older than me, they have families; they are very grounded and are able to balance both their work and their personal life. That was really nice to experience. I have been on set on location, which means you are not filming at home. It’s like a bubble and you do everything together: you feel like your entire world is your set, but I think it’s important for your mental health to relax a bit and just go home.
What is the next project you would like to work on in your acting career?
I loved playing the queer characters and I am happy to do it a lot, but I would like to play something that even I wouldn’t expect. I’d like to lead a show as a dizzy, fun straight girl or even a smart mean straight girl. Pretty much I would love to play straight girls. I think it would just be fun to modify some expectations that are on me, because I am non-binary and queer. I would also enjoy just being part of Dune or like some big epic movies. I am excited for what’s to come honestly, there are a lot of things I want to tackle, so thanks for asking that.
