Director Chi Muoi Lo, with posters from his new movie “Catfish in Black Bean Sauce,” opening June … [+]
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
by Virginia Van Zandt
Hollywood may be the world’s slipperiest corporate ladder, with people above you trying to step on your hands, and people below you trying to pull you off, says veteran Hollywood actor and talent manager Chi Muoi Lo.
Now he’s launched an online course to help actors and other entertainers save their careers from office politics, fast-talking vendors and worthless training courses.
Even elite acting programs, like the $230,000 masters program at the University of Southern California, will teach the practical elements of acting, but fail on the business side, says Lo.
“You graduate, knowing nothing about the business, or how to break into the business. How can you learn from teachers who failed at becoming actors themselves? Experience is the best teacher. You cannot teach something you don’t know,” said Lo.
Chi Muoi Lo’s life began in the poor seaside Vietnamese city of Phan Rang. As an infant, his mother carried him in a small open boat in 1978 to escape the communist invasion from the north.
After a stint on the pirate-plagued waters of the South China Sea, he ended up in a U.S. refugee camp. Once the Jewish League of America agreed to sponsor the Lo family, they made their way to…
