We're nearing the end of this past casting wave or "call", and I'm so honored to announce that Su Ling Chan will be joining us here at PSA as The Princess of PSA herself Althea Karas! Upfront let me just say I've been wanting to work with Su since pretty much the beginning. But I didn't really think it'd happen, for me it was like, "if I had Su's stamp of a approval I'll be able to say what I'm doing has some merit, but I don't see someone so talented and accomplished wanting to waste their time on this small, itty-bitty, passion project from someone who's literally never done this before." In my mind, it's a big ask of any VA to give me the time of day, but especially when it's someone who's clearly been doing this a while and very accomplished that could spend that time on bigger things. So I just never really thought it would happen, I was just kind of like, "maybe if I can keep this thing building up enough, maybe this would be something she'd see as worth her time." So needlessly to say I was shocked as hell and giddy when she auditioned for the project. It was like, "well Su auditioned so one of these roles absolutely has to go to her." And everyone one she auditioned for was incredible, but as I've said before I kind of- I don't know try to think about the VA as person and let that guide me a bit. And for me Althea was the obvious choice Su herself is an immigrant from Malaysia to the US, and even had to adjust from using British English to American English. So with Althea being the child of two immigrants and being raised in the UK like I said it just made sense. Needless to say Su's performance comes off really natural. And I've been candid when I write these characters plenty of times I have no idea like how they should sound or like- the nuances of their speech. And Su really brought a lot of that stuff with her performance just the way she spoke was like, "oh, I didn't even consider that." Or there'd be you know a line that maybe I had thought emotionally would follow xyz rhythm and she'd give me a take that followed the feeling but the path or- the inflections the builds and drops of emotion were completely different than what I had imagined. But were so much more line with Althea's character that's been reflected in her bio and dialogue. Which is what's great about working with such a talented VA, you as the writer are kind of just handing them the blueprints of a character and their the ones actually building them. They're the ones saying, "eh this doesn't makes sense or this doesn't flow right." They're able to give you these just little things like word tweaks and things. There were plenty of times where Su would mix it up a little and throw like a British word and I'd be like, "oh yeah... that is a sort of thing a British person would say huh?" And that's something that I wouldn't likely have gotten with someone who didn't have her background. A lot of times in these scenarios where you cast just such the perfect person for the role; it really doe make you feel like, "oh I actually don't know this character at all." Which in a way is really fun because I kind of become just like a sort of fan; like I get to be educated on this thing I thought I completely understood and learn this new minuet but interesting facets I never considered or thought about. I could sing Su's praises to the moon and back, but I think everyone in the VA community already knows just how incredibly talented she is and just such a delight to work with. I am just so thrilled to have gotten to work with her on this, and just so humbled. Like I said she didn't need this role you know like- she could be on much more prestigious things. But I'm- yeah, excited she lent me her talents for this. So Su Ling Chan, it is a poor reward, but welcome to Pleasant Sparkle Academy.
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