Actress, performer and philanthropist Lana Condor visited the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, Dec. 5, for “An Evening with Lana Condor.” This event was only open to current CSULB students and cost $10 to attend.
Condor is a Vietnamese-born American who made her film debut in “X-Men: Apocalypse” as Jubilation Lee. However, she is mostly known for taking on the role of Lara Jean Covey in the romantic film, “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
In the past, her most prominent roles revolved around young women who embarked on self-discovery journeys and learned to value and embrace their own power.
However, Lana’s dreams of becoming an actor felt unattainable at one point. “What I would always tell myself early on in my career was, first I cannot emotionally attach myself to no’s because if you do, it’s brutal and it’s a hard time in that hole,” Condor said.
“My advice is just to dive head first, truly don’t be afraid to fail because you’re gonna fail, you will, but keep on failing, keep on failing and eventually something is gonna stick,” she said.
Condor inspired the crowd with empowering advice and opened up about still feeling imposter syndrome. She shared that even at her most recent award presentations, the Critics Choice Awards, she felt a deep sense of imposter syndrome.
When Condor visited Vietnam with the Obamas, they discussed similar feelings of imposter syndrome while speaking with young women about educational opportunities.
“We are nothing but the stories we tell ourselves and I chose to tell myself great, great, stories so that in times of fear that will click in and overpower that fear,” Condor said.
“Start to believe in these mantras that you do belong, and, hopefully, they just start to stay,” she said.
Condor also shared details about her parents and about how having a strong support system of friends and family is important. She told the audience that engaging with others who have similar interests gives you a certain power, which is why she believes community is crucial.
“You wanna pick a career that you will still be happy to do even when there’s the lows,” Condor said.
According to Condor, everyone has to find happiness within themselves.
After being adopted at the age of four months, Condor and her younger brother Arthur Condor immigrated to the United States from Vietnam, where they have lived with their German and Irish parents ever since. They have lived in Chicago, New York and California.
As children, the two siblings had a Vietnamese nanny which allowed them to maintain their cultural roots. It was not until recently that she learned more about her cultural identity as a Vietnamese woman through culinary experiences.
“That started when I was an adult. I went to Vietnam a bunch of times and I have an organization where I put Vietnamese girls through an education in the town that I was born in,” Condor said.
One of her biggest challenges was grappling with her identity in search of herself.
“But at the same time I know who I am. I know my values, I know what I believe in, I know what I love and I care for. I’m a loud, strong, Vietnamese woman,” Condor said.
And although Condor describes herself as an introvert, she loves being extroverted for work.
She left Long Beach State students with the parting message to listen to each other.
“In my opinion, I think that the world is not black and white, that majority lives in the gray space but things can feel very black and white. So, my advice would be to listen to each other,” she said.
Condor is excited about her upcoming projects “The One,” a psychological thriller, and the action thriller “Ballerina Overdrive.”