Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with the team behind Forge at SXSW 2025.

Writer-director Jing Ai Ng and stars Kelly Marie Tran, Brandon Soo Hoo, and Edmund Donovan discuss their character strengths and weaknesses, art forgery research rabbit holes, and developing a debut feature.

Forge follows two sides of the same coin when an Art Crime FBI agent heads to Miami to investigate a sibling-run forgery ring.

The secret to getting a high-intensity crime thriller just right for first-time feature writer-director Jing Ai Ng? Make it more similar to her own life. That’s right! To make sure Forge, a story about a sibling duo running an art forgery ring in Miami, nailed all its beats, “the script had to become more personal.”
Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon) is FBI Art Crimes agent Emily Lee, who’s moved from New York City to Miami to investigate a series of forgeries in the area. The masterminds behind this forgery ring are brother and sister duo Raymond and Coco Zhang, played by Brandon Soo Hoo (The Tiger’s Apprentice) and Andie Ju (Beef). The two have recently stumbled into a golden opportunity with a young disgraced millionaire (Your Monster’s Edmund Donovan), but will this con be their last?
At SXSW 2025, Ng, Tran, Soo Hoo, and Donovan chatted with Perri Nemiroff at the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center about their collaboration on Ng’s debut feature. Check out the full conversation in the video above or in the transcript below to get the rundown on this cast of characters, how the final script changed from its original story, and how Austin native Robert Rodriguez inspired Ng to set her eyes on the future.
Jing Ai Ng Shares First-Time Filmmaking Advice

She also shares how the original draft of ‘Forge’ changed along the way.

Image via SXSW

PERRI NEMIROFF: When we celebrate a film festival debut, our audience is first going to learn about the movie through this interview, so can you kick us off with a brief synopsis?
JING AI NG: Forge follows two siblings in Miami who run an art forgery ring. Meanwhile, an art crimes FBI agent moves down to Miami to investigate a string of forgeries.
I wanted to dig into the story evolution to start because I was reading in your director’s statement that when you first started writing Forge, AI art generators weren’t as prevalent as they are now. It was making me wonder, can you tell us the biggest difference between draft one of this screenplay and the finished film everyone’s going to see here in Austin?
NG: When I first wrote Forge in 2021, it was set in New York, and there were totally different characters. But I went through the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab that year, and they were so supportive, and basically, the script became more personal. I set it in my hometown of Miami and made the characters more similar to my life. Definitely, I think the biggest change was the setting.
It’s a cliché thing to say, but Miami’s a character in the movie!
Again, first feature. It’s a really big deal to make something like that happen. When you decided you wanted to make your first feature film, what did you think was step one to making that dream a reality, and now, having done it, would you recommend that first step to another aspiring filmmaker?
NG: Definitely. The first step was developing it in the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab. That was always my goal because they’re so supportive as an organization. I had just graduated from film school, and I really didn’t know what my next step was going to be, but I knew that I wanted to take a jump into genre, and as a female director, that can be hard. So, I spent a lot of time developing the script.

Image by Photagonist

To lean into this being Jing’s first feature as a director even more, Brandon, Kelly and Edmund, can you tell me something about her as an actor’s director that you appreciated and would be excited for even more actors to experience down the line on her future films?
BRANDON SOO HOO: Considering it was her first feature, I think Jing was a phenomenal director to be working under. The energy that she brought to set, she had so much clarity and such a good vision for her project, and especially just as an actor, I felt like she had such a calm and grounding demeanor while she was directing us that I felt like I just had so much freedom to play with Jing as my director. I really appreciated that.

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EDMUND DONOVAN: Jing is amazing. We were very collaborative throughout the entire thing. Another thing that’s great is the movie is really character-driven. I remember early on talking to Jing about how many characters there are. It’s really an ensemble piece in a way, and I think that speaks to Jing’s love for actors and wanting to bring many people onto the project and have everyone interface. She’s the best.
KELLY MARIE TRAN: Should we keep flattering Jing?
Oh, yes! This is one of my favorite things to do during an interview.
TRAN: It was such an incredible experience. We were talking about this a little bit ago, Brandon and I were, and we just had a great time. Truly, it was just such a joy to come to set. We all hung out and there was an openness to creativity and just an openness to collaboration that was just magical.
There’s someone else I have to highlight who’s not sitting with us right now. It’s Andie [Ju]. Brandon, your chemistry with her is the beating heart of this movie. Can you tell me the first thing you saw her do, either in prep or on set, that made you say to yourself, “You are definitely the Coco to my Raymond?”
SOO HOO: I don’t know if it was an exact thing that she did that I can specifically remember, but even during the callback scene, where we were sitting in the LINE Hotel in Koreatown, and we had a cool view in this Brutalist hotel room. The chemistry that we had during the callback was like, “Wow, this feels like my sister.” Even us talking outside in the waiting room, it was just so comfy. I was like, “I don’t know who’s going to get these roles, but I want to be friends with this person.” Even on set, she was such a sisterly figure throughout the whole shoot. I felt like we really were siblings.
Meet ‘Forge’s Cast of Characters

The stars share their characters’ strengths and weaknesses.

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Can you each tell me your character’s greatest strength in this movie, the thing that will help them pull this mission off or get what they want, and then I also want to know their greatest weakness, the thing that’s going to do them in in this situation?
DONOVAN: That’s easy. [Laughs] There are a lot of weaknesses, though. I think Holden’s biggest strength is that he doesn’t give up in spite of a lot of signs. He’s incredibly ambitious and is not willing to take no for an answer, and I think that’s a strength. I think he gets a lot done that way. But I also think that his greatest weakness is that he lies to himself, and he’s not honest with what’s really going on and the reality of his circumstances.
TRAN: Emily is really good at her job. That’s her greatest strength. Maybe her greatest weakness is not recognizing the biases within herself about her own community, because I think she has a very specific moment where she wants to believe that other Asian people are well-behaved and good. In general, I would say they are, but in this case, I think that she has some biases that she has to look at, and that’s maybe her weakness.
SOO HOO: I would say that one of Raymond’s greatest strengths is his ability to think on the fly and be resourceful, and his charisma and ability to talk his way out of tough situations. He’s definitely got some grit to him, but I think one of his biggest weaknesses is probably that he just has a lot of vices. He’s constantly trying to be greater and do something greater, but he also has a lot of tendencies that are trying to tear him down, too, and he’s grappling with those while he’s also trying to climb up in the world.

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Kelly, I want to come back your way to discuss the history behind your character. What kind of backstory work do you like to do so that we can feel the weight of her experience in that field informing all the choices that she makes in this particular situation?
TRAN: Jing and I had a lot of conversations about this, actually, and I went through a rabbit hole of watching videos of actual FBI agents on the internet, women, and a lot of them were talking about how they did not like how Hollywood glamorizes this field of work. Jing and I had a very specific conversation about how the Art Crimes department is absolutely underfunded, and that’s why Emily has these ill-fitting suits because she wouldn’t have the money to be styled or wearing name brands. She’s at this point in her career where she’s really struggling, so it was really cool to be able to feel like I was a real human being and someone who probably got her suits at Marshall’s and was like, “Whatever. I gotta get to work.” So yeah, we had lots of conversations about backstory and about little choices that created this person.

Image by Photagonist

I’m also very curious about the research any of you did into art forgery and what it takes. Is there any surprising fact that you learned, maybe even something we don’t see directly in the movie, but we can still feel informing your work?
NG: My favorite fun fact about art forgery was there was a really big case recently—you can research it; there was a Netflix documentary—and the art forger behind that was actually Chinese and fled the country. Never been interviewed even once. I think that’s fascinating.
TRAN: Jing is kind of the genius on this. I will say she gave me a book to read while we were working on this. You see it on screen, but the detail is already just in the writing, and then when you actually see it come to life, it’s very clear we have a genius on our hands and someone who’s so well-researched. It all just bled through to the rest of us. We were taking her lead there.
Edmund, I’m going to come your way because another key relationship in this movie is between Holden and Talia. Can you tell me something about these two characters that draws them together but then also tease some of the differences they have that could threaten the foundation of their relationship while they’re doing this?
DONOVAN: This relationship is something Jing and I spoke about a lot. Holden really relies on her, and she’s a bit more true blue than he is, ultimately, and is more realistic and more honest. But he needs her, and as things continue to not go his way, the feeling that he’s losing her is probably the biggest loss, although it may not seem that way. Eva [De Dominici] is great. It’s too bad she’s not here.
Jing Ai Ng Has Her Sights Set on Building a Body of Work

She shares the advice of fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.

Image by Photagonist

Jing, in your director’s statement, you said, “I’ve been constantly forced to grapple with art being viewed as a bankable asset.” Now that you’ve made a feature film, how do you feel about moviemaking being an art but also an industry, and what are some goals you have for yourself in order to tick both boxes because it’s inevitable, but in a way that’s creatively fulfilling for you?
NG: There was something beautiful that Robert Rodriguez said at the South by Southwest Filmmakers lunch that was hosted yesterday. It was a really great way to start the festival because he said, “Commit to a body of work.” It’s not so much about failures or wins; it’s about a filmography and a body of work. I think about all the female directors out there who are currently building a body of work, and I really want to build my own body of work, and so that’s how I’m going to view it. It was a really, really inspiring thing for him to say.
My last question is one that I love asking as much as possible. I feel like when someone directs a first feature, it’s an especially important thing to bring up. In film and television, we give each other awards. That’s super cool, and we should keep doing that. But, I find that very few people tell themselves good job as much as they should, so what is something you accomplished making Forge that you know you’ll always be able to look back on and say, “I’m really proud of what I did there?”
NG: For a first feature, Forge was definitely ambitious, and everyone told me so, especially with the ensemble cast aspect. I can look back and think about the wonderful cast that I worked with and how amazing that was, as well as our crew. I worked with a lot of my friends from film school on this, and there are people I’ve been working with for almost a decade, so I can say that I was really proud to work with people that I knew and cherished as collaborators.

Forge

Release Date

March 8, 2025

Runtime

114 Minutes

Director

Jing Ai Ng

Writers

Jing Ai Ng

Cast

Kelly Marie Tran

Emily Lee