I was raised by therapist parents, which might explain why people relax and feel so comfortable in opening up to me. I don’t know why, but they do. When I do an interview which is supposed to be 10-15 minutes, it always ends up going on for two hours.
You’re sure to have problems with other kids growing up in a small town in the US as a kid who doesn’t play sports, and has blue, purple and pink hair. I had friends, but I wasn’t your average school kid. People didn’t know what to do with me.
I founded a gay and lesbian club in my high school in 1993. I had this mentality: act first, figure things out later. Nobody had anything like it, so I thought, “Let’s just do it.” There were a bunch of girls who thought it was cool, one lesbian girl and me.
I made my first million by 23, but by 24 it was all gone. I had gotten bored and dropped out of school and went to work at an internet startup in San Francisco. It was a crazy environment. Dining, drinking, partying and doing drugs. Then we’d get up and work 12 hours straight the next day.
The economy tanking was a major turning point in my life. Everything that I was really proud of, and the things I felt represented me, the big house, the parties I threw and all these external things—they just ended up being hassles and headaches.
So much of who I am today is because of my yoga teacher, Larry Schultz. People think yogis are dumb, boring people who just sit around and drink tea. But Larry was this cool old hippy with a totally laid-back lifestyle.
He showed me it’s possible to lead a happy life without the crazy materialism. After I lost my job, he told me I was going to be a yoga teacher and showed me how to teach from scratch.
I’m really happy with the life I’ve created for myself here. I get to do yoga, the one constant thing in my life, the same series every morning for 16 years, chase creative pursuits and I graduated with a major in Thai at Ramkhamhaeng University.
Ramkhamhaeng showed me another side to the country. If you only hang out at places like Q Bar or Bed, you’re meeting a small sub-section of Thais who can afford to pay B800 to go clubbing. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with Sukhumvit or Silom, but there’s much more to this country.
People often remark about my fluent Thai, but I prefer it when people don’t mention it. It’s nice when you can get beyond it and talk to me as Luke, not Luke who can speak Thai fluently.
I’m never too afraid of failing. If I fail, I’ll just do something else. My grandma said my life wouldn’t be like other kids’. People say I could have led a comfortable life had I been a bit smarter with my money. But I have no regrets. It’s taught me a great lesson.
The cheerleaders are the real ambassadors. One of the reasons why we ran the documentary in festivals for so long was to change people’s perceptions of Thailand. The politicians were creating one image of Thailand as this vile, messed-up place. Then you have these kids from different backgrounds, some from poor families, creating an image of optimum teamwork.
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On the surface, Bangkok feels like a big developed city. But it’s when you meet people that you find a totally different way of thinking; a 35-year-old still living with mom is considered normal here. In the US, we’re really taught to be individuals. Thais are much more communal.
Thais are so close to their parents while most Americans want to be as far away from their parents as possible. I apply this to my own relationship with my parents: I only get to spend time with them once or twice a year, but it’s quality time.
In Thailand, katoey is so deeply-engrained. Old Thai people don’t quite get gays; they think there’s man, woman and katoey, without room for masculine gay men and feminine lesbians. Yet Thailand is so far ahead in the region in terms of the gay movement.
It‘s frustrating, the way people don’t want to deal with issues. You can have friends who are very toot (gay), and their parents still ask when they will get married. In politics, too, they won’t look at the issue, thinking if you ignore something for long enough, it will go away. It won’t.
I wish more foreigners would learn the Thai language. It’s such an integral part of understanding the culture. It opens up a lot of doors and possibilities. When people have lived in the US for four years and still haven’t learned English, they’re deemed lazy.
The cheerleading team is a great example of dedication and passion. They could only afford to stay in the US 2-3 days in advance. Before going to America, because they were worried about jet lag, they had been living on US time, getting up at 8pm to train all night and go to bed in the morning for three months.
There’s more to Thailand than teen prostitution, drugs, people abusing elephants and dumb politicians. They are important topics that should be covered, of course. But we set out to present stories that are true and factual but also fun and inspiring.
To create a big impact you have to be mainstream, but creative. It’s a challenge to make things appealing and inspiring to a broad audience. It’s interesting that here you have two extreme kinds of movies: super artsy like Joe Apichatpong’s and super low brow like Poj Arnont’s; both are hard to understand. We could do with more quality in the middle.
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