Mai The Hiep: Selling house to make a movie, U60 is still single and ignores being told "hate fame"

Mai The Hiep is a person with endless passion for art, even having to sell two houses due to heavy losses.

"People curse me for being a famous old ghost"

Mai The Hiep was born in 1970 in Bien Hoa, Dong Nai. From a young age, he loved performing arts, so he participated in singing and acting regularly at the Children's Cultural House of Dong Nai province until he was 14 or 15 years old.

After graduating from high school, he wanted to take the entrance exam to art school, but that year Dong Nai province did not organize admission, so he had to take the entrance exam to Ho Chi Minh City University.

A year later, he had the opportunity to enter his dream school, but right at that time, his family left for America.

Mai The Hiep himself thought that if he lived far away from Vietnam, he would not have the opportunity to make art, so he hesitated. His mother persuaded her son as best he could, and he left with a heart full of regret.

Yet the artistic dream still burns in the enthusiasm of a young man in his twenties. Coming to America, he enrolled in the theater department at East Los Angeles College. In 1996, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in theater from California State University.

According to Mai The Hiep, along with studying theater from Western teachers, he also met opera artists living in the United States. He learned stage performance techniques from them.

By chance, Ngoc Dang, talented in ancient opera, lived in the same house with him, so he learned the basics of ancient opera from her for a long time. This fate has brought Mai The Hiep to the stage of overseas opera for nearly ten years.

During that time, he also participated in comedy. In every field, he performed excellently. Not stopping there, he thoroughly researched cinematography skills. His hard work and inquisitiveness gave him a direction to make films with a modern cinematic language but the soul of the story is very Asian and very Vietnamese.

While he was starting to become known to the public overseas, the movement to fight for the third gender was thriving in the United States. People of Vietnamese origin are also very interested in this hot issue.

As an artist and public figure, Mai The Hiep was interviewed by a Vietnamese television station. He publicly announced his sexual orientation. He affirmed that he considers homosexuality as normal as heterosexual people.

That interview attracted many viewers. Some people sympathized, but others attacked him harshly. He said: "I tell people who don't understand the LGBT community that homosexuals are not sick, lazy, or eccentric people. They are normal, civilized people who make positive contributions to society. festival.

Many people agreed, but for some reason, many Vietnamese compatriots cursed me severely. They cursed me for being a fame-hungry old ghost who wanted to use being on TV to become famous. I don't mind those insults, because I understand what I'm doing."

After her gender announcement, Mai The Hiep had a beautiful love with a guy outside of art. However, that love soon ended because of conflicts in life concepts.

When breaking up with her lover, Mai The Hiep locked herself in her room for 3 days, not eating or sleeping, causing fear to her relatives. After that, he stood up and no longer suffered because of the couple's love affair.

Lost 2 houses because of filming, lonely at the age of 52

Failure in love did not make Mai The Hiep collapse, but he fell into another depression. He worked and helped his family for 20 years away from home. He is the support for his mother, grandchildren and sisters. He is happy when he helps his family members.

When his mother reached retirement age, she received enough salary to not rely on him. She decided to go to the temple to become a monk. Your grandchildren are grown up and don't need your help. That change made him disappointed because he always thought they needed to rely on him. He found himself stuck and conflicted in the thought that he had become a redundant person.

One day, a fellow student asked him: "When will Hiep live for me"? The question woke him up. It was 2011, he turned 40 years old.

So Mai The Hiep said goodbye to his family and returned to Vietnam, to fulfill his artistic desire, because he thought that the artistic environment in his home country gave him more emotions than in a foreign land.

Almost immediately Mai The Hiep impressed the public through a variety of roles with many villainous, tragic and comedic personalities. Among them are the movies: Hero of Destiny, Damn You, Soul Stealer, Stiletto Shoe Conspiracy...

Alternating with the role of actor, Mai The Hiep has a lot of experience and knowledge in the role of producer and executive. He was invited to participate in many big projects.

He accumulated money to quietly carry out his own projects. The first is the movie "There is a house where you can listen to the sun and rain". Initially, he only accepted to be a producer, but director Binh Nguyen was only in his 20s at that time and lacked confidence, so he asked Mai The Hiep to co-direct.

For unknown reasons, the investor did not pour in funds, so Mai The Hiep sold the house to make a movie. Because, for him, this first film is very important, it is the real life story of his grandmother, mother and himself.

Although loved by experts and art-savvy audiences, the film did not appeal to the general public, leading to low box office sales. So Mai The Hiep lost his house but he was happy.

Moving on to the movie "Thach Thao", he still makes movies his own way. That's not needing names to sell tickets, what's important is that the actor fits the role and performs well. He lost his second house because the movie failed.

Mai The Hiep is still happy because she can do what she wants. Out of capital, Mai The Hiep rushed into filming, working as a producer to accumulate money, and hatched the next project.

Now, after 11 years of returning to her hometown to fulfill her dream with many ups and downs, Mai The Hiep has found the meaning of life.

He is teaching acting at Kathy Uyen's ACT Academy. Teaching knowledge to the younger generation helps a shy person become someone who knows how to transform into a character, he feels useful and energized when exposed to youth.

Finally, after months of being broke because of his art, he bought a suburban house in Long An. His house overlooks the fields and his neighbors are rustic villagers. It was a peaceful place for him to return to after hours of hard work on set.

For him, this is a peaceful place even though he is still single at the age of 52. He has been through many relationships so he doesn't expect much, but if there is a guy with fate, he still opens his heart.

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