By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
September 23, 1999
If you were a Korean-American girl growing up in San Francisco in the 1970s, there weren’t too many Asian celebrity role models to pick from. So Margaret Cho chose pop star Olivia Newton-John: an Australian.
“Olivia is someone I have admired since I was young,” says Cho, phoning from her New York apartment. “I totally identified with her and wanted to be like her. She somehow didn’t really seem white, even though she was really white. She was foreign, also, so it seemed to me that she was more like me.”
Flash forward to 1999. The 30-year-old actress-comedian is enjoying a huge career surge with her critically acclaimed one-woman show, “I’m the One That I Want,” which hits the Vic this Saturday. The title is a clever take on “You’re the One That I Want” – the duet Newton-John sang with John Travolta at the end of “Grease.”
Cho finally met Newton-John a couple of years ago when the two co-starred in the feature film “It’s My Party.”
“Margaret was such a joy to work with,” Newton-John says, in a call from Atlantic City, N.J. “I keep meaning to see her show, but we keep missing each other because we’re both on tour.”
To many, Cho seemed to have disappeared altogether after the cancellation of her highly hyped 1994 sitcom “All-American Girl.” The ABC series, the first show built around an Asian-American actress, was supposed to make Cho a household name. Instead, it was canceled shortly after its debut.
Instead of capitalizing on the comic’s sharp, biting wit, the writers presented Cho’s character as a dizzy Valley Girl with humorless parents. Had she known then what she knows now, Cho says, she would have stood up for herself against the producers.
“The show’s failure was blamed on it being an Asian show,” Cho says. “That was the least of the problems. There was a lot of political baggage attached to it. My complaint with the series – and I deal with this in my one-woman show – is that I was put into this very odd position of having a show that was my starring vehicle. And yet I had no control over any of it.
“Ultimately, it was my fault. I should have demanded that control from the beginning and not let them usurp my power, because that show would not have existed without me. But my career is so much better now, so I’m really glad it happened. This show that I’m doing now is about coming into my own worth and coming into my own power. And that wouldn’t have happened without experiencing `All-American Girl.’ ”
After premiering the show in New York, Cho excised a few stories about ex-boyfriends (singer Chris Isaak and actor Garrett Wang of “Star Trek: Voyager”), because she didn’t want her show to be a “Hollywood tell-all.” But Cho isn’t shy about revealing her own struggles with alcoholism, drugs and promiscuity.
“I was suicidal for a long time,” she says. “I didn’t come out of the experience easily. It was pretty devastating and lasted so long. I was always working, but never to my full capacity. “I was on a downward spiral that was kind of that typical Hollywood story. It was all so `Behind the Music.’ ”
Now sober and drug-free, Cho has dined with President Clinton (“He didn’t hit on me, and I am so his type.”) and appeared in John Woo’s “Face/Off.”
She is making a movie of her tour and writing a book that will include many of the stories she isn’t able to squeeze into “I’m the One That I Want.”
Of course, for every fan who cheers a celebrity for pulling her life together, there are a dozen naysayers waiting for her to fall off the wagon. Asked if she worries about relapsing and having to share a Leif Garrett moment with the world, Cho emits a hearty laugh.
“I think that makes it exciting for people,” she says. “People are so into hearing about truth and reality, and that’s great. I hope I don’t relapse.”
With a giggle, Cho adds, “But if I do, that’s material for a new show. I think either way is good.”
