The Chinese-speaking martial artist fighting hate crime by teaching Asian-Americans self-defence, and his efforts to unite disparate cultures
- Victor Migalchan’s ease in speaking Chinese – he trained in martial arts on trips to China – is part of his affinity with Chinese culture, he says
- ‘I’m a Western person, but Chinese inside,’ says the Los Angeles-based actor, who’s just had a drama series launch on Amazon Prime
In his first scene in My American Family, Victor Migalchan launches into fluent Chinese while on the phone in a car.
Migalchan was speaking in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, soon after the premiere of his series, which landed on March 25 on Amazon Prime. He stars as Alexander Romanovich, a man who arrives in that city from China on a homestay programme that pairs him with a Mexican-American family.
They were expecting a young Chinese person with limited English skills. What they get instead is a multilingual adult of Eastern European descent, who wears suits and has secrets of his own. The project – which also stars actor and restaurateur Danny Trejo – was a labour of love for Los Angeles-based Migalchan, who has Austrian, Romanian and Polish roots and wants to help fuse different cultures together in entertainment.
It’s not just in entertainment where Migalchan is aiming to do this, though. The actor – who has practised martial arts since the age of four – has also started to offer free self-defence classes to anyone who wants them.