Video: Lea Salonga Previews THE VALE - ORIGINS Short Film

Tony-winner Lea Salonga is starring in The Vale - Origins, an animation/live-action hybrid short film that is tied to a new middle-grade novel by Abigail Hing Wen. Salonga and Wen both recently appeared on ABC7 Bay Area News to discuss the new project.

The novel follows thirteen-year-old Bran Joseph Lee, who has built the Vale, an immersive, AI-generated, virtual-reality environment using technology created by his inventor parents. The short film follows the Lee family before the events of the novel, shifting between live-action and animated worlds as they find healing through the world he has created. 

Salonga said she was drawn to the project because of its timely themes, which include artificial intelligence. "Given what's going on with AI now, it seemed that [Hing-Wen] was just prescient and predicting a world that a lot of young people would have access to."

During the conversation, Salonga also touched on Asian-American representation in media and how that has changed since winning the Tony Award for Miss Saigon in 1991. "This year has been kind of great with KPop Demon Hunters, but I don't know that it's enough," she shared. "I think that there definitely needs to be more stories told, and for more of our people to be able to see themselves on screen and on stage."

The Vale - Origins will soon be hitting the film festival circuit, with a public release date yet to be set. Written and directed by Abigail Hing-Wen, Lea Salonga stars in the short alongside Robert Palmer Watkins, Egan Xander, and Janet Hsieh. The Vale is now on shelves. 

Lea Salonga is best known for her Tony Award-winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition to Tony, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World Awards, Time100 Impact Award from Time Magazine, and the Gold Legend Award from Gold House. Most recently, Lea starred in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical revue, Old Friends, and as Aurora in Here Lies Love on Broadway, which she also produced. Earlier this year, she appeared in the Broadway transfer of Old Friends.