Jo Koy is known for his comedy specials filled with impressions of his Filipino mother and his heritage. Now, he’s starring in a movie as himself, and it’s about his Pinoy family.
It’s called Easter Sunday and is set on that one day. In the trailer, he says, “Easter Sunday is like the Filipino Super Bowl.”
Watch the trailer below:
According to Deadline, Easter Sunday is “a love letter to the Filipino-American community and inspired by Koy’s life experiences.” The trailer features quintessential parts of the Fil-Am experience such as balikbayan boxes, karaoke, and traditional Filipino items such as a statue of the Santo Niño and oversized wooden spoons and forks.
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Koy said that Amblin called him for a meeting after Steven Spielberg watched his Netflix special Comin’ In Hot. He said, “I got to meet Holly Bario and Jeb Brody, the two execs over there, and they went, ‘Steven loves you, and he wants to know if you have an idea for a movie.'”
According to Koy, “He just loved the stories about my mom and our relationship…He just enjoyed that dynamic, and he enjoyed the storytelling, and he was like, ‘I want to make this story a reality.’ And it’s not about making fun of Filipinos. It’s about a family first that just happens to be Filipino. And you’re going to relate to it. No matter what ethnicity you are, a mom is a mom. They all do the same mom stuff.”
He added, “The one thing I said the most when we were writing is ‘I’m not making fun of my family, and we’re not going to make fun of our food and our culture.’ That’s not what we’re doing here. We’re going to represent my family, and we’re going to represent my culture. Of course, we had the big lechon. We had to.”
The comedian pitched the movie, “and they were [all] like, ‘Yeah, we’ll take it.’ Eight months later, we’re in Vancouver, shooting the movie.”
Koy stars with Jimmy O. Yang, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Tony nominee Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, Eugene Cordero, Jay Chandrasekhar, Tiffany Haddish, and Lou Diamond Phillips.
It is directed by Chandrasekhar.
Easter Sunday premieres on August 5, 2022.
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