We're a nerdy Black woman & a heavy-set girl of mixed heritage, and we're wondering: where are the films about falling in love with your spouse? When's the last time you saw an Asian American man and body-realistic Black woman lead a US romcom? 17 years ago, that's when. Let's change that.

It's been 17 years since a feature romantic comedy in the US cast Black and East Asian leads. There's been a family comedy (2016) in the style of "Big Fat Greek Wedding," and there's been a South Asian romcom (2011). And that's it.

Enter "I'm Having an Affair With My Wife!" Ohio's biggest #blasian romcom ranked in the top 15 percent at the Austin Film Festival, and we made finalist in the Beverly Hills Screenwriting Competition. We're challenging how people think about marriage as we talk about having an #AffairWITH our spouses, and we need your help to explore the heartbreak and laughter that comes with "trying" to fall in love.

 

We're proud to announce our leads, Stacey Malone and William Jeon, and we're pumped because they both have incredible journeys: Stacey's a brilliant single mother who runs her own production company, and William's fought double pressures from both his Korean and his American cultures that say an Asian man shouldn't go into acting. They play Lashonda and Sung-min, the #blasian married couple that seek out affairs online and end up cheating ON each other WITH each other.

 

 

Why a #blasian couple?

 

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To summarize the podcast above, why NOT? We're busting stereotypes and having fun doing it. While Lashonda’s on a meteoric rise to CEO, Sung-min flunked out of engineering to rock out, volunteer, and draw. They originally bonded over history, art, and college adventures, but now, Lashonda wants dependability and romance, and Sung-min wants a woman who has time for sex and saving the world.

 

They both turn to wantanaffair.com, but they choose such high privacy settings they don’t see the pictures of their potential affairs and end up starting a relationship with each other. When they meet in person, they come to grips with their ruined marriage, and Sung-min devises a plan: they liked each other on paper, so maybe an affair is what they need. Maybe they just need to “cheat” on all the other things they’ve “married” besides each other. Lashonda cheats on her work and high society on romps through a violent bar, a risky tryst in her office, and mud-wrestling; Sung-min cheats on his free-wheeling image by working a full day for the first time in his life, romancing Lashonda her way at a high-class CEO dinner, and re-connecting with his parents and the traditional Korean heritage he’s rejected. Their fish-out-of-water “affairs” may make them hate each other, love each other, or land them in jail, but one thing’s certain: their marriage will never be the same.

 

 

We need your help to pay our leads fairly and get quality locations for our shoot. We know we can deliver a professional product: Samantha's a director who picked up her skills the rough way, getting on every set she can, in whatever role necessary, from extra to producer as she eats up the strategies of the greats. Audio supervisor, assistant director, production coordinator, consultant, or production assistant—you name it, she's done it. As primary creative she's experimented with horror, documentary, advertising, educational shorts, and narrative film, among others, and she's worked on everything from big name feature films like Fast and Furious 8 and Fences to small indie productions.

 

Jen's a world-traveling science fiction author with credits ranging from traditional SFWA-qualified fiction to independent microfiction. Her work's been produced in audio form, in anthologies, and in comic form; her recent #blasian screenplay, "I'm Having an Affair With My Wife!" (maybe you've heard of it) was a finalist in the Beverly Hills Screenwriting Competition and in the top 15% of scripts at theAustin Film Festival. One of her short stories was a quarterfinalist in thenationwide Screencraft short story competition, and she's twice won honorable mention in the Writers of the Future contest. She just finished an $4000 Indiegogo for her independent work about an Asian-American superhero who shoots his comic book creator.

 

Together, Samantha, Jen, William, and Stacey want to change the face of romantic comedy. It's been William's lifelong dream to star in a rom com; Stacey's hungry to explore the pathos of unfulfilling relationship; Samantha's excited to showcase the life and beauty of local Cleveland through film; and Jen could really use some money to buy something with Zoe Saldana's face on it.

 

So click to donate, check out our press page, and share our stuff on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, and wherever else people who like movies can be found. Will you help us show Hollywood Black and Asian leads CAN make bank in movies?