Australian actor Craig Fong speaks warmly as he recounts sneaking into the drive-in cinema during the hot summer nights of his childhood.
"Pop used to either hide me in the boot of the car or I had to throw a blanket over myself to get in because I was only about 10 years old, and some of these movies were at least an M rating," he said.
Fong's grandparents had the drapery in the main street of remote Carnarvon, about 900 kilometres north of Perth.
"They lived in a property adjacent to the drapery which, behind it, had this outdoor cinema," he said.
"There was a chicken coop up the back and on those really hot nights we used to stack up these milk crates and watch all these classic movies [over the fence] like Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany's."
Those evenings were incredibly influential on Fong, who would go on to make a career for himself on screen, including a role in the Hollywood blockbuster Entrapment starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Road to the big screen
Fong's love of the stage started in high school in Carnarvon when he was cast in a parody called Custer's Last Stand.
"They got pretty much everybody in year 10 to be in this stage production and the whole town was there," he said.
"I was playing this part of this young, Native American boy and he had all the punchlines.
"That was probably another turning point, when I found myself on stage and I think subconsciously, something inside me had sort of shifted as well."
The family's drapery store in Carnarvon closed after his grandfather died and the family made the difficult decision to move south to Perth when Fong was 16.
After school Fong studied teaching, but after inadvertently stumbling across an enrolment day for TAFE at Northbridge he was accepted as a wildcard for a film and TV course.
Acting adventures
His "first real acting job" came in 1996, with a shoot for the Crowded House music video Instinct.
"They dressed me up as, how would I describe it? As a golden alien cowboy."
Fong, now 53, noticed a trend in the roles he was offered in the early years.
"There always these three main stereotypes: so I would be getting auditions for a doctor or an accountant or a businessman," he said.
"To be an actor at that time, there were very little roles for Asian actors, so when the opportunity came to leave Australia to go and carve out your own path, that's the path I took.
"I went to where the work was, I didn't wait around in Australia or I would have still been waiting."
Heading overseas
Modelling opportunities took him to Asia.
"It [the work] was very seasonal," he said.
"Every three months, you'd go from, say, Singapore, then three months later, you go to Hong Kong, and three months later you go to Malaysia, and three months later you go to Thailand, and then you do the whole circuit all over again."
He'd been doing it for a few years when a dare in Malaysia led him to experience what it was like to be a part of the excitement of a Hollywood blockbuster.
"My modelling agent at the time dared me to go cast for this movie," he said.
"I went to the audition and a couple of weeks later I got a call back and found myself on the set of Entrapment.
"So for about five days, I was standing next to Catherine Zeta-Jones.
"She was very, very sweet, making sure I was on my first mark before every take."
The exposure saw him land the lead role in the Malaysian production Spinning Gasing, playing a musician recently returned from the UK and Australia.
"They probably put in the Australia bit because I still have this really, really strong Australian accent," he said.
"After Entrapment, after that local film, I started getting all of these other acting roles and they were mostly the antagonistic roles playing the villain."
He said the advantage of being an Asian-Australian overseas was being given roles locals wouldn't do.
"Whether it's because you need to expose yourself or whether it's because of the context of the story, whether it is going to ruffle feathers somewhere," he said.
"Because if the s*** really hit the fan, I could just leave and go somewhere else."
Fong featured in a number of European productions including the Hong Kong Affair.
In 2021, filming for the series Mystery Road: Origin brought him back to Western Australia, and he is currently based in Perth.
"Now actors with ethnic backgrounds are given a lot more opportunities to cast for a wider scope of roles, so hopefully there won't be those stereotypical roles," he said.
"Maybe it's the right time to stick around a little bit longer."
Still home
Fong's career has taken him all over the world, but he said his upbringing in Carnarvon instilled values that had stayed with him.
"These small towns, they're like growing up in these sort of ginormous families," he said.
"People tend to support each other during hard times.
"You're always waving at people. In cities, you wave at someone and they'd be like, 'Hey, what do you want?'"
He and his parents have continued to visit Carnarvon, most recently in 2021.
"Every day we were reconnecting with either one of my friends, my dad's friends or just, you know, people who used to come into the family's drapery," he said.
"I still call myself a Carnarvonite, I still call myself a small country boy from Carnarvon.
"I'm proud to be born and bred in Carnarvon."
Undoubtedly some of the most treasured memories of the town are of the time spent there with his grandfather.
"My pop was the one that had the biggest influence on me, he loved going to films and I loved going with him," he said.
"There are sometimes where I feel like my pop is close, even though he's not around anymore.
"He never got the opportunity to come to the red carpet events or see me on the silver screen, but I've been assured that he does check up on me now and again."