Over the years, I have done a lot of research/analysis into the late Thuy Trang and I figure I would

Over the years, I have done a lot of research/analysis into the late Thuy Trang and thought that as a lot of the sources are no longer available due to age (though I have text files of most of the text), that I figure I would share it, rather than just leave it on my hard drive.



Martin Eyre


Thuy Trang was born on December 14th 1973 in Saigon (since renamed Ho Chi Min City), South Vietnam, to Ky and Be Trang. The third of four siblings, Thuy had an older sister and brother and a younger brother.


Thuy's father was a low level officer in the South Vietnamese army during the on-going Vietnam war between North and South Vietnam. In 1975 he was part of the forces tasked with defending the capital Saigon as the south faced imminent defeat by the north, following the withdrawal of American forces. Once Saigon fell and the dissolution of South Vietnam began, he fled to America being forced to leave his family behind.


The rest of the Trang family fled Saigon to an unknown area of the country. In 1979 they boarded a cargo ship heading to Hong Kong with, Thuy estimated 3000, other refugee's escaping ongoing persecution.


Thuy later detailed that she was on the ship for about 8-9 months and that about 4 people died. A shortage of food and water aboard the ship meant Thuy suffered from starvation to the point that her mother had to force feed her barely conscious daughter and fend off others aboard saying that Thuy should be thrown overboard to save resources for those more likely to survive.


"My mom was the one that fought for me and said 'no that's my daughter, you can't throw her overboard'. She literally just like put food down my throat and that's how I stayed alive and I came here'."


Somehow the family ended up in a detention centre in Hong Kong.


Thuy's father, who was now, or would become an engineer, was located in America and he pressured American and Hong Kong officials into allowing his family to join him in America. This was achieved in 1980 leading to what was probably a joyous reunion.


"As a little girl, I believed that he was out there and I never gave up hope. I guess what they say is true, 'Believe in your dreams and they will become reality.' Mine did!"


Thuy always spoke very fondly of her family and evidence suggests she was particularly close to her father. One isn't really surprised by this as the Trang family may well have looked to his comparative experience of living in America and each other’s support as they integrated into the country.


Thuy recovered from her time on the ship, though the thought has crossed my mind that her particularly slim frame may have been a lasting 'mark' of sorts from such. But I'm not a doctor or medical person.


Thuy learnt to speak English near perfectly and could also speak unknown degrees of Cantonese and Vietnamese (seemingly southern) and an unknown smaller amount of French. Indeed Thuy was very well spoken (i.e very little slang) and this would carry over into her characters and was arguably a unique trait relative to her co-stars characters.

Thuy was a quiet and apparently shy child, though I think some people automatically assume quiet is shy and vice versa (we only need to look at Thuy's screen characters for examples of quiet, but not shy people). The quiet is undisputed though; even Thuy described herself as quiet. I personally debate that Thuy, certainly by the time we saw her on screen, wasn't shy, rather she just didn't speak much.


Generally, non-native speakers can be quieter than natives because it probably takes them a little more effort to speak. Comparatively, body language and expressions are a lot more standardized around the world: Thuy was certainly somebody who appeared able to say a lot with few words and was known for expression; notably an infamous smile (Thuy also actually drew a simile face as part of her signature).

As a child, Thuy seemed to have drive; I've read a tale about a young Thuy crying because she got a B on a test. Thuy graduated from Banning High school and earned a scholarship to study Civil Engineering at UCI Irvine, planning to follow her father and also older siblings into the field.

"My dad was an engineer. My sister graduated with an engineering degree at UCLA, and then my brother went to UCLA for engineering. So it was just a pattern -- Thuy HAS to go into engineering."


The choice of Civil Engineering would arguably fit with ideals Thuy would later display. Engineering is a traditionally male field and Civil Engineering has more to do with people than standard engineering.


At her father’s request, Thuy took up Kung Fu (she would state one time that she studied Shaolin Kung Fu, but obviously we don't know if that was the only variant or even martial art she followed) for self-defence purposes and credited it both with making her stronger as a person and saying it helped her deal with coming to America.

Certainly, Thuy may have used words like study and self-defence to avoid telling kids to practice martial arts on each other, but there were many sources that implied without specific example, that the family's integration into America wasn't easy and hence Thuy may have meant the terms more literally (i.e. she may have had to defend herself); one source notably said the family overcame neighbouring prejudice to integrate.

Let's not forget that America had basically been fighting 'evil Asians' to protect 'weak Asians' for decades. The Vietnam war was a notable military withdrawal for America and the Trang families’ presence in America was technically a symbol of that.

Though Thuy would later indicate pride and belief that she had integrated into American culture. Thuy had faced a personal challenge and had basically succeeded.

Thuy very rarely explicitly named other people or events unless they were physically next to her, perhaps her way of respecting privacy. Comparatively Amy Jo Johnson once declared she kept in contact with so and so former MMPR co-stars etc etc. Again, I think this hinted at past may explain ideals Thuy would later display.

Unfortunately, Thuy's father would pass away from cancer in early 1992. Though cancer isn't usually a sudden illness, the passing of her beloved father may have perhaps in part inspired what happened next.

Thuy's plans to enter engineering were changed after an unexpected meeting in 1992. On weekends Thuy sometimes travelled to see friends in the Hollywood area, who wanted to break into acting and one day she tagged along with them as they were going to various casting agencies.

Thuy ended up being approached by a talent scout herself, apparently because he thought she had both an interesting look (a Vietnamese actress is rare in Hollywood to this day) and looked exotic, who gave her a card for his agent. Thuy visited the agent and was turned down flat due to a lack of any prior acting training or even a headshot photo of herself to hand (young naivety I suppose; Thuy was 18 at this point). Thuy took action and got her younger brother to take a photo and got it developed at a one hour photo shop before returning to the agent where she convinced them to put her on their register. The mention of the one hour photo shop implies a quick turnaround.

They gave Thuy a role in a Scientology sponsored commercial about people of the world trusting each other; Persia White of Girlfriends fame also appeared in the commercial. Unfortunately, when this commercial was unearthed again in recent years, it received negativity because of the reputation of Scientology, while neglecting the mentioned message (I recall people saying their childhood was ruined because Thuy was in it...).

There is evidence that suggests that Thuy did follow a faith, though to what degree and which one has not been stated. I believe it was probably Buddhism, as outside of the Scientology commercial for obvious reasons, Thuy would often be seen wearing a jade pendent, both on and off screen. A jade pendent is a symbol often associated with Buddhism, which was also the primary religion of Vietnam. Thuy was also described both as being spiritual and once commented on spirit's.

More personally, Thuy didn't seem to be wearing the pendent in the few photos of her out there prior to MMPR, which I believe were all from before her father's passing.

Thuy then enrolled in an introductory acting class at UCI, thereby confirming interest in acting, where she was spotted for and appeared in a public service announcement on racism. Unfortunately, the PSA appears to be lost to time. I've also read of a PSA a few years later, though I don't know if this was the same one (i.e. the same one re-airing or someone thinking back a few years or a second PSA etc etc).

A short while later, Thuy's agent offered her two roles, a role in an unknown film or a role, presumably Trini/Yellow Ranger, in an upcoming kid's TV show that used allot of already made footage... Saban Entertainments 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'. Thuy went with the later declaring that she believed it would offer more long term financial support.

MMPR would use and dub over the villain and suited action footage from the just finished airing season of the long running Japanese Super Sentai TV show, Zyuranger, with new footage featuring U.S actors for unsuited scenes in-between. Mr Haim Saban (a media proprietor and one of the richest men in America; 143rd currently) had tried unsuccessfully on a distant past occasion to bring Super Sentai westward in a similar fashion (i.e. the same footage set up using footage from the then running Super Sentai season). This time he found support for the idea in the then boeugering Fox media business.

Thuy auditioned for the role of Trini in the open casting for the (i.e. think the open auditions of X Factor or XYZ got talent; all the MMPR cast were inexperienced no names, some 'off the street'), in hindsight, second and near final pilot (the third and final pilot didn't change much from the second pilot, while huge chunks were re-filmed between the first and second pilot with locations and characters changed etc), being told to simply have fun (i.e. basically not to be tense) and survived the three call backs (500-ish to 10, to 5, to 3).

A casting director on MMPR told a story of the final auditions taking place in the presence of Mr Saban himself and his executives, and implied that they convinced a nervous Thuy to jump on the table as part of her routine; Thuy's audition is seemingly the only one of the main MMPR cast (though I believe it was the original auditions for the first pilot, rather than the second one Thuy was a part of, that were shown) not to have been seen by the public, which allows one to imagine some crazy things to that comment. I think the casting director was someone who liked to use colourful language myself.

Thuy was told her martial arts wasn't good enough for the show, which is a clear insight into what the show makers wanted even at this stage. The only source that gave any indication of Thuy's martials arts prior to MMPR described her as a black belt in Kung Fu, though it has also been said that she wasn't a serious practitioner of martial arts (though obviously, Thuy, like all the cast, had high physical ability; she was into sports and apparently big on tennis when younger); Austin St John and Jason David Frank who played Jason and Tommy respectively were serious martial artists, whilst David Yost, Billy, and Amy Jo Johnson, Kimberly, were or once were serious gymnasts. I'm not aware of Walter Jones, Zack, pre MMPR physical activity. Though Thuy once stated part of the requirements for MMPR were martial arts, gymnastics or dancing and Zack likes to dance. Thuy was told to get a personal trainer and assumed she hadn't landed the role. Though a few days later, the show makers contacted her saying they had set up a trainer for her and a few days after that she landed the role.

It is my understanding that all of the first pilot actors had to re-audition for their roles in the second and near final pilot due to the substantial theme changes, while some characters were cut and others were added.

Further indication of perhaps what the show makers were after, was that the first pilot of MMPR had featured a different actress playing Trini, one Audri DuBois, an American with Hispanic ancestry, who played an extremely aggressive and egar to fight character, which is most apparent along with the theme changes, when Dubois Trini and Thuy's Trini are both threatened by a bully; Dubois proceeds to head-butt the bully and start a fight while Thuy moves, causing the bully to fall on his face.

My opinion is that Dubois Trini makes more of an entrance than Thuy's Trini, but that Dubois Trini would probably have had very little longevity beyond that entrance without dramatic change, while Thuy's Trini had lots of longevity to the detriment of entrance.

Amy Jo Johnson, one of Thuy's MMPR co-stars would later state that both she and Thuy were being taught martial arts by a stuntman (it's likely she meant film fighting).

Thuy went into MMPR with visions of being a role model for kids; that was something that was apparent from practically her first moment on the show (and in hindsight, carries on from the commercials she had done) and to be blunt, she appeared far more dedicated to this than her co-stars or the show makers.

On and off screen Thuy routinely stated things along the lines of 'I want to teach little girls that they can be as strong as boys', 'we are female super heroes that are equal to our male counter parts', 'we hope we are teaching good messages to the kids' etc etc. Indeed, early on Thuy used 'we' a lot more with these comments, but perhaps started saying 'I' more as time went on.

Thuy was also appeared very egar to indicate that her characters strength came from Trini and not the Yellow Ranger; that you don't need super powers to do what you feel is right and good.

Thuy was the only MMPR actor to transition from teenager to adult during MMPR. Austin St John was a minor throughout, while the other actors were all already young adults. Thuy proudly stated she moved out of the family home, to a flat, to be closer to the MMPR set.

"My biggest adjustment has been moving from Orange County to L.A., so I can be closer to the set,"..."I'm learning a lot just being on my own. I'm learning to be responsible."

It would later be stated that Thuy helped financially support her family, though with no further detail. I could imagine that this probably entailed the Trang siblings helping to support their widowed mother and possibly younger brother (we don't know his age, but obviously, he was younger than Thuy) following their father's passing. Thuy did once state that her mother had difficulty reading English, which might have been a hindrance in getting many types of job.

Thuy also declared; 'life isn't like on TV. Life is hard'.

Unlike some of her MMPR co-stars, Thuy never seemed to have a huge interest in the wirework element of the shows many fight scenes. Of course, Trini was supposed to be a peaceful character; if she had been aggressive in fight scenes, it would have been out of character.

It led to Trini being a pretty unique combatant for an action show; she nearly always waited for an opponent to attempt to attack her and near always presented a more balanced and realistic view of kata's and martial arts than her co-stars who were arguably allot more skewed toward the kicks, punches and sparring. Trini is perhaps also the only character on the show to be seen to be interested in more than one martial art; before Tommy enters the scene, we see Trini showing an interest in Jason's Karate (indeed before Tommy came on to the scene, we saw both Zack and Trini sparring with Jason), but the other characters never seemed to be interested in moving outside of their one martial art beyond a single comment from Jason stating he is impressed with Trini's Mantis Kung Fu.

This is probably why Trini has been described as trying to neutralize opponents with the least amount of force'; I've been meaning to look up whether that was an official description or a fan one that sort of stuck.

Thuy had grown up in 80's America where most of the Asians she probably saw on TV and film were the likes of Jet Li and Bruce Lee; actors basically defined by their exaggerated martial arts and martial arts films.

This is interestingly the total opposite of MMPR's star actor, Jason David Frank, who played the legendary Green and White Rangers on the show: he declared he wanted to be the next Bruce Lee and that MMPR was just the beginning and has, outside of re-appearing on PR several times as rangers of various colours (leading to jokes about him being the rainbow ranger), gone on to do MMA fighting and attempted to promote his idea for a martial arts movie more than once.

A few years after MMPR, Thuy made a comment that I think really explained what she wanted Trini to represent.

'We should all be responsible for what we're doing on TV, in films and publications. Each one of us has to take responsibility for reality, and present it so that kids will grow up familiar with that and say, 'Okay, I know that. I've seen that before. I'm not afraid of it. That's cool''.

As opposed to Dubois Trini's more typical display of strength through volume and aggression.

The easiest way to describe Trini would probably be quirky (and Amy Jo Johnson has actually described Trini as such), but I debate that term is usually used in a somewhat negative way in reference to characters more like Screech from Saved by the Bell.

Media tends to portray certain social types as this 'elite' that we should all aim to fit into, particularly kid's. Examples would include the jock, the cheerleader, the nerd, the practical joker, the cool one, the outcast etc etc. Trini was 'quirky' relative to those, simply because she was an uncommon and more grounded personality. Of course, this could make the character a bit less exciting perhaps, because she was the least fantasy inspired character; some have described Trini as a 'mother like' character and what kid would call their mother 'cool'!

However, this arguably again plays into Thuy's interest in being a role model.

There is something of a picture beginning to form here; a personality with a degree of realism.

There was just a little bit more realism to Trini overcoming her fear of heights, than Kimberly landing a plane, Billy overcoming his fear of fish, Jason overcoming his lack of confidence to smash the crystal, Zack worrying about a dance content after he's just performed a perfect demonstration etc etc. Even taking into account that the focus of MMPR was 'teenagers with attitude', (some sources seem to replace this with 'four athletic teens and their brainy friend Billy'; I don't know whether that is an official line or a fan-made one though) wearing colourful spandex, with guidance from a giant floating head, fight monsters sent down by a space witch living on the moon.

I've heard that the show makers wanted Thuy to play a sort of female Billy, except with even less confidence; I've read a released biography that basically describes Trini as this and given Jason and Zack are involved in helping Billy gain confidence and socially integrate, one could imagine that the intention at one point may have been for Kimberly, the popular valley girl, to help Trini in a similar way. However Thuy clearly had other ideas and certainly, the last thing the world needed was another program showing a 'non-white' only being helpable in achieving a lifelong dream by a 'white' person.

'I want to teach little girls they can be just as strong as boy's!'.

'How do you guys out there feel about female super heroes. It's great because we're as equal as the guy's, we do our own stunts and we're out there on the battlefield fighting evil for the good of all humankind!’

I debate that the greatest legacy of MMPR ended up arguably being something the show makers never cared about; Thuy later declared 'Power Rangers is great because it shows white, black and Asian fighting evil side by side!'

Thuy was probably never going to get the focus of her co-stars no matter how she played Trini and one can say that Trini followed by, co-incidentally Zack (Walter Jones has apparently stated that Zack was supposed to be Jason's black friend and interestingly actually seemed to be perfectly happy with that declaring he was black and playing the black ranger in behind the scenes footage), were probably the MMPR rangers to have the least baring on the ranger side of the show (i.e. ranger related plot elements). Though to be fair, MMPR didn't really have many over-arching stories until season 2 (i.e. the first season was never intended to start a long running narrative) and the character of Jason had an advantage as the leader in his MMPR time and his eventual return in Zeo. But it is debatable that Trini's strength gave the character far more presence in the civilian scenes than the amount of focus would have suggested.

Thuy was egar to portray a more real Asian; Trini probably had the most developed personality of all of the MMPRs1 characters off the bat and the other characters had to be brought up to match. As such she may have gotten less focused on development because of this (development is what I would describe as changes during the show itself).

Thuy was also very egar to compare herself to Trini; many sources also stated Thuy herself was like Trini. I think this was a mix of Thuy's desire to play a real Asian and also a constant drive to improve herself.

'She had a really unique centre about her; she had already accomplished so much, but she expected more from herself'.

Though Trini's self-control perhaps made it difficult to bring the character into the ranger element of the show; the show often relied on a characters hot-headedness (and karate tournament/practice in the case of Tommy, probably so we could watch him perform a solo martial arts demonstration somewhere) to separate them from the others for the sake of the Zyuranger footage often featuring one or more rangers fighting alone and/or coming in later to help the others

The typical ranger/monster dialog also tended to go along the lines of 'monster: 'you’re going down' ranger: 'no you are''. Trini was the only ranger in the original season to have a conversation of sorts with a monster of the episode.

The premade ranger footage of course sometimes demanded that all the characters sometimes break character, notably the Blue Ranger being as capable a fighter as the other rangers despite Billy starting off with no martial arts experience and having to be taught and supported mainly by Jason and, perhaps uniquely Trini (i.e. the character that was at one point perhaps going to be a female Billy); there were a few occasions where Yellow Ranger was far more flamboyant and egar to fight than Trini probably would have.

Thuy took her position as a role model to heart; Trini was clearly the lead character in this from the very beginning of her time on the show to the end. Though it is evident that the show makers didn't have the same interest.

'I've always viewed Asians this way, but your so cool!''

Thuy wanted to become an actress, though she never appeared to have much interest in competing for the camera like most actors do. I've debated that Thuy believed a TV show or film was a window into that part of a characters life and also that a character should always be implied to have had a life prior to that window. Comparatively, a lot of TV and film rarely delves into a characters past, other than to bring up some revelation that is apparent to the immediate plot.

However, all was not a bed of roses for Thuy's ideals. The show makers clearly were more interested in the ranger side and martial arts. What Thuy sought would have arguably been far beyond that.

Indeed, the shows fairly distinct halves arguably allowed Thuy and Jason David Franks arguably opposite ideals to exist to a degree (obviously there is no evidence of Thuy having issues with anyone on the MMPR cast, quite the opposite actually). It is very unusual to have an actor who didn't seem interested in competing for the camera or audience; Thuy just seemed to do her own thing. That said that it may have caused 'peaceful friction' with the show makers (i.e. an actor not quite following the show makers wishes). But certainly Thuy's 'stubbornness' set elements of the franchise in motion that may not have existed at all otherwise.

MMPR became an overnight sensation worldwide, the number1 kid's craze, far in excess of what it probably should have for such a cheaply and sometimes downright awfully put together show (though at the time, there had basically never been anything like Power Rangers on mainstream western TV) and catapulted it's completely unknown and stunned cast to international fame.

MMPR was, to put lightly, an extremely low budget production full of actual acting and dialogue mistakes and many non-sensical things.

A couple of these goofs were perhaps embarrassing for the arguably, overly trusting, Thuy, in hindsight. Co-incidentally, Trini's trusting nature was perhaps an often overlooked plot point in arguably the characters star episode: Trini reads the letter telling her to head to an isolated location and races off without a second thought, but the others are suspicious when they later find the letter.

Thuy was very proud to be on MMPR, declaring that she was the first Asian super hero that could be seen by kids of all cultures. Indeed, the charisma of all the cast was perhaps an unspoken element of the show’s success and evidence suggests they were very close, which led to a chemistry on screen that perhaps hid their limited acting experiences; for instance Amy Jo later reminisced that she and Thuy had sleep overs during the show. The characters were, somewhat uniquely, built off the actors themselves; usually one hires an actor to play a pre-designed character or a person does a cameo based off the primary element of their fame (i.e. a footballer appearing in a cameo about football). It shows the add-hoc nature of MMPR perhaps.

However, the original Zyuranger footage was of course finite and more was needed; hence Saban got the creators of Super Sentai to film and create new action footage especially for PR, (i.e. ranger and Zord fights) for approximately 25 new monsters and the first season was extended by another 20 episodes to 60 (with the original ending of episode 40 removed and replaced before the episode aired).

Following this, MMPR was easily renewed for a second season and the decision was made to use the monster footage and Zord fights from the next Super Sentai series; Dairanger, while continuing to use the rangers appearance from Zyuranger (i.e the Power Rangers upgraded their Zords at the start of season 2, but not their on foot powers) because of the iconic-ness of their appearance; this led to occasions where there was very little interaction between the rangers and the monsters (i.e. they weren't shown on screen together as they came from different super sentai seasons). Firstly though the remaining Zyu2 footage was ran through (Saban Entertainment wanted to use everything they paid for I guess), which led to the reverse; the zords weren't shown on screen together with the monsters. Some might say this meant a bunch of the action scenes in season 2 were a little lacking compared to season 1.

On top of this, season 2 introduced an original U.S villain rather than dubbing Sentai footage; a villain that has proven to be one of the franchises most iconic (and apparently too scary for kids, so he was toned down over time).

However all was not rosy amongst the cast.

Early in season 2, Thuy injured her leg while rehearsing for a live MMPR show (the actors performed their own unsuited stunts in action scenes); behind the scenes footage features Thuy saying she couldn't walk on it and being wheeled around in a wheelchair. As a result, Trini had little active role for most of her remaining time on the show (i.e. nearly always sitting on something), was visibly wearing an, unexplained, knee brace and a stunt double performed the couple of fight scenes Trini was present in after this point (as the nature of the show meant one ranger couldn't completely sit out of all fight scenes) on her behalf.

Co-incidentally, seemingly as soon as Thuy was beginning to recover from her injury; on the show she was shown both standing and then beginning to walk around, while behind the scenes rehearsal footage showed her beginning to do some fighting again (which also featured a cheer from an unknown person present), Thuy, along with co-stars Austin St John and Walter Jones, whom she had become good friends with, tried to negotiate a wage increase now that the show was a big hit and they were doing more work (such as appearances, an upcoming movie and the mentioned live show); it has been stated that the actors were on very one sided contracts earning $500-$1500 either an episode or week and were working 12 hours, 6 day a week, driving themselves to and from work etc. Amy Jo later revealed that the trio had also wanted the show to go union (PR was and, to this day, has nearly always been non-union), which would have perhaps led to benefit's for all the cast and show makers (with Johnson saying that she had no idea what a union was at the time and that she probably would have joined had she known). However, negotiations turned sour and the actors were removed from their roles; the exact details are unknown, thus I won't say that they either quit or were fired.

There are examples of PR trying to avoid paying its past cast members after they left the show; memory sequences that featured departed MMPR rangers, were redubbed. While Amy Jo also once told a story of the cast being summoned to work the day after an earthquake; though the crew ended up not turning up.

What is clear though, is they were removed before their characters were written off and thus recycled footage (and in hindsight wouldn't be the last PR actors from the early years to be removed from the show before their characters were written off, though with far less dramatic results on the show), recycled voice clips, back shots of stand-ins and additional voice overs from unknown dubbers, were used until their characters could be written off and replaced by new rangers. Thuy was replaced by Karen Ashely who played Aisha the new yellow ranger who once stated that when she tried to introduce herself to Mr Saban at the premier of the MMPR movie, that he didn't know who she was.

Interestingly, the new yellow ranger was Black American and the new black ranger was half Asian and half American; PR to this day has not had another Asian playing a yellow ranger and didn't have a another Black person playing a black ranger for some time. Thuy herself seemingly had no issues with playing the yellow ranger and declared the whole issue as sensationalism by the media (not her literal words, but a summing up) and was more upset that Hollywood considered her the 'yellow' ranger.

Indeed, interviewers in general showed a degree of gender and racial bias. For instance, one source asked Thuy if she got to pick her ranger colour (trying to get her to say something about playing the 'yellow ranger') and another talked about Thuy following her brothers into engineering in spite that one of Thuy's brothers was younger and her older sister had also entered engineering, though I suppose the later could have been a typo or mistake (I have read a source that stated Thuy was born in Hanoi; the capital of then North Vietnam and nowadays Vietnam, for instance). Thuy would eventually declare she wasn't happy with this sort of thing.

Thuy apparently joined the Screen Actors Guild sometime in the few years after MMPR.

PR continues to this day and has had many up's, though never coming remotely close to the success and fame of MMPR or the original seasons cast, and downs in that time, sometimes narrowly escaping cancelation. MMPR lasted three seasons before PR spent two or so seasons changing to the Super Sentai approach of each season being a completely self-contained narrative with its own name and characters. Though in the last few years PR has tried a system that involves maintaining the same characters for two seasons.

Following her departure from MMPR, there were several unsuccessful projects that unfortunately didn't amount to anything. Though only a couple of are worth saying anything about (i.e. these couple basically cover most of the others or there is so little information on them).

Following leaving MMPR, Thuy tried to start her own TV show 'the adventures of Tracie Z'; the couple of tiny synopsis and descriptions I have found about the show describe the show as 'Nancy drew for kids' and describe the show as centring around a college student taking a broadcasting class, who while out on location solved crimes using martial arts and her mind.

Thuy herself stated a pilot episode was filmed for the show at an unknown time and that plans for a series nearly went ahead. But for whatever reason it never reached screens; I imagine she probably pitched it multiple years, much like MMPR co-star Jason David Frank has done with his martial arts film. I debate that a possible reason for it not reaching screens was because everyone was scrambling to make their own Power Rangers like show (and Saban themselves created 'VR Troopers' using the action footage of the Japanese 'Metal Hero' series) and, much like during MMPR, toys took priority.

Based off the above tiny synopsis' and Thuy's designs during MMPR, I've personally imagined the show as being sort of like 'Trini's life post and minus the Power Rangers'. To be a bit cheeky, I could just imagine Thuy's character in Tracie Z making a subtle reference to 'a past as an unnamed super hero'.

The other notable project was an aerobics’ video. Austin St John and Walter Jones put out a martial arts and hip hop dance video respectively (Austin's video was, imaginatively, titled 'Austin St John's martial arts video', while Walters has possibly gone by two names 'Dance Masters: Hip Hop Dance for Kids' and a similar title to Austin's video; 'Walter Jones hip hop dance video') after leaving MMPR and the entire trio cameoed in each. I've personally not seen Walters video outside of a couple of clips (I'd love to see the trio's entire cameo in it), but on Austin's video, Walter mentions he is working on an unnamed dance video and Thuy mentions she is working on an unnamed aerobics’ video.

Unfortunately, I've never found any information that suggests that Thuy's video was completed and/or released alongside the other two.

Certainly, Austin and Walter's videos were subjects that defined their MMPR characters and thus probably appealed to the kids that watched MMPR. Aerobics’ while, in my opinion something that one could easily imagine Trini (or Thuy herself really, being Ms sporty as she was; she was apparently heavily into tennis in her younger days for instance) doing on MMPR was not something we saw Trini actually do on the show and it also lacked the coolness of the other two to kids. But as I talked about above, Thuy didn't seem to be bothered by that.

Looking at a potential aerobics video from an adult perspective, would someone looking for one be willing to pick up a video featuring a 'strange looking' person with a name they may not be able to pronounce; people to this day ask how one pronounces Thuy's name (in some ways, it's something that I should have perhaps mentioned at the start of this writing, but one pronounces it as 'twee') .

The trio did numerous autograph sessions, both together and separately, at various events, often car shows. Someone once told a story of how, as teenagers they went along to one such event planning to laugh at Thuy behind her back for thinking she was famous. But instead they were so awed by Thuy's interaction with the kid's, that they came away with her autograph.

'I love the kids; that was the hardest part about leaving the show'.

I have debated that this was something MMPR quietly lost after the trio left the show; Amy Jo, David Yost and Jason David Frank didn't and have never appeared to have much personal interest in the kids as the departing trio; while I haven't looked into the other actors to a sliver that I have looked into Thuy, I've never heard Amy Jo make a comment about the kids and only a couple of very throw away remarks as a role model while she was on the show. I've read a single, shall we say, 'awkward', quote by David Yost talking about kid's, again while he was on the show. Jason David Frank has gained a reputation for being a little self-obsessed, but the way PR's show makers promoted his character might have influenced this (can you say an interview with Frank, Johnson and Yost that was seemingly called 'Tommy and friends'). Thuy on the other hand continued to make comments about kid's long after she left MMPR.

In 1995, Thuy, alongside Austin and Walter, were interviewee's on James Hong's 'Martial arts Volume 1: Celebrities' (the 'Encyclopedia of martial arts' outside the U.S). Well, Walter was shown in the intro and outro with the other two and Thuy did say 'the three of us' in her interview, but he wasn't actually interviewed. I no longer have a VCR to actually play my copy of the video, but I wonder if Walter was planned to be interviewed in the planned Vol2 that the outro advertises, but never happened and perhaps explains why the video was renamed outside of the U.S.

The encyclopedia featured Austin and Thuy talking about their early lives. I've already talked about Thuy's early life, so I'm going to skip over that here.

Personally, I think the MMPR trio were odd choices (they were actually some of the highlighted interviewee's on the box) for this video as it received age rating's that would have prevented kids from getting it and some of the other interviewee's had many screen roles under their belts and had basically been doing martial arts and film fighting for decades.

Austin and Thuy basically gave no tutorage at all and got, basically, no screen time and interaction with Mr Hong himself (some of the other interviewee's did martial arts with Mr Hong for instance, though Mr Hong appeared to be friends with at least one of the interviewees). But then, they were also called the up and coming next generation of martial arts film stars by the box; an interesting indication where everyone expected MMPR to lead them perhaps.

Thuy took a question about why she left MMPR (though PR was not mentioned by name in the interview, the show was discussed and was named on the box), to which she stated that she had learnt much from her time on the show and declared she planned to become more serious of an actress. I do think Thuy would later show she had learnt much from MMPR.

Back in 1993, shortly after MMPR had aired, Thuy had mentioned her dream was to do movies and envisaged that she might achieve that ambition in a few years; back in 1993 Thuy had also stated that she was still learning the art of acting.

In 1996, Thuy had a cameo in comedy movie 'Spyhard' where she played a manicurist extra that, along with Tara Leon playing a massuree, sat next to the film’s star Leslie Nelson in a scene. There is nothing to really say about the role it ‘self because it was just a cameo, however, Tara and Thuy's credits were switched in the films ending credits; they listed Thuy as the massuree and Tara as the massuree. Massuree's were/are stereotypically Asian (seemingly with Vietnamese being particularly prominent: www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32544343), while manicurists were/are stereotypically White. Obviously, as they were both only extra's in a film that had a huge number of extras, their credit's being the wrong way around was never noted at the time.

Following this cameo though, Thuy aimed big...

Ultimately, despite the initial interest in them, the MMPR actors were considered nobodies without their ranger helmets, with the exception of Amy Jo who went on to have and continues to have a notable career in acting to this day. Thuy had often happily compared herself to Trini and vice versa, which while having a great many positives, perhaps hindered an acting career; comparatively, MMPR co-stars Johnson and Yost had both gone the opposite route and tried to distance themselves from their characters (personally, I believe I can see Kimberly and Billy in the actors).

'I feel like I am a ghost in that everyone can see things moving, but not who is doing it; I want to say 'here I am, I exist''

While Thuy had always been called attractive ('she had a good look about her, really exotic'), she also perhaps wasn't 'Hollywood attractive'; obviously beauty isn't something that can be quantified, but Hollywood and media does tend to favour certain 'types' of appearances. It wouldn't surprise me if someone told me that while Thuy was initially flattered by it, that Thuy began to consider the use of terms like 'exotic' as negative.

Thuy's seeming lack of interest in pop culture and 'cool' was also apparent; 'I'm not the usual Hollywood sort who goes to parties, I'm usually in bed very early'.

So Thuy surprised everyone when, also in 1996, she landed her biggest role, though in hindsight, not most prolific role, the role of the villain Kali in the film 'The Crow: City of Angels' (hence forth referred to as the Crow II), the sequel (the first of several in hindsight) to 1994's cult success film 'The Crow'.

Thuy likely envisaged this as her big chance to show her acting abilities and indeed, it was arguably the biggest stage any of the MMPR actors had reached outside of MMPR, at that time.

The original 1994 Crow film, which became notorious for the accidental death of its lead actor, Brandon Lee, while filming (he was accidently killed by a prop gun), featured a man resurrected from the dead by the mystical Crow to avenge his death by criminals, hunting them down one by one, with noir like grey tints. I personally haven't watched the film.

'It was kind of eerie as we were shooting the movie. I kind of felt his presence. It was weird. I could sense that he was there with us, his spirit protecting us because it happened to him and he didn't want it to happen to us. Brandon, James dean and all these others who die young, it tells me that talent is something that won't let you wait. You have to use it while you can'

The Crow II would again feature the Crow bringing a man, Ashe, back from the dead to avenge his and his son, Danny's, unjust death at the hands of criminals, the four goon's of Drug King pin, Judah Earl; Spider Monkey, Nemo, Curve and Kali and again make use of colour tones, this time going for a grimy yellow tint. Albeit, this time he would be more of a normal guy and have to deal with temptation while completing his mission; that was the original plan anyway.

Thuy declared that Kali was a 180 to Trini. She had played a hero in a multi coloured group of heroes and was now playing a villain in a multi coloured group of villains. One of Thuy's biggest values appeared to be that one should be judged by their abilities and actions rather than gender or skin colour.

Thuy's portrayal of Kali had considerable echoes of Trini; in fact one could perhaps simply say Kali was 'evil Trini' and call it a day.

The Crow II features swearing, drug's, nudity, aggression etc etc. But Kali almost completely stayed out of those areas and echoed Trini's well-spoken calm, determination and arguably was even more in both, perhaps reflecting Thuy's own greater understanding of the world (i.e. she was now an adult rather than a teenager). Amusingly, Kali put's a tattoo needle through the eye of the one character that swears at her in the film.

One could argue that this stands out particularly because Kalis partner in crime, Curve, is perhaps the most opposite to her of all the films villains; loud, flamboyant and swears a lot.

Perhaps symbolically; Trini hugged kids while Kali shoots a kid, however, one can just imagine Thuy hugging the child actor once the take was done. I have to admit that I'd love to see a photo of Thuy out of character dressed as Kali because, obviously, Kali was always glaring at people.

'When I travelled the country appearing at charity events, I found people didn't say 'hey look it's that Asian girl', they judged me for me!''

'If Hollywood would just open its eyes and mind and accept reality, then it will help create more of an acknowledgement--within the public--of what is going on, rather than just showing the Caucasian point of view all the time. That's why our generation and future generations are going to be so closed minded; the media is not showing reality. Hollywood is responsible for all the media that is put out, not just in America but also internationally. Why not make a statement rather than just being shut into one thing?'

I've wondered if Thuy's approach to acting was to imagine what she would be like where she in a universe and playing the character (rather than attempting to play a fictional character); allot of people over the years have said one can see Thuy in her characters.

Thuy found Kali a character that had more 'life' than Trini, finding it interesting that the character was dark and mature. What exactly Thuy meant by 'life' is not certain; she may have been referring to MMPR's ranger footage taking some elements of Trini away from her, playing a character that was a new experience to her (Trini was a high school student and Thuy herself had only finished high school a few years prior to MMPR, while Thuy had, obviously, never been a murderer), or maybe a more complex plot, etc etc.

The Crow II is a film where a description of a scene makes it sound far more graphic than it actually is; for instance, there is a scene where one of Judah's goon's is almost masturbating to a stripper, however, in reality we basically see a comical shot of the actor with his hand below the camera view for a couple of seconds. The Crow II does take its subject matter seriously; it doesn't shock for the sake of it.

Much of the films merchandise made Kali allot more extreme than Thuy played her; apparently the novel declares Kali is a virgin who gets pleasure from inflicting pain (with the video game having her character actually say 'pleasure in pain'). But Thuy played such moment's in the film with control and calm; to go back to MMPR's Trini not playing to an extreme personality.

Unfortunately, Thuy's ambitions were arguably once again thwarted by the editing process:

As is now known, the film was seemingly fully shot according to the released shooting script (it's also quite obvious if one compares said script to the final cut), but the production company then decided they wanted a carbon copy of the original film and apparently, a summer flick (which this film wasn't really suited for...). Thus the film’s director was removed and the production company proceeded to re-edit the footage to make their vision (with a couple of brief new studio shots slotted in; the films footage had been filmed on location).

However, whereas MMPR showed us that it was possible to do this with parts of a program, the Crow II showed us it perhaps wasn’t possible with an entire film. This re-edited version of the film was released and was fairly unsuccessful; it recouped costs with a little bit more (I believe it cost something like $14 million and made $17 million). The original cut of the film has never been released, despite a so-called 'directors cut' release (which included the above mentioned script). The original director dis-owned the film.

To be fair, while I think that the released script sounds much better than released cut, I'm not going to say that it instantly would have become the greatest film ever; for instance, I don't think either the released cut or script make clear the influence of Judah's criminal empire on the city; Judah states his drugs supply half the city, but the ordinary populace don't seem to bat an eyelid at his goons (there is one shot where a random person reaches between them to pick up a drink from the bar for instance). Though scripts primarily focus on dialog rather than physical movements.

Ultimately, Kali didn't lose a huge amount of screen time in the cut up, but what they did cut heavily simplified the character and her importance in the plot. To be fair, the entire plot was simplified into something a bit non-sensical and many of the shades of grey were replaced with black and white. However, Kali was arguably the one character built around being grey.

A source stated that Kali philosophizes that murder extricates mortals from their earthly shell; hence they can find solace on the other side (i.e. Hell).

This and the dedication to a goal was basically removed from the final film (though as one might imagine by the use of the word philosophe, that it was not literally stated in the final film either).

Fortunately, I think the production company with a little compromise from Thuy herself did manage to twist Kali into a simply a character with considerable confidence (though the original cut would have had both the confidence and above mentioned dedication to a goal).

There was one big difference between MMPR and the Crow II though; I feel that MMPR sometimes veered into personal attacks on Thuy to reduce her relative strength, but the Crow II kept it to the character she was playing. However, all the edits to the Crow II were arguably more obvious due to the film being far higher budget and having a more complex plot.

But something else notable about the editing, which arguably harks back to MMPR, was that another of Judah's villains received something of a promotion.

In the original cut, Kali was the fourth and last of leader Judah's goon's to face the Crow and the top of anti-hero Ashe's 'food chain'; she was the one that shot Ashes son. But in the released cut, she was the third of the four, being switched with Curve, played by the famous Iggy Pop. Certainly, the role of Curve was planned especially for Iggy before casting began for the other goon's began, but surely Iggy Pop had seen the script prior.

It is interesting that in the films end credits, that Judah's goons are listed in order of 'fame', with Thuy at the bottom. The film's stars were Vincent Perez, Richard Brooks, Mia Khrischner and Iggy Pop and marketing was centred heavily on them. I have debated that if we go by role in the original script, that Thuy might have been the one on the star list instead of Iggy, not to mention that there does seem to be a bunch of unused promo shots for Kali.

There were many subtle edits to promote Curve and demote Kali, to reduce Kalis relative strength, throughout the film. Shots of Kali berating Curve or leading Curve were cut out of scenes that were otherwise unaltered and one shot in particular looks like it was twisted to make it look like Curve had more morals than Kali; to make a blunt statement, to make it look like the American villain is disgusted by his Asian counterpart.

Description of that scene from the script shows Curve going along with and supporting everything Kali was doing and that what the shots used in the final cut that appear to show was Curves 'disgust' with Kali, were actually showing is Curve fleeing in fear, as Kali berates him, after he receives a sign that the Crow was coming/looking for him next.

In short, the original cut of the film arguably had Kali being a stronger more confident character than any other in the film, both physically and vocally; the original cut had Ashe waver/be distracted from his mission by 'siren' Sarah and as in the final cut, Judah used dirty tricks, while the rest of his goon's cower and flee from the Crow. All the while Kali remained utterly confident in her abilities, even when at a disadvantage; Kali's death scene in the released cut of the film makes it look like Kali is simply killed, like the rest of Judah's goons. But Kali's full death scene from the original cut had her still alive and crippled at Ashes feet, demanding that he kill her. Ashe ultimately leaves her there, refusing to send her to the 'other side', saying he had already sent her to Hell (i.e. her Hell). I debate that this scene would have been very interesting to see as such strength was generally confined to ranger footage on MMPR.

Though Kali lost her relative strength again (i.e. the remaining scenes imply her as a subordinate to the other villains), she remained individually strong in the final cut; she was still the only one of Judah's goon's who respected and didn't flee from the Crow. Kali did get arguably the best lines of Judah's goons in the film (for instance 'hush little baby please don't cry...Kalis gonna give you eternal life...').

A sign of how late in production this big cut up occurred can be seen in the shows merchandise (there was a lot more TV and film merchandise in general, than there is today); at least some of it still details the original cut of the film. For instance the trading cards both detail and show an image from Kalis deleted death scene.

I think that the Crow II promotional material seemed a bit excessive spoiler wise, even though I suppose being a sequel to the original Crow film gave viewers some idea of what to expect.

Much like MMPR, Thuy sought to marginalize her characters martial arts; she went to the director and requested a hand to hand fight instead of what the script detailed; a katana wielding 'whirring geisha' who 'somersaulted end over end'. The result was the much more realistic fight scene seen in the film and the katana being removed from the entire film. However, the sword was still present in the comic book series, but one imagines that the three issue series may have already have been being penned before the film was shot.

I am aware that the Crow II novel features the deleted death scene and expands on it (as one would expect a novel to do), but I don't know if it has the katana.

One might also comment that the removal of the katana also removed the only 'physical indication' of Kalis nationality (a katana is a Japanese sword); thus Kalis nationality became Thuy's own, to tie back to Thuy's comparing Trini to herself and vice versa.

The Crow II had a video game adaption, an atmospheric, but not very good game. Kali is talked up on and in its box and manual beyond Judah's other goons; Spider Monkey, Nemo and Curve are simply lumped together as 'thug's' but Kali is separated, talked up and bestowed with the unique title of the 'ninjitsu death bitch' (a reference back to the above mentioned philosophy perhaps). However, in the game it‘self, Kali is only the second boss, with Nemo and Curve coming after her. Interestingly, Kalis death cut scene is the only one that doesn't show her body (complete with an odd fade cut right where I could imagine we might have seen it) and Nemo's doesn't have a level complete message after it (i.e. the game only has four levels, despite there being five villains, if we go by what the cut scenes tell us).

I personally think the games progression looks like it was awkwardly changed, likely due to the film's last minute re-edit; though it is perhaps less obvious than the film because video game adaptions aren't expected to tell the entire narrative of the film.

On another note, while the video game re-uses a lot of the one liners from the film (albeit redone by dubbers rather than the lines from the films actors), one of Kalis notable lines is altered to feature a swear of sorts in the intro! (though not in Kalis intro cut scene oddly) And on another note, Curve has a guitar that fires rockets and Kali seemingly has the ability to turn invisible (actually a glitch in the game)!

Following the Crow II, Thuy declared her next move. To sum up, she wanted to move beyond action into drama or comedy (which perhaps ties back to the synopsis available for the Adventures of Tracie Z). Though she commented that she wouldn't mind a whack at TV kickers Chuck Norris or the now late David Carradine (the use of 'TV kickers' suggests in film fighting, rather than actual fighting, of course).

The embryo of Thuy's designs clearly came from, and began during her time and from her experiences on MMPR, but she now appeared to be becoming more focused on them to slightly obsessive degree perhaps. It may not be overly visible in this article because I've pulled quotes and information out of the chronological order they were given in back in the day, but I sort of feel there was a slightly more brooding and statement orientated change in her quotes.

In the early days Thuy had made comments along the lines of 'When I travelled the country appearing at charity events, I found people didn't say 'hey look it's that Asian girl', they judged me for me!''

However now she was declaring 'I am Asian and that is another battle I have to go through. But it won't be fought in the backlots, but in the casting offices!'.

One can imagine Thuy smiling with the former, but one imagines a sterner Thuy with the later.

One must respect Thuy for being outspoken and trying to stay true to her ideals (no petco commercials for Thuy!), though she was probably also both limiting the amount of roles available to her and looking for a role within a very narrow range, that arguably as narrow today. It is possible this was causing her frustration.

Though what happened next...nothing. The Crow II did not remotely eclipse Thuy's role as Trini and she was not heard of for the next three years (1997-1999), though a non-top-tier actor going a few years without a notable screen role isn't an uncommon thing, though today's social media and increased media in general allows them to maintain a presence.

Certainly, there wasn't much 'higher' Thuy could get than the fame of MMPR and the scale of Crow II respectively.

The only tiny description of Thuy that can be accredited to this time period came from a friend of hers talking to the owner of a small but long lasting fan site dedicated toward Thuy years later; they stated that Thuy was very positively affected when she saw the site, which is of course next to nothing to go on, but I have wondered why the friend used the term 'positively affected' rather than something like 'she was touched by'. Was Thuy suffering from a lack of positivity at the time?

In 2000, Thuy had a phone conversation with the owner of said fan site, which was filmed (i.e. Thuy had someone filming her while she was on the phone); the fan site owner has a copy of the video and briefly released a snippet from it where Thuy thanked them for creating the site (before withdrawing it after another fan site attempted to credit the video to their own website created many years after Thuy's passing). I admit that I personally would love to see this video as it is seemingly the only video of Thuy from this time (I have taken some information from the snippet while writing this), but then it was also probably only meant for the owner of the fan site to see.

Thuy asked the fan site owner to pass along this message to fans; 'Tell all the fans that I completely adore them, and tell them I say, 'Thank you so much', for their love and support; and that I miss them terribly, and hopefully I get to see them or they get to see me up on the screen son. And send my love, definitely'. The fan site owner later made an interesting statement that they wondered if Thuy treated fans like friends and there are tales of her being very approachable (I recall someone meeting her along with Austin and Walter at a theme park). Thuy also did some modelling photo's in 2000.

I think Thuy had always taken expectation very seriously; if somebody expected something of her, she would do everything she could to achieve it. However, Thuy did seem to be taking on more and more expectations; she was no longer trying to pass a test at school; she now had kid's, Asian Americans, Vietnamese, analysts etc etc all expecting things of her; I recall a Vietnamese woman declaring that Thuy would hopefully lead Vietnamese into Hollywood for instance and, as already mentioned, she had been considered to be on a meteoric rise by observers.

Thuy probably had friends, but one notes she was no longer living with her family, which she had always spoken extremely fondly of nor did she have the closeness of a TV cast (who potentially work together allot longer than the cast of a movie) who were in the exact same situation as she was (ala the MMPR cast when the show suddenly hit the big time); one imagines that Iggy Pop probably had a whole entourage of people guiding him for instance.

Interestingly, in MMPR, Thuy's character always seemed to be particularly happy when supporting or being supported by, a fellow ranger (i.e. her characters close friends). One could arguably call Trini 'Ms Teamwork'.

On September 3rd 2001 Thuy was killed in a car accident.

Thuy and her friend Angela rockwood, were front and backseat passengers respectively, in a car being driven by driver Steffiana. The trio, to whom Thuy and Steffiana were to be a bridesmaid's to Angela in her then upcoming wedding, were returning home late at night after visiting the planned maid of honour when Steffiana lost control of the vehicle after striking some loose gravel on the side of the road.

Neither Thuy or Angela were apparently wearing their seatbelts. Steffiana apparently was.

Angela was thrown out of the vehicle during the resulting crash, and ended up paralysed from the neck down, becoming a paraplegic. Thuy suffered internal bleeding and didn't make it to hospital in time to potentially be saved. Steffiana survived the accident with minor injuries.

It seems there was originally a notably different description of the accident incorrectly reported; Thuy was driving and apparently suffered a collision with another car at a cross road, in which the driver, sometimes also called Angela, in a seeming partial merging of the two accounts, of the other vehicle survived due to wearing their seatbelt.

There was a rumour that Thuy was apparently mis-reported as dead in a car accident in 1997, but I have found no proof of this. It is possible that this incorrect account of the accident came from this possible mis-report.

I have no provable information (i.e. no circumstantial or directly related evidence) as to why Thuy wasn't wearing her seatbelt. It doesn't fit with anything with anything leading up to it. But then, there is the big gap following the Crow II. I think it would require someone that knew Thuy for most of her life to go into detail about this period of her life; did something important happen to Thuy in this period. I don't think someone that only knew Thuy during the early-mid 90's or last years of her life could provide all the information.

Thuy's funeral was held on September 10th and Fox News were allowed to film part of the memorial service for a news report, which was attended by most of her MMPR co-stars; Amy Jo Johnson, Austin St John, David Yost and Walter Jones, though Austin was apparently late. Johnson gave a eulogy partially shown in the news report and Yost gave a statement. I don't think Jason David Frank remained or has been close with any of his former MMPR co-stars to this day, thus explaining his absence; these days it seems like Austin and Walter are friends and Johnson and Yost are.

Perhaps the biggest symbolism of all is that the news report showed a predominantly white audience attending the funeral, a traditional Vietnamese Buddhist funeral. That is arguably symbolic of what Thuy had tried to do in life, even if the news reporter perhaps didn't need to mention the 'American dream' after already stating that Thuy was a Vietnamese migrant.

I do think the quotes from Yost and Johnson are actually very accurate descriptions (though obviously, very simplified) of Thuy and her life, at least up until the mentioned gap.

Thuy's passing ended up being overshadowed by the major terrorist attacks the next day and for at least the next decade, to this day really, you still get people who declare they had no idea she had passed.

Thuy's cremated remains were interred at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California, though I couldn't say if they are still there.

I have heard from a couple of sources, that at the time of her passing, Thuy was apparently both working on something big and also that she was about to reach the big time. However neither source gave any information about what this big thing was, but, since Thuy's passing, a source has stated that they had Thuy attached to play the lead character, an Asian of unknown name, in their indie film 'Girlfriend trouble', though they gave no information about the film beyond its title. While the source gave no time frame for Thuy's involvement in the film, they did imply that a new Asian lead had been found for it following Thuy's passing.

Another possibility may have been a major attempt by Thuy at bringing the earlier mentioned 'Adventures of Tracie Z' to screen, which Thuy probably hadn't given up hope on. Given it was her own project, it probably died with her, hence why this big project appears to have disappeared with Thuy's passing.