MANILA – He may have forged a good relationship with Netflix now but Jo Koy admitted getting rejected many times by the digital streaming platform.

As his Hollywood film “Easter Sunday” opened in the Philippines on Wednesday, the Fil-American standup comedian got candid about his struggles to put his comedic routines, mostly Filipino-themed shows, into the big streaming platforms.

In a media conference in Pasay City Tuesday, Jo Koy did not want to label his achievements as “manifestations” – a term widely used on social media to attract good fortunes.

In fact, he revealed that his Netflix specials were turned down many times by the same platform before, forcing him to fund his show on his own then sell it to them afterwards.

“Not everybody knows the back story of success. How I got this movie? This wasn’t a Hollywood movie that Hollywood wrote. I got this project done through a series of Netflix specials. That wasn’t offered to me,” he said.

• With 'Easter Sunday', Jo Koy puts spotlight on Pinoy representation in Hollywood

“My first special ‘Live From Seattle’, they turned that down. Eight times they kept saying no to me. To the point where I said I would fund it myself. I paid for that special. I sold it to Netflix.”

But the rejections did not stop Jo Koy from producing his shows, which eventually got the nod from Netflix. Currently he has three shows on the streaming platform: “Live from Seattle,” “Comin’ In Hot,” and “In His Elements.”

His second show on Netflix was noticed by Hollywood director and producer Steven Spielberg, who eventually asked him about a possible movie idea.

Jo Koy opens up about how difficult it was for him to reach where he is now. pic.twitter.com/njwsPkEj5k

— Karl Cedrick Basco (@cedrickkbasco) August 30, 2022

“I was gonna do it no matter what. It’s passion. If you’re gonna tell me no, I’m gonna show you why you should've said yes,” Jo Koy said.

He went on to say that Netflix told him initially that his routines are “too specific.”

“That was the ‘no’ Hollywood kept giving me. ‘You’re too specific.’ When you hear that in Hollywood, you replace that specific with racism. What does ‘specific’ mean? That doesn’t make sense,” Jo Koy said.

“I was gonna tell the story and I’m gonna tell my mom’s story. I’m not making fun of my mom. I’m talking about my mom. When you hear it, you can relate to it. You’re gonna realize that my mom is just like your mom no matter what color you are. A mom is a mom,” he continued.

When he did “Live In Seattle,” he paid for all the cameras, venue, and sold the tickets all by himself.

“Two days before I had to shoot it, Netflix called my team and said, ‘We heard Jo Koy is trying to shoot a special. We just want you to know we don’t want it,’” he continued.

• Why ‘Easter Sunday’? Church gives Jo Koy, mom sense of Pinoy community in US

“That's the pressure that I had. When I had all these money invested on ‘Live In Seattle’ and the only person I want to sell it to was saying no already before I even shot it.”

But his resilience paid off as Spielberg asked him for a story pitch that led to the first Filipino-centered Hollywood film, “Easter Sunday.”

The film, his love letter to the Fil-Am community, follows Jo Koy’s character returning home for an Easter celebration with his riotous family that has Pinoy roots.

“Easter Sunday,” distributed by Universal Pictures, also features an all-star cast including Jimmy Yang, Tia Carrere, Eva Nobleazada, Lydia Gaston, Eugene Cordero, and Lou Diamond Phillips.

It is directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by Ken Cheng.

RELATED VIDEOS

Watch more News on iWantTFC

Watch more News on iWantTFC