From the Real to Reel docudrama "Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking"

I recently read an article about Christian Bale starring in a new movie about the Nanking Holocaust, and I’m stoked. Not only because I watched him in The Fighter, and was blown away by his performance, but because I think a star like him backing a movie about Nanking will make an impact on the world in a way that hasn’t been done since Iris Chang wrote the New York Times best-selling book The Rape of Nanking.

My connection to Nanking, and how I ended up playing Iris Chang in a docudrama is a long story. In 2010, with  help from my friend, Tony Penikett, (author, prolific Canadian politician and father of Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett) I put my story into words for a public speaking peace tour in Japan. It was my first time visiting Japan, and the trip was arranged by Professor Yoshiyuki Masaki, a scholar who’s made it his personal mission to educate his fellow countrymen about their nation’s violent role in Nanking.

Here’s a video I made reading the speech off my computer to start hearing how it sounded out loud: