Joy Ride is not only the screenwriter’s directorial debut, but it’s a bawdy, R-rated buddy comedy. “You just need one unhinged bitch, then everybody’s like, ‘Greenlight the party!’”

Lim talks full-frontal nudity, promoting a film during strike and what she learned from going public with that lowball offer.

Relationship with raunch comedy?

Love raunch comedy. That’s my happy place. I’d been on Raya, a dream come true, but it was two years of writing for family, four quadrants, the whole thing. My friends and co-writers on this, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, we hang out all the time and it’s just dick jokes. Being on Raya, all I wanted was a palate cleanser. So, for shits and giggles, we met up every Thursday to talk about the story we wish we had in our 20s. What would make us crack up?

Asian women are rarely shown in this light

Any underrepresented group, there’s certain ways you get depicted. It wasn’t something I necessarily set out to do early in my career, but as an Asian woman in this space, I was very aware of how I was perceived. Asian women onscreen, they think of you as something exotic. We were like the first subsect on Pornhub. That’s whole yucky thing. But the reaction from the community has been, “let’s disavow our sexuality altogether” — which is garbage, because that’s part of us. You’re giving in to terrorists when you do that.

That was verbatim, word for word, me in a room with a producer on a project. I was like, “Really, you found a way to cram all those stereotypes into one sentence? That’s impressive, man.”

Did you tell him that?

What? No! This was years ago, before Crazy Rich. I came up at a time when if you shut people down, you’d be booted so quickly. Your career would be stillborn. It was always navigating between standing up for what you believed and survival.

You can’t really do this now, but I remember once googling “genital tattoos and the people who get them” in a writers room. Heads up: You cannot unsee those images. When we were breaking story, the character of Kat (Stephanie Hsu) was inspired by a friend–now the most prim, pearl-clutching woman but a full-on freak in college. That made us crack up, so we gave the character one and kept expecting somebody to tell us, “Fuck, no!” But when you work with Seth Rogen’s company, their reaction is, “Fuck, yes!”

Nudity in comedy dominated by penis reveal.

It’s a nice pivot. We’ve seen so much penis! I don’t know how you top Ken Jeong in The Hangover.

Mother seen the movie?

Your first writing job from wanted ad?

Yes, because I’m old! I’d walk a Barnes & Noble in Encino — I couldn’t afford to buy The Hollywood Reporter — so I’d just check the ads. I didn’t have any connections, and I was shit at networking, but there was an ad for a writers assistant. They didn’t say what show, because it was Xena: Warrior Princess — which had a huge cult following. If they were to advertise, they’d get swarmed by fans.

women get one opportunity to fail in Hollywod.

You’ll just be in a fetal position if you think about the pressure. I’m glad I got to go through all my failures and dysfunctions in the lower-risk world of television. There’s always a showrunner to disappoint. There’s always a bar you are not going to hit. But, again, stakes are high. It’s the first time that we are putting four Asian faces in the middle of an R-rated comedy. If you fuck up — if a project with a queer lead, a Black lead or an Asian lead fails — the industry’s knee-jerk reaction is to blame it on the otherness. You don’t want that fear to paralyze you and keep you from creating from a place of joy.

Zero regrets, but I’m happy being on the other side. I was crippled with fear about that story coming out. You never want to be the difficult person, especially if you’re a woman. There’s always that fear that you’re never going to work again. But these are the lies that we’re fed: “If you work hard enough, you’ll get there! And if you don’t, it’s because you just didn’t have it.” Not talking about that is the problem. Nobody wants to be the face of pay equity, but I’m glad it came out. I got lots of good feedback and realized it wasn’t just in my head.

how long the sequel has been stalled?

Truly, I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for director Jon Chu and that movie. I put myself through at-home director school for Joy Ride and Jon Chu was instrumental in that. I love that movie. I love what it did for Asian Americans. I want a sequel. Whether or not I’m writing it or at the helm of it, I want it to do well.

Incoming calls after that movie?

I went from spending my entire career writing cis white men characters, and sometimes women, to getting a million and one calls for every Asian everything. And that’s fantastic, but I can create and write for a lot of voices. I’m now the go-to Asian for Asian things.

This is a thing we talk a lot about in our circles. Movies are such a risky endeavor, and the studios are risk-averse. They feel like they have to go to these huge names. Personally, I want it all for us. I’m obsessed with Michelle Yeoh. I want her and Simu Liu and Awkwafina to get all the projects in the world. At the same time, I want opportunities for projects to find new talent. When you’re an Asian actor, it’s hard to find material that platforms your strengths and makes you shine.

Sticking points like AI in the WGA standoff?

I’ve been on the WGA negotiation committee before. You come to the table thinking, “Oh, we’re going to talk about how much of a gain we can get!” No, we’re going to talk about not rolling back the things we already have — even the concession that a writer has to be a human took a lot of work. That affects writers more than anyone. We have to fix that now for the future. Once you take away rights, it’s hard to get them back.

Mid-strike release of this movie? 

For me, on this movie, I’m also a director, a producer and an Asian American woman who’s worked very hard for my community. For this movie, yes, I will be going to the premiere.