Amy Okuda shares her thoughts on The Guild and playing the role of Tink.
About four years ago I auditioned for a pilot about online gamers, and I was reading for the role of a cute Asian girl whose “face does not match her mouth and attitude.” At the time I had no idea what online gaming was, or anything about gaming culture. I auditioned thinking it was a television pilot, not knowing it was a nonpaying video for YouTube. I was naive and just starting out as an actor, so I was disappointed when I realized my very first role ever wasn’t going to make me a television star. But The Guild has taken me on a whole new journey I never thought I would be embarking on—a journey that not many actresses get to go on. I find myself traveling around the world to fan conventions, finding soda bottles with my face on them, spotting random people at the market wearing a Guild T-shirt, and even being featured in a comic book.
Everyone can probably agree that Tink has been the most mysterious and misunderstood character on the show. I have to admit, this being the first time I ever acted in a show, I sort of craved guidance in developing a character and backstory for Tink. From the beginning, the only thing that I was provided with was that she was a medical student, and she was snarky, bitchy, and antisocial.
Reading the comic was such a thrill for me. It took me back to season one when the guild met each other for the first time and Tink made up stories about her life, even stealing the plot of Ugly Betty. I knew that most of the crazy stories in the comic were way too bizarre to actually be true.
I did love that she switched from a literature class to a cinema class, since I was a film major at University of Southern California. It always tickles me when I have something in common with Tink. But the part that triggered my mind the most was the last page, where they showed Tink in her room, with a picture of her family taped to her computer. The fact that there were two blond girls in the picture made me wonder if Tink was adopted, which kind of threw me, because the backstory I had in my head was completely off. In my mind, Tink was premed because her dad was a surgeon, and like a lot of Asian families, she was under pressure to do well in school and follow in her father’s footsteps.
As corny as it sounds, this season really made me fall in love with this character more than ever before. Of course from day one I loved and enjoyed playing “the bitch” to the fullest, but now, I feel like I have so much more in common with Tink than I thought. When I first started acting and doing The Guild, I didn’t tell any of my friends that I was even acting. So when I read the script for season five, I kind of knew exactly how Tink felt. She didn’t want to tell her parents about changing her major. She was unsure of her choices, and was afraid of rejection or her parents’ disapproval. But when she finally did tell them, and they were so positive and encouraging about it, she felt like a whole new person! I think a lot of younger people go through those stages where they are still insecure and doubt themselves. Building that self-confidence is part of growing into an adult. I’m really glad I got to tell that story through Tink.
Even though what I originally created in my mind for Tink’s backstory was pretty far off from what was written, I was so excited when I first read the script for season five. A part of me felt like I finally found out really important things about a best friend I have known for four years, while another part felt like I was meeting someone for the very first time. But what got me the most pumped was that as an actress I finally would get to portray to the fans the real Tink, and I knew it was going to be a special season.
