Dustin: (on getting injured in a fight scene on “V.I.P”) The fellow I was fighting was a good friend of mine. We try to kick each other's legs out. On the fourth take, we were coming down from being airborne and he landed on top of my foot! My weight crashed to the inside and the knee collapsed. From the knee down, nothing could move, so the knee snapped out of the joint ... there was this explosion of pain. Of course my friend, who I was fighting with, felt awful! They rushed me to the emergency room and Angela [now Dustin’s wife] was there.
Dustin: (on acting) I like the feeling of being able to express myself in a way that I normal couldn't as a person, because intrinsically I'm very shy. Acting opened up a lot of emotional discovery for me in terms of who I am as a person. I'm a lot more comfortable, playing a character. To me, it's about the study of the self and how you relate to another human being.
Dustin: (on his favourite martial arts movie of all-time) Enter the Dragon. No doubt. In my opinion, it's the Gone With the Wind of martial arts movies. My second favorite--although it's a totally different style--is Jackie Chan's Drunken Master, Part 2. It's unbelievable.
Dustin: (on the film, “Little Fish”) One of the things I loved about Cate and Rowan [Woods, the director] is they constantly challenged the script, in making choices that hadn't been made before.
Dustin: (on filming a love scene with Cate Blanchett in “Little Fish“) I had about half a bottle of red wine and it kind of took the edge off me.
Dustin was the face of the Levi Jeans' European "Hero" campaign. It was the first time Levi's had ever used an Asian lead.
After Dustin graduated high school, he moved to Southern California and attended Orange Coast College and majored in communications.
Dustin's first acting job was a guest role in Magnum, P.I., in 1985.
After Dustin's English improved, he became the good student he was back in Vietnam. He was still somewhat of an outcast because he was very shy and did not do very well at any American sports. It was then that he started studying martial arts. He excelled in martial arts and got his black belt in tae kwon do at age 17 and continued to study a number of other forms of martial arts over the next few years.
After being relocated within the U.S. several times, Dustin and his family were eventually sent to live with a family in Kirkwood, Missouri. During that time Dustin's parents worked as a janitor and a cleaning lady, while Dustin learned English by watching Sesame Street. After a year of living in Kirkwood, the family bought a house of their own. They were the first Vietnamese family in the area.
Dustin was an excellent student who was fluent in Vietnamese and French. He tested in the top five percent of students competing for entrance to the best public high schools.
Dustin's favorite food is Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup.
Dustin's favorite color is black.
Dustin's mother My Le, was an actress and dancer, while his father, Xuan Phat, was an actor, writer and producer in South Vietnam.
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