American actor Zach Ireland, better known to Chinese audiences as Zuoyou (左右) has been performing in Chinese films, talk shows, and sitcoms in China for around three years. In that time, he has racked up a staggering number of appearances in over 40 talk shows, five films and 20 television sitcoms/dramas. He was most recently involved in providing Olympics commentary online, reaching audiences of over a million.

SO LET’S DO THIS CHRONOLOGICALLY. HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN ACTING IN CHINA?

It’s actually a funny story. I was studying theater at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2010 and needed to take a language course to make up the final part of my grade. I had studied a few other languages and joked, ‘how about an easy language like Chinese’and we laughed about it, but my instructor really pushed me to study it. He pointed out that China is a growing market with over a billion people, and around the time I later came to China, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had been launching a program to have 100,000 American students study in China. So when I was looking at a place for foreign study, this covered some of my study costs. I came here and was studying at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) in 2011, which was when I first got into acting.

SO WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PROJECT?

It was this job hunting talk show Only You 《非你莫属》 ( ), where foreigners went on the show and were grilled by these high profile bosses of companies. There was pretty intense competition, around 700 people at first were whittled down to 40 and then four of us went on the show. I had seen the flyer at BLCU and a friend had encouraged me to sign up. In the group there was a woman who had lived in Beijing for 20 years so was totally fluent and another person studying advanced Chinese for a master’s degree. So they were all much more advanced at the language than I was.

HOW DID THE JUDGES REACT?

I was really nervous and at first they tore me to pieces. But there was this one judge, John, who ran an English training school. He asked me how long I had been studying. I told him, 18 months. At that point, the tone changed. They had assumed that I had been studying for a long time and that I had appeared and was basically wasting their time. But then they understood that actually my Chinese was pretty good for the amount of study I had done. At one point, they asked about my Chinese name, and I took off my shoes and showed them the tattoo on each foot, which are the Chinese characters for left and right, and everyone was laughing.

HOW DID THAT NAME COME ABOUT?

I tell people that it’s in case my feet fall off in an accident so the doctor knows which foot is the right and which is the left, though it’s also a Dr. Seuss poem ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go’ which includes the line: ‘Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.’ It’s a good reminder for me, and I find it helps me to stay grounded in certain situations.

HAS THIS NAME EVER CAUSED ANY PROBLEMS FOR YOU?

I was relaxing between takes (on 《生死血符》, a warthemed TV series in Hubei) when I heard the director shout out ‘左右跑 (Zuoyou, run)!’ I dropped my coffee and just started running onto the set. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time and while I was running I saw actors I had met and recognized but who weren’t in any scenes with me, doing a take. They looked at me, confused, and I looked confused at them, and the director shouted out ‘Zuoyou, what are you doing?!’ I said to him, ‘You said Zuoyou, run, so I am running! What do you want me to do?’ He and everyone else on set started laughing. Apparently he had told the actors on the set to, ‘run left and right’.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OTHER MEMORABLE MOMENTS?

On that same set there was an occasion when we were rehearsing for a big scene. My character was getting ready to finally make his way home when the city comes under a surprise attack, and there were going to be explosions everywhere. The word for ‘rehearsal’ (试拍 shìpái) and the real take (实拍 shípāi) have very similar pronunciation, so when the director said it, I checked with other actors and the director that it was just a rehearsal, and the other actors and the director all told me that, yes, it was just going to be another rehearsal of the scene and the steps we’re supposed to run through.Then they yelled for the scene to begin and an explosion went off and I was terrified. I grabbed the little girl with one arm and started running. Afterwards, the director showed my face, my reaction to the explosion. There were of course people on set who managed the explosions and ensured it was all safe though. That’s one thing I’ve found is the same in all cultures: the tech guys love doing their explosions.

“Big In China” is a story from our newest issue, “Gender Equality”. To read the whole piece, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine. Alternatively, you can purchase the digital version from the iTunes Store.