'Don't Make Me Go' looks beyond race for a touching story

A father raises his bi-racial daughter alone and realizes he may not be able to help her grow into adulthood. The premise of the new Amazon film “Don’t Make Me Go” is that he decides to take them on a road trip to meet her absentee birth mother. Veteran actor John Cho and newcomer Mia Isaac star in the film.

“I love that this film isn’t defined by race,” Isaac shared.

The duo plays father and daughter. One of the film’s strengths is that it features a bi-racial character, Black and Asian, which is not often seen on screen.

Race is not the focus of this film. What’s being challenged is not her being bi-racial, but a father stepping up to raise a child when the mother opts out. You can see him struggling with his daughter’s maturation into a young woman while attempting to keep his cool.The director and writer Hannah Marks and Vera Herbert chose to focus on the father/daughter relationship.

Wally is maturing and attempting to assert her independence, but Max (John Cho) is not ready to let go, nor does he understand where she is coming from. Isaac talked about her experience playing Wally.

“I think a little bit of that is her not having her mother there. I mentioned this before, but I think that Wally deep down more than anything just wants to feel wanted and she wants to feel loved. A part of her has that empty feeling that her mom left her and that sort of insecurity of why she didn’t want me. I think she projects that a little bit on her relationships with boys. She really likes this boy but she’s not sure if he really likes her back. She has this insecurity that she really wants him to want her back but she’s in this stage of her life where she’s pushing away from her father,” she said.

Isaac, who is biracial, explained why it’s so significant that race isn’t the focus of the movie or a big issue between the on-screen father and daughter.

“I personally love that Wally gets to have a struggle that isn’t being bi-racial because I feel like for people of color, we are often put into this box of our only struggle that we are allowed to have is that we are off color. I love that Wally gets to struggle with boys, gets to struggle with losing her father, all these human things that have nothing to do with her race. I think that’s beautiful. As someone who is biracial, I find that Wally and Max’s relationship is very real and natural and it reminds me so much of my relationship with my dad,” reflected Issac.

Another strength of this film is that, while Wally likes this Boy, she refuses to succumb to peer pressure.

“I said before that I learned things from Wally because we are both coming of age together. One thing that Wally really taught me was because at the time I hadn’t really kissed anyone before and I was super nervous to do those scenes and what I learned from Wally that it’s ok to say no and not do things you don’t want to,” she shares.

“Don’t Make Me Go” is streaming now on Prime Video.