What Thuy Trang and Trini Mean To Me

    Growing up in the nineties was interesting for many reasons. Cell phones were being introduced, computers were slowly becoming more popular, and freestyle music was hitting its peak. For kids all across America that had a television, a much bigger event was taking place.

    Mighty Morphin Power Rangers exploded onto our TV screens. It was new, full of action, had awesome rock music, and five teenagers who could turn into superheroes. There was a color and a personality that represented each child's hero or heroine.

    For a large number of people it was green, when he finally arrived on the scene. Others chose white, when he came later, though I personally suspect, had more to do with the fact that mostly everyone liked Jason David Frank who played them both, rather than the change in color. Still others preferred red, while many went for blue and black. A lot of girls loved pink. Most guys loved her too, but I tend to believe it was because they thought Amy Jo Johnson was hot.

    As for me, I preferred yellow. Not just because it's my favorite color, although that was an added bonus. I happened to find that the shy, quiet, and intelligent Trini represented my idea of someone to look up to. She wasn't hip-hop cool like Zack, technologically advanced like Billy, an athletical powerhouse like Jason, or into fashion like Kimberly.

    Trini was calm, always there for her friends, and eager to make peace whenever she could. She was the soul of her team, the glue that held the group together. She fought only when she had to and deeply disliked bullies. She didn't mind not being front and center, content to be in the background until she was needed. She only spoke when necessary, but when she did speak, people listened.

    As with many other children, I played at being a Power Ranger in my twin cousins' backyard and on the school playground with my friend. I was always Trini, trying to do the pose to call forth the Saber-Toothed Tiger Dinozord, even though I didn't really know how to do it because I couldn't see the TV screen. I can still remember one of my cousins asking me if she could play Trini for a while. I never let her, forcing her to play Kimberly. Even after Trini and the others left the show, I still played as her.

    My friend once asked, "don't you want to play Aisha? Trini's not even there anymore."

    "So," I had stubbornly replied, "I want to be Trini! I don't want to be Aisha."

    "Why do you like Trini so much?" my other cousin once asked me.

    "Because she's cool!" I told him with a shy smile, unable to adequately say what it was I liked about Trini.

    When Jason, Zack, and Trini left, like many other fans, I was devastated. I continued watching the show in the hopes the three of them would soon return. The two episodes where the teacher read off the fax that had been sent from Switzerland and the postcard Kimberly received from Trini and the others, was like a tease. It made me think, surely they'll come back before long and if I just stick around for a few more episodes, I'll get my wish. I'm not saying the actors who played Adam, Aisha, and Rocky were bad, they just weren't Zack, Trini, and Jason.

    As a kid who's blind, voices are everything. After watching seventy episodes, including reruns, with the same actors vocalizing the same characters, I had gotten quite familiar with Trini, Jason, and Zack. So I was very confused when in the eighteen episodes before the trio left and the others took their place, there were several spots where the voices were unlike any I had ever heard before, especially in the case of Trini. As with all the kids back then, I didn't know what had occurred off the set and that Thuy Trang, Austin St. John, and Walter Jones had been fired.

    I remember repeatedly telling the same friend I played Power Rangers with, Trini suddenly sounded different at times. I just knew something had changed despite my friend's objections to the contrary. Her younger brother used to watch the show with her and although she was also blind, he could see the screen, convincing her that Trini was still the same. I knew better. Needless to say, I was relieved when they left, if only so that I wouldn't have to hear voices who were supposed to be them but weren't.

    Once they left though, I desperately wanted them back! I wanted the real actors, not the ones who had pretended to be them! For me, the dynamic of the team seemed to drastically change. Nothing was the same anymore.

    Billy looked to be lost without Trini to confide in and help him with his inventions. Kimberly appeared to easily forget about her friendship with Trini, immediately becoming closer to Aisha than she'd ever been to Trini. Rocky came across as trying too hard to take Jason's place. Adam sounded as if he didn't quite know where to fit in, and Aisha was so vastly different from Trini, I couldn't even consider giving her a chance.

    As an adult, I feel bad about that now, but as a child, I didn't think it was fair for the three new people to have the powers of those who'd left. To hear them do the same Morphing Calls that had just been so off lately due to the unknown actors who had been the other three's stand in voices, served to frustrate me even further! Why couldn't the new characters have received different colors and different Zords?!

    The Griffin Thunderzord belonged to no one but Trini! The same went for the Thunderzords that had belonged to Zack and Jason! It just didn't feel right!

    The new characters using the old characters Zords seemed so wrong! It was as though Trini, Jason, and Zack hadn't ever mattered at all. As if the show's creators didn't care how the change affected us kids. Oh, we would get over it. We were kids and as such, our interests would change.

    In another year, we wouldn't even remember those that had been replaced. Jason, Zack, and Trini, who? Well, it wasn't like that for me and I'm glad to have found out, the same holds true for many other fans.

    In season three after the first three episodes, where as a child, I thought would have been the perfect time for Zack, Jason, and Trini to briefly return since the others were on another planet and Kimberly was left to fend for herself on Earth while having the flu, I realized the three of them were never coming back. After that, I only watched sporadically, because I somewhat liked the new Zords and powers. When Zeo started, I quit altogether. I decided I'd had enough of revolving people.

    I had just begun giving Aisha a chance, since her powers had changed, and she'd finally gotten to become her own person. For the first time, I felt like she was herself, rather than simply Trini's replacement. Then she and Kimberly left, Billy became a technical adviser for the other rangers, and I was through! Oh sure, I knew Jason had returned for Zeo as the gold ranger, but it didn't seem fair to me that Trini and Zack hadn't come back with him. So I didn't watch it. Instead, I began watching other shows like Goosebumps where the cast changed daily, not giving myself time to get used to a single person.

    I didn't quite forget about Trini though. I remember still wanting her action figure which I hadn't even known existed till I was nine. I'd seen the commercials, but since I couldn't physically see and had no one to tell me what the toy looked like, nor did I have any friends who had any for me to look at, I remained ignorant of them until I saw one of Kimberly. I never did get one though because by the time I began asking for one, Trini's action figure was already hard to find, being three years after they'd first appeared on store shelves. My Mom wasn't about to go to every store in the city, just to find me one either! Years went by and I slowly forgot about the Power Rangers.

    Not long after my Twenty first birthday, a friend of mine and I were casually discussing which shows we had liked as children. When I mentioned I had loved the Power Rangers, Trini in particular, he informed me that Thuy Trang, the actress who had played her, had passed away. "What? No!"

    I was in shock. I couldn't believe it! It couldn't be true! She was so young! He had to have misheard!

    On the internet, I found out the truth of his words.  I took in none of the information about her birth, life, or career. Over and over, all I kept seeing in my mind was her car crashing, flipping several times, and going over the embankment. I kept seeing what her last moments must have been like. (My sister had been in an accident involving a skidding, flipping car nearly fourteen years before and all I could think was what it could have been like for her, had she not survived.)

    At that moment, I realized what Trini had genuinely meant to me. I knew then that I'd never get the chance to meet Thuy and tell her how I felt about the delightful character she'd once played. Immediately, I left the website, not wanting to know any more! I wanted to forget I'd ever learned the awful news! It would be thirteen years before I could again bring myself to look up anything related to the Power Rangers.

    After my husband and I moved in together, he began collecting action figures. I finally saw the appeal of them, having only played with baby dolls as a child. For the first time in my life, I could get a small glimpse of what the characters looked like, even if the first ones I saw were from an anime show. He asked if there were any others I'd like to see and I said yes.

    We'd been discussing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers not long before and the unacquired action figure of Trini from my childhood came to mind. When I received the Lightning Collection version of her, I was thrilled. All the nostalgia and why I had liked her so much came rushing back. It's time, I thought, time to find out more about the actress beneath the helmet who'd played Trini.

    I needed to know who Thuy Trang had actually been. How she had gotten her start as an actress, how she'd grown up, and where she'd come from. The shock of her death had worn off enough that I could look past it. She would never do another show or make another film.

    As much as I wanted to meet Thuy, I knew I never would. I wanted to know her then, in any way possible. I began doing months of research, trying to find every scrap of available information. Her story was something usually found only in books and movies.

    Thuy Trang was born on December 14th 1973, in what is now known as Ho Chi Minh City, in South Vietnam. She had three siblings, an older sister and brother and a younger brother. Her Father was an officer with the Southern Vietnamese army. When Saigon fell in 1975, he was forced to immigrate to the United States seeking political asylum, leaving his family behind.

    When Thuy was six, she and her family fled Saigon, boarding a cargo ship in secret in hopes of a better life. The ship was to take them to the Hong Kong detention camps. The trip was harsh, lasting several months with hardly any food or water. Thuy fell ill and nearly died, her Mother having to save her life by forcing her to swallow food while she was unconscious. During this time, other passengers wanted to throw her overboard to make a little more room on the heavily crowded ship, but her Mother adamantly refused.

    After a year in the camps, they eventually reached the states where they were happily reunited with her Father once more. Soon afterword, they settled in Fountain Valley California. Once there, Thuy began learning how to speak English, having only spoken Vietnamese and Cantonese until that point.

    At the age of nine, at the request of her Father, Thuy began studying Shaolin kung fu. She went on to receive a black belt at age 13. When Thuy was 18, her Father died from cancer. She continued to study Martial Arts in his honor.

    Thuy spoke passionately about studying Shaolin kung fu. "It's really good because it builds a lot of character and it makes me stronger as a person, especially going through all the stuff I went through, coming over here to America. It just teaches me a lot about who I am and what I am, and about respect, discipline, patience, and perseverance, and endurance."

    The same year her father died, Thuy graduated high school with a scholarship for Civil Engineering. She enrolled in college, planning to follow her Father and two older siblings in their engineering occupation. During this time, while hanging out with friends, Thuy was spotted by a talent scout who told her she had an exotic look and that she should try going into the acting industry. She then enrolled into an introductory acting class where she was chosen for a couple of advertising commercials, one of which being for the Church of Scientology, despite the fact that she was a Buddhist.

    One year later, Thuy became known as the beloved Trini on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show. She performed a lot of her own stunts, causing her to frequently get hurt. Due to her injuries, Thuy had to be carried by others during shooting on the set.

    In the middle of the second season, Thuy, Walter, and Austin left the show, due to Saban's refusal to give the show union recognition. The actors weren't being paid enough and they were not receiving compensation for the merchandise that was selling in droves or any injuries they might sustain during filming. None of them wanted to leave, but the conditions under which they were working were less than ideal.

    Her leaving upset many fans. Some kids simply quit watching the show altogether. Others, like me, tried to continue for a while longer.

    Thuy had this to say of her departure. "I love the kids. That was the hardest part about leaving the show. The show was great, it gave me a lot of experience; but it's time to move on, and I'm focusing on doing feature films and becoming more serious of an actress."

    Unfortunately, most of the films and the one TV show she would have been in, never made it past production. Thuy was only able to have a couple more on screen appearances in 1996. She had a ten minute cameo in the comedic parody Spy Hard as a manicurist. Her major film role was as Kali, one of the lead villains in The Crow: City of Angels. On September 3, 2001, a car accident took her life.

    It's truly a shame she's gone from the world. She was so much like her character Trini that her acting came off as genuine. She had this to say about being a new actress. "I'm finding that acting is all about being honest and truthful in every moment. The camera is so close that it sees everything, so if you're truthful and honest, the audience will know."

    Thuy enjoyed reading romance novels, playing tennis, and jogging. She was smart, sweet, caring, honest, and reserved. She was kind to others and deeply loved her family and friends. She stood up for what was right, taking a stand for what she believed in, whether or not others agreed with her.

    Austin St. John once stated. "That is not to say that she wasn't a little bit mischievous, and at times devious, known to participate in pranks, and never get caught; because she naturally looked so innocent. She would get these grins on her face and this was the only way I learned how to tell she'd been involved in something like a practical joke. Everybody's being accused of something, and she would just sit there and she would just have this little grin on her face, and her eyes would twinkle, and I was like, it was her! She did it! She never got caught, but I knew!"

    Other castmates and friends have said that Thuy Trang was not just beautiful on the outside. She possessed a beautiful spirit that shone in everything she did. She had a very zen like nature and was extremely down to Earth. She was always smiling and had an amazing laugh.

    I mentioned above how as Trini, Thuy held the team together. I don't know if she realized it, but that's exactly what she did for the other actors on the show in real life. No matter how many other Power Ranger actors come into the lives of her five castmates, there will always be a hole left by her absence that no one can ever quite fill. She would have honestly been a wonderful person to have known.

    Now each time I think of Trini, I think of Thuy Trang. For me, she wasn't just a role model, she was a young woman who had a lot of potential. I feel she would have done some amazing things had she lived.

    Growing up, I didn't even know her name. I only knew that there was a woman out there who had once played an exceptionally sweet character I wanted to imitate. If I had ever gotten the chance to have met Thuy, I would have told her this:

    Trini had the confidence I felt I greatly lacked. I could live vicariously through her. She stood up for what she believed was right and never ran away if she could help it. She tried to solve problems to the best of her abilities and was always the peacemaker. She gave her opinions when they were needed the most.

    Trini made me want to do good in school and defend those I thought were being treated unfairly. She taught me how to be honorable. From her, I learned the value of courage and that sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the good of others.

    I didn't understand what a superhero was back then. I didn't even know what the term meant. I hadn't grown up watching Wonder Woman or Superman, so the concept of having a role model was unknown to me. I only saw that Trini was an awesome person who could do neat stuff that I knew was fantasy. Nevertheless, she was someone I wanted to emulate. I have not always done the right thing throughout my life, but I have tried. Trini made a bigger impact on me than I ever registered as a child.

    Thuy, I'm sorry for what you went through during your time on the show. You and the others were treated so unfairly. Had I known you especially were getting hurt on set, even as a kid, I would have said stop doing the show. I would have been sad to see you go, but I would have understood. I might have even begun liking the character of Aisha sooner. Although, knowing myself, even as a child, I would have asked why the other actors were still doing the show if it meant they might also get hurt?

    I would have ended the conversation by saying, I'm glad to have met you and found you just as sweet and wonderful as the person you portrayed all those years ago. I'm thankful to know that unlike so many people, you truly are a lot like the character you first showed to the world. Thank you for being who you are, and for playing such an inspiring role other people could look up to.

    Many people have written posts and blogs such as this in the past, so I won't be the first. Nor will my words be any different from those who have come before me, or those who will write about her in the future. I felt compelled to do this simply because after the research I've done over the last few months, I feel I have a better understanding of the kind of person Thuy Trang was. She wasn't just the actress who played Trini on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show. She was an extremely amazing, talented young woman who if not for her untimely death, would have gone a long way.

    I would have loved seeing what else she would have done, the other inspiring characters she might have played, the other roles both great and small that would have challenged her as an actress. It would have been wonderful to see how successful she could have become. I would have really enjoyed meeting her and telling her how much of an impact her character Trini had on my life.

    Thuy Trang will always be greatly missed. She may have been taken from us way too soon, but she will never be forgotten. Her character Trini will forever live on in the comics and Thuy's image will always be represented in the action figures and dolls that were made in her likeness. Together, Thuy and Trini will forever live on in our hearts as the incredibly strong, courageous warrior women they both are. There will always be that one little girl dressed in yellow, playing in her backyard, calling for the Saber-Toothed Tiger Dinozord to come to her aid.

    hite ... hite ... hiiuh

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    Happy Birthday Thuy