Seya Andy Hug

I was born the son of a hero. When I was three years old, my father, Andy Hug, was crowned heavyweight kickboxing champion in the only professional league worldwide. This was an astonishing feat considering the fact that this league was Japanese and my father was Swiss. He was so beloved by Japan that he was the first Caucasian man to be given the honor of being named a “samurai” at the Imperial Palace. A few years later, I lost my father to Leukemia. I was five years old.

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As I grew up, and the memories began to fade, I devoted myself to learning more about him. He was someone who was able to bring joy to the miserable, inspiration to the uninspired. Naturally, I too began to strive to be like him.

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I have wanted to become an actor ever since I can remember. I didn’t know at the time why this was the case exactly. All I knew was that the movies that I watched and the actors in them, whose works I examined with great attention, stimulated a sense of wonder and amazement within me; a feeling I had only previously felt about my Father.

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I decided to approach my mother, Ilona, about this; it was important to me that she be happy, as I remember all she had done for me. When I first told her about my plan to forge a career in the film industry, she began to cry. I never felt worse. She then looked at me and divulged that, before learning he was sick, my Dad had whispered to her that his dream was “to give up his place as the world champion and become an actor.”

 

Since then, I have avowed myself to fulfill the dream that my Father was never able to. I aspire to be the greatest actor that has ever lived, not because of the fame or wealth that is associated with it, but because, hopefully, it will enable me to evoke the same feelings that I have felt about acting within others. I aspire to, one day, take care of my Mother as well as she has been taking care of me for the past 15 years.  I aspire to make my Father proud.