James Edward Duval (born September 10, 1972[1]) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in Independence Day (1996), Go (1999), Donnie Darko (2001), May (2002), and the films of Gregg Araki.
Born in Detroit in 1972[1] to a Franco-Vietnamese mother from Saigon[1] and a father with Irish and Native American ancestry,[1] Duval's family moved to Los Angeles when he was 2 years old.[1] He grew up around the Greater Los Angeles area, going to elementary school in Redondo Beach before graduating from Gladstone High School in Covina in 1989.[1] As a teenager in his early career with Gregg Araki's Teenage Apocalypse films, he identified with the themes of nihilism, social alienation and not fitting in:[4][5] "I was 18 and living that, searching for myself who I was, where I belonged. I was really confused. Working with Gregg gave me something to move towards. ... there were things I was feeling—that I wasn’t liked, that there were things I couldn’t do to fit in. I was attracted to alternative music and feeling what they were singing about, even though I hadn’t really lived. I was so distraught. I was only 18–19. Everything weighed on that on a daily basis. It was so intense, and almost overwhelming."[4]
In a 1997 interview promoting Araki's Nowhere, as well as discussing the racism he experienced in his youth,[6] he expressed frustration with being asked about his sexuality as a result of playing queer roles, and mentioned that he was dating his Nowhere co-star Sarah Lassez.[6]
