All of Martin's closest friends are Vietnamese, but he doesn't speak it. He didn't realize how difficult directing this film was going to be until the first day of rehearsals - he couldn't understand his actors.
The production relied on the entire high school in order to complete production. The film was shot at Martin's alma mater, Crawford High School in San Diego, CA. ASB created all of the Homecoming posters, the cheerleaders were cleared the entire day for the film, Martin's old football coach called all of the plays, and a few of the teachers took turns rotating their classes and coming out to be extras in the football stands for entire periods. Most of the artwork in the film was created by former students that Martin graduated with.
The casting of Teresa Michelle Lee as Jade was a unanimous decision by Martin and his closest Vietnamese friends. The production called for a young Vietnamese girl who could speak English and Vietnamese, was familiar with traditional Vietnamese dance, and who could cheerlead. Teresa did all of these. She seamlessly learned all of the cheers for the film the day of shooting.
Heavy translation had to be done in order for this film to work. Teresa and Scott had to get their relatives to translate from English to Vietnamese, and learn all of the dialog in Vietnamese. Le Dinh Thao was not an actor, but had previously performed for local Vietnamese community events.
Le Dinh Thao and Hoang Yen Nguyen were both very close to Martin. The two were in a relationship for over 13 years. Hoang Yen Nguyen was the mother of Martin's best friend, Van Thien, but she unfortunately passed away due to cancer in April of 2008. One of the last events she attended before passing was the premiere of Jaded Love at the 2007 San Diego Asian Film Festival. She left behind one son, Van Huynh, and two daughters, Truc and Chuong Huynh. All attended Crawford High School.