USF Week’s University Lecture Series was interrupted when a “small fire” in one of the Marshall Student Center’s kitchens led to a building evacuation.

As actress Lana Condor spoke at the MSC Ballroom on Tuesday, an MSC employee asked everyone to “stay calm” and evacuate the building “as soon as possible.” 

The lecture, which was supposed to last for an hour, was cut 10 minutes short.

But before the event was interrupted, Condor spoke about her Asian heritage and career growth. Some students said they saw themselves in Condor’s story and praised her authenticity.

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Condor, who is 27 years old, said she was born in Vietnam and adopted by “super white” parents when she was four months old.

“Something I hear is that I’m not Asian enough,” she said. “I’m pretty happy with who I am, so when I hear something like that, I’m like, ‘What does that even mean?’”

Abigail Poulin said she has been watching Condor’s movies ever since the franchise “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” launched in 2018.

Poulin said she feels a connection to Condor, having been adopted from China by non-Asian parents — her father is Canadian and her mother is from Colorado. 

Condor’s parents “tried their best” to reconnect with her culture, and Poulin said her family did the same.

“Even though there are some things that I have to explore, I’m really grateful for my family in that aspect,” said Poulin, a freshman health sciences major.

Anika De Guzman said she went to see Condor because she identifies with her story.

Guzman, a marine biology freshman who moved to the U.S. from the Philippines when she was 16, said she is still trying to find herself in the country.

She connected with Condor on that point, as the actor described herself in the lecture as “not exactly American, but not exactly Vietnamese.”

“I think I resonate with that a lot because I was entirely myself back home,” Guzman said. “I think that I’m starting to get the balance between the two.” 

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Condor said it was the “biggest honor of her life” to have been a representation to Asian girls with her role in “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” 

In the franchise, Condor plays a Korean-American teenager dealing with her first love-life troubles.

“I hope I get another opportunity to have something that I feel so deeply connected to,” she said. “To experience that at an early age was the best. I never cared about a character more than I cared about Lara Jean.”

The actress said she started diving deeper into her heritage in her early 20s, when she traveled to Vietnam as a part of Michelle Obama’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, an organization focused on supporting teen girls’ education worldwide.

“People have always told me, when you go back to the place that you’re born, you know that’s your home,” she said. “And I had that experience.”

Condor has a scholarship named after her that supports low-income female students in her hometown of Can Tho, Vietnam.

She said she started the scholarship as a way to ensure she wouldn’t forget her roots in between the “glitz and glamour” of Hollywood.

“I just honestly kind of started it as a way to hold myself accountable, and then it grew into something that I’m so grateful for,” she said.

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Poulin said oftentimes, celebrities seem media trained and act “a little bit too formal.”

But Condor sounded “genuine all the way” through her lecture, she said.

“I love just how infectious her energy is,” Poulin said. “She’s so comfortable being herself, even if it’s not poised.”

When the event was cut short, some attendees took out their phones to snap a picture of Condor, as well as chant a collective “goodbye” to the actress as the Ballroom was emptied. 

Campus Activities Board, the event’s organizer, had previously announced pictures were not allowed during the lecture.

Condor advised attendees to believe in their “capacity for greatness” and not let others convince them their dreams are out of reach.

“In any industry, there are so many voices that tell us all these reasons why we shouldn’t pursue something,” she said. “Just don’t listen to the chatter.”