In Hollywood, Asian American actors see few lead roles, and pay discrepancies when they land one
Korean American actor Edward Hong has played characters in dozens of TV shows and movies over the years, including as âMath Olympian Dude,â âChinese Man #2â and, in a top-rated network sitcom, âMale Night Nurse.â
Soon, he will appear in the independent film âPlease Stand Byâ as the âCinnabon Guy.â
âIn Hollywood, there are a lot of opportunities, but it is always for small roles with one-liners,â Hong said in an interview. âIf you want to be a store owner, the nail salon lady or the IT-tech guy, those are the parts, but rarely do we get a chance to be the main character.â
Heâs not bitter, he said, just realistic about the plight of being an Asian American actor in Hollywood.
Decades of racist caricatures â" think Mickey Rooney playing the buck-toothed Mr. Yunioshi in âBreakfast at Tiffanyâsâ â" have given way to an industry that is more inclusive, but where leading roles remain scarce. This week served as a stark reminder that even those who have reached some of the highest levels in the entertainment industry still face obstacles. Two prominent actors â" Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park â" quit CBSâ âHawaii Five-0â amid claims they were paid less than their white counterparts.
The controversy has motivated actors to be more vocal about what they say have been decades of inequities.
âThe path to equality is rarely easy,â Kim wrote in a message on Facebook, than king fans for supporting him on âHawaii Five-0.â
Two years after the #OscarsSoWhite campaign shined a harsh light on Hollywoodâs hiring and casting practices, some progress has been made. The film and TV industries have shown a heightened awareness of diversity and greenlighted more films with diverse casts. Television programs headlined by minorities, such as Foxâs âEmpireâ and ABCâs âblack-ish,â have turned in strong ratings performances. Netflixâs âMaster of Noneâ stars the popular comedian Aziz Ansari, whose parents emigrated from India.
There are few other Asian Americans in leading roles beyond ABCâs âFresh Off the Boat,â loosely based around the experiences of an Asian immigrant family in the 1980s, and ABCâs âDesignated Survivor,â which depicts a determined FBI agent played by Maggie Q.
But problems persist, particularly for Asian Americans. Filmmakers have tried to fend off charges of âwhitewashingâ even as they continue to rely on white actors to portray Asians on screen. Netflixâs upcoming adaptation of a Japanese manga, âDeath Note,â stirred controversy when a producer, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, said the production searched for Asian actors but âcouldnât find the right person,â in large part because actors from Asia âdidnât speak the perfect English.â
That came after an outcry over Scarlett Johanssonâs casting as the heroine in âGhost in the Shell,â this yearâs remake of a classic Japanese anime. In Marvelâs âDoctor Strangeâ last year, Tilda Swinton played the Ancient One, a character that is an Asian man in the original comics. Even the starring role in the big-budget Chinese period action film âThe Great Wallâ went to Matt Damon.
âThere is a bias against Asian Americans,â said Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociology professor at Biola University who studies race and ethnicity in film and television. âI feel like we are invisible in society. We are nondescript and in a way dehumanized by not existing in scenes or having speaking roles. We are just part of the backdrop.â
Asian actors have been getting more work these days, in large part because of the flow of money from China. Movie studio executives hoping to enhance a filmâs financial prospects in China, the worldâs second-largest film market, h ave rounded out their casts with Asian faces. But those are often background roles.
âThe Chinese actors say: âWe are just flower vases. We donât speak; we just stand there and look pretty,â â Hong said.
Asian Americans say they face unique challenges because of ingrained stereotypes, including a perception that Asians are not complainers and thus will show up and dutifully do the work. âWe are always the model minority,â Hong said.
Several people interviewed said part of the problem is that Asians donât fit the studio chiefsâ vision of a leading man.
âI donât believe people in showbiz are inherently racist,â said Christine Toy Johnson, a New York-based actress who has a recurring role on FXâs âThe Americansâ and recently appeared in guest spots on CBSâ âMadam Secretaryâ and USAâs âMr. Robot.â
âThere are different lenses with which we see things,â she said.
Ren Hanami, chairwoman of the SAG-AFTRA guildâ s Asian Pacific American Media Committee, said she believes the problem is âsystemic.â
âMost of the heads of studios are white men, and there will be some women and people of color,â Hanami said. âAnd then you have the creators of the show â" most come from writing and Ivy League schools. All the people making those decisions are writing about themselves.â
USCâs Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative last year found that just 28.3% of all speaking characters were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups â" a much lower percentage than the population at large. Asian Americans were particularly invisible. At least half of movies and TV shows, including on streaming services, âfail to portray one speaking or named Asian or Asian American on screen,â the USC report found.
Hollywood executives are âstill stuck in a mid-20th century mindset,â said Chris Tashima, an L.A.-based actor and Oscar-winning short-film maker. âItâs the d efault for the creators of content to think âwhiteâ when theyâre thinking of stars.â
âWhy arenât there any Asian American stars? You need to cast the person for it to happen,â Tashima said.
CBS has been blistered by criticism before for its formula of casting white men in lead roles, then building shows around them. Although âHawaii Five-0â boasts a large and diverse cast, the network considered Kim and Park supporting actors to the showâs two white leading men, Alex OâLoughlin and Scott Caan.
Both had major acting credits before landing their parts on âHawaii Five-0,â a 2010 reboot of the popular 1960s detective show that consistently ranks in the top 20 in ratings. Kim was a fan favorite on ABCâs âLost,â and Park, a Canadian actress, was a main character on âBattlestar Galactica.â
âCBS promoted âHawaii Five-0â from the outset as an ensemble show with four co-stars, and it was clear that the two Asian American co-stars played absolutely crucial roles in the series,â said Daniel Mayeda, an entertainment attorney at Leopold, Petrich & Smith. âWithout them, there is little to distinguish âHawaii Five-0â from any other cop show on the air.â
Contract renegotiations stalled this spring when the television studio, CBS Productions, tried to lock in deals to bring the actors back for the showâs eighth season, which begins production next week. Both refused after being offered less money per episode than OâLoughlin and Caan.
This week, CBS and producers rejected the notion that Kim and Park were treated unfairly. Kim, for example, was offered a huge jump in salary â" to about $195,000 an episode, which was $5,000 an episode less than what Caan and OâLoughlin receive, according to a person close to the production who was not authorized to divulge details of the sensitive negotiations. Kim also was offered a new production deal on CBSâ lot in Studio City. His pay before the offer is not known.
âDaniel and Grace have been important and valued members of âHawaii Five-0â for seven seasons,â CBS said in a statement. âWe did not want to lose them and tried very hard to keep them with offers for large and significant salary increases.â
Kim and Park declined to comment.
Peter Lenkov, co-creator and executive producer of âHawaii Five-0,â on Thursday stressed that the show was proud of its large and inclusive cast.
âThe truth is this: Both actors chose not to extend their contracts,â he said. âCBS was extremely generous and proactive in their renegotiation talks. So much so, the actors were getting unprecedented raises, but in the end, they chose to move on. No one wanted to see them go â" they are irreplaceable.â
Park, who lives in Vancouver when not shooting the show in Hawaii, had asked to dramatically reduce the number of episodes she appeared in, according to the knowledgeable source. âAfter being away from her family for seven years, I u nderstood Graceâs decision to leave,â Lenkov said.
Critics on social media said the studioâs insistence it had offered the actors significant raises illustrates they had been underpaid for years.
There is little hard data proving Asian Americans in Hollywood are systematically underpaid. The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said it doesnât track compensation beyond union minimums because the information is often kept under wraps by the studios, agents and individual actors.
Experts said this weekâs furor over the âHawaii Five-0â salary gap, and Kimâs taking a stand on the issue, could mark a turning point.
âFive years ago, this wouldnât have gotten this kind of attention,â said Janet Yang, producer of âThe People vs. Larry Flyntâ and âThe Joy Luck Club.â She and others credited the #OscarsSoWhite controversy for encouraging Asian Americans to stand up for their rights.
âMore peop le are emboldened now,â Yang said. âThe African American community has led the conversation for so long, and now itâs expanded to other minorities.â
Social media and the rise of niche entertainment channels, YouTube and streaming services such as Netflix also have spurred traditional Hollywood players to be more inclusive.
âBecause you have so many platforms where people can tell stories from underrepresented faces and voices, audiences are driving all these decision-makers to reevaluate all the things they greenlight,â said Adam Moore, SAG-AFTRAâs national director of equal employment opportunity and diversity.
Johnson, the actress, couldnât recall auditioning for a lead in any pilot in the 20 years before âFresh Off the Boat.â âThat tells me a lot about where we are,â said Johnson, though she says thereâs still room for improvement.
Tashima, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, agreed. âGrowing up, I always felt second-rate because I was nât like the kids you saw on TV,â he said. âIâm seeing a lot of change now. Itâs not as much as we want.â
Twitter: @MegJamesLAT
âââââââdavid.ng@latimes.com
Twitter: @DavidNgLAT
ALSO
Having a Moment: Pop culture can't get enough pro wrestling
Review: HBO's 'The Defiant Ones' is a fascinating look at music's odd couple
Andy Samberg's 'Tour de Pharmacy' is loaded with cameos and comedy
0 Response to "In Hollywood, Asian American actors see few lead roles, and pay discrepancies when they land one"
Posting Komentar