Filmmaker Benson Lee is holding a casting call for Asian American actors on Facebook.
His film Seoul Searching is a response to the infamously racist depiction of Asian American men in the classic John Hughes film, Sixteen Candles, reports WBAA.
In it, the character Long Duk Dong is a sexless, nerdy and inept character played with a thick accent designed to get juvenile laughs. “No more yanky my wanky,” he said.
Lee’s new film Seoul Searching will featured well rounded Asian American characters sent to summer camp in Seoul to find their Korean American identity.
“When I was young, it would have meant the world to me just to see a character that I could relate to,” Lee says, “because the danger of media is that when you’re confined to a stereotype, it invalidates you.”
You can see a video of Lee discussing his new film followed by two auditions on WBAA.