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New Opportunities for Asian Actors in Hollywood Doesn’t Include Asian Americans

Rila FukushimaA story in Yahoo sets up a seeming contradiction.

The majority of roles for actors from Asia in Hollywood have gone to men. Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li, and Ken Watanabe are some of the big name from Asia that have starred in movies produced by Hollywood studios.

For Asian American actors, the exact opposite is true. Most of the major roles casting Asian American actors seem to go to women. Lucy Liu, Jamie Chung, and Vanessa Hudgens  are just a few.

But with the growing middle class in Asia and greater interest in American movies there, Hollywood studios are trying to cash in on that market by casting more actresses from Asia.

According to Yahoo, Japanese model Tao Okamoto plays the love interest t in “Wolverines”  and Rila Fukushima (pictured left) plays an assassin. Rinko Kikuchi is in “Pacific Rim” and French-Cambodian Elodie Yung is in “GI Joe: Retaliation.”

Overall, roles for Asian & Pacific Islanders are still few and far between. They were cast in just 3.8 percent of all TV & theatrical roles.

Will the bulging movie market in Asia lead to more opportunity for Asian American actors–men or women? So far the answer is no.

“It’s changed in Hollywood, but only so much,” said Masi Oka of “Heroes” and “Hawaii Five-O.”  “You can’t get Asians cast in leads yet. Maybe as a second lead, but the lead is still going to be Caucasian or African American. But Hollywood is fickle: It follows trends. If a show or a film did well with an Asian lead, then it would take off.”

Read the article in Yahoo and sound off on this issue below. How optimistic are you that more Asian Americans will be cast by Hollywood producers?

 

 

 

 

 

2 COMMENTS

  1. From Darren Chee Loong Lo via Facebook RE: Asian American actors not getting opportunities given to actors from Asia:[“It’s changed in Hollywood, but only so much,” said Masi Oka of “Heroes” and “Hawaii Five-O.” “You can’t get Asians cast in leads yet. Maybe as a second lead, but the lead is still going to be Caucasian or African American. But Hollywood is fickle: It follows trends. If a show or a film did well with an Asian lead, then it would take off.”]

    "If a show or a film did well with an Asian lead, then it would take off" – Rubbish! Asians or not, a good film is a good film. It's just Hollywood's cruel mentality to debilitate Asians!

  2. From Leo Tsang via Facebook RE: Asian American actors not getting opportunities given to actors from Asia: Hollywood is business. It runs of efficiency and ROI and not be moral standards. It has nothing to do with racism. Nobody in Asia knows Asian Americans actors/actresses. Everybody in Asia knows Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, and Jet Li, hence a larger box office.

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