{"id":53482,"date":"2017-04-13T21:29:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T21:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53482"},"modified":"2017-04-13T21:30:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T21:30:32","slug":"were-the-geeks-the-prostitutes-asian-american-actors-on-hollywoods-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53482","title":{"rendered":"‘We’re the geeks, the prostitutes’: Asian American actors on Hollywood’s barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘We’re the geeks, the prostitutes’: Asian American actors on Hollywood’s barriers<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\n2017-04-11<\/p>\n

Sam Levin<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nClockwise from top left: Scarlett Johansson<\/a> in Ghost in the Shell<\/em><\/a>; Pun Bandhu<\/a>; Matt Damon<\/a> in Great Wall<\/em><\/a>; Atsuko Okatsuka<\/a>. Composite: Alamy \/ Universal Pictures \/ Courtesy of Pun Bandhu \/ Courtesy of Atsuko Okatsuka<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Films like <\/em>Ghost in the Shell<\/a> have fueled debate over whitewashing, while roles are few for Asian Americans \u2013 and when they are wanted, it\u2019s often to play offensive stereotypes<\/em><\/p>\n

Pun Bandhu\u2019s<\/a> training at the prestigious Yale School of Drama<\/a> didn\u2019t help much with the skill he needed for so many auditions after graduation \u2013 the \u201cAsian accent\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Thai American actor \u2013 who has appeared in a wide range of TV shows and films over the last 15 years \u2013 said he was once told that an accent he used for a Thai character, modeled after his parents, was not working for an \u201cAmerican ear\u201d. Instead, the director went with a Chinese accent.<\/p>\n

While much of the recent debate around Asian representation in Hollywood<\/a> has centered on whitewashing \u2013 when white actors are cast to tell Asian stories \u2013 working actors said a lack of opportunity was only one part of the problem. Asian American actors said they rarely, if ever, got auditions for leading roles, and when they did get parts, they were frequently secondary to the plot or portrayed offensive tropes…<\/p>\n

…\u201cWe\u2019re so desperate for opportunities,\u201d said Kanoa Goo<\/a>, a mixed-race actor who is Chinese, Hawaiian and white. \u201cOften it\u2019s pretty one-dimensional. It\u2019s the tech computer analyst who doesn\u2019t have much to say. His role is really just in service of the leads.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Films like “Ghost in the Shell” have fueled debate over whitewashing, while roles are few for Asian Americans \u2013 and when they are wanted, it\u2019s often to play offensive stereotypes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,16,8413,8,20],"tags":[26847,26846,26845,24356,2103],"class_list":["post-53482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-asia","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-atsuko-okatsuka","tag-kanoa-goo","tag-pun-bandhu","tag-sam-levin","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53484,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53482\/revisions\/53484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}