If you are black and named Will Ferrell, no movie. If you are white and named Will Ferrell, the checks can't come fast enough. What happens when you take the word "black" and replace it with "Asian"? You will find the results are about the same, especially if you are an Asian male.
The often unspoken discrimination of the culture in Hollywood is the subject of Jeff Adachi's The Slanted Screen, which is set to air on PBS on May 10 and is narrated by Daniel Dae Kim of Lost fame. The interviews cover both past and present generations of Asian men in and behind the scenes in film, with such notables as Mako (The Sand Pebbles) who died after giving his last on-screen interview here, James Shigeta (The Crimson Kimono), and Bobby Lee (MAD TV), as well as Justin Lin (director of The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift). I personally enjoyed watching it given that we've recently had a revival of the discussion of race (thank you, Don Imus).
Being something of a film fanatic, it's a shame that I didn't know that Asian men were in silent film. Sessue Hayakawa (The Bridge On The River Kwai) was originally a popular silent film actor who was considered, at least according to Mako, to be a bigger sex symbol than his white counterpart, Rudolph Valentino. He often played villains, but got just as many chances to play romantic characters. Unfortunately he would be one of the few in the silent era of film to achieve such a task. After his tenure, many Asian males were left to the same sort of stereotypical roles that African-American men were given. To make matters even more ironic, white actors in makeup often played characters that were supposed to be Asian.
There would be small patches of a Renaissance here and there in the Golden Age of cinema. James Shigeta would attempt the role of the romantic lead that Hayakawa did in his silent days with The Crimson Kimono, which would find him like the former to be involved in a relationship with a white woman. He would continue this trend of being a lead with Flower Drum Song, which would be the first musical to feature an all Asian-American cast. And then of course there's Mako, who would earn a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles (which starred Steve McQueen).
This trend would die down in the mid-'60s as Asian men were put once again back in the corner with series such as Star Trek (which featured George Takei), The Green Hornet (which starred a young Bruce Lee as Kato) and Hawaii Five-O. Asian men as heroes wouldn't come into the foray until the likes of Bruce Lee came around with such films as The Chinese Connection and the film that would make him a legend, Enter The Dragon. But with that emergence of a hero such as Lee, another stereotype was born: the marital arts expert.
Article comments
1 - Ian Woolstencroft
Nice review, sounds like an interesting documentary.
I find your opening comment about Will Ferrell a little bizarre though. It's not like there aren't any black actors who make big money in Hollywood, what about Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock and particularly Chris Tucker ($25n for Rush Hour 3, a lot more than Jackie Chan's getting). And that's just the comedy actors.
I've always thought that the romance in Romeo Must Die didn't work due to age rather that race, Li was 37 and Aaliyah only 20. The fact that the film was crap didn't help either.
2 - Matthew Milam
But just as with black men, only a few Asians have ever risen to stardom. The point I'm making is that Hollywood will give a chance to a white man over a black man because they are much more sellable, not to mention the stereotyped ideas they have of us. Asian males do seem to have it worse because they are always seen as great intellecutals, but not great lovers or dramatic people.
I do agree with some of the interviewers that it's gonna take a combination of quality scripts from their culture, as well as Asian men in power in hollywood to make the right choices.
3 - Ian Woolstencroft
But surely it's a question of proportion? Over 80% of the US population is White, only about 13% Black and less than 5% Asian. If you look at the current top ten films at the US box office 2 star Black actors (assuming you count Halle Berry as Black)and 1 features an Asian actor in a leading role. That sounds about right to me.
4 - Matthew Milam
But you notice it's always the same people? That's because there's very few of them that manage to break the barrier. The percentile stuff doesn't matter much to me because that still doesn't explain the lack of Asian and Black film roles.
5 - Ray Ellis
I guess my question is, why would you, in your right mind, want a Black version of Will Farrell in the first place?
6 - Ian Woolstencroft
But surely there should only be an equal number of Asian and Black film roles as there is percentage of the population?
Picking a week at random (2nd February) shows a higher percentage of Black leading roles than than there are Black people in the US in the top ten films.
Epic Movie - Asian actor and Black actress in leading roles
Night at the Museum - Black actor in a supporting role
Smokin' Aces - 2 Black actresses in starring roles and 2 Black actors in prominent supporting roles
Stomp the Yard - A Black actor or actress in every major role
Dreamgirls - As above
The Pursuit of Happyness - Black actors in the 3 leading roles.
Now that may have been an unusual week but my point is, I really don't think there is a problem with roles for Black actors in cinema anymore (although there certainly used to be). Asian actors however do have some ground to make up.
The other question is - what's the breakdown by race of people in the acting profession? Asian's may account for a little over 4% of the total US population but how high a percentage of actors are Asian? My guess would be much lower than 4% and if the actors aren't there you can't expect them to get the parts.
7 - Phillip Winn
I'm sure a long list of failed actors would tell you that there are only a few -- relatively speaking -- white lead actors, too. I haven't done the math, so I don't know if the proportions truly hold out over the long term, but generally I would expect to see mostly white actors, then black actors, then latino actors, then asian actors, and so on, if the roles are expected to match the racial makeup of the U.S.
Of course, a strict adherence to quotas is silly, too, but I think it's funny to hear people complaining about the lack of asian representation in films, given the recent spate of martial-arts films; more, I think, than the box-office earnings would suggest.
8 - TV and Film Guy
Congratulations! This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States.
9 - Wang
Phillip Winn I think you're a funny guy, of course being white with white priviledge I'm sure you are going to tell me that there are no such thing as white priviledge and that everyone in America is treated fairly and equally too right? Let me ask you something, how often in hollywood have u seen white men taking on roles that belonged to other race of men? I'll give you a few examples of how hollywood glorifies the white man, last samurai, the mexican, shanghai noon are just the few movies where white men are in main roles and ALWAYS end up with the girl. Of course i understand that in a country being ran by whites, I'm sure it's understandable, but this movie does bring up many good points of where asian roles are so limited, it's time to step up and let them know that we(asians) are more than just martial artists, we can play any roles any of your top actors can play , maybe even better...
10 - Ymmltyk
The whole argument that asian-american males don't get roles in the movies because they don't make up a large percentage of the population anyway is nonsense. If asian males aren't allowed roles in movies due to them making up less than 5% of the population, how is it that they're so conveniently selected when the role calls for an evil character? In Rush Hour, the majority of bad guys were asians. In Rush Hour 2, the majority of bad guys were asians. In Rush Hour 3 which was set in France, the majority of bad guys were asian. In Shanghai Knights, the majority of bad guys were asian despite it being the 1800s in England. In the Corruptor, the majority of bad guys were asian. In fact, in just about the majority of movies that has an asian male, the asian male is usually the bad guy, idiot, the gay guy, or some evil foreigner. According to Hollywood movies, it seems like asian males make up 60% of the population.
11 - When Asian Guy Gets The Girl
That's the reason I don't watch Hollywood movies anymore.
12 - Victor
I have seen a Hollywood movie in 7 years. I just find it ironic that I was watching a bunch of white people on TV, but in real life, I have very close white friends, some even were racist to me.