Can you name an Asian actor that has won an Emmy or Oscars award?
If you had trouble naming an actor, well, you are not alone. So far there has been one Asian actor who won an Emmy and that is Archie Panjabi, who won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress during her role as Kalinda Sharma on CBS’s The Good Wife. As for winning an Oscar, there has been 3 Asian actors to win this award. That makes only 4 actors to ever win either a film or television award. Only FOUR. If you are currently thinking to yourself, “Well, there should be more Asian actors to win awards”, you are not alone. Asians should be put in the spotlight more. Throughout Hollywood and media, there has been a shortage in Asian representation. Why? Could there be a more complicated reasoning for this issue? Continue to read this blog to learn more about what are the possible reason/s for this concern.
So, why do I care about this?
The reason this topic sparked my interest now would be because, as an Asian American who is interested in acting and theater, I would like to learn about the struggles these actors are facing. Additionally, I did not notice that most Asian American actors and actresses have not won any huge acting awards. However, Asian American actors are mostly lead roles from indie films or romance movies, but that could be very limiting, stereotypical, and even racist because directors and the casting crew may tell Asian actors speak in heavy Asian accents, dress in Asian cultural clothing and even have their makeup done in a way to emphasize their physical appearance, such as making their eyes smaller and wearing wigs that are jet black colored. This means the lead role in western films, and shows are unlikely to be given to an Asian American just by physical appearance alone.
I am minoring in Theater Arts, and it became apparent to me that even in my acting classes, the characters from the plays we use were all caucasian or rarely, African American. This leads me to think that perhaps complex themes such as racism, sexism, discrimination, and stereotyping can be leading factors to why there is not more Asian representation.
Where are the Asian actors?
You have most likely heard of the word “blackface” but how about “yellowface”? According to Wikipedia, “It used to be the norm in Hollywood that Asian characters were played by white actors, often using makeup to approximate East Asian facial characteristics, a practice known as yellowface.”
A good example of this is Mr. Yunioshi, who is played by Mickey Rooney, in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Mickey Rooney was not Japanese but he played the role of a Japanese man who’s features were argued as being extremely racist because the character was portrayed as a buck toothed man with a loud, thick Asian accent. My question is, “why not just hire Asian actors to play the roles of Asian characters?” After researching about Asian representation in media and Hollywood, I found an article which went into detail about how there is an “ideal” look for Asian actors when it comes to playing as Asian characters. Thessaly La Force, writer of “Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television?”, states that, “Representation of Asians within American performing arts has always been alarmingly small. A recent study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism showed Asian-Americans representing only 1 percent of all leading roles in Hollywood (the 2017 United States Census Bureau reported that there are 18 million Americans of Asian descent, or roughly 6 percent of the population).” This quote from Thessaly, which was published in the New York Times, is a clear reality check that there is an incredibly small amount of people with Asian descent being given the lead roles in performing arts in western entertainment. Although there are 18 million Americans with Asian blood in them, the statistics given that only one percent of Asian Americans star in lead roles shows the lack of representation given to this amount of people in the United States population.
Additionally, Thessaly claims that, “Yet elsewhere in the arts, Asian-Americans have flourished: as poets, writers, directors, photographers, fashion designers, architects, interior decorators and visual artists.” These quotes definitely is a stab in the chest for me, personally, because not only will I have to make myself visible as an actor in a racially oppressive entertainment industry but to know that Asians are gaining fame by having to not show their face and essentially keep themselves in the shadows, does not make me feel a whole lot better. Although writers, and visual artists can get well known by getting themselves published and showing their work, it is still a difficult task for Asian Americans to get roles that are not stereotypical to their race, because they cannot hide the fact that they are born with a face that looks Asian. It really makes me wonder if Hollywood and media really wants Asians to remain invisible and to stay out of the spotlight.
What are Asian actors’ perspective on this?
CreditCreditMark Von Holden/Invision)
When it comes to the emotions towards how Hollywood demonstrates Asian representation, James Saito’s emotion is neutral yet cautious. I came across an article, What One Actor’s Career Tells Us About Asian Representation in Hollywood by Jill Cowan, which explained how one Japanese-American actor was not admired by other Asians and his role as an actor mainly fulfilled the roles for stereotypical Asian characters. The name of this Japanese-American actor is James Saito, and if you have heard his name surfacing around this past year, you have probably watched or heard of the movie “Always Be My Maybe”. Mr. Saito was interviewed about his acting character as an Asian American. The interviewer asked, “I’m guessing the kinds of parts you were going out for in the beginning were written specifically for Asian men, and you may have been asked to do an accent or play to a stereotype. How did you feel about roles like that?” In which Mr. Saito responded, “As long as it wasn’t offensive, I figured, well, there are people who speak with accents, so if that’s what I have to play… But if it was a clear caricature and a joke, because the person spoke so poorly, then that was offensive.”
With that being said, Mr. Saito who has been a professional actor for the past 44 years gives a reality check to people about the importance of remembering what is the line that needs to be drawn from playing as a character to stereotyping a whole ethnicity or race.
Is there more about this issue?
Stay tuned to read more about the complexity of Asian representation in media and Hollywood.
Work Cited
Cowan, Jill. “What One Actor’s Career Tells Us About Asian Representation in Hollywood.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 July 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/us/james-saito-asian-representation-hollywood.html.
Force, Thessaly La. “Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/t-magazine/asian-american-actors-representation.html.
Rey, Val. “Racism and Anti-Japanese Imperialist Propaganda in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.” Medium, Medium, 12 Nov. 2017, https://medium.com/@valerie.reynoso/racism-and-anti-japanese-imperialist-propaganda-in-breakfast-at-tiffanys-84735f426fb5.
