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Interesting. Not in the business at all - but I wonder sometimes if marketers/etc. are underestimating white people. Maybe it is not "racist and ignorant white people" but moreso short-sighted studio execs.. Case in point - DragonballZ was EXTREMELY popular here in the US. The white kids didn't seem to care that the main characters were Asian. In that sense it seemed very racist/ignorant to me for some Hollywood execs to decide that white people were too racist to accept an actual Asian actor to play a very popular Asian character that was commonly known to have originated from Asia. Very strange and stupid to me. As far as "21" goes - it is a bit different. But I don't really care since I knew Jeff Ma (tried to date my cousin) and he was an *******.
Yea that's how Bruce Lee got his thunder and ideas stolen by David Carradine. Anyway the demographics of America is now changing. Just look at the elections.
"Eat Drink Man Woman" is a Taiwanese movie and is entirely in Mandarin. And seriously, "Big Trouble in Little China"? Don't forget to add "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as well.
Being Asian (Chinese) myself and born in SF, I appreciate the thoughts. I agree that Asian actors are not necessarily discriminated against. BUT, as the Asian marketing person said later, Asians are not seen as "big marketing draws", especially in the movie, TV and/or music industries. It's a bit of a catch 22 if you think about it. The reason WHY these Asian-American films exist is to give Asians more outlets than some of the bitty roles they get in bigger films. Asians also feel that IF they were given a chance, they could have actors than draw as well as other folks. OTOH, Hollywood wants someone to prove they can earn money. Case in point? John Cho and Kal Penn. They starred in the first Harold and Kumar. It didn't earn a ton of money but was enough to have two sequels. It is good Cho is one of the best know Asian faces in Hollywood. OTOH, Cho has been the lead of a few films, a failed show and now just a supporting character in Star Trek. Side note on the listed Asian-American films. It tells you how tough it is when some of the films are fairly OLD. I saw Dim Sum when I was a kid. Better Luck Tomorrow is lauded as a breakthrough Asian-American film and yet it didn't earn a ton of money. Some films that I've seen that were not in the list: West 32nd (John Cho, Grace Park) ; Korean/Korean American Drama Undoing (Sung Kang) The Motel (Sung Kang) American Fusion (Taiwanese Actress Sylvia Chang in an English role)
Jeremy is all set for Sunday's viewing: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Pooooppppccccoooorrrrnnn...hahaha that floor was sooo nasty but i had to do it @<a href="https://twitter.com/stephencurry30">stephencurry30</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23onlyinNOLA">#onlyinNOLA</a> <a href="http://t.co/RthZWVrv" title="http://twitter.com/JLin7/status/295018403175989249/photo/1">twitter.com/JLin7/status/2…</a></p>— Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) <a href="https://twitter.com/JLin7/status/295018403175989249">January 26, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It definitely is old studio execs being stuck in their ways. I feel the younger generation (like the guys that wrote the Harold & Kumar series) have no issues with it. As for 21, the key point of who they recruited was based on something they discovered through trial and error: that casinos would be really suspicious of a young white guy who bet a lot and would pay attention to him more. They found that the casino security would often ignore young Asian or Arab men who carried a lot of money and bet a lot. So the race of the gambler was a key part of their plan.
He's only being nice because you're female. He actually doesn't like Lin very much, thinks Lin is ugly, and doesn't like Asians that support Lin. Not to mention he's a stalker.
Funny thing is, many Asians didn't support Lin until Linsanity. A lot of them actually thought he wouldn't make it in the NBA. So to support Lin and ignore racism is wrong, because racism is part of the reason why Lin was held back. (I have no opinion on coaching decisions on the Rockets though) Part of the documentary has Lin commenting on racism, so it's relevant to this discussion.
Well there are racist and non-racist white people obviously. If only 5% of the white population refused to watch any movie with an Asian lead role, that would be enough for executives to make a financial decision (without regard for morals) to cast a white lead character. My argument is that executives shouldn't cater to racist people, in the same way that restaurants can't be whites-only. There should be affirmative action in the media industry, because the casting process isn't entirely based on talent - but highly subject to prejudices and stereotypes. Now if Asian people who account for roughly 5% of the viewing public, were to stop watching movies with white male leads, and only watch movies with Asian actors, then executives would have to consider the financial benefits of hiring an Asian actor. It can be as simple as paying for a ticket to the theater when it stars an Asian lead, while downloading the rest of the movies when it doesn't.
It takes one to know one? Seriously, when will I have the ability to view old posts? I can't even see my own.
Honesty I have never read such bull**** in my life. (ok, not true but close enough) This coming from a Caucasian Italian male who grew up loving Asian culture&media in a time when that made me the subject of many jokes. Then I spent quite some time living in various Asian countries and now I am living in a SEA country, with my wife being Asian. And of course racism and stereotypes exist both ways (just ask my wife parents before they got to know me properly what they thought about their daughter marrying a white foreigner) but to say that the general public of a certain country is racist cause they like watching a certain kind of movie lead actors just make my brain go "waaaa"...
