"There aren't Asian actors to play that role!!!" John Cho, Steven Yeun, Leonardo Nam, Godfrey Gao, Kenneth Choi, Sung Kan, Daniel Dae Kim, Bd Wong. And I'm just naming EAST ASIANS I KNOW OF. There are more and not just from East Asia. The people are just lazy when it comes to casting non white people. (and John Cho always makes me smile when I see his name in the credits).
“But there are no Asian stars!” Yeah, because all the actors who have the name recognition to carry films were stars from the day they were born, right? It’s not like anyone ever took a chance on relatively unknown actors who turned out big, like say, Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, right?
The excuse that there are no Asian stars in the Western world is self-perpetuating because if they’re not given a chance then they’ll never get to be stars. And all the people you mentioned have proven themselves over and over, working their asses off and building careers in an industry where they are given so few opportunities. There are actually SO MANY talented Asian actors for any given role, the standard Hollywood excuse is simply laughable at this point.
It’s like people think because their high school drama class was all white so they had to brownface West Side Story there’s a real world shortage of actors of color.
Also, it’s not like you have to look all that hard for actors of color who would be happy to take a part. Lin Manuel Miranda had a blowout response when he put out the casting call for actors of color for Hamilton. San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London are literally some of the most diverse cities in the world. I guarantee you can find an actor of pretty much any race, ethnicity, or nationality in any of those cities who is talented and would love a chance to work. If you can’t, its because you’re not looking. And that’s on you.
