What we see onscreen, with Asian-American actors who are getting recognition, does not represent the demography of the U.S. and world. But what about Asian-American actors as a whole? Are there just fewer Asian-American actors than actors of other races or are many of them not getting cast?
Adam Moore, national director of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity for SAG-AFTRA, says the union does not have a statistically relevant sample size of its Asian-American membership, which means it has no numbers on the total pool of Asian-American actors.
“It’s a business where it’s not what you are, but what you can play; and historically, people have been hesitant to identify themselves in a way that could potentially limit the way in which they are viewed for job opportunities,” Moore says. “People are afraid to pigeonhole themselves further than they are already pigeonholed. We ask the question and continue to ask the question, but actors don’t like to talk about this.”
He explains that actors may identify with being able to play different roles, rather than identifying as a specific race. “It’s not who you are but what you could play.”
This is the case with actress Chhaya Néné, who is a graduate of University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She is newly SAG-registered, but did not disclose her race in the process. In general, she doesn’t like registering her race anywhere.
“I don’t think it is appropriate in a lot of instances, meaning I don’t think we ever know how registering that information is going to be used,” she says. “I certainly don’t want it to be used to fill a quota, so I tend not to answer that question in general.”
She does, however, list races that she can potentially play as an actress. This allows her to audition for characters of a variety of races so she can get more work than if she just listed her actual race, which is Indian-American. She auditions for Indian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Caucasian roles, among others.
“I think ethnicity transcends SAG,” she says. “In Hollywood, defining ethnicity is needed for roles. Actors need to define ethnicity to get work, but at the same time, some of the descriptions of ethnicity follow such stereotypes or are extremely degrading. Specifically to casting sites, I think that the industry needs to realize that women are more that sexual objects and ethnicities are more than ‘black, big booty twerkers’ and ‘nerdy Asian school girls.’”
Actress Diane Mizota registered her race through SAG-AFTRA but can see how others might be hesitant to do so.
“We don’t really know what those identifications are used for. If it were made clearer that it’s a tally of representation, great, but it’s never made clear to us what the meaning of identifying could be,” she says.
Mizota estimates that about 25 percent of the auditions for commercials involve roles that are specifically written as Asian. The others are casting a wide net, or are for “Ethnic Friend” type roles, but the leads in spots are predominantly white.
Actor Aaron Takahashi similarly disclosed his race to SAG-AFTRA, and continues to do so for auditions.
“I did it and I continue to do it because I don’t hide who I am. They’re going to immediately know that I am Asian as soon as I walk into the room, or as soon as they see my picture,” he says.
However, he auditions more for roles that are non-ethnic specific. He was cast as a recurring guest star on the short-lived TV show “Ben & Kate” as Shawn, the postman. It was not written specifically for an Asian-American character.
“With regards to the Asian roles that I do audition for, they are real, normal people who just happen to be Asian,” he explains. “The character that I played in the movie ‘The Wedding Ringer’ was written as Asian-American, but in all honesty, that character could’ve been any ethnicity.”
Actress Stella Choe also disclosed her race when registering for SAG-AFTRA and when she auditions. She doesn’t think this hurts her chances of getting cast in movies or shows.
“I think it’s important to try to keep a record and be able to track the percentage of representation of Asian-Americans within the entertainment community,” she says “While things have shifted and representation of Asians in entertainment and the media has improved, there is still a huge gap in terms of any minority group being equally represented in film and TV.”