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S-Words Podcast: special interview with Johnny Yong Bosch
There was nice bit of perspective on Asian-American actors in the S-Words Podcast interview with actor and martial artist Johnny Yong Bosch, best known for playing the Black Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He also does quite a bit of voice acting, including the main character Ichigo in the American dub of the Bleach anime, and he also did the motion capture and voice for the character of Nero in the Devil May Cry 4 video game. (You can download the episode from the iTunes feed, or directly here at the website.)
I started listening to S-Words because it's co-hosted by Dom Nguyen, of Megatokyo fame--he is the real-life alter ego of the character Dom in that webcomic, and he occasionally draws guest strips when author/artist Fred Gallagher is sick, busy, or otherwise occupied. It's one of my favorite webcomics, so when he mentioned his new podcast in one of his Megatokyo rants, I started subscribing. (It's sort of a fun and silly concept, in which he and his friends discuss subjects starting with the letter "S"--such as Superbowl, Street Fighter, etc.)
They spend most of the interview talking about Johnny's work in Devil May Cry 4, and a bit about his voice-acting work in Bleach, but about 25 minutes or so into the interview, they ask him about the difficulties of being an Asian-American actor in Hollywood, citing the recent Avatar movie casting controversy. He said it is difficult, that he doesn't want to be stuck playing a waiter or a dishwasher; he'd like to play something a little more important, but it's extremely rare for the main character of a TV show to be written as Asian--the only exception they could think of offhand was Martial Law, which starred martial artist Sammo Hung. Someone mentioned "Heroes," but Johnny pointed out that the show is actually an ensemble cast, which is usually where you will find an Asian character if there is one. He added that most of the big Asian movie stars that are known in the U.S., like Jet Li and Jackie Chan, are not American. He said that most of the times that he's gotten a role have been when a writer or director is familiar with him, and decided to write a part for him, mainly independent stuff. He thinks that public is ready to accept Asian actors as leads, but Hollywood isn't ready to take a chance on them yet. Basically, he said in a polite way that things are better than they were before, but it can still be kind of frustrating for Asian-American actors.
Now, I have to admit, I never watched dubbed anime, because I prefer hearing it in the original Japanese with subtitles, and I never really watched Power Rangers, because I grew up watching a few of those types of old sentai (Japanese superhero) shows, and I hated the whole concept of "we will cut out the footage of the Japanese actors and replace them with American actors, but keep the costumed action scenes". But Johnny was very charming, funny, and engaging, and I really enjoyed the interview even though I don't really play video games or watch Power Rangers.
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As an Asian-American (I'm 1/2 Korean), I'm outraged, and I think the Asian community should make as big a stink about this as the African-American community has about the use of African-American actors on network TV in recent years. The Asian guy (and it's always a guy, not a woman, with the exception of Margaret Cho's ill-fated sitcom) is always a sidekick, never the main character. And why can't characters happen to be Asian, as has become true for some characters of other ethnicities, and not fit into some neat Asian stereotype (Archie the audio/video tech guy on CSI, etc.)?
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There are a few good "just happen to be Asian" roles like Angela in Bones, Liz Warner in NUMB3RS, and Cho in The Mentalist, but they're all supporting characters. I'd really love to finally see an Asian-American lead in a TV show. Judging by the popularity of Masi Oka on Heroes, or Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim in Lost, I think that audiences are more than ready to accept Asian American stars, but Hollywood seems to advance at a snail's pace in this kind of casting.
Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir here! ^_^ At least the issue did provide some fanfic fodder for what Kikuchi's US acting career might have been like in my Haru stories.
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I was never sure if the actresses playing Angela on Bones or Liz on NUMB3RS were part-Asian or not. They haven't made it relevant to the roles but I think that's as much because the actresses are of indeterminate nationality (like Mariah Carey, for example) as anything. And "Montenegro" could be Filippino - the Philippines was colonized by Spain and natives given Spanish names.
Another example of a less stereotyped portrayal is Dr. George Hwang, the consulting psychiatrist and profiler on Law & Order: SVU. Yes, he's a professional, but his ethnicity is otherwise irrelevant to the character. Also, the actor who plays him (B.D. Wong, if I remember correctly) is out-of-the-closet gay, although they don't peg the character's sexuality one way or the other.
And Daniel Dae Kim worked many, many supporting roles before he landed on Lost. I remember him from his days on Angel as a Wolfram & Hart attorney dedicated to annoying Angel via reporting zoning violations. He was a social worker on ER for awhile. He may have had other supporting roles as well.
Anyway, this is one of my pet peeves!