SEEN AND UNSEEN: ASIAN AMERICAN ACTORS AND REPRESENTATION IN HOLLYWOOD

Abstract

Of the top 200 grossing films of 2019, only five featured Asian American lead actors. Meanwhile, Asian Americans account for almost 6% of the US population. What does this lack of representation mean for Asian American actors vying for roles in Hollywood? Through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty Asian American actors, this paper examines how Asian American actors talk about the barriers and challenges they face in Hollywood. A pervasive rhetoric of colorblind racism facilitates the continual objectification of Asian American actors under the pretense of equal opportunity. Moreover, this colorblind rhetoric masks the invisible cultural authenticity work that Asian American actors must provide on set. I find that visual diversity is not always a reliable metric to assess progress. Ultimately, this study explores the causes of under- and misrepresentations to gesture towards a new reparative framework of cultural choreography that centers the actors and communities that have been harmed.