"u coulda nominated the brilliant #HongChau!"
Asian actors were not represented in this year’s Oscars and Constance Wu has a thing or two to say about it.
Announced on Tuesday morning, this year’s Oscar nominations were touted as “diverse” according to the Huffington Post. Indeed, many black actors received recognition, but no Asian or Latino actors were represented.
Although Constance Wu praised Lady Bird and Get Out for their nominations, the Fresh Off The Boat star Tweeted that Asian actress Hong Chau deserved a nomination too.
“Oh #oscars I am SO happy for @LadyBirdMovie and @GetOutMovie but u coulda nominated the brilliant #HongChau! How many Asian Americans have been nominated for Acting in the past decade??? Zero? I think it’s zero. And Chau was wondeful!!! Like……..???” Wu Tweeted.
Historically, Asian actors have only earned 1% of all Oscar acting nods. Meanwhile white actors including Luise Rainer, who played Chinese farmer O-Lan in The Good Earth, have been nominated for playing characters of colour.
Whats more, the majority of the top 100 films in 2016 did not feature any Asian characters. Of 900 high grossing films, only two were directed by Asian women.
Oh #oscars I am SO happy for @LadyBirdMovie and @GetOutMovie but u coulda nominated the brilliant #HongChau! How many Asian Americans have been nominated for Acting in the past decade??? Zero? I think it’s zero. And Chau was wondeful!!! Like……..???
— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) January 23, 2018
OK, fine, but next year can we put Hong Chau in a *good* movie because she is amazing and Asians should get Oscar nominations, too pic.twitter.com/vbFvwREnzc
— Ryan Aguirre (@aguirreryan) January 23, 2018
Most recently, Wu revealed that Hollywood initially wanted to whitewash her character in upcoming film Crazy Rich Asians, which has an all Asian cast.