Lana Condor has discussed her views on Hollywood’s lack of Asian American representation.
In an interview with Who What Wear, X-Men: Apocalypse star Lana Condor discussed Hollywood’s poor representation of Asian Americans.
When asked about her journey into Hollywood, Condor said her ethnicity was a barrier. “As I kept auditioning and working in the industry, I started being more aware that there was a possibility certain projects didn’t hire me because of the way I looked,” the 21-year-old said. “I’ve never been more aware of my Asian-ness and female-ness than in the film industry.”
Condor, who identifies as Asian American, was born in Vietnam and was adopted by American white parents. She explained that others find it difficult to understand her ethnicity.“I’m 100% Asian, and I’m also 100% American. That’s something that I’m really trying to let people understand,” she said. “My Asian-American experience is different from someone else’s Asian-American experience, and that’s okay.”
“There are moments when I feel that people don’t think that I’m Asian enough because I was adopted by an American family. To me, that’s so silly!”
In an interview with Teen Vogue, Condor criticised Hollywood for not representing Asian Americans enough.
“My best guess is that Hollywood felt that they could get away with it,” she said.“That they could cast the funny Asian to be, say, comedic relief, as a supporter. Or cast the smart Asian as a supporting lead. And that was enough.”
“I could get into this, but there’s this whole Hollywood casting white people and kind of trying to “turn them” Asian because, they thought they could get away with it. Now they can’t because our generation is very direct and more people are standing up for representation. I do see a change in Hollywood. I see a shift.”
In other news, Asian Americans were seen dressing up as Condor’s character from the Netflix hit To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before for Halloween.
