Everything Everywhere All at Once star James Hong has expressed his disappointment in the lack of Asian American representation onscreen.
Speaking to People, the 95-year-old actor reflected on how he started working onscreen in the 1950s when Asian actors were reduced to “cliché roles like the villain.”
“It’s always on my mind, on my soul,” Hong said. “My first movie was Soldier of Fortune where I was a Communist soldier, and those were the only roles in those days for actors like myself.”
The Chinese American actor who stars in Kung Fu Panda 4, recalls how he accepted roles despite being cast as stereotypes. “I didn’t care. I just wanted to exercise my craft,” he said.
“Looking back, it was meant to be,” he continued. “I garnered all these hundreds of roles because, in a way, Hollywood was waiting for me. I came out here to California and boom! Right away, it just stuck… It was the right person being in the right place at the right time.”
In 2020, Hong was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame. Receiving the honour, Hong joked that it was “about time” that he received the award. “You know I am 91 and it’s about time because if you wait too much longer who knows what will happen but I’m still very active,” Hong said at the time.
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But it wasn’t until Everything Everywhere All At Once that he felt his career had really turned a corner. “All of a sudden, on the 70th year, things began to pop in place!” says Hong,
“We’ve come a long way,” he said of Asian American actors. “Now we’ve got people who are winning awards, Oscars and recognition… I’m so glad we’re being recognized.”
However, he still remains disappointed at the lack of roles available for the demographic. “I still think the percentage of Asian American actors being hired to be in the movies is awfully low,” Hong said.
Those following in his footsteps “are not getting their fair share of roles. A lot of my colleagues who are fairly good actors and actresses have to sometimes even quit or take on a side job. That’s terrible, you know?”
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He thereby encourages Asian Americans to be more vocal about their stance. “America is where you have to fight for your rights, you have to speak,” Hong said. “Asian American actors as a whole are still in the silent minority bracket. They come from a culture where they say, like my father and mother and grandparents, ‘Don’t say anything that’s going to get people all excited.’”
“That has been taught to many, many generations of Asian Americans, of Asians, period, and handed down to me in Minneapolis, where I was born,” he adds. “So I have to tell my colleagues, ‘You have to be vocal, you have to say something. You’ve got to have fair representation in this business and we’re not getting the jobs that we should be getting.’ Nobody’s going to just come out and give you a job. You have to fight for it.”
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Whilst Hong has confidence progress will continue, he expects it to be slow. “There has to be a lot more progress as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I won’t be around to see it all, but I’m sure it will be on its way.”
