Masculinity Representation of Asian Men in Hollywood Comedy Since 2000s

Asian-American men in Hollywood comedy

In Hollywood cinema, there are very limited casting opportunities for Asian actors. People rarely see Asian actors on TV dramas or movies. The Hollywood romantic comedy movie Crazy Rich Asians (2018) was the first movie with an all-Asian cast and an Asian-American main role in 25 years. In other recent Hollywood comedic movies, Asian actors, or Asian-American actors are often cast as supporting characters or backing characters. In other words, they might be cast as one of the characters that appears every episode in a TV series, but they are rarely the main roles. The main role usually refers to the actor who plays the largest role in the piece, and there can be only one main role. The leading roles are actors who appear on almost every episode of the show, this includes the main role. While Asian actors, such as Raj Koothrappali in The Big Bang Theory, can take on leading roles, their appearances in Hollywood comedic TV dramas or movies are often stereotypical. Their characters are usually shorter than actors of other races, less muscular, more feminine, and they are portrayed as less attractive overall.

Hollywood comedic movies before 2000s

In the late 1990s, there were only a few Asian actors who made it into Hollywood. Jackie Chan was able to get cast as the main role and lead role in the Hollywood comedy industry in the late 1990s. The movie Rush Hour (1998) grossed over $140 million in the US and $103 million in the rest of the world, for a total worldwide gross over $244 million. The Shanghai series (2000-2003) grossed $117 million in North America. Between 1985 and 1989, ten of his films earned a total of nearly $200 million worldwide. As of 2019, his films have grossed $1.84 billion in the United States and Canada. His debut in Hollywood was the movie Rush Hour (1998) with Chris Tucker, both of them were the lead roles of the film. Jackie Chan was already famous in Hong Kong with his unique combination of the two genres of comedy and action. He was able to successfully promote this combined genre of "Action comedy" in Hollywood. In Jackie Chan's movies, he rarely had to act feminine. Most of his appearances are muscular and full of masculinity. Although his physical size is still smaller in comparison to other non-Asian actors, his masculinity in his films was never doubted by the audience, because his films are mainly action films that required him to display his strength to the audience. He also did not need to fake any accents, he was speaking English with his own Chinese accent. Compared to comedy films in the current century, Jackie Chan was the only actor that did not have to follow the stereotype of Asian men in the comedy industry of Hollywood. He was never assigned a different ethnic race in his comedic films. The only time he was assigned a Vietnamese ethnicity was in the movie The Foreigner (2017), which was an action thriller film, not a comedy film.

Casting Asian-American actors

Although the “Screen Actors Guild rules and guidelines on discrimination” prohibit casting directors from asking actors what their ethnicity is, they can still pick actors based on their appearance and not ask about their ethnicity. This could be unfair and frustrating to actors who have the same ethnicity of their desired characters, but fail to get cast because they physically do not look like that specific race. Elaine Del Valle, a casting director and former actress shares her experience when she was getting cast and casting people, she shares that, “If they say to me, ‘Hire a Latina,’ I know Latinas that have blonde hair and blue eyes with terrific Spanish, but that’s not the one that they want to hire or sometimes they do depending on what they’re looking for.”Thus, actors of the Monogenoid race are cast only for their looks, rather than their true ethnicity backgrounds.

Sexuality of Asian actors in Hollywood Comedy

Asian men are often portrayed as undesirable, unattractive, virgins in American culture. Furthermore, they are often described as feminine by the film writers.

Leslie Chow in The Hangover (film series 2009-2013)

The character Leslie Chow is a fictional character from series The Hangover, played by the Korean-American actor Ken Jeong, who has a Korean background. This character often shows up naked and joking about the size of his genitals. In the first film, Leslie says "Oh, okay. I'll take him back. Um, right after you suck on these little Chinese nuts?"

Ken Jeong had to fake a Chinese accent to play this character, though there was no sufficient evidence that claimed that this character needs to be Chinese. In addition, Ken Jeong had to speak with a higher pitch for this character. This made Leslie’s sexuality appear questionable to the audience, as people often mistakingly believe that gay people talk in a higher pitch. Although studies have found that sound pitch has little relationship with sexuality, it is a common gay stereotypical misbelief. Leslie also wears women’s shoes, as confirmed in the first film, being a women’s size 6, which suggests that this character is short and feminine, aligned with the Asian stereotype shared by many people, including the people in the industry.

Han Lee in 2 Broke Girls (TV series 2011-2017)

Han Lee is the owner of the diner and the boss of the lead characters, Max Black and Caroline Channing in the TV series 2 Broke Girls. He is often made fun of his height, sexuality and accent. Han is portrayed as a Korean, even though his actor Matthew Moy is Chinese-American.

Quotes from Han Lee

The following conversation between Max, Caroline and Han in season 3 episode 3 suggests that Han is unattractive and never interacted with women before. They also make fun of his short height.

Caroline Channing: Hey Han, do you want a cat?

Max Black: You can finally have a friend your own size. C'mon you can ride it to work.

Max Black: [Max starts spanking Han] Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty.

Han Lee: Hmm, well, I can't have a cat, I work all the time. Why did I like that so much?

Max Black: I dunno, something with boobs was touching you?

Han Lee: People with boobs touch me.

Caroline Channing: She means aside from your mom.

In season 2 episode 20, Max and Caroline make fun of his sexuality by implying that he looks like a female, and comparing him with a cat again.

Han Lee: I’ve made a big decision!

Max Black: You’re having a sex change? I totally support you, but be careful, Han, female-to-male is very tricky!

Han Lee: Well, you would know!

Caroline Channing: Meow! He must’ve already started on the hormones!

The roles of Asian characters in Hollywood films

Many Asian fictional characters are created to support the main leads in the films. They have to be Asian for mainly two reasons. The first is that their race combined with the traits associated with the stereotypes can help to shape their characters better. For example, Raj Koothrappali's selective mutism in The Big Bang Theory explains his shy personality and lack of confidence, and makes it surprising for audiences when he finally overcomes this condition in the finale of season 6 of The Big Bang Theory. Thus, his character is dynamic and more believable to the audience. Secondly, it creates opportunities for jokes to be made on races for comedic purposes. In 2 Broke Girls, most of the dialogues consist sex jokes or racism jokes for comedic purposes. Since it is a entertainment show and a comedy, comedic elements make up most of the plot. Thus, jokes are needed for the story. People seem to accept racism jokes when actors or characters make fun of themselves or when they are not offended by the jokes (although shows like 2 Broke Girls have still received lots of judgements about them being inappropriate), for example, Han Lee rarely gets mad when he is being made fun of, and Leslie Chow teases himself in the films.

Perspectives from the industry

Even though casting Caucasian actors for Asian characters would likely offend audiences and lower box office sales, casting directors and screenwriters still sometimes prefer to cast Caucasian actors in lead roles, even when the original script is written for an Asian character. Most Hollywood casting directors are unbothered by the unpleasant opinions from the audience for such casting decisions, as they say, “It’s not about race … the only color they see is green: The reason Asian-American actors are not cast to front these films is because not any of them have a box office track record.”Thus, Asian actors in America have less opportunities to get cast in films or TV dramas. Some of them choose to participate in comedy to gain popularity. Constance Wu debuted her acting career from the TV comedic series Fresh Off the Boat (2015-2020). After gaining popularity with the success of this series, she was cast as the female main lead of the romantic comedy movie Crazy Rich Asians (2018).