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De Facto Racism in Hollywood
23-May-2007
Written by: Allison Zimmer
Chow Yun-Fat has difficulty getting leading roles as a Chinese actor
Chow Yun-Fat, who has famously appeared in "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," knows intimately the struggles of typecasting. The actor, who has been compared with Robert de Niro in terms of his acting range and his fame in Asia, would like to star in a film in Hollywood, but says he has trouble finding roles.
"Honestly, I prefer to do more dramas. In American society...Asian actors are not accepted as leading men," Chow lamented in an interview for the "Pirates" publicity tour last week. "Maybe we have to wait for a few more years."
While the director of "Pirates," Gore Verbinski, recognizes Chow's incredible skill, he noted that he decided to cast him only after the decision was made to set the film in Singapore. "Once we knew that, there was nobody else," he said.
Filmmaker Jeff Adachi, who created a PBS documentary called "The Slanted Screen" on the phenomena experienced by Chow, said "The tragedy is that there are roles that should be offered to Asian leading men, but people are not used to seeing that...so it's something that studios are not willing to invest in."
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