Stephanie Hsu recalls walking out of an audition that asked her to sound “more Asian”
"Life is too short to completely dehumanize yourself," the Everything Everywhere All At Once actor says in a new interview
Aux News Stephanie Hsu
As awards season ramps up, so does the discussion of how much progress has or hasn’t been made since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign launched in 2015. (See: host Jerrod Carmichael’s opening monologue from the Golden Globes last night.) Everything Everywhere All At Once has been at the forefront of the conversation since its release last year; Michelle Yeoh could become the first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards since 1935. In a new interview with the New York Times, Stephanie Hsu, who plays Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan’s daughter in the A24 sci-fi film, opens up about the long journey to landing the groundbreaking project.
“I had no interest in selling myself or just shrinking myself to an inappropriate cameo just so that I could say I added one more thing to my résumé,” Hsu describes. “I remember in 2012, I went into a commercial audition and they were like, ‘OK, could you do it again, but with a more Asian accent?’ And I said, ‘I’m so sorry, but this role is not for me. I don’t do that and I’m not interested in this part.’”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel actor goes on to recall walking out of the audition, only to end up meeting another actor who felt like he had no choice but to do the stereotypical accent.
“I understand that people want to make it and they only see one path and have to bend and fold to have a life in the arts, but I always thought if that’s how it’s going to go for me, then I’m going to work at a bar or in a wood shop,” Hsu continues. “I have to make things that matter to me. Life is too short to completely dehumanize yourself.”
Of course, holding out paid off, and Hsu immediately became one of 2022's top breakout stars for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, in which she plays both an ordinary woman struggling to connect with her mother, and a nihilistic villain determined to destroy the multiverse. In the process, her onscreen family also offered her some perspective off-camera.
“James Hong [who plays Yeoh’s father] started acting at a time when people wouldn’t even say his name, they would literally just call him ‘Chinaman’ and say ‘Get on your mark,’” she adds. “Michelle waited almost 40 years for her first chance of being No. 1 on the call sheet, and Ke left acting for [nearly] 20 years. As successful as this film has been, the biggest fear on the other side is ‘What if this is my last chance?’”
Head over to the New York Times to read the full conversation.
24 Comments
It’s especially enraging because it was for a commercial. If the accent is inherent in the role, it’s not crazy to ask an actor to adopt the accent — Constance Wu uses an ethnic accent in Fresh Off the Boat that she plainly doesn’t have in real life. But, first of all, it would be nice if there was some specificity given to the accent more than “Asian.” And second of all, it’s hard to imagine how this was important for the ad.
Clearly Brilliant.com had just launched a new class on how to do a fake Asian accent.
What is an “Asian accent” tho. Filipinos have pretty distinct accents… India is also in Asian. That just sounds racist/ignorant.
I uhh, I wanna make it very clear that that was a joke and I am not saying the Brilliant.com ever offered classes in Asian as an accent. I would have assumed it was ridiculous enough to be perceived as such, but this is the internet.
Every Asian country has different accent for every region/province/island.It’s like American/British somehow forget that they have different accent from different state/city
Don’t forget that for some types, India isn’t part of Asia. That’s not a joke – there are some people out there who are shocked to learn that Asia is a fucking huge place with multiple ethnic groups and languages (for shits and giggles, tell your Average Basic American that the word caucasian comes from an outdated (as in “incorrect”) view that white people are all descended from a group of people who came from the Caucasus mountains which, erm, is the theoretical landing place for Noah’s Ark. Oh, and apparently the location where the god – yes, it gets weirder – Prometheus created humans from mud. Yeah. Yeah…) It doesn’t help when you clump entire regions of the continent into census-friendly boxes like “East Asian”, or “Southern Asian” or “South-East Asian”. But in seriousness – over 120 languages are spoken in India alone. China has over three hundred. There’s over a hundred different languages in the Philippines. Indonesia has over seven hundred and topping the charts is Papua New Guinea with eight hundred and forty. Let’s ask Betty Basicfuckwit again which Asian accent they want. They must be awfully well-travelled.
Probably a typecasting thing. People who aren’t white must speak foreign-accented English or sound “urban.” This discussion and the UCB video posted below reminds me of Nicole Byer talking about getting direction to read it more sassy for a McDonald’s commercial (or something along those lines).
“Probably a typecasting thing. People who aren’t white must speak foreign-accented English or sound “urban.””
Or maybe, and here’s a crazy thought, there was someone who was from a foreign land in the commercial, but being an American commercial they were looking to cast an American actor.
“It’s especially enraging because it was for a commercial. If the accent is inherent in the role, it’s not crazy to ask an actor to adopt the accent”
So, in a commercial it’s not OK for people to have accents?
“And second of all, it’s hard to imagine how this was important for the ad.”
Yeah, I can’t imagine a scenario where a commercial would have someone with a non-American accent, can you?
I mean, what the fuck?
“I remember in 2012, I went into a commercial audition and they were like, ‘OK, could you do it again, but with a more Asian accent?”I bet it was for that Obama campaign ad.
Take your meds and stop trying to bother the grownups.
lol ur stewpit
You are a hurtful, very damaged person.Seek help.
If we don’t let what is obviously an Eastern European teenager troll us with a decade old racist reference, then what have we become?
What Obama ad? What are you talking about?
That commenter is a troll and a very special combo of stupid and mean.
the biggest fear on the other side is ‘What if this is my last chance?’
And as she touches on with the audition anecdote, “What if this is my last chance?” has probably been the deciding factor for some actors who go decide to go ahead and do the requested “ethnic” voice.
She is fantastic. She was electric in a small part on Awkwafina’s comedy central show as young grandma’s friend Shu-Shu. “What up? It me, Shu-Shu!”
I love that show.
I wish filmmakers were more flexible in depicting people of other cultures based on the actors they get. As a first-generation Asian-American, it always irked me that every Indian character on TV or movies was portrayed with a thick accent and stereotypical jobs for most of my childhood. Harold and Kumar was probably the first time I felt like someone like me was portrayed in something major (and since then, there have been plenty of other examples).Unless the character has to be someone with an accent for good story reasons, it’s just dumb. And I can’t imagine a commercial which has good story reasons to need someone to fake an Asian accent.
“I wish filmmakers were more flexible in depicting people of other cultures based on the actors they get.”
What a weird thing to say when you have literally NO context for the commercial. You don’t know what it was advertising or what the content of the commercial was.
“Thanks for coming to our Summer’s Eve audition. Please put on this kimono and say ‘Ah so!’ for us?”
Well, we’ve come sort of a long way since David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine I guess?
What they meant by “Asian accent”: