\n<\/p>\n
\n\tDaniel Dae Kim is calling out what he believes is an \u201covercorrection\u201d in nationality-specific casting for Asian roles.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring a recent interview with\u00a0American Masters PBS<\/em>, the Butterfly<\/em> actor shared why he believes there needs to be more thought behind casting for Asian and Asian American characters, as Asian actors are often held to more specific standards when it comes to identity compared to others. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRight now, there\u2019s a focus on nationality-specific casting when it comes to Asian Americans that I feel is an overcorrection,\u201d he said. \u201cVery often, when we\u2019re cast, if the role calls for a Korean American, they will not see a Japanese American or Chinese American or any other Asian nationality.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, Kim explained that often \u201cthe role itself has not been thought through,\u201d yet they\u2019re already putting up nationality-specific barriers for actors who want to audition.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt doesn\u2019t require any kind of specificity in the story as it\u2019s being told, or in the specifics of the character, because very often, it\u2019s not even being written by an Asian person,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo they don\u2019t know the difference in what they\u2019re asking for, and yet casting is being very specific.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Hawaii Five-0<\/em> alum recognized that there are times when nationality-specific casting is \u201cimportant,\u201d such as when \u201cthere\u2019s an authentic language requirement in the role, or it\u2019s based on someone who\u2019s a real person that has cultural significance to that particular country.\u201d But when the role centers on the broader Asian-American experience, Kim doesn\u2019t think there should be ethnic-based limitations when it comes to casting.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnytime there\u2019s a role that focuses, to me, on the American experience of being Asian \u2014 that\u2019s something that no matter [if] you\u2019re Korean, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, that\u2019s something we all share in common as Asian Americans,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd we all know what it feels like to be othered. That\u2019s a common experience. So to me, the nationality isn\u2019t as important.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThough the Lost <\/em>alum believes the focused effort began with good intentions, \u201cbecause originally, it was like, \u2018Well, we can\u2019t just consider them all as one,’\u201d he encourages casting directors to be \u201ca little bit more sophisticated now about how we can open opportunities to actors.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s one of the reasons why Kim cast Reina Hardesty, who is Japanese American, as his Korean American character\u2019s daughter in his new Prime Video series Butterfly<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat was a deliberate choice on my part, because what the significant part of her character was is the idea of feeling alienated and alone in America. You don\u2019t have to be Korean American to feel that way,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n \n\tMoving forward, the Avatar: The Last Airbender <\/em>actor hopes for more open dialogue in Hollywood about the topic, especially since he has noticed \u201cAsian American actors are often specified by nationality when other ethnicities are not.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen African American actors are hired, very rarely are they asked, where is their country of ancestry? Whether you\u2019re Botswanan or from the Ivory Coast, it\u2019s not pertinent. Especially if you\u2019re playing an American,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe actor also used non-American actors playing American comic book characters (such as British actors Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Henry Cavill) as another example to back up his observations when it comes to nationality-specific casting.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHow many of our superheroes who are playing American are from other countries like Australia and England?\u201d Kim asked. \u201cAnd yet we don\u2019t ever ask whether that\u2019s important, relevant, and it doesn\u2019t limit them from taking those roles. In fact, we welcome them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Daniel Dae Kim is calling out what he believes is an \u201covercorrection\u201d in nationality-specific casting for Asian roles. During a recent interview with\u00a0American Masters PBS, the Butterfly actor shared why he believes there needs to be more thought behind casting for Asian and Asian American characters, as Asian actors are often held to more specific<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[6566,7424,9065,9064,3807,501,10618,3773],"class_list":{"0":"post-17565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-asian","9":"tag-casting","10":"tag-dae","11":"tag-daniel","12":"tag-issues","13":"tag-kim","14":"tag-nationalitybased","15":"tag-roles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}