How Hollywood Put More Asians Into Movies (500% Increase)

In the past 15 years, the amount of movie roles for Asians has increased 500%. Now, while that is a huge improvement, a lot of Asians are still not celebrating. Let's talk about why. Yeah, I mean, statistically speaking, 5X over the last 15 years is a hell of a run. But there was a lot of people arguing on the Internet, Andrew. Some people feel represented by this. Some people are cheering it on. Other people are kind of in the middle. They're pointing out the flaws. And other people are like, well, me and my particular subgroup saw no increase whatsoever. So why should I care about this thing at all? All right, guys, you know, this is kind of our expertise. So we're going to delve into it. I got a lot of details and I got some findings. We'll even look at the box office of the top 10 movies of 2008 just to show you the increase. But anyways, guys, please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys because there's a lot to discuss, man, because a lot of people are still unhappy even though the stats show there's an improvement. Let's look into the study. It says the study looked into the top 100 highest grossing domestic movies of each year since 2007, covering 1,600 titles and almost 70,000 speaking characters. And it showed a huge increase. And you can look at from 2008, the top 10 grossing movies. Kung Fu Panda and Twilight had an Asian character. In 2016, for example, Rogue One, Jungle Book, Deadpool, Star Wars had speaking roles for Asians. And then in 2022, Doctor Strange, Avatars, Jurassic World, Spider-Man, and Minions all had speaking roles for Asians. We got to be clear here, Andrew. They are including CGI films such as Kung Fu Panda and Raya. Obviously, the voices, I want to say 90% were voiced by Asian American actors. So that counts as representation under the metrics of this study. For sure. So I want to go through a list, David, because I think it is true that there has been an improvement, but we're going to talk about why a lot of people don't feel it. I think there's several reasons for that. Yeah, I think the number one reason why people don't feel it is because some of it or a lot of it, you know, depending on who you talk to, the biggest pie slice was driven by increasing macroeconomics from Asia or the East in general. We're talking about India, China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines is coming up. A lot of these things are major drivers of the box office. So a lot of people are like, well, we're Asian American, even though some of us get to be the actors or whatever, we're not driving it. Yeah, that's Asia's macroeconomic growth. Yeah, and like, I mean, I will say a lot of the Asian actors that are mentioned are actually born in Asia as we mentioned this before on our channel. Second reason is like some movies, like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Crazy Rich Asians, and Shang-Chi, all high grossing movies at their year. They actually had like an entire almost cast of Asians. And then there's a lot of movies, obviously, that have zero Asians in it. So I think if you skip the Asian movies or you don't count them for some reason, then you're like, oh, there's not that much representation in your average movie. Right, a lot of people when they think about representation in their mind immediately, they might be thinking more like Barbie where Simu was this Asian character thrust into a world that traditionally has no Asians versus an all-Asian movie where there's, let's just say, 65 Asian people in the movies. That could skew the statistics almost in a feast or famine type way, right? Yeah, another reason is just I think a lot of the roles flew under the radar. I mean, when you're talking about speaking roles, there's a lot of people who can speak in a movie. Obviously, that does mean something, but ultimately, if they only had like five lines, I don't know if you count it, right, but they're counting it in this study. Right, voice actors as well. That's kind of like a hidden Asian. Yeah, it definitely counts, but yeah, it's not quite the face. You're saying if we're playing a panda, it doesn't count? Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh is in Minions. Those are also short yellow people. But point number four is that it counts a lot of half Asian actors and half South Asian actors, which are Asian and may identify as Asian, but we know that oftentimes visually they don't represent Asians as much. So we shouldn't logically and I'm not saying that this is right or wrong. Shouldn't they count as half a point in this study? Yeah, because I'm counting them as a full point because obviously whoever's doing this study, realistically, I don't know what their bias is, but they probably want to see the representation numbers go up because it's progressive, right? From a scientist, David, you're right. If we're being scientists, then half Asians should in this study count as half Asians. I'm not saying in their identity, they can be Asian. Point number five, Andrew, and this is you. We're going to get into the comment session because it gets spicy. It is a lot of the same actors who are approved by the gatekeepers over and over again in every movie. All right. All right. So I I'm going to refute this point a little bit because I think a lot of people assume that there's only three Asian actors that are getting roles and I'm not sure who the three are because there's actually about ten. I can name that are could be of the three combination, but Michelle Yeoh is definitely one of them. But anyways, guys, we're going to keep it moving. Number six, Asian roles have increased because Asian directors have increased. So if there's an Asian director, there's more likely to be at least one Asian role, right? You're saying like Justin Lin, he brought Han back from the dead for the new Fast and Furious movies. Everybody thought that Sung Kang had passed away, right? Number seven, a lot of people in the comments have just not seen all these movies and have not noticed all the Asian roles. Number eight, a lot of the roles have been going to Michelle Yeoh. Let's be honest. She's probably number one of the past five years, right? Number nine, you may not feel like your particular sub archetype of Asian is represented. For example, if you're a super masculine Asian dude who like sees yourself as a guy who could who does very well with women almost in a James Bond archetype, even over the past 15 years, you've seen nothing. Yeah, right. So you know what I mean? Like or you're Southeast Asian. You're looking for your particular type of Asian. You're like, yo, my last recollection is still Gran Torino. I still haven't seen anything that speaks to my particular experience in the past 15 years. Yes, not that many like straight masculine badass Asian guys, which is obviously an archetype that a lot of people want to see, especially like straight Asian guys want to see that in movies. There has not been a lot of that. There has been some. Let's not overlook them, but not a lot. Number 10, David, I think that as much as Asian representation has grown as that there have been speaking roles for Asians. I think there's still a lot of instances where it's an Asian girl and a white guy love interest being paired together in movies. And that kind of always still leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths and overrides the fact that those are roles for Asian actors. Well, it's still representation underneath this study, right? They're not saying like fly dope things. You love. It's not what you may want or you would have chosen, but it is still Asian representation. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Isn't perfect. Let's remember this guy's anyway. Let's get into the comment section and or somebody said we've come so far, but there's still a long way to go. Other people were like just cheering it on saying, oh man, we're up into the right on the chart. And then somebody said child me would have benefited so much from the Asian representation in media. They will kids boys and girls will grow up proud and confident in their own skin. Was this a giving Hollywood a little bit too much credit or is it valid? Listen, there's a lot of content out there. You know, this whole study David did not include Netflix shows and Netflix movies, right? Because it was it was only doing the top 10 in the box office. Those are theater movies essentially theater release. So it is actually even if you include Netflix, which actually has quite a lot of Asians in it. I think the number even goes up. Right, right, right. So there is a lot of Asians, but but you're right that on Netflix people get to choose whatever they want to watch. So I think you can avoid Asian faces if you want to. Somebody said they should have stopped that full metal jacket. I don't really like any of these new Asian movies. Someone said, oh, I like a Chinese actor. You really, really like them. Of course, these are comments probably from Middle America about 19, you know, 65 years old, but you know, someone said I noticed that in most American movies, Asian characters either die soon or remain silent in the few scenes. Not like other race characters in the Asian movies. Okay, so this person is saying that when there's non-Asian characters in Asian movies from Asia, they get to speak up more than Asian characters in America. I think that this was true, but up until about 10 years ago, I think the Asian actors who are getting roles are they have speaking roles and are saying things, but to the point of this comment, I mean, I do think the quality of role matters, right? Like if you're getting a if you're getting beat up in on the shorter end of the stick, like a thousand times, that's still a thousand reps of representation, right? There was a whole bunch of Asian dudes in Kill Bill, but they got killed, right? Somebody said thanks to the white. This is from a white guy. Somebody said thanks to all the white men who fetishize Asian women and give them a chance in the Asian women who sell out to white men. Yeah, of course this comment was kind of just like, of course the Hollywood talk leads down this rabbit hole, right? Yeah, someone said and then there was a bunch of comments asking how many percent of those roles went to East Asian women who were dating white men in those roles based on the roles that I would I would point out from the 2022 2016 2008. Actually some of the top roles were not with white guys, but there was a lot of TV shows TV shows that paired Asian women with white guys. So it's still going to happen. It's honestly just a popular pairing this in real life as well. Yeah, this Southeast Asian actor said I still haven't gotten any roles because Hollywood isn't looking for Southeast Asian men right now or ever. What do you think about this? Because people were talking about man East Asians are the only ones that saw the bump. Southeast Asian saw nothing still since Gran Torino, obviously and that wasn't even necessarily positive representation. So it's like man, I would say that this is true and Raya, you know what I mean? It was animated. So and it was sort of like pan Southeast Asian and just like put all the tie-dye and Austronesian cultures together in one. Yeah, I've always been an advocate for Southeast Asian representation. I think the issue is that I think that there are Southeast Asian actors. There's a handful and that did get roles, but I don't think that the stories are super Southeast Asian partially because of the international box office. I know the Philippines is a decent box office, but Vietnam is not the hugest box office. So like obviously if you're going to put a Korean actor from Korea or a Chinese actor from China in a big movie and try to capture the Chinese or Korean market, those are huge box office markets in Asia. So of course Hollywood's just doing the math like hey, we're just going to put more East Asians because they have the box office power to be honest. I think some of the older and this is another point that's different than yours. I think a lot of the older people who run Hollywood. They probably still don't even know what a Southeast Asian is. Yeah, to be honest if you really are in those circles, that's true. That's true. A lot like they're not as exposed to it, but also I would say my Southeast Asian friends. They tend to like not care as much about Hollywood representation to living their lives and like that. Do you think it's a cycle that they don't care because they don't see it or that they don't see it and then they don't care. I think it's a lot of reasons. Somebody said it's because of the Chinese money that has been pouring into the entertainment industry and now they are scrambling to find actors and actresses to meet demands. Like I said, I think that this is part of it, but you know, I do think you know Chinese owning. I believe AMC or they're the biggest investor in AMC right now. You don't mean yeah, but but but I'll be honest. I don't think people put Awkwafina movies to capture the Chinese market. She is not a Chinese product, right? You know what I mean? So she's very Asian American and American. So that's why I would I would say that this is one of the reasons but I think it's lower on the list than people think it's really not the only reason why there's Asian faces on TV. Somebody said Asian guys who are playing Yakuza's or triads getting murdered on screen that probably accounts for a pretty large part. Yeah, I think Scarlett Johansson's has murdered a lot of Asian guys. Charlize Theron Charlize Theron Uma Thurman has murdered a lot of Asian guys. Oh, no, but I mean John wick John Keanu Reeves has murdered many Asian guys on screen. Shout out to him. He's half though. Yeah, but I guess a lot of people don't know that he's half because he doesn't look half or something or he's maybe a quarter. Somebody said what about white representation in Asian countries like China Japan and South Korea? What's the breakdown on those percentages? Of course, they don't of course they don't want to talk about that because then it would prove that watts in the USA are actually the least racist in the world, even though everybody's calling us racist right now in the narrative. Yeah, classic. Oh, what about in Asia? Well, obviously this person is not considering that America is an immigrant country. That is only 250 years old. Whereas those countries are like 4,000 years old or 5,000 years old. Anyway, guys, I get it. You know people have different perspectives on that. I stand by the fact that America is an immigrant country. Somebody said the majority of these Asian roles are being filled just to hit a quota and not actually with talented or attractive actors. It is honestly sad that we are using mediocre actors just to fill that. We casted an Asian quota do better us. There's so many undiscovered talents, but people can only cast the same three people in rotation. See, this is one thing I disagree. Who are the three that people are talking about? Like I think at a time it seemed like it was Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Watsimu. Is it Ronnie? Is it Steven Yeun? Is it Donnie Yen? Is it Kelly Marie Tran? Is it Harry Shum? Is it Stephanie Su? Who are we talking about? Who are the three? Just name the three. What I don't like is that it could be out of like 15. Yeah, there's not. You would wish that there was more Asian actors. I could see that. I agree, but it's not just three. That's what I disagree with. It's more like 23. Yeah, it's more like 23. That's still 23. It's more like 13 if you really want to pair it down to the more top-level guys. It's 15. Somebody said all 15% of them has Ronnie Chang playing a sarcastic Asian dude. Ronnie has been in a lot of movies. That's true. Shout out to Ronnie, man. That's my guy though, so I don't care. I would say Ronnie has always performed and always adds a lot of comedy to that role, which is badly needed and he always does a good job. Yeah, somebody said not enough. For example, right now when I turn on the Disney Channel, every commercial is using somebody who is African-American. We need more Asians. This is the time of the representation train arriving. I mean, do you think this is true right now? Like Asians are getting brought in. It's almost like because diversity, equity, and inclusion are so big, right? And obviously like minorities, we like it, even though we kind of do feel like it's like done in a token way, but I would say maybe some of the more like heritage, older white population. I'm not saying all of them. Some of them don't like it. You know, they don't like this train that's arriving with all these new identities that are new, that weren't represented 20 years ago. Exactly. Somebody said this is a bad thing. Representation in Hollywood should not be a goal for any group. This basically was an Asian Confucian comment saying, why care about Hollywood? The values are so bad. The violence, the sex, the drugs, the degeneracy. These are all the things that Asians stay away from. And that is what help us be successful. Now we want to run towards it. Yeah, it's funny though. In America, that's what it takes to be cool. You want to be cool. So you want to be badass, break the law, sleep with a bunch of women. Culturally deviant. Yeah, culturally deviant. We want that for Asians, right? But that's bad, but we want that. Somebody said, well, they make much better stuff in Korea, Japan, China, and Hong Kong and other places anyway. So who cares? Why did Asians need Asian American representation? Why can't we tap into what's back home? Andrew, we've covered this debate before. This is a classic way of thinking. And some people, for example, Andrew, we have a cousin. He didn't learn like any new American music since he moved to America 20 years ago. Yeah, there's a lot of Asian representation in Asia. That content is starting to come over as you've seen with Korean Netflix content. Yeah, of course. Some people said, well, nearly triple their representation in America. They only make up 3% of the population, 20% of speaking roles. That sure sounds like justice to me. Psych! It's too much representation. What do you think about people like feeling like the Asian thing, you know, whether it's the Asian Oscars is being shoved down their throat? If they deserve it, so they deserve it, man. And if the work is good, the work is good. And maybe it's okay to admit that Asians are doing good work. Yeah, you know, some people were saying, you know, oh wait Asians whites. We don't get good representation in Asian movies. And someone said, yeah, that's kind of true. But also if you go to any major movie theater in an Asian country, over like 60% of the movies are just white movies. Yeah, they're from America. Yeah, right directly translated. Yeah, they're just American movies. So that's the representation. Somebody said the discrimination and attacks against Asians is going up. So I really see themselves breaking down their differences and starting to view themselves as one group. And somebody said, I don't really know. I'm a first-generation Asian. And from what I can see most second-generation Asians still just stay clannish with their own cultural heritage. Yeah, I could see it depends on where you live. But yeah, well, we're not all at a Hawaii level yet, right? Where we're all like fifth generation and we're sort of like letting the old ways melt away. Everybody has incentive to be more pan-Asian. Like what's your incentive to be mixed with other people, right? And you know, that's our whole thing, Andrew. I've always been like, yo, let's just learn each other's differences so we could be feel the same about each other even though we are acknowledging that we're not all the same. All right, David. What are your overall takeaways from this? I felt like we broke it down pretty well. I think the facts are to sum it up. There is definitely an increase period. Clearly the stats are there, right? Of men and women. Okay, of straight masculine men. There's still an increase. But number two, there are still the classic tropes that bother Asians, right? The white guy, Asian girl. But that's also a real-life trope. So I don't know. Maybe that reflects real life. So if it happens in real life, it happens in real life. We're just being accurate. Yeah, number two. I mean, number three, there is not... I don't know if Asian guys are ever going to be satisfied or what that character has to look like. If it has to be an Asian James Bond character. But like there's definitely still not that Asian character that all Asian guys all around the world like support. They're like, yeah, this guy's badass. He's getting with girls. He's beating people up. He's got a big dong, you know. Right, you mean like how the African-American community sort of created Shaft to be like their... Shaft or Black Panther or whatever, you know. Those are like unanimously cool products. Right, right, right. Somebody said a really interesting comment, Andrew. And this is a little bit of an aside. They were saying that other ethnicities, specifically Asian and Black, are able to see such a huge jump because Latino is not represented at 20%. Even though Latinos make up 20% of the American population in 2023. And it's because obviously Latinos themselves can be very racially ambiguous. Right, right, right. So basically people were saying they don't feel the need to cater to them because Latinos can almost see a bit of themselves in everybody. Yeah, that is something that I always found was interesting because to me, from what I could hear, the Latino community didn't always make a noise about not enough Latino representation in media. But it's also because a lot of white-looking people are actually also Latino. Right, like even all the way back to Christina Aguilera. She was Latino. I mean, Tom Segura is a comedian. He's already Latino. Louis C.K. is technically born and raised in Mexico. Yeah, yeah, which is crazy. Yeah, so I guess... Yeah, it's very hard to tell. I guess overall though, what are your takeaways? I mean, I don't blame any Asian Americans for not being tapped into this whole thing. The one thing I always disagree with, and we're more on the representation side, right, just because this is our field. This is my field of expertise. This is who I happen to come across on a more high probability basis in terms of my circles. But I don't blame people. For example, back in our hometown, Andrew, for people, they're completely not tapped into this, right? They're just worried about their own lives, in the Enclave, or in, you know what I mean? In the city around them. Like, you just care about what's happening in Seattle. Yeah, I don't think you need to dedicate any of your brain or effort power to representation if you need to get your own life secure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's definitely higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Like, you know, if you just worry about your family, you got three kids, like, who cares about, you know, this representation? I would say, David, the most important representation in life is in real life. Yeah. It's in everyday, man. How are we representing? How are Asian males, let's just talk about Asian males because we're the ones who always, you know, we get the short end of the stick and we always have the most trouble with our, I guess, identity and ranking. How do we represent ourselves better? In real life. Because the thing is, listen, there's a lot of Asian girl and non-Asian guy couples that's going to continue in life, right? That's just a fact of life, that's just mixing. But, so it's going to reflect on screen still, but what are Asian guys going to do in our real life? Yeah. You know what I mean? No, that's real talk. So that's the most important. Don't look to Hollywood, guys. Hollywood not going to save you. But watch YouTube because it can help you understand things. All right, everybody. Let me know in the comments down below what you guys think about all this because this is some heavy entertainment talk. But again, I'm happy to see the improvement, but I understand why everybody's not, not everybody's happy because I would like to see more. Yeah. I mean, it's like there's an overall market trend, but even within that there's, you know, the devil's in the details, especially when you're more from a specific subgroup. But I'd also like to see more from us in real life too. Anyways, let me know in the comments down below what you guys think. Please hit that like button. Thank you so much for watching the Hot Paw Boys and until next time we out. Peace.