Daniel Dae Kim, Harry Shum Jr on Being Working Asian Actors

• 

• OCTOBER 25, 2010, 6:45 PM ET

SDAFF

Ellen Wong, Aaron Yoo, Daniel Dae Kim and co-moderator Leonardo Nam

On Sunday, Asian-American actors Daniel Dae Kim (”Hawaii Five-O”), C. S. Lee (”Dexter”), Harry Shum Jr. (”Glee”), Ellen Wong (”Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), and Aaron Yoo (”Friday the 13th”) talked casting, graduate school and stereotypes at the Asian Americans in Hollywood panel at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

In particular, each of the actors stressed that their current status as recognizable faces didn’t happen overnight. Lee and Kim both studied acting at graduate school (Lee at Yale and Kim at NYU; the former even asked latter for advice about where he should go), and Shum Jr explained that he first moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to act. After realizing he could “kinda dance,” he built up his skills and his dancing ultimately took over. (For “Glee” fans, he added: No, he doesn’t really sing as badly as Mike Chang does, and yes, there will a continuing storyline for his character this season).

The actors also emphasized the importance of getting more Asian faces into not only the realms of directing and producing, but also the executive/studio ranks of major tv and film studios, so that actors have more minority voices fighting for accurate representation. Though the success of films like “Slumdog Millionaire” can open the door to more projects featuring Asian and South Asian actors, the truth is that racial barriers still exist and are a point of discussion. For example, Kim — who was awarded the festival’s “Influential Asian American Artist” award — told that audience that he was currently in the midst of discussing what race the love interest of his “Hawaii Five-O” character Detective Chin Ho Kelly should be — a conversation that was more difficult that he had initially thought. He noted that while he was excited that race was a topic of discussion, the decision was more difficult than he originally thought, because he realized that the ultimate choice would have cultural ramifications. He then took a quick poll of the audience to see if they thought Kelly should be with another Asian, another non-Asian minority, or a Caucasian woman. (The reply was weighted toward the first two options.)

To counter-balance Kim’s point, Lee related a story about how he had to fight with one of the writers of “Dexter” to allow his character, Vince Masuka, to actually get the girl on his show — a rare occurrence for Asian characters. Lee told the SDAFF audience that the writer told him it would be more funny if Masuka was never able to get a date, but the Korean-American actor held his ground and argued that it would be better for the overall storyline if his character did manage to score with the ladies. “He may have to pay for the girl,” said Lee of Masuka, “but he should still get the girl.”