Constance Wu picked for 'Crazy Rich Asians'

Constance Wu, a far cry from Jessica Huang.

CONSTANCE WU has been tabbed to play the central role of Rachel Chu in the movie adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story today, Wu is under negotiations for the plum role almost all young up-and-coming Asian/American actresses were seeking. It's a role of a lifetime in a movie with an all-Asian cast that will challenge the outdated Hollywood belief that says you need a white lead for a film to be a commercial success.

The movie is based on the best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan.  Wu announced the casting coup on her Twitter account.

The Warner Brthers production will be directed by John Chu, who directed Now You See Me 2 and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

The movie is set in Singapore and centers on the lives of super wealthy Chinese families. It follows Rachel Chu, an American-born Chinese economics professor, who travels to her boyfriend Nick's hometown of Singapore for his best friend's wedding. Before long, his secret is out: Nick is from a family that is impossibly wealthy, he's perhaps the most eligible bachelor in Asia and every single woman in his ultra-rarefied social class is incredibly jealous of Rachel and wants to bring her down.

Wu, best known for her portrayal of Jessica Huang in ABC's Fresh Off the Boat, was an early favorite of those people who like to do dream casts. 

The American-born actress (like the character she is set to play) has also been outspoken about the need for more diversity in casting and the whitewashing of roles want for Asian characters, such as in Emma Stone in Aloha, Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange and Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell.

RELATED: Extra care in casting of Crazy Rich Asians could break barriers

Chu has conducted at extensive international search for the cast.Still to be cast is Rachel Wu's boyfriend, Nick Young, who could set a new standard for Asian men as romantic leads.

“A lot of the big agencies don’t necessarily know where to find the big, hunky Asian actor that could be Nick, (who) has that charming, leading man thing. Maybe they’re in theater and haven’t crossed over yet. Maybe they’re doing commercials and haven’t crossed over yet.”

The actor playing Nick will have to have that all-undefinable chemistry with Wu that will make the couple appealing, believable and sexy. A study in manners and family expectatons and filled with memorable characters, Crazy Rich Asians could be Love, Actually set in Singapore.

The movie has not been green lighted yet but Warner Bros. has put it on the fast-track, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The casting of Wu, who has proven her ability to play light comedy and deliver witty lines, in one of the pivotal roles will go a long ways to getting the go-ahead.

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TGIF FEATURE: George Takei objects to Sulu's sexual orientation, 'Oh, my!'

John Cho portrays Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek Beyond feature premiering July 22.

GEORGE TAKEI, who originated the role of Hikaru Sulu of the Star Trek franchise, is disappointed that the current incarnation of the Sulu character is going to be revealed as gay with a spouse and a child.

He feels that the character was envisioned as a heterosexual by creator Gene Roddenberry. "Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much  thought. I think it’s really unfortunate," said Takei in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

According to news.com.au, during a promotional visit to Sydney, Australia two days ago, actor John Cho, who portrays Sulu in the upcoming motion picture, Star Trek Beyond, revealed that Sulu, the USS Enterprise's helmsman, would be portrayed as a gay father. 

Cho told Takei of this turn in the Sulu character to Takei about a year ago, Takei told THR. Takei urged Cho to tell director Justin Lin not to change the character that Takei help shaped in the original TV Star Trek. He suggested to Cho that the writers to be creative and introduce a gay character but let Sulu continue as a heterosexual.

In a subsequent conversation with director Justin Lin, Takei repeated his concerns.

The Star Trek bible does point out that in the 1994 film of Star Trek, the seventh in the franchise, Sulu's daughter Demora made an appearance.

RELATED: It got better for Mr. Sulu

The only other reference to Sulu's daughter was in a the 1995 Star Trek novel The Captain's Daughter. "It was, to put it crudely, a one-night stand with a glamazon," Takei explains. "A very athletic, powerful and stunningly gorgeous woman. That’s Demora’s mother." 

It was about a month ago that Cho emailed Takei that despite his strong objections, the writer and director decided to continue with their original idea, which, ironically, they apparently thought as an homage to Takei.

“I liked the approach, (taken in the movie) which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,” said Cho.

Takei didn't come out until 2005, well after the TV series ended. Since then, he has become an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community.

“If I wanted to work as an actor I had to keep it a secret,” Takei told News Corp last year. “Back then I couldn’t marry a white person — that was against the law here, miscegenation. But now I am married to a white dude so we have changed.”


Throughout the years, "Oh, my!" with its many variations, has become the actor's catchphrase. Takei explains here.

Star Trek, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016, is one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. The original Star Trek spawned a dozen feature films and five successful television series. Almost half a century later, the Star Trek television series are licensed on a variety of different platforms in more than 190 countries, and the franchise still generates more than a billion social media impressions every month. In 2017, Star Trek will return to television on CBS  in a highly anticipated series with a brand new cast and new characters.

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For real - #StarringJohnCho

IT'S A CASE of life imitating art. The internet viral sensation #StarringJohnCho -- where actor John Cho's face was superimposed on popular movie posters in order to show the plausibility of more diverse casting in Hollywood movies -- has come true.

Paramount has released three new character posters to promote the upcoming release of Star Trek Beyond. Today’s posters feature Simon Pegg as Scotty, Zoe Saldana as Uhuraand John Cho as Sulu.

Cho's image is one of the very few times an Asian male was prominently promoted in order to sell a movie. The only other Hollywood distributed movie that featured an Asian male actor in its PR materials was Enter the Dragon featuring martial artist Bruce Lee.

The new posters follow the same aesthetic style of those released last week. Posters with McCoy, Jaylah, Spock and Chekov were unveiled on Wednesday and Thursday, in addition to a colorful international poster, last Monday.

RELATED: AAPI decry whitewashing of Asian roles

The lack of diversity in U.S.-made films has been a topic of discussion in the movie industry for several years but really picked up steam last year when the Academy Awards didn't nominate a single actor of color for an Oscar. The 2015 Oscars spawned the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

RELATED: #OscarsSoOffensive

#OscarsSoWhite became a more topical issue this year when the actors of color were excluded again. However, a pair of tasteless jokes against Asians during the awards show sparked a rare outcry of protest from the AAPI community. 

RELATED: That's a rap for $StarringJohnCho

The last straw appears to have occurred when several movies that had Asian roles in the source material of the comics and anime were given to white actors. AAPI actors began speaking out and articles about the protests began appearing in mainstream media giving birth to #StarringJohnCho, which in turn inspired #StarringConstanceWu.

Star Trek Beyond, which was directed by Asian/American director Justin Lin, will be released July 22.

Celebrities urge AAPI voters to exercise their right to vote

A CADRE of Asian/American celebrities joined a public service announcement intended to boost the voting turnout of the AAPI electorate.

The celebrities who participated included George Takei, John Cho, Vincent Rodriguez III,   Constance Wu, Sonal Shah and Joey Quenga. 

 The PSA was launched today (May 31), a week before California's primary on June 7.

Despite being the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and making up 12 percent of California's registered voters, the AAPI participation in the voting process lags behind other groups.

Asian American voter registration has increased nationwide 600,000 per presidential election cycle. The number of congressional candidates from the Asian American community increased from 10 in 2010 to 40 in 2016.

The campaign is a project of APIAVote with the support of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Imprenta Communications Group, The Great Company, and Asian Pacific American Leadership Foundation.

TGIF FEATURE: The Kiss finally occurs on "Crazy Ex-Girlfreind"

Jose Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III) finally kisses Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

TO PARAPHRASE a famous existential question: If a kiss by an Asian romantic lead was hardly seen, did it really happen?

Vincent Rodriguez III did what eluded other Asian actors like Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat and John Cho. His character Josh Chan kissed the Rebecca Bunch, played by Rachel Bloom, rin the CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfirend, episode 13.

Most followers of the entertainment industry know the ground-shaking significance of this event. "The Kiss" by an Asian male actor for an American audience is an event so rare that when it occurs, it's time to pop the champagne corks and let the confetti rain.

In Romeo Must Die, an updated movie version of Romeo and Juliet with Jet Li as Romeo and R&B artist Aaliyah as Juliet, the original ending had the two ill-fated lovebirds kiss. But according to the studio, the kiss ending didn't test well with audiences so the studio changed it to an awkward hug. Uh ... OK, you mean we watch this movie for two hours based on the most famous love story of all time - families fighting, people get killed - with the two main characters falling in love with each other,  and all they do is ... hug? Ugh!

"Mainstream America, for the most part, gets uncomfortable with seeing an Asian may portrayed in a sexual light," said Gene Cajayon, a Filipino/American director.

The neutered asexual Asian male stereotype is so imprinted in the American consciousness that to see an Asian male in a romantic situation that culminates in a kiss is so contrary to what the audience expects that it "gets uncomfortable." 

That is a stereotype that needs to be corrected immediately.

But it won't be easy.

If they aren't playing servile second-banana roles or bumbling clowns, Asian males are usually playing martial artists who know all the exotic moves of the martial arts but apparently are ignorant of erotic art of love despite the kama sutra's Asian origins.

Strong male roles played by Asians are cut down to size by being desexualized. Even the legendary Bruce Lee had to go to Hong Kong before American producers discovered he had sex appeal.

This is about as close to a romantic scene as it got between action hero Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino in The Replacement Killers.

The charismatic stud Chow Yun-Fat made his U.S. debut opposite Mira Sorvino in the Hollywood version of Hong Kong blockbuster The Replacement Killers. Even though the sexual tension was thick between the two stars, in the end, the ungrateful Sorvino didn't even give her hero a hug. You know if he was white, he would have gotten the girl by movie's end.

John Cho was so close to being the first Asian male to kiss a girl in his the late TV series Selfie last year but unfortunately, the series ended before the couple could reach that point.

That's what makes Rodriguez's kiss as Josh Chan so significant. Thankfully, The Kiss happened early enough in the series that we, the audience, didn't get cheated with what we all wanted to happen.

But that leads to the intriguing question. What next?

Whatever happens next better happen quickly. Even though CEG is receiving high praise from TV critics, its ratings are so low that it is difficult to chart, which makes a second season highly doubtful. It is last in its time slot and last among CW series. Better watch now while you can.

Crazy Ex-Girlfirend airs Monday nights, 8 p.m. on the CW and only five episodes remain.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

It's awards show season, but not for Asian Americans; We conduct the first annual Eddie Awards

IT'S AWARDS SEASON.  With the Golden Globes, Oscars, Emmy's, the People's Choice Awards right around the corner, it was impossible to note the glaring omission of Asian American artists among the nominees. Therefore, I thought I'd hand out some awards of my own. 


The 'EDDIEs,' modestly named after a blogger who shall remain nameless, will be handed out yearly in the categories I'll make up out of the clear blue sky. There are no trophies or cash awards - just a reminder of what happened and what didn't happen in the past year by and about Asian/Pacific Islander Americans in pop culture. Hopefully with some humor and a dash of irony thrown in.

CAVEAT: I purposely didn't include Asian actors based in other countries. The EDDIEs are reserved for Asian American performances.

Hoon Lee

So, here we go. Drum roll. The envelope, please.

Stereotype-buster: 
Hoon Lee for his portrayal of Job, a cross-dressing ass-kicker (Yes, you can be a cross dresser and a tough guy at the same time) on the TV show Banshee. OK, he's adept at the computer, but that's about the only thing that reminds us of the Asian nerd. He likes his make-up but he can take on three yahoo's at once without hitting the pause button on his laptop. Even though he is officially a sidekick, his character is so strong and complex, he is an equal in scenes with Antony Starr, who plays Lucas Hood, the lead character in this sexy, adrenalin-pumping unpredictable Cinemax series. The writers give him good lines, but I'm hoping the writers delve more into Job's background this coming season of Banshee, which starts Saturday, Jan. 9. What makes this character tick?



Best moment that never happened: 
John Cho and Karen Gillian, the lead characters in Selfie that only lasted six episodes before getting cancelled. The "moment" happened -- or, didn't happen. Cho's character, Henry, and Gillian's character, Eliza played a cat-and-mouse game hinting and searching for their growing relationship with each other. Eliza tells Henry that women liked to be touched and she urges him to touch her. At first he hedges, then suddenly, he pulls her close to him and viewers were screaming at the screen, "Kiss her, dammit!." But she pulls away, realizing her attraction to him. The watershed event, the kiss that Asian America had been waiting for -- the first Asian American romantic leading man on a TV series almost - ALMOST - happened. We were robbed! So we must wait for another series, another time, another leading man, for that moment to happen.

Click here for the complete GIF. 

Worst moment that did happen (over and over again):

Matthew Moy

Just about any episode of 2 Broke Girls where the character Han Lee is featured, which is ... just about any episode of 2 Broke Girls. Matthew Moy plays the Han Lee character and draws up just about all the traits of the emasculated Asian male stereotype. Lots of the sitcom's jokes are about Han Lee's height, penis size and stinginess. You have to sympathize with Moy because at least he has a job in a Hollywood where Asian males are still the least represented demographic on television. But the character whom the writers create is so bad that even non-Asian media have taken noticed, such as the Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, innumerable newspaper articles and blogs. Moy and the show's creators discuss the Han Lee character in a fairly objective article in Audrey magazine. There's no sign the producers are going to let up on their reliance on stereotypes to get a laugh.

Best show we'll miss:
Selfie was the show I most wanted to succeed because of John Cho's lead character. However, an uneven start doomed the series and because the title itself, Selfie, would want to draw from the same demographic that least likely would be watching the show on the television set, the same group that prefer mobile devices a their chief mode of interaction. Although the ratings were not high, they weren't so bad, either. But the ABC honchos were not patient enough for the show to establish its audience. Other shows with poorer ratings for the first six episodes eventually found its niche and audience. There's a petition to the show but chances are slim for Selfie's revival. The remaining episodes of the 13 total that were made, can be seen at Hulu and at ABC.com  Unfortunately, the fate of this series may make future producers reluctant to put an Asian male in a romantic lead.

Seeya "Selfie." The show had a diverse cast but race didn't enter into the conversation.

Best show nobody ever watched
With all the hoopla around Selfie and F.O.B., this show never got the attention it needed. "Sullivan and Son," the first Irish-Korean family featured on TV was about a bar-owner married to a Korean woman and their hapa children. It was Cheers with kim-chee. Unfortunately, it was sporadic in its writing and laughs but it was interesting to see how they used the Korean angle. They never made a big deal about it, which was kind of nice, but maybe that was also what was wrong about it. Perhaps the biggest hurdle it couldn't overcome was it was on at odd hours on a station (TBS) hardly anybody watched, unless you were an Atlanta Braves fan watched. TBS should be applauded though, it gave S&S time to try and find its legs - three seasons - that's more than what you can say about ABC's handling of Selfie (See above).

Goodbye, we hardly got to know ye.

Best director:

Yes. There are a few Asian directors in the Hollywood scene. Unfortunately, you can count them on one hand. This year's EDDIE for "best director" goes to Taiwan-born Justin Lin. Lin started out with the under appreciated Better Luck Tomorrow, a small budget delightful film about Asian young people that surprisingly showed some cross-over appeal. He has proven himself to the money people of moviedom with four movies in the profitable Fast & Furious franchise, two of which opened with $70 million each. Lin was recently tabbed to direct the upcoming third film of the Star Trek prequels with his biggest production budget yet.

Justin Lin will direct Star Trek.

Justin Lin is a busy guy these days. He opted out of his fifth Fast and Furious film to direct the next Bourne Legacy movie. When that was cancelled, he producer J.J. Abrams picked him for the next Star Trek movie which reportedly will be released in 2016, the 50th anniversary of the TV series debut. His career goes where only a few Asians dared to go.

Lumpia lover Darren Criss.

Is he, or isn't he?
The award goes to an actor we didn't know was Asian (or part Asian). The winnah is ...  Darren Criss, who plays Blaine, an out-and-proud gay character in the hit show Glee. The question is not: Is he really gay, or not? but: Is he really Asian American? Turns out that Criss is a lumpia lover. His mother is a native of Cebu, Philippines. Unfortunately, this is Glee's last season which starts Jan. 9. If you don't know about Glee, what rock have you been living under?  A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, his father was a director for the San Francisco Opera. Criss went to the University of Michigan where he majored in theatrical arts. 

The Samoan-Canadian sports Samoan tattoos.

Best kickass man:
This was a tough one. There are not too many roles out there depicting Asian males as - what we in America like to call "ass-kickers," you know the tough-as-nails, no nonsense indestructible, macho, he-man hero. For assistance, I turned to "Nerds of Color," for suggestions. Hmm, Keanu Reeves or The Rock, AKA Dwayne Johnson. I like those nominations. This year, however, I'm going with the Rock, Every movie he's in - I mean, talk about type-casting - he's just kickass. He's got the physique and the death-stare down pat. And in Hollywood terms, the color of money is more important than the color of your skin, Johnson is one of the top money-makers in town based on his roles in the Fast and Furious sequels and Hercules. In 2014, the black/Samoan pro-wrestler made over $52 million. His casting appeal is partly because of his racially ambiguous appearance which allows him to play characters of various races. Not that he's denied his heritage; if asked, he'll proudly describe his Pacific Islander roots.

Best kickass woman:
This is a another really difficult category. There are bunch of ass-kicking Asian women on TV. It seems the white producers and writers have a proclivity for this type, but what-the-hell? For better or worse, work is work, This year's award goes to Ming-Na Wen of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., for the episode in which her character, Agent Melinda May, fights with her doppleganger. The fight is really well choreographed and technically, really difficult to pull off. It took almost three days to film the scene for the S.H.I.E.L..D. episode, which usually takes 8 days to produce.  Really good stuff.

At least, Woo Hwang's honor is intact.

Stupidest move on a reality show:
Woo Hwang chose Tony to be in the final trio of Survivor: Cagayan. Tony was the best player of the season with his aggressive strategizing and he deserved the $1-million prize, but Woo had the chance to eliminate the strongest survivor and he didn't. Woo chose to abide with his agreement with Tony rather than succumb to the temptation to "outwit" his competition. By choosing honor over greed, Woo walks off the beach with the nothing but his integrity. By the way, Woo is the dude who described himself as the "stupidest" survivor player ever.  



Most intriguing personality:

Chrissy Teigan

Chrissy Teigan. To her credit, she is the antithesis of the Asian female stereotype of demure, obedient, soft-spoken and compliant. She made the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. But the reason she's here is because she's everywhere I look. She was on TV as a guest host with Kelly Ripa; cooking with some famous chef on the Food Network or walking down the red carpet witco-h husband John Legend. Last I looked, she was in freezing New York hosting a show on New Year's Eve dressed in a mini-skirt. She's outspoken, fun, irreverent, funny (most of the time) loud, brash and she's managed to make a living by just being "out there." Read her tweets, Instagram or her food blog. (NOTE: She had to discontinue her Twitter account because of death threats from ultra-conservatives.)  Maybe this award should go to her agent?

Arthur Chu

Best villain:
Early in 2014, Arthur Chu stirred a lot of controversy because of the way he played the TV game show Jeopardy. He played an aggressive game, finding those double-doubles by going after the toughest questions first instead using the traditional way of playing bf going down the list from easy to hard questions. He was pretty good at it, winning 11 straight games totaling almost $300,000 in prize money, among the top-four amounts in the game show's history. His critics said his aggressive strategy was ruining the integrity of the game. Puh-leese. Integrity on a game show? He drew a lot of flack, a lot of which was  borderline racist. What I liked about Chu is that he defied the stereotype. Yeah, Chu is a self-professed nerd - he calls himself a "loser" who got lucky. He was picked as the Angry Reader of the Week by Angry Asian Man. He didn't back down from his haters. In fact he embraced his role as villain and continued on his winning ways, laughing all the way to the bank.

Front and center, best Broadway diva:
Not a difficult choice, here. There's only ONE, count them - 1, numero uno, ONE Asian American woman in a lead role in a Broadway musical. That would be Ruthie Ann Miles, the Korean American actress and singer playing the role of Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love. Finally, someone besides Lea Salonga is front and center on the Broadway stage. She has been getting rave reviews for her performance. She plays Imelda from the time she was beauty queen from Cebu to her rise in power with her marriage to Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. With the popularity of the Broadway production, it looks like Ms. Miles will be around for awhile giving Lea Salonga some company under the bright lights. So while we await Vanessa Hudgens' debut as Gigi or the aforementioned Salonga in Cinderella or Allegiance, there will remain only one actress deserving of this award. 

Ruthie Ann Miles

 in Here Lies Love

Production that hired the most Asians:
Hands down - this should be no surprise - this award goes to Marco Polo, the dramatic retelling of the exploits of one white man in 12th century China. The Netflix answer to Game of Thrones employs hundreds of extras, an all Asian/Pacific Islander central cast to tell the fictional account of real-life explorer Marco Polo. Shot in Malaysia and Kazakhstan, the $90 million production is epic in every sense of the word. I hope it survives the rating wars because it interprets history from a non-European perspective, an experience that might be a little uncomfortable to its American audience, who have been spoon-fed history from a Eurocentric point of view so long they actually believe America has already reached America's lofty ideals. At any rate, Marco Polo is not without its flaws  and the hoity-toity critics have not been kind, but you have to understand that its historical FICTION, not real history. At its worst, it drags a bit with all the behind-the-throne intrigue that goes on. At its best,  it is visually stunning with the landscape, architecture, costumes and battle scenes popping out of the screen. For the sake of the huge diverse cast and for the presence of Asian faces on America's TV screens and consciousness, let's hope that it gets renewed for a second season.

Let's play "Where's Marco?" In the cast of hundreds, the lead character is often not the main protagonist.

UPDATE: Wouldn't you know it, the day after publishing this post, Netflix announced that Marco Polo's journey will continue into a second season.

That's it for this year, friends. Due to my limited budget and time, I wasn't able to watch or read about all the performances of Asian American actors, singers or dancers. I'm sure there are people or performances worthy of an EDDIE that I left out. Should Lucy Liu's Watson in Elementary be included? What about the romance between Maggie and Glenn in The Walking Dead? Who or what performance would you have nominated for an EDDIE? 

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