Asian American cast members post emotional tributes to 'Glee' costar Naya Rivera

NAYA RIVERA

The body of actress Naya Rivera was found, apparently a drowning victim, at Lake Piru in Southern California.

Rivera, 33, who starred in the TV series Glee as the character Santana Lopez, was at the lake with her 4-year old son.

Apparently, Rivera used the last of her strength to save her 4-year-old son before she died, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said Monday.

"She mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat, but not enough to save herself," Ayub said at a news conference.

Rivera and her son rented a pontoon boat at Lake Piru Wednesday. The child told rescuers he and his mother had gone into the water to swim, but she did not get back on the boat. He told investigators he then looked back and saw her disappear under the surface of the water, Ayub said.

Asian American members of the show's diverse cast -- Darren Criss, Harry Shum Jr and Jenna Oskowitz --  took to social media to mourn their costar, sharing their condolences to Rivera's family.

Criss, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, played the gay character Blaine Anderson in the musical dramady Glee, which debuted in 2013 and ran for six seasons. 

Shum, one of Glee's original cast members, played Mike Chang. He posted his moving tribute in a form of letter to Rivera on Instagram. 

Jenny Uskowitz played Tina Chang on Glee, Together with Shum, the two actors were the rare representation of Asian American teenagers on U.S. television.

Darren Criss explains why he's done playing gay characters

Darren Criss was praised for his role in 'Hedwig and The Angry Inch.'

DARREN CRISS has played gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the gay teen, Blaine  Anderson, in the TV series Glee and the sexually ambiguous lead character in the Broadway musical Hedwig and The Angry Inch. Are you noticing a trend?

In a recent interview, Criss said he will no longer play characters who are gay.

"As a straight, white, cisgender male I get to explore all these things that are completely not me," Criss told Bustle. "And what's cool is it glorifies both the power in that and the struggle in that."

He  continues, "I want to make sure I won't be another straight boy taking a gay man's gay man's role." 

Those aren't the only role roles Criss has portrayed, but they are the roles that he's received the most acclaim.
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Criss' sensitivity to LGBTQ representation can be based on recent surveys showing  that in the 2018-2019 TV season, out of 857 series regular characters on primetime scripted programming on the five broadcast network only 75 were LGBTQ, according to a report, "Where We Are on TV," by the gay advocacy group GLAAD.

Casting straight actors for queer roles -- or, "queerwashing," akin to "yellowface" a term for white actors playing Asian characters -- is nothing new in Hollywood. In 2017, Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, two actors who are not openly gay, playing queer roles. Chalamet won a Oscar for his portrayal.

This awards season alone, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, Mahershala Ali, Rami Malek, Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant are all straight actors who were nominated for Golden Globes for their LGBTQ+ roles.

Criss won an Emmy for his portrayal of serial killer Andrew Cunanan in 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace.'

The issue of representation was brought home to Criss as he was playing Cunanan, a Filipino American mestizo, the same heritage as Criss.

In an interview earlier this year in Vulture, Criss got into trouble when he said, “I always say one of my favorite things about myself is that I’m half-Filipino but I don’t look like it.”

The actor continued: “I just look like a Caucasian guy, which is nice. I’ve got the multi-ethnic thing going on. People think I’m like Italian or Mediterranean.”

On the subject of Asian American representation in media, he seemed to further stress how grateful he was for looking Caucasian:

“Somebody was talking about Asian American representation, and he’s like, ‘I don’t see a lot of stuff for Filipinos specifically,’ and I went, ‘I guess not, but I guess I don’t think about it.’ I have the luxury of being half-white and looking more Caucasian, so it doesn’t weigh on my conscience as much, like, ‘Ugh, why aren’t there more roles?’ I think as an actor, you just study and you wanna bring your ‘A’ game all the time and hopefully it doesn’t even matter.”

Filipinos and Filipino Americans took that to mean he preferred passing as white. The backlash prompted him to tweet after the Vulture interview was published.

“Just to clarify- 1 of my favorite things about myself is that I’m half Filipino. PERIOD. I happen to not look like it, but THAT fact is not what I like. I like the fact that most people don’t know it’s an ace up my sleeve, an ace I’m very proud of, regardless of what I look like.”

His role as Cunanan earned him an Emmy, making him the first Filipino to win that award. If he wins a Golden Globe next month, he'll be the first Filipino recipient of that award also. It raises his profile and his ethnic background becomes even more meaningful in this era of increased representation in the media.

Having been burned as a result of the Vulture interview, he seems to understand that however he may see himself, with his new-found fame, he carries a certain responsibility to represent and be a role model for other Filipinos and Asians. 

"I didn’t choose to be half-Filipino. I mean I love it, it’s very cool, and if this has been the outcome sure, I’m very pleased and proud that I can represent people that may see my presence in the media as a beacon for themselves," he says now. "That’s a real privilege."

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'Glee' alum Harry Shum, Jr. will be in the 'Crazy Rich Asians' movie.

HARRY SHUM, JR., one of Hollywood's up and coming young Asian/American actors, got cast in Crazy Rich Asians, the movie, in a role that could be the breakout role for him despite an already impressive resume.

On the hit television show Glee, Shum's character, Mike Chang, could usually be found in the back row of the choir risers, uttering a few words now and then to show agreement with the main characters up front. He was not given a chance to upstage the show's stars.

I guess that's where the producers felt Asian men belonged - obscure and in the back row. Who would have thought that hiding behind the quiet, almost invisible character Mike Chang, was a sexy, six-pack hunk type of guy?

Shum reportedly will play tech billionaire Charlie Wu, the ex-boyfriend of the beautiful Astrid Leong, played by British actress Gemma Chan. Charlie's money is new wealth, which just didn't cut it with Astrid's old-wealth family. In the first book of the trilogy on which the movie is based, Charlie Wu had a small role but in the second and third books, the character takes on a much more central role.

It wasn't until Shum appeared in 2016’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny  that he displayed his leading man potential. 

Shum, who was born in Costa Rica and speaks Spanish, was supposed to report for filming in Singapore last weekend.

The Ensemble

Director Jon Chu and author Kevin Dwan had a big hand in ensuring that the casting would follow the novel's storyline. That meant going far and wide to find the all-Asian cast, a rarity in a Hollywood production.

Leading the all-Asian cast is Fresh Off the Boat's Constance Wu in the central role of Rachel Chu, an American professor, the girlfriend of Nick Young, played by newcomer Henry Golding. Rachel meets Nick's family for the first time, not knowing that his family is insanely rich. Internationally known actress Michelle Yeoh -- who is from Singapore and will be starring in the new Star Trek Discovery series this fall -- has been cast as Nick's meddling mother, Eleanor Young.

American audiences will  also recognize two other actors who have been newly cast: Jimmy O. Yang from Silicon Valley and Nico Santos of Superstore, have supporting roles.

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Darren Criss in national tour of 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch'

Darren Criss in character for Hedwig & the Angry Inch.

DARREN CRISS will put on the wig and heels again for the first few stops of the national tour of the Tony-winning musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The Filipino/American actor, who is an alum of the American Conservatory Theater, played the title role on Broadway for 12 weeks last year.

The national tour will start in San Francisco with performances at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco (Oct. 4-30) and Hollywood's Pantages Theatre (Nov. 1-27). The show's tour will then continue across North America.

Darren Criss sans makeup.

"When I found out that the tour would be kicking off in my hometown of San Francisco — the city where I was introduced to Hedwig & The Angry Inch — I could think of no better excuse to get back into the heels of a character I loved and missed so very much," Criss said in a statement.

 "And since Los Angeles has become a second home for me, I relished the idea of seeing what kind of fun Hedwig would bring to the heart of Hollywood. Getting to share this fantastic Broadway production with the two great Californian cities of my own life story will hopefully be as much of a joy for me as it will be for audiences who will experience Hedwig’s life story on the West Coast!"

"West coast be warned, Darren takes no prisoners!" said John Cameron Mitchell, who originated the role on Broadway. 

Criss' big show business break came in the TV show Glee, where he played Blaine.

A summary of Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Hedwig, born a boy named Hansel in East Berlin, fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a sex-change operation in order to marry him and flee to the West. Unfortunately, nothing worked out quite as it was supposed to - years later, Hedwig is leading her rock band on a tour of the U.S., telling her life story through a series of concerts at Bilgewater Inn seafood restaurants. Her tour dates coincide with those of arena-rock star Tommy Gnosis, a wide-eyed boy who once loved Hedwig ... but then left with all her songs.

Criss, whose mother is from the island of Cebu, said his favorite thing about being Filipino is the extended family ... and the food. His favorite dish? "It depends because there are so many variations of lumpia and pancit but, hands-down, my favorite Filipino dish would be breakfast — with my garlic rice, tocino and bibingka for dessert."

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