TGIF Feature: 'Hollywood' with Darren Criss available for streaming on Netflix

Darren Criss will play a Filipino American in Netflix's 'Hollywood.'

Finally, it's May 1 and AAPIs will get a chance to view the much anticipated Hollywood, starring Darren Criss, who plays an aspiring Filipino American director during Tinseltown's so-called Golden Age, right after WWII.

The sprawling 7-part drama is an alternate history of that era, mixing fictional characters with real-life figures of that period. Certainly, the depiction of the movie industry fully accepting People of Color and LGBTQ in this day and age would be labeled a fantasy, much less, in 1940s Hollywood.

"It is sort of a Hollywood-ization of Hollywood itself, or the Ryan Murphy version of that fantasy," Criss, who also served as an executive producer, told Deadline. "I hope people watching it go in taking it with a grain of salt that this isn't sort of a grand expose of the time, or some sort of factual recounting.

"I think that it will become very clear from the tone that things happen [in the show] that, clearly, didn't happen, otherwise you would've heard about it. It becomes pretty clear that this is, again, Hollywood getting the Hollywood treatment."

For AAPI fans, the depiction of Raymond Ainsley (Criss) as a half-Filipino, as the lead character is historic in itself. But the series also serves as an introduction of the real-life travails of the legendary Anna May Wong, played by Michelle Krusiec, to today's audience are major reasons to watch to watch the mini-series.

Criss, who is of mixed Filipino and white heritage, describes his characer "as an outsider, which is usually ground zero for anybody feeling isolated but in Raymond's case, he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder for being of half-Asian descent, which I think is just something that Ryan has always been interested in, especially being white passing."

The line uttered by Ainsley, "I am half-Filipino" will probably bring an audible cheer and high-fives from Filipino Americans because it is so rare that a Filipino American character have such a prominent role in a US-produced project.

The only other time a Filipino American played a lead role in a Hollywood production is 2018's The Assassination of Gianni Versace in which Criss portrayed Filipno American serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Criss won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his work in that dramatic series.

Michelle Krusiec will help tell Anna May Wong's story in Netflix's 'Hollywood.'

In the little-known story of Wong, Krusiec was able to find common ground. In an interview with Deadline, Krusiec identified with Wong's plight.

“I’m constantly being underestimated and being reduced or relegated to side parts, supporting parts or parts where the characters are in service of someone else’s narrative,” said Krusiec. “I felt during [Wong’s] entire career, she was constantly cast in these kinds of roles because it brings so much to the table in terms of what she was actually doing with those parts. She was really hard to ignore and it was really hard to dismiss her. She became brokenhearted by her career, but she still persisted.”

“As an Asian American actor, I’ve been treading that road for a long time and trying to understand my own wrestling with identity and how do I persist and how do I have resilience,” she told Deadline.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As Hollywood unfolds on Netflix, check back on Views From the Edge for more articles about the series.

Darren Criss plays another Filipino American character in his latest outing

Some three years ago, Darren Criss got into trouble questioning his identity because of his mixed racial heritage -- white and Filipino.

Since then, in the roles he's taken and public statements he's made, there is no doubt of his pride in being a Filipino American. In his latest project, Netflix's llmited series Hollywood, which debuts May 1 on Netflix, Criss plays Raymond Ainsley, an aspiring movie director who is half Filipino.

It would be the second Filipino American character played by Criss, whose mother is from the Philippines. In 2018, he won plaudits, including an Emmy and Golden Globe, for his portrayal of Filipino American serial killer Andrew Cunanan in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

When he won his Golden Globe, he thanked his mother: “This has been a marvelous year for representation in Hollywood, and I am so enormously proud to be a teeny, tiny part of that, as the son of a firecracker Filipino woman.”

Hollywood is set in post-World War II, Tinseltown's so-called Golden Age. In reality, it wasn't a golden age for actors of color or the LGBTQ. Just Google Anna May Wong, Rock Hudson or Hattie McDaniel.

Based on the subject matter and the trailer, Criss could very well be up for awards again.

The Ryan Murphy fictional drama follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers as they try to make a career in the movies, amid the prejudices stacked against their race, gender, and sexualities.

“We began a lovingly constructed look at how I wished Hollywood would have operated back then; a world where women, gay people, and people of color could flourish,” Ryan explains in a statement. “I think the world would be very different than it is today if that happened.”

Hollywood has the glitz and glamor associated with that era and features

Criss' character Raymond Ainsley is one of the main characters. Ainsley is a Filipino American passing as white., who "aspires to broaden the stories Hollywood tells." 

Criss, who admits he benefited from his looks giving him the ability to portray white characters. [I was] eager to explore what that means for somebody who passes as white in an era where that is a socio-economic advantage," Darren says. 

"What does it mean when you're given opportunities, and what is your responsibility to the people in your life who don't have access to those opportunities?" 

For those actors of color, those questions are just as relevant in 2020 as they were in 1940s Hollywood. In Raymon Ainsley, Criss appears to be answering those questions raised by his doubters. Nevertheless, perhaps because of ethnic ambiguity, outside of his legion of  Filipino American fans, Criss has not been warmly embraced by the Asian Americans since his breakout role in the TV hit Glee. Hollywood may change that.

The series was co-written by Janet Mock, who is part Hawaiian, and features Michelle Krusiec as Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star. There will also be bevy. of special-guest-star appearances by Maude Apatow, Mira Sorvino, Rob Reiner, Michelle Krusiec, and Queen Latifah, playing some of the best known actors of that era.

In addition to having one of the lead roles, Criss was also executive producer.

Hollywood debuts on Netflix beginning May 1.