Lana Condor and Ross Butler deliver the message to vaccinate against COVID-19

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From left, Lana Condor, Vice President Kamala Harris and Ross Butler urge their followers on Instagram to get their coronavirus vaccines.

The White House is amping up its outreach to Gen Z by using the media favored by that young group. A day after teen pop star Olivia Rodrigo. 18, visited President Biden to tape messages to her fans, urging them to get the coronavirus vaccine, Vice President Harris interviewed two young bright and popular AAPI stars. 

Lana Condor and Ross Butler, costars in the Netflix movies in the To All The Boys I Ever Loved trilogy, to reach out to the same youthful audience.

Butler recounted his experience being diagnosed with coronavirus in March 2020. “I had it really bad,” he said. “I had all of the symptoms before we knew what the symptoms were.” He got vaccinated to protect himself from having a repeat experience. Condor wanted to protect her loved ones, too. “My mom has an autoimmune disease,” she explained. “I (needed) to get this vaccine because I love her more than anything in this world and I want to be around her safely.”

Both Condor and Butler posted the interview on their Instagram accounts. Below, is Rodrigo's first message on Instagram:

The emphasis on Gen Z marks a switch in messaging that may be more effective with social media users. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent data, just 2.6% of 12-to-15-year-olds and 7.8% of 18-to-24-year-olds are fully vaccinated. By comparison, nearly triple the number of 25-to-39-year-olds are fully vaccinated and 14% of 40-to-49-year-olds. 

A recent study  from the University of California, San Francisco found that about 25%  unvaccinated people ages 18 to 25 said they "probably will not" or "definitely will not" get the vaccine.

The vaccine is now available in every state for people 12 and older, but Gen Z and  millennials remain hesitant for various reasons, from not feeling any urgency to believing disinformation — messages that are sometimes spread by elected officials, who young people traditionally do not listen to.

Also, at the pandemic's beginning, the emphasis was on the elderly, the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, leading many people to believe that the virus didn't have an effect on younger people. That belief persists even though it has been shown that COVID-19 does not discriminate by age. Healthy young people may be more resistant to the virus but they are not immune.

So the White House changed strategy to get their message to Gen Z.  Instead of depending the traditional outreach tools such as PSAs, press releases and official announcements, they have decided to switch to youthful celebrities and social media influencers to deliver the vaccination message -- short and snappy -- in the media they are most familiar to their millions  of followers such as Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat.

Experts say the more people share urge their friends or fans to get vaccinated on social media, the more it helps motivate others in their circles to also get theirs. Whether it’s an individual with a circle of friends, a micro-influencer with a few thousand followers, or someone with millions of followers across multiple platforms (like Rodrigo, Condor and Butler), there is a relationship of trust between the influencer and the influenced that is less and less present with traditional (old) media and their readers or viewers.

An example of the short and the on-point message from Butler that Gen Z and Millennials can clearly understand: “I had COVID, and I’m young and healthy and it sucked.” 

Asian American men join cast of sequel of 'To All The Boys I Ever Loved Before'

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Real life pals Noah Centineo and Ross Butler will play best friends.

Two recent additions to the surprise hit of last year, To All the Boys I Ever Loved Before, will help bring a little balance to the cast.

In an EW exclusive, it was revealed that Asian American Ross Butler, best known for his work on Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why, is playing the best friend of Noah Centineo's character, Peter Kavinsky in the Netflix movie's sequel.

In All the Boys, Peter was the main love interest for the lead character, Lara Jean, played by Lana Condor, whose mother in the movie is Korean American. It was the chemistry between Lara Jean and Peter that attracted the large audience and gave Netflix its rom-com hit, especially among the Y.A. demographic.
“We’re thrilled to announce that the endlessly charming Ross Butler has joined the cast of the To All the Boys sequel as Trevor Pike,” producer Matt Kaplan says. “His real-life friendship with Noah brings a natural chemistry and great rapport to the set and we can’t wait for fans to see this friendship play out onscreen.” 

Last week, it was announced that Jordan Fisher would play John Ambrose McClaren, another of Lara Jean's suitors. Fisher recently played Mark Cohen in the Fox Network's Rent: Live.

Lara Condor and Jordan Fisher will star in the sequel of 'To All the Boys I Ever Loved Before.'

“We couldn’t be more excited to have Jordan Fisher join the To All the Boys family as John Ambrose McClaren,” producer Matt Kaplan says. “Jordan’s charisma practically leaps off the screen with anything he does, whether it’s acting, singing, or dancing. There isn’t a more perfect guy who could believably shake things up in Lara Jean and Peter’s world.”

Perhaps with Fisher, who has Cambodian blood in his multi-racial heritage, and Butler, whose mother is Indonesian, the producers hope to deflect some of the early criticism from the AAPI communities because none of Lara Jean's love interests were Asian, reinforcing the stereotype that Asian males are not boyfriend material for many American girls.. 

“I understand the frustration and I share that frustration of wanting to see more Asian American men in media,”responded author Jenny Han in an interview with IndieWire. “For this, all I can say is this is the story that I wrote.”

Filming on this project is already underway and will air on Netflix later this year or in 2020.

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TGIF Feature: All Asian cast lip-syncs to BTS

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STEVE AOKI'S latest music is receiving national praise for its all Asian cast.
The video is for a K-Pop group BTS’s first English-language track, “Waste It On Me,” which Aoki produced. According to Hello Giggles, BTS do not appear in the video. Instead, the group enlisted the help of an Asian American cast and crew to produce the video.

According to Variety, Joe Hahn, who is best known as a DJ for Linkin Park, directed the video. It stars Ken Jeong, Ross Butler, and Jamie Chung. The supporting cast includes Leonard Nam, Jimmy O. Yang, Vincent Rodriguez, and many more. Aoki’s half-sister and model, Devon Aoki also makes an appearance.

Variety reports that learning “Waste it On Me” was the number one song in the world on Apple music inspired Aoki to produce a music video with an all Asian cast.

“When I found out that ‘Waste It On Me’ was the number one song in the world on Apple Music I realized that this track represented more than just me and BTS,” said Aoki. “It’s bigger than music, it represents a Korean band and one Asian American DJ that can show other Asians they are also apart of the global commercial musical landscape. I feel so deeply about the Asian footprint in music culture that I wanted the music video to have an entirely Asian cast and director.”

Aoki released the music video on Monday. It has almost 6 million views.
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Will your favorite AAPI actor be coming back on TV next season?

When 'Fresh Off the Boat introduced the Huang family three years ago, who knew it would become the longest running show featuring an Asian American theme.

LAST WEEK was a mixed bag of good-news, bad-news for AAPI TV fans and for the casts of these shows that star or feature AAPI actors.

GOOD NEWS: Fresh Off the Boat got renewed for a fourth season. Every year the sitcom is renewed it breaks a record for the longest-running TV show featuring an AAPI theme. We get to hang out with the Huang family as they continue to assimilate and at the same time retain their identity as an Asian/American family.

BAD NEWS: Dr. Ken, starring Ken Jeong and loosely based on his real life as a physician turned comedic actor, was cancelled after two seasons. 

GOOD NEWS: 2 Broke Girls, was finally cancelled after six seasons. The show featured one, Han Lee played by Matthew Moy, of the worst stereotypes of Asian/American men on TV today: sexually unappealing, effeminate, socially awkward, thick thick accent.

BAD NEWS: 2 Broke Girls will stick around for quite a while in reruns.

Matthew Moy tweeted out this picture of the cast in their final bow and a series of black hearts.

GOOD NEWS: Even though it receives one of he lowest ratings in the CW Network shows, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend got a third season. The romantic musical comedy co-stars Vincent Rodriguez III and ocassionally features his Filipino/American family and his hip Filipino/American priest will be around for another.

BAD NEWS: The Vanessa Hudgens vehicle Powerless, a midseason replacement sitcom for NBC, flamed out and won't be back next year.

GOOD NEWS: Priyanka Chopra, the lead in Quantico, will return as FBI agent Alex Parrish. There was some doubt if there would be a third season since the show's ratings dipped this year compared to its first year.

BAD NEWS: The TV version of Rush Hour couldn't match the Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker chemistry from the movies though Jon Foo and Justin Hines gave it their best shot, their onscreen chemistry fizzled.

GOOD NEWS: Elementary, the updated Sherlock Holmes detective series starring Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson was on the bubble all week. At the last minute, CBS renewed it for a sixth season.

BAD NEWS: Pretty Little Liars is in its seventh and final season. The gang will graduate from the long-running series. That means saying goodbye to Emily Fields played by Shay Mitchell. Watch her say her tearful farewell.

Shay Mitchell

MORE GOOD NEWS:  

• Agents of SHIELD, starring Ming Na Wen and Chloe Bennet in two action-filled heroic roles;
• Hawaii 5-0 with Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park playing prominent members of the core group of actors, and a whole host of AAPI actors who play Hawaii residents. 
• Into the Badlands starring Daniel Wu as THE hero and Aramis Knight as his protege was confirmed for a third season by AMC; 
• Scorpion with Elyes Gabel and Jadyn Wong will be back for a fourth season on CBS.
• AMC's Humans which introduced us to the Gemma Chan, whose portrayal of a beautiful robot is anything but wooden,
• Designated Survivor, whose return was questionable, just made the cut, which is good news for fans of Maggie Q and Kal Penn. (Earlier versions of this blog misidentified Kal Penn. It has been corrected - editor.)
• Code Black, starring handsome leading man Reza Jaffrey, will be back to operate the L.A. emergency room,
• The Magicians with Arjun Gupta won't disappear. It will return to the Syfy channel for its third season,
• Superstore returns with the wonderful cast of off-beat store clerks including Nico Santos and Nicole Bloom along with regulars Kaliko Kauahi and Jon Miyahara.
• The Good Place gets a second season in which Manny Jacinto plays a Filipino who shatters Asian stereotypes,
• The OA, a surprise hit for Netflix, gives fans a chance to discover Jason Perea whose role should be expanded in the second season, 
• The Man in the High Castle, that tells an alternate history in which Germany and Japan won WWII, has a whole bunch of Asian/American cast members led by veteran actors Joel de la Fuente and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa,
• Riverdale loses breakout star Ross Butler, who played key character Reggie, but in its second season he'll be replaced by another Asian/American hunk Charles Melton,
• 13 Reasons Why will have a second season even though the 13 tapes have been heard. That will hopefull give us a chance to explore the back stories of the Asian/American characters played by Ross Butler and Michele Selene Ang.

Ross Butler leaves fictional Riverdale High for Liberty High in "13 Reasons Why."

The fate of a handful of other shows, ie. Aziz Ansari's and Alan Yang's Master of None, in what has become TV's second and third rounds of programs will be decided later this year. 

Some new shows will be introduced next fall with AAPI cast members. That's exciting. Watch out for my yearly preview of the coming season - as always, from an AAPI point of view.

Based on this list, it may appear that there are a lot of AAPI actors working but in reality, it's just a drop in the bucket. Minority actors are vastly underrepresented on in the entertainment industry that includes television, according to a UCLA report on diversity in Hollywood.

The report points out minorities make up 40 percent of the U.S. population but only 13.6 percent of lead actors in theatrical films and 10.1 percent of Hollywood directors.

Darnell Hunt, the report’s lead author  said, “At the heart of it is the fact that Hollywood is simply not structured to make the most of today’s market realities.”

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