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Two-thirds of characters reflect stereotypes, and just 3.4 percent of movies had leads or coleads who were Asians or Pacific Islanders, the study of 1,300 movies found.Of the 1,300 top-grossing films released from 2007 through 2019, just 44 featured an Asian or Pacific Islander character in a leading role — and one-third of the roles went to a single actor, Dwayne Johnson, a study has found. More
In “Cyclopedia Exotica,” the artist and writer Aminder Dhaliwal created a fictitious community facing xenophobia, fetishization and media misrepresentation. It’s resonating with her thousands of Instagram followers.In the new graphic novel “Cyclopedia Exotica,” immigrants with one eye coexist uneasily with their two-eyed neighbors.Members of the cyclops community are targeted by curious online daters and porn addicts, as well as cosmetic surgeons eager to give them that desirable two-eyed look. They contend with xenophobes protesting mixed marriages, hateful comments from subway Karens and, in some cases, physical violence.In 2018, when the artist and author Aminder Dhaliwal began sharing pages with her nearly 250,000 Instagram followers, she was drawing from her experiences as a South Asian woman growing up in England and Canada, but she wondered if the topic was relevant.“I remember saying to a friend, I want to do a book on microaggressions, but that’s, like, so old. Is it even worth doing?” she said in a phone interview from Burbank, Calif., where she now lives.Three years on, Dhaliwal’s book seems particularly of the moment. It’s tough to miss the parallels between its characters, minorities singled out because of their eyes, and the spate of reported attacks on Asian people in the United States over the past months. “I could not imagine that this would be happening this year,” she said.The graphic novel begins with the story of Etna, the world’s first cyclops sex symbol. Her critically acclaimed 2018 debut, “Woman World,” imagined an idyllic, supremely chill future in which guys went extinct years ago. (Spoiler alert: They aren’t really missed.) Published by the Canadian comics house Drawn & Quarterly this month, “Cyclopedia Exotica” is her second book and has already connected with a diverse readership.“A lot of the microaggression stuff was specifically about Asians,” Dhaliwal, 32, said. “But I also get questions like, ‘Is this about queer people?’ Or, ‘I relate to this so much as a trans person.’”Born in Wembley, London, she moved when she was 11 to Brampton, Ontario, a predominantly South Asian suburb of Toronto. She loved to draw from an early age, tracing the covers of her brother’s video game cases and creating Harry Potter fan art. She knew she wanted to do something art-related but wasn’t sure what she could do or whom to even ask. “Being an Asian kid, I feel like my family had access to every doctor,” she said. “But I didn’t know anyone doing art.”Inspired by a presentation at Sheridan College given by a Disney “Beauty and the Beast” animator, Dhaliwal enrolled in the school’s animation department. “He was this larger guy with a big old beard, and he flips a switch and he’s Belle,” she said. “It was just bananas to me. I knew at that moment that I wanted to dedicate my life to this craft, because it just seemed so fun and silly.”After graduation, Dhaliwal found work in Los Angeles as a writer and artist on animated shows like “The Fairly OddParents” and “Sanjay and Craig.” The work was rewarding — in 2020, she earned a spot on Variety’s list of “Ten Animators to Watch” — but the secrecy and nondisclosure agreements involved wore her down. “So much of my day-to-day is hidden behind N.D.A.’s,” she said. “You get exhausted not getting to talk about the cool things you’re working on or getting to process the hard things you’re going through.”Aminder Dhaliwal began sharing pages on Instagram in 2018. “I remember saying to a friend, I want to do a book on microaggressions, but that’s, like, so old,” she said. “Is it even worth doing?”Joyce Kim for The New York TimesAfter working for four years on a pilot for an animated series that never got greenlit, she knew she had to create her own comics, things she could post online for immediate feedback. She started with a Harry Potter spoof, then a tongue-in-cheek comic based on the Japanese manga series “Death Note.”“Woman World” came to Dhaliwal after she participated in the 2017 Women’s March in Los Angeles and saw signs that read “the future is female.” What might that look like, she wondered? As with “Cyclopedia Exotica,” she questioned her idea early on. “I remember starting to write it and thinking like, ehhh, feminism is doing great,” she said. “And then the #MeToo movement happened, and I was like, oh yeah.”The animation industry had its own reckoning in 2018, dubbed the #MeToon movement. Dhaliwal and her fellow animator Megan Nicole Dong (“Pinky Malinky,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2”) joined others in creating an organization that led to changes in human-resources practices at several studios and the one-year suspension of the “Loud House” creator Chris Savino following sexual harassment allegations. “Initially, we were just trying to create a safe space to talk about things that had been happening in animation,” Dong said. “But it evolved into a much bigger movement within our industry.”The success of “Woman World” gave Dhaliwal new confidence. “I had been working as a comedy writer for years and didn’t know if I was funny,” she said. “I remember asking one of my office mates, ‘Am I funny?,’ which now seems like such a sad question. It’s like a teenager asking a friend, ‘Am I pretty?’ I didn’t realize how much I needed someone else to say yes, you’re funny.”Unlike “Woman World,” the inspiration for “Cyclopedia Exotica” didn’t come from a march or movement. “I wish I could tell you there was some really beautiful reason,” Dhaliwal said. “But truly, I just found cyclops so interesting. So often they just look like people, except for their one defining feature. The first thing I remember sketching were pinup drawings of cyclops, and it went from monsters in erotica to looking at how minorities find acceptance through being attractive.”Dhaliwal is among several artists who have showcased and serialized their work on Instagram, including Lucy Knisley (“Kid Gloves”), Shelby Lorman (“Awards for Good Boys”), and Liana Finck (“Passing for Human”). Like Dhaliwal, many use social-media platforms to show their work, describe their creative processes and discuss everything from depression to writer’s block.“Cyclopedia Exotica” begins with the story of Etna, the world’s first cyclops sex symbol. Later, other cyclops deal with being perceived as overly submissive, the lack of cyclops representation in Hollywood movies, and worries about whether mixed children will have one eye or two.“Aminder has always been so observant about everything,” Dong said. “She’s also friends with so many people, and so many different kinds of people, that all of these things in her book feel very authentic, because they’re either based on things she’s experienced or things her family and friends have gone through.”One cyclops goes to a cosmetic surgeon to get two eyes — a nod, Dhaliwal said, to double-eyelid surgeries targeted at Asians. The character’s surgery doesn’t take. “People die for beauty, because they feel they don’t look a certain way,” she said. “But so often people trivialize beauty, and say things like, you need to get over it, or you need to be OK with yourself.”“That’s the message animation shows always try to tell kids,” she continued. “Be true to yourself. But I think that can be really hard to swallow when the world has punished you so often for being who you are.”In many ways, the current climate of anti-Asian hate feels familiar to Dhaliwal. “I remember after 9/11, and for the next 10 or 15 years, it just sucked having brown skin. It seemed like every offhand joke was about being a terrorist. And then you get this odd experience where you’re like, finally, the Eye of Sauron turns to another group, and your first reaction is like, phew, we’re out of it, the eye’s not on us anymore! When instead, we should be thinking: No one should ever feel like this.”Dhaliwal is working on a new comic series that she hopes to begin posting on Instagram this month. She’s also written for the upcoming Netflix animated series “Centaurworld,” created by Dong, and was recently selected to serve as a mentor and consultant on the Creative Council of Cartoon Network’s shorts program, “Cartoon Cartoons,” which will showcase the work of diverse and up-and-coming animators.While Dhaliwal probably won’t be telling her mentees to just be true to themselves, she will be able to share what it means to be a working animator in an industry that’s gotten more inclusive but still has a ways to go. “I’m going to get to give creative feedback to all these people who are trying to make something and do something really creative,” she said. “It’s exciting to be in this position, because I’ve been in their position so often.”Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast. More
The organization that runs the annual competition honoring theater work in Los Angeles imploded after it misidentified an Asian-American actor.Jully Lee, an actor and director, had a bad feeling about this year’s Ovation Awards, the annual competition honoring stage work in greater Los Angeles. She was a voter who had never been told when the ceremony would be, and she learned she was a nominee only when she was given 48 hours to submit a pretaped acceptance speech for use in the event that she won.She watched anyway.What she saw was not good. The awards ceremony, streamed online last week, showed a picture of a different Asian-American actress when announcing her category. And it mispronounced her name.Lee laughed, reflecting a lifetime of trying to be a good sport. But her boyfriend grabbed a screenshot, and posted it on social media, and he was not the only one.The reaction was swift, and furious, as long-simmering frustration over the functioning of the LA Stage Alliance, which administers the awards, combusted with the pain and anger of an Asian-American community devastated by a wave of anti-Asian violence.Forty-six theaters resigned from the alliance — about a third of its members. And on Monday, the organization, which for nearly a half-century had been the main coalition for a sprawling theatrical ecosystem in the nation’s second largest city, announced that it was disbanding.“It is with deep regret that the board of governors has unanimously decided to cease all operations,” the group said in a statement posted on social media.The rapid implosion was precipitated, most recently, by East West Players, the Asian-American theater that co-produced “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo,” the play in which Lee performed. (In another slight, the Ovation Awards attributed the production only to the Fountain Theater, saying it would not credit co-producers.)The morning after the ceremony, Snehal Desai, the producing artistic director for East West Players, announced that his theater was revoking its membership in the alliance, and urged others to do the same.“I felt like I needed to make a strong statement, because we were paying to be part of this organization that was diminishing us,” Desai said. “And I did call on other theaters to join us, because I wanted more than statements of support. Statements don’t do anything.”Many of the region’s theaters, which had been speaking up in support of diversity, equity and inclusion, first in response to the unrest over racial injustice last summer, and then again in response to hate crimes this spring, followed suit.“This was an inexcusable, terrible, unfortunate act, but it was also emblematic of a bigger failure of the LA Stage Alliance in the past few years,” said Danny Feldman, the producing artistic director at Pasadena Playhouse, who said the organization’s inadequacy had become more clear during the pandemic. “They lost the confidence of the community, and this was the tipping point.”The LA Stage Alliance was a nonprofit, dating back to 1975, that sought to support theater in Los Angeles. In addition to overseeing the Ovation Awards, it maintained onStage:LA, a website with listings and ticket discounts and published a digital arts magazine called @This Stage.Last summer the organization furloughed its staff; emails to the executive director, Marco Gomez, were answered by a publicist, Ken Werther, who said the leadership was declining to make any further comments.Lee, in an interview on Monday, said she was uncomfortable being seen as the face of the controversy, but also upset about the events that had transpired..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-yoay6m{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-yoay6m{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1pd7fgo{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pd7fgo{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-1pd7fgo:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1pd7fgo{border:none;padding:20px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #121212;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“I was trying to be brave, and trying not to make it a big deal,” she said. “But then, reading all the posts — all the anger and pain that was being expressed — I had to acknowledge that this is angering and painful and hurtful. And there have been so many attempts to try and get the LA Stage Alliance to be more inclusive, and they’ve largely been ignored.”Deaf West Theater, the nation’s leading sign language theater, sought unsuccessfully to have this year’s Ovation ceremony interpreted for the deaf. “All of these oppressions go hand in hand,” said DJ Kurs, the theater’s artistic director. “We are all fighting the same fight, and we are fighting it together.”Los Angeles has a robust theater community that is often overshadowed by the city’s film and television industries, and includes not only a handful of big-budget nonprofits, but also a large number of small organizations, many of which were facing financial stress even before the pandemic.Throughout the pandemic, 65 of the “intimate theaters” have been meeting collectively as Alternative Theaters of Los Angeles to compare notes and support one another.Gary Grossman, an organizer of the group and the producing artistic director of Skylight Theater Company, called the collapse of the stage alliance “the right outcome.”“They have not represented the community,” he said. “It needs to be rethought from the ground up.”A variety of Los Angeles theater industry leaders interviewed Monday said the stage alliance was already in trouble financially before the latest conflagration, and its future had seemed uncertain throughout the pandemic.And several described a number of grievances with the organization, citing insufficient diversity in its leadership and programming, an ineffective response to the pandemic, high membership dues that made it harder for some theaters to participate, and a “pay to play” system in which theaters were supposed to pay a fee for each production they wanted considered for an award.“There’s been a fraught relationship from the perspective of most theater companies,” said Meghan Pressman, the managing director and chief executive at Center Theatre Group, which is the biggest of the Los Angeles nonprofits. Pressman said many theater administrators have already begun talking about what happens next.“I do think the community can come together to craft what we need in an organization,” she said. “And I don’t know if these awards will continue, but I feel strongly that some awards should, because it’s an important way to celebrate the theater community.” More
The comedian said it was not “another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong that was done on my part.”Jay Leno, the longtime “Tonight Show” host, apologized for a history of making anti-Asian jokes, saying that at the time he “genuinely thought them to be harmless” but now hopes for forgiveness from Asian-Americans.The comedian said in a joint statement with the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, a watchdog group that tracks anti-Asian comments and incidents in the media and entertainment industries, that he had an attitude at the time that “some group is always complaining about something, so don’t worry about it.” Whenever the show received a complaint, he said, the response was divided into two camps: “We need to deal with this” or “screw ’em if they can’t take a joke.”“Too many times I sided with the latter even when in my heart I knew it was wrong,” Mr. Leno said. “That is why I am issuing this apology. I do not consider this particular case to be another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong that was done on my part.”It was a recent realization. In 2019, Mr. Leno, who hosted “The Tonight Show” from 1992 to 2014, made an offensive anti-Asian joke while filming a commercial for “America’s Got Talent,” the actor and producer Gabrielle Union told Variety.MANAA, the watchdog group, had complained for decades about Mr. Leno’s jokes that relied on stereotypes of Asians, to no avail. Rob Chan, the president of the group, said in the statement that he was “happy that Jay came around, and that we will be working together in the future.”Mr. Leno is slated to host a rebooted game show, “You Bet Your Life,” starting in the fall.Mr. Leno’s apology came as Asian-Americans have endured rising discrimination and racist language during the coronavirus pandemic, while also processing the trauma of a recent mass shooting in the Atlanta area in which six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent. Mr. Leno said he would be “deeply hurt and ashamed if somehow my words did anything to incite this violence.”Some Asian-Americans have long argued that their concerns about anti-Asian speech are frequently dismissed as trivial. Asian-Americans have historically been underrepresented in Hollywood and in comedy, and in 2016, a bit by the comedian Chris Rock that relied on Asian stereotypes made it to the Oscars ceremony.While late-night comedians pick a variety of targets, it’s not the first time Mr. Leno has been criticized for jokes that got laughs at the time. Recently, a documentary about Britney Spears by The New York Times brought increased scrutiny to jokes by several late-night hosts about her mental health. Mr. Leno has not apologized to the singer, though others, including Justin Timberlake and some publications, have said they regret their behavior.Azi Paybarah contributed reporting. More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyKelly Marie Tran: ‘I’m Not Afraid Anymore’The actress has left the “Star Wars” bullies behind to star as Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess in “Raya and the Last Dragon.” She says, “I’m finally asking for the things I want.”Kelly Marie Tran in Los Angeles. Three years after enduring vicious online trolls, “I’m a much stronger person now,” she said. “And I have the tools to react to those situations.”Credit…Tracy Nguyen for The New York TimesMarch 5, 2021, 11:24 a.m. ETThere are two Kelly Marie Trans in this story.One is self-assured, confident and eager to show young Asian-American girls that, yes, women who do not have long blond hair, big doe eyes and porcelain skin can get major roles in films.The other is a distant, if prominent, memory.When Tran wrote a scathing essay in The New York Times in August 2018 excoriating a culture that had marginalized her for the color of her skin, she’d just deleted her Instagram posts amid online harassment from “Star Wars” fans. Her performance as Rose Tico, the first lead character in a “Star Wars” film to be played by a woman of color, had been a proud moment for her. But then, she wrote, she started to believe the racist and sexist comments from online trolls. “Their words reinforced a narrative I had heard my whole life,” the Vietnamese-American actress wrote. “That I was ‘other,’ that I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t good enough, simply because I wasn’t like them.”But recent box office successes like “Crazy Rich Asians” and critical hits like “Minari” that have focused on Asian characters have brightened her view of the film industry — and contributed to her own empowerment. “I’m finally asking for the things I want and learning to trust my own opinion,” she said in a video interview from Los Angeles last month. “And I wish so badly that I grew up in a world that taught me how to do that at a younger age.”Tran voices the starring role of the warrior princess Raya (which rhymes with Maya) in the animated film “Raya and the Last Dragon,” out March 5 on Disney+. That makes her the first actress of Southeast Asian descent to play a lead role in an animated Disney movie, a milestone she doesn’t take lightly. “I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility,” she said. “To be honest, I haven’t slept in, like, two weeks.”Tran’s title character in “Raya and the Last Dragon.” She said she felt “an overwhelming sense of responsibility” as the first actress of Southeast Asian descent to get a lead role in a Disney animated movie.Credit…DisneyIn a conversation, Tran discussed how the “Star Wars” films prepared her for the pressure that comes with being a Disney princess, the boom in Asian and Asian-American screen stories, and the pros and cons of life without social media. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Do you intentionally target barrier-breaking roles?I wish! I never thought in a million years that I would be doing what I’m doing now. I was the first woman of color to have a leading role in a “Star Wars” movie; I’m the first Southeast Asian Disney princess — these are things that no one that had looked like me had done before.In your New York Times essay, you spoke out about the harassment you experienced after your role in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Given the recent slate of successful Asian and Asian-American films, does it feel like things have shifted in Hollywood?I’m so [expletive] excited that more of these movies like “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Parasite” and “Minari” are being made. I’m really proud to be part of that change in terms of making movies that honor people from those parts of the world. But there have also been a lot of anti-Asian hate crimes recently, so there’s still a lot of work to be done.Would you still have done “Star Wars” knowing the harassment you’d face?[Long pause] I think I would’ve done it anyway. Doing that first movie was so fun — it was like being admitted to Hogwarts. It was like, “This is impossible,” and then I was doing it. I don’t really look back with that much regret anymore. “Star Wars” feels like I fell in love for the first time, and then we had a really bad breakup, and then I learned how to love again, and now I’m in a better relationship with “Raya.” I’ve moved on, and it feels great.Tran with John Boyega in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” After enduring online harassment over her role in the franchise, the actress said, “I don’t really look back with that much regret anymore.”Credit…David James/DisneyHow are you a different person than you were three years ago?I was so afraid and put so much pressure on myself starting out. You feel like you have to do it the right way or else no one else is going to get a chance. But I’m a much stronger person now, and I have the tools to react to those situations when they happen. I’m not afraid anymore. I’m finally making room for myself and asking for the things that I want. God, I wish I knew how to do that 10 years ago!What are some of the things you feel comfortable asking for now?I’ve been very, very loud about the projects I do and don’t want to be involved in. I never want to further a stereotype or take a job that makes me feel like I’m perpetuating some sort of idea about what it is to be Asian. And I’ve been really, really adamant about my boundaries. Leaving social media was so mentally healthy for me, even though I’ve been told over and over again, “Kelly, you’re not going to get brand sponsorships.” I just don’t care, because I know what’s best for myself, and I know that I’m happier than I ever was being on it.What is most encouraging to you about the entertainment industry right now?I’m most inspired by the people who continue to fight in order for their voices to be heard, and not just in the Asian community, but in the Black, trans, L.G.B.T.Q. and other underrepresented communities. On my dark days, when I feel sad and insecure about myself, those are the shows that I watch and the stories that I turn to. It brings me so much hope that people are speaking their truths and actually having people listen.Asked if she sets her sights on barrier-breaking roles, she said, “I wish! I never thought in a million years that I would be doing what I’m doing now.”Credit…Tracy Nguyen for The New York TimesAre microaggressions something you still encounter?I haven’t recently experienced outward racism in the way I experienced it when I was a young child, but now I experience subtle racism in terms of people who are publicly allies but privately complicit. In Hollywood, there are people who outwardly are like, “We believe in this,” and then when you’re actually in the trenches with them, they do things that show you they are actually complicit with white supremacy, and with institutions of power that have allowed specific types of people to get away with injustice over and over and over again.Your Vietnamese name is Loan. When did you start using the name Kelly?The name on my birth certificate is actually Kelly. My parents, who are war refugees from Vietnam, adopted American names when they started working — my dad worked at Burger King for almost 40 years, and my mom worked at a funeral home. And they gave their children American names. I didn’t realize it until I was older, but it was them protecting us so that people wouldn’t mispronounce our names. But I didn’t realize until later on that it was also an erasure of culture. It makes my heart hurt a lot to think about it.What advice do you have for young Asian-American actors?Do not blame yourself if someone is not educated enough to understand that there are different types of people in the world who exist and who deserve to be heard. Do not internalize racism, do not internalize misogyny, make space for yourself and ask for what you want, because no one else is going to make space for you.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Awards SeasonGolden Globes: What HappenedMoments and AnalysisGlobes WinnersGolden Globes ReviewAdvertisementContinue reading the main story‘Nomadland,’ ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ and ‘The Crown’ Led a Remote Golden GlobesChloé Zhao becomes the first Asian woman to win the Golden Globe for best director.Feb. 28, 2021, 10:40 p.m. ETFeb. 28, 2021, 10:40 p.m. ETChloé Zhao accepts the award for best director, motion picture.Credit…NBC阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版Chloé Zhao, whose drama “Nomadland” offered an intimate portrait of itinerant Americans, won the Golden Globe for best director on Sunday, making her the first Asian woman ever to win that prize.In taking home the award, Zhao also became the first woman to be named best director since Barbra Streisand won for “Yentl” almost 40 years ago. It was the first time in Golden Globes history that three women had been nominated in the category.Earlier in the night, Zhao had also been nominated in the best screenplay” category. (Aaron Sorkin won for the “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”) “Nomadland” is also up for the best picture Golden Globe in the drama category, and its star, Frances McDormand, is up for an acting trophy.[embedded content]The much-praised “Nomadland” follows Fern (McDormand) as she travels the country in a van, picking up itinerant work (in an Amazon warehouse and elsewhere) and making connections with other American wanderers. Zhao, who adapted the movie from Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book of the same name, largely used nonprofessionals in the cast, including people from Bruder’s book.Zhao captured the essence of the story discussing it for Anatomy of a Scene, the New York Times series. She recounted the scene in which Fern (Frances McDormand) wanders through Badlands National Park. “She’s exploring,” Zhao said, “but she’s also lost at the same time.”Though Zhao has been known for indie dramas like this one and “The Rider” from 2018, her next film is on a much different scale: the Marvel superhero movie “Eternals.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixLana Condor said she wanted to show her character “stepping into the world as a young woman choosing herself for the first time.”Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexExit InterviewLana Condor Says Goodbye to ‘To All the Boys’The actress discusses being one of the few Asian-Americans to headline a rom-com and pushing to make Lara Jean more independent.Lana Condor said she wanted to show her character “stepping into the world as a young woman choosing herself for the first time.”Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 12, 2021, 2:31 p.m. ETThe first two films in the Netflix trilogy “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” pretty much checked every box on the teen rom-com boy-drama bingo card: a boy next door, a boy doomed to be on the losing end of a love triangle and, most important, the boy who helps hatch a fake dating plot that inevitably becomes … not so fake.So when it came time to film the final installment, Lana Condor, who plays Lara Jean, the girl at the center of it all, was just about ready for a change of pace: “It’s called ‘To All the Boys,’” the actress, 23, said in a Zoom interview on Monday. “It’s been about the boys. From Day 1. We get it.”“To All the Boys: Always and Forever,” which begins streaming Friday, sets aside Team Josh and Team John Ambrose and Team Peter in favor of Team Lara Jean, as she finds herself on the brink of some major life decisions with high school graduation approaching. She’s come a long way from the hopeless romantic who wrote down her feelings in sweeping love letters rather than acting on them, a habit that set off the antics of the first film when the letters inadvertently made their way to their recipients.Condor in character as Lara Jean, in the final installment of the trilogy.Credit…Sarah Shatz/NetflixA lot has changed for Condor, too. She became a star overnight with the first installment, in 2018, and post-“To All the Boys,” she’s set to star in and executive produce a new comedy series for Netflix.But first, after several years of a whirlwind work schedule, she’s focused on settling into her new home in Seattle with her boyfriend, the actor Anthony De La Torre, and her dog, Emmy. As she prepares to say goodbye to the character that has defined her career so far, Condor discussed what it means to be one of the few Asian-American actresses to headline a romantic comedy and why the Lara Jean of “Always and Forever” is her favorite. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.This time last year, you surprised fans at the Paris Theater in New York for a screening of the second film of the trilogy — an experience that seems pretty foreign now. How does it feel looking back?That was really emotional and made me feel just overwhelmed with joy. I’ve put so much of myself into these movies because I love them. And they’ve also changed my life. But looking back, I was running on fumes at that point, because it was shooting the movies back-to-back and then going on the big press tour. I wish that I had taken it all in and really been present.Before auditioning, Condor read the novel the first film was based on. She remembers thinking, “This is an Asian-American girl falling in love and this is something we need to see.”Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesWhat was making this last film like for you?I remember thinking, “How did I get here?” I wanted nothing more than to finish it the way that I would be super proud of Lara Jean. So I was just hellbent; I was constantly talking to the director and the producers and writers and everyone like, “You guys, we need to show her stepping into the world as a young woman choosing herself for the first time.”It was a crazy emotional experience, because the last few years have been the greatest ups and the greatest downs of my life. [She has said she felt burned out after the first film.] I love the movies, the friends I made in the movies, the story — I love the color scheme of our movies, the pinks and the teals. So knowing it’s the last time I’ll be in the bedroom, the last time I’ll be in the school, all these things that I’ve been spending so much time in in the past three years, is emotional. I’m going to miss it a lot.What was it like filming in Korea?We went during typhoon season. So I was like, who thought of this? But it was amazing. We were just shooting touristy things, so we got to shoot at all locations that we would have gone to as normal tourists. We would meet people on the street and people would walk into the shot as we’re filming and just be like, “Oh hi! I love your movie!” And we’d be like, “You’re in it.”Condor and Noah Centineo in “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” the first film in the series.Credit…NetflixHow did you feel about the way Lara Jean’s story came to an end?Something I’m the most proud of is she never really loses her weird little -isms and quirks, and she never loses or changes her personality. That’s really hard not to do when you’re in high school. Yes, the Lara Jean we see in the third movie is a grown Lara Jean, and she’s different in that she has life experience now, but ultimately the things that make her her, she never let go of.Did you get to keep any of the clothes?Did I get to keep any of the clothes? No. Did I steal the clothes? Yes. We spent hours and hours for every outfit making it perfect, because we saw from the first movie that girls actually went out to buy the outfits.In the third movie, they have this bowling jersey that we mimic from “The Big Lebowski,” so I have that. I have the hatbox, which is not a piece of clothing, but I wasn’t going to leave the set without it. I have this blue silk jacket that she wears during a scene with Peter [in Part 1] when she’s talking about people leaving — “The more people you let into your life, the more that can walk right out.” I love that. I took a pair of jeans, which is not exciting, but it’s very hard to find a good pair of jeans.The movies are based on Jenny Han’s books, and it’s fun spotting her cameos in each film — what has your relationship with her been like for the past few years?She’s like my sister. We’re always on the phone for hours and hours. When we first were talking years ago, she said, “I just want you as Lana and as a young Asian-American girl to have the same opportunities that Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss would have or Kristen Stewart as Bella from ‘Twilight.’” And that was before we even knew we would have three movies. I’ve never had anyone say that to me, particularly as an Asian-American actress — almost to the point where I was like, is that even possible?Next up for Condor is a Netflix comedy series that she’s set to star in and executive produce.Credit…Ricardo Nagaoka for The New York TimesWas that representation aspect top of mind for you when making the movies? Did it add any extra pressure?I read the book immediately before the audition, and that’s when I was like, OK, this I have to have. Because this is an Asian-American girl falling in love and this is something we need to see.But when we were making the movies, it almost was like I was just being Lana. Because ultimately, it’s about a young girl falling in love and showing that anyone can fall in love. So I think that it was in my mind, but it also wasn’t. Because I don’t walk around in life like, Asian Lana going to the store, Asian Lana going to pick up food, Asian Lana walking my dog.We’ve reached the end of what Jenny Han has written for Lara Jean. But do you see a scenario in which we might see more of this story unfold, or in which you might play this character again?I think never say never. [But] the third is all I know. To me, that’s the ending. But I would really like to see Lara Jean and Peter in their mid- to late 20s. Like they’ve gone through college, and I want to see what they’re like in the work space. I have this dream that Lara Jean is working in some realm of literature, I don’t know, in New York, writing, living her life. Because I personally have this feeling that they’re going to try to make it work in college, but they’re going to have to grow separately to be fully ready to come together.But I know for a fact that they’re going to get married; they’re going to live happily ever after. I just think they might need to grow as individuals first. And then I’d love to see them meeting each other again — she’s like at a cafe writing an article for a newspaper she’s working for, and he happens to be there, and they meet again in a new way where they’re older and developed. That would be so cool. If it happens, you heard it here first.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
