 When an Asian actor is asked to put on a fake Asian accent, is it offensive or is it just part of being in Hollywood? Oh man, this is a classic debate that Asians and media have, but it just got sparked again because Stephanie Sue from Everything Every World I Once said that she walked out of an audition because the casting director was like, hey, can you say that again a little bit more Asian? And she said, I'm so glad I was able to make it without demeaning myself and my culture. A lot of people agree with her. Some people said it matters on the role and other people were like, you're so spoiled. You got lucky with that big movie. How are you to hate on the Asian actors that just need to do whatever they need to do to make money? All right guys, we're going to break it down on how you can tell whether an accent is offensive or not. And then we're going to break down some of the most famous Asian accents of recent history in Hollywood and then we'll judge them. Yes, we will be judging them. So guys, please hit that like button. Let's get into it. David, when judging an Asian accent, what's the first thing that people need to consider? All right, so a lot of people are going to say, you know, all Asian accents are okay, man, it's just entertainment and other people want to be like, no, no Asian accents are okay. Unless you were born from that specific country of origin, unless your parents said that accent 10 out of 10 level, you cannot do it. Well, the truth is, it's in the middle. Andrew, you have to look at the context and you have to look at the intention. You have to look at who wrote it. What was the meaning? Is the character cool? Is the character dominant? Is the character submissive? Is it a protagonist antagonist? I actually don't think that matters as much. I just think the character has to be cool and have something to it. You know, like Jun Tao, a lot of people call me Jun Tao to this day, especially when I'm playing streetball. You know, that was a villain in rush hour one, but ultimately it was a cool character that stuck with people and got embedded in culture. Right. I think the next thing that people need to think about is whether it's a commercial role or a movie role. Now commercials get made a lot more often than movies and they are shorter and they're trying to capture your attention and sell something. So oftentimes commercials will kind of maybe try to throw in like an Asian character, Asian face here or there, you know, and just try to try to be like, Oh yeah, buy the laptop. It's great. And then like, that's like a Best Buy commercial. And I believe the thing that Stephanie Sue walked out of was a commercial shoot. I do think commercials, you know, they're made by a lot more often. You see a lot more diversity, but you also see a lot more problematic commercials, even more than movie roles because movie roles have to go through so many levels of bureaucracy before they get made. And honestly, the most ridiculous characters that are the most like 50-50 like Robert Downey Jr.'s character and Tropic Thunder, obviously that's comedy. But because it's in a whole movie and you got to watch the whole movie with them, most people don't really find it offensive. But anyways, the next thing that you got to understand is that the tone matters even when you're asking someone to play a character. Now what this casting director told Stephanie Sue in 2012, can you be more Asian? That is not going to fly in 2023 because what does it mean to be more Asian? Do you mean like this? This is more Asian? Right, more just choppy and broken and I think that speaks to the environment in 2012, how un-nuanced it was. Literally man, Andrew, we started our careers like 10 years ago. I'll tell you this, the environment has changed dramatically. Like the amount of sensitivity that people have to have around culture. Back then, it was like two out of 10 and now it's like eight. Yeah, I don't think it's wrong to ask people to do like an accent and be like, hey, do you think you have a Vietnamese accent or someone who might have been from Vietnam? Do you have that in you? I think that's okay to ask, but you also got to have pull up like a YouTube video of like a Vietnamese actress like saying that so you can compare it, you know, because now there's all this media out here that can kind of double check your accent so accents can be more accurate now. Right, right, right. If they're trying to tell you to say me so hungry in the accent, then definitely you're going to be like, yeah, that's a red flag. I mean, I think the guidelines shift with culture to over the years. Like we said, things that were acceptable back then are not acceptable now. And I think that that's one of the benefits of wokeness, to be honest. Like, you know what I mean? Like a lot of people, there's like a whole anti woke backlash and, you know, we'll make another video about that. But you know, I'm glad to see culture shift in favor of people who are traditionally picked on. Yeah. And I just think it's about accuracy guys. And I think the name of the game is to be as accurate as you can within reason. Give it a good shot. I think last but not least, it just matters on the individual actor themselves, because everybody has a different threshold point of like when they feel like a sellout. And you know, you always have in every industry, there's people who are super respectable Kendrick, Jay Z, J Cole, they probably have a different line than like NBA young boy Kodak little Dirk. By the way, I like all those artists, but you would just say they have a different approach to like what is being viewed as like a statesman for their community. Definitely. Definitely. So those are the things to look out for. And again, I just want to wrap it up by saying, listen, everybody's going to feel you can't not offend anyone, because there's always going to be someone who comes out and says, you know, I found this character offensive. And yeah, that's what it is. I think you just try to do the best job that you can with all the tools and information and talent that we have nowadays. So David, let's go through some of the most famous, most notable fake Asian accents that were put on in recent history. Starting off, number one, we got Jimmy Oh, Yang in Silicon Valley, right? He played Jin Yang. He was like, yeah, this is my combinator now. This is my. So I think some people try to criticize Jimmy because Jimmy's from Hong Kong and he doesn't have this northern. I need some Hong Kong. Yeah, he doesn't have this northern accent, right? So he's putting on a northern accent. And but I think I was very offended. All right, Jimmy, he's a he's a non-fangren. He does not embaldy the northern Chinese spirit, but I would say his character is funny and likable and had a lot of great lines. And it might have been a little weak season one, but I think they did five or six seasons and he got progressively stronger and more alpha all the way through. I definitely think that there's good debates on each side. But Jimmy, funny actor, good guy, you know, I think ultimately, people are okay with it. They came to terms with it. Moving on, Andrew Ken Lerng playing Sang in Rush Hour, aka in the streets, Jun Tao. Even though Jun Tao is a totally different character in Rush Hour. I get it. I get it. Ken Lerng is a Chinese American. He's a really good actor. He played a Cantonese gangster. He said, wipe yourself off. You're bleeding. Yeah, that's pretty nice. I would say I would give him a 9.5 out of 10, honestly. And honestly, such a memorable character, blonde hair, badass. I loved it. Steven Yoon in Minari. Steven Yoon himself is born in Korea, but raised in North America, of course. Yeah, I mean, I would imagine if he was born there, his accent's got to be at least a nine if not a 10 out of 10. No, it's a great movie. Great accent. Did a good job. Great character. All right. Number four, Ken Jong in the hangover as Leslie Chow. Oh man. Man, I would say this. It was almost like he watched a bunch of Peter Chow. I mean, I would say he was basically a Korean guy doing an impression of a Chinese Vietnamese gambler with the last name C-H-A-U. That's how I would describe it. It's a hilarious character. Obviously, it is demeaning the Asian men. It can still be hilarious at the same time. Guys, those things are not mutually exclusive. You can have both. I would give it like a four out of 10 on accuracy. Yeah, but I would say it might be a nine or 10 out of 10 on controversy. Yeah, this was super controversial. And to this day, you know, I see both sides, but I definitely, you know, I don't think Ken is a bad guy. I don't think that he puts trying to make Asian men look masculine on the top of his priority list of his life, though, to be honest. I mean, like we said, that goes back to the individual basis, just like there's different rappers that are just different, you know, there's sports figures that tend to be more political or ones that are more apolitical. It's just like a person to person. Listen, if his goal is to make you laugh and be funny, then he did that on like a 10 out of 10 scale. But that, but that doesn't always fall in line. Because then there's people who are like nice and real life when you meet them, but then there's people who are like that they play problematic characters. And there could be people who play these really great characters that like uplift the people. And then when you meet them, they're a complete jerk. So there's a separation between the personal and obviously the on camera representation of them. Next up, we got Constance Wu on fresh off the boat. This was her breakout role. She played obviously Eddie Huang's mother in this. And I would say her accent accuracy probably wasn't super high. I would say maybe a six out of 10, but I think it was a likable character, had a bunch of seasons well developed. She was one of the stars of the show. So overall, this was not like bad at all. Yeah, moving on, we got Randall Park and fresh off the boat. Same show. I mean, I would say he had a really slight accent. You know, I would say accents, not Randall's thing, you know, in terms of just pure accent wise, probably a three or a four out of 10. Right. But you know, I thought this character was like positive representation. Yeah, for like ability, maybe nine out of 10. Mike Moe playing Bruce Lee and once upon a time in Hollywood, Mike Moe is a Korean, half white, half Korean guy who played Bruce Lee. I thought his depiction of Bruce Lee as far as accent and look and move wise was pretty good. I was almost like trying to be more Bruce Lee than Bruce Lee because you know how you study someone's tics and nuances and you like triple it to really make sure, you know, people think you're them. I don't think anybody really knocked his portrayal of Bruce Lee, but they knocked Quentin Tarantino's writing of Bruce Lee. Bruce seemed like he was on coke, to be honest. Like the way he was acting. It was extra cocky. Moving on. Number eight, Andrew, we got Keong Lee and unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Andrew, we know Keong were friends with him. He played a V in this. What do you think of his accent, man? Keep it real. All right. So to keep it real, I watched clips of the show and his accent is not very strong. It's like barely there, but it's not a great accent. I thought they could have just made this character Korean maybe, but maybe it's for the storyline. But either way, the unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, it's like a comedy and the entire show is very ridiculous. So I give the accent accuracy low, but I give the character like a seven out of ten is fine. Moving last but not least, man, we got the most controversial one maybe up there. Matthew Moy as Han in Two Broke Girls. Man, this is Han. He is this. So Matthew Moy is Cantonese, right? Yeah. Well, he plays a Korean. I don't think he's Korean in real life. Right. So he plays a Korean shop owner. And I gotta give the accent to me. I'm not gonna lie. It was pretty bad. Like a two out of ten. Yeah, it was horrible. It was a horrible accent. I mean, I think if you guys really want me to break this down and I could probably make a whole video about this, it's difficult when you want to be an actor and you're good at acting, but you look like a, like a, you know, you're shorter, you're plumper, you're rounder, and you got a baby face. It's almost like you're thinking about like, how am I ever going to get a steady paycheck in this game? And no matter if I play an Asian run stuff or white owned stuff, which is most of Hollywood, I'm gonna be playing myself most likely. Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna be playing a role that's like playing off how silly I look. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think that to wrap this up, guys, I mean, I think it's fair that anytime you watch, anytime you watch media, you watch a movie or a TV show where somebody got paid to play that person, it is well within your right to criticize that role. Anybody can feel offended by that. And anybody can take any role they want to be honest to. Anybody can take that role. No one's forced to take roles here. So I think at the end of the day, you know, I think that the times are changing where people are trying to do things more accurately. A lot of these roles are from like eight years ago. And nowadays in 2023, I guarantee you that those roles are looked at differently. So I think that times are changing for the better. And I do think that that is one benefit of this woke culture is that certain bad characters and bad like kind of motifs in Hollywood got canceled, essentially. I mean, if I want to keep it really real and not just be like a pop culture obsessed, like Maven or, you know, consumer, which I know, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. I know there's people that are like live their life that way. Hollywood and stuff, it does reflect real life, but it's not bigger than real life. Like, listen, if you're a dude in your life and you're you're carrying yourself the way you want to be represented in IRL, and especially you live in a big city, so you're exposed to thousands of people every day, that's going to be ultimately way more important to shaping people's perceptions than Hollywood. You know what I mean? Like at the end of the day, I don't want to be one of these pop culturally obsessed redditors, you know, because I'm, you know, I live amongst the people. I'm not like so industry minded, you know, like thinking that I'm not saying Hollywood and media doesn't have an impact in the incepting ideas in the people's minds, but so does every day IRL. All right, everybody, you let us know in the comments down below what you think about accents on Asian actors, like obviously, listen, it's Hollywood, there's creative liberties, people got to play different characters. It is what it's all make believe. Okay, everybody's just playing make believe in Hollywood. So of course, you know, people are going to play things that they're not, but let us know in the comments down below what you think about all this. Is it offensive to you? Is it not? Is it just funny? Should everybody just chill out? But just yeah, let us know in the comments down below. And of course, yes, I will say this at the end, characters and scripts that were written by Asians, I would say 97% of the time are less problematic than scripts that are written by people far outside of the community and may not even respect the community, to be honest. Anyway, let us know what you think in the comment section below. Let us know what you think of Stephanie Sue's quote. And should Asian actors put on fake Asian accents that they do or do not have? Until next time, we the hop hop boys, we out. Peace.