Aloha Hawaii: Ethnic Diversity & 'Whitewashing' In Hollywood

Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim

It wasn't exactly front-page news last week but the recent decision by Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim and Canadian-American actress Grace Park to leave the highly-rated CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-O is a stark reminder to the entertainment industry that the issue of pay equity based on ethnicity and gender is not going away anytime soon.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence deserves credit for letting the pay gap-genie out of the bottle with her widely-publicized essay in Lenny Letter in October 2015, but Kim and Park are putting their money where their mouths are.

Since its debut back in 2010, Hawaii Five-O, a smart update of the classic 70's TV series starring Jack Lord that ran from 1968 to 1980, has been a consistent ratings and popular success for CBS - and Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park have been a big part that.

So their decision to both leave the show after contract negotiations failed to bring their salaries up to parity with the two main stars means they're not only exiting a high-profile show; they're walking away from big salaries as well as lucrative money from residual profits from the show being rebroadcast in syndication.

Granted, after seven years on the show there's little doubt they'll both be getting checks in the mail from Five-O for years, but it says a lot that they're both willing to place the principal of being fairly compensated regardless of their ethnicity, over profits.

As Variety TV critic Sonia Saraiya pointed out in her article last week, for 14 out of the past 15 years more Americans have watched CBS than any other network, and while the two leading (white) actors Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan are the highest paid on the show, the storyline of the rebooted Five-O is very much centered on Kim's character Chin Ho Kelly and his fictional cousin Kono played by Grace Park - both characters were in the original series.

Saraiya notes that Kim's character is the only member of the fictional police unit that actually speaks Hawaiian on an Island where almost 60% of the population have some Asian ethnicity.

The Asian characters are central to the show's storyline, and promo and marketing materials often feature Kim and Park alongside O'Loughlin and Caan as a foursome.

CBS marketing campaigns promoted the group as a foursome from the very beginning of the show, as shown by the promo poster (pictured left) from the first season of the show.

It's also important to point out the fact that both Kim and Park were successful actors who'd stood out in ensemble casts on widely-popular television series before being cast in Hawaii Five-O in 2010.

It's fair to say that they both had achieved popularity, and their own fanbases, in front of mainstream American audiences as well.

They weren't just draws for an Asian audience.


Fans of the hugely-popular reboot of the television series Battlestar Galactica will remember Park as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (and other subsequent "Sharons"...watch the series).

In a large critically-acclaimed cast that included heavyweights like Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, as well as brilliant performances by Katie Sackhoff (who rocks in Longmire), Park definitely stood out in terms of the range of her talent - and obviously her looks, the American-born actress of Korean descent is a former model.

Starting in 1994, Daniel Dae Kim had put together a pretty extensive television resume of his own before he was cast as Jin-Soo Kwon in the ABC hit Lost which aired from 2004 until 2010.

Like Park, he too stood out in a large ensemble cast on a hugely popular show, and he would eventually become one of the more popular and interesting characters on a series with a massive cult following and an enormous cultural footprint.

If you were a fan of Lost you remember his character Jin-Soo Kwon as the lowly fisherman who married way above his station only to become enmeshed in the evil doings of his ruthless corporate crime lord father-in-law.

Kim's character only spoke Korean on the show after being something of a silent enigma initially in a role that had subtlety and depth - it was clear on the show that he was destined for bigger roles.

So CBS deserves credit for casting both him and Park on Hawaii Five-O, but the network has justifiably been on the defensive lately after receiving widespread criticism last week in the wake of Kim's Facebook post in which he essentially announced that he was leaving the show because CBS was paying both him and Park a reported 10 to 15% below what O'Loughlin and Caan were earning.

Lincoln Perry as Steppin Fetchit 

Don't get me wrong I liked Caan in the Ocean's Eleven films, and while CBS had cast the Australian O'Loughlin in a few different series that never quite hit before casting him as the lead in Five-O, outside of his role on The Shield, I'd argue that in terms of overall mainstream popularity, Kim and Park were just as well-known to American audiences as he and Caan.

So it makes CBS's decision not to up their compensation accordingly all the more puzzling - particularly given the network's decision to launch a diversity initiative to nurture and promote more minority talent within its own ranks.

This is not a new battle for the entertainment industry or America for that matter.

And it didn't start with the #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign launched after the 2015 Oscar nominations.

It stretches back to the complex film legacy of African-American actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known to audiences by his theatrical stage name "Steppin Fetchit", who became the first person of color to achieve major Hollywood success in the 1930's by playing a character that many considered a degrading racist caricature that promoted negative stereotypes about blacks.

Rex Harrison was cast as the lead in the 1946 film, Anna and the King of Siam, which would famously be rebooted in the film version of Rodger's and Hammerstein's musical The King and I with Yul Brynner playing the lead - as much as I've admired Harrison's performances in films like My Fair Lady and Dr. Doolittle, it's painful to watch him in Anna and the King of Siam because he plays the role as a tired cliche, relying on awkward ethnic stereotypes.

In the 1950's it manifested in Hollywood's decision to cast John Wayne as the 13th century Mongol warlord Genghis Kahn in the 1954 film distributed by RKO, The Conqueror - still widely regarded as one of the film industry's epic casting fails, the big budget Howard Hughes production is ranked as one of the worst films of all time

Remarkably, Wayne actively campaigned hard for that role.

Perhaps he'd been in so many Hollywood westerns where Native Americans had been played by white actors in brown makeup (like John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers) that he didn't think twice about the broader cultural impact of a white actor donning make up and prosthetics to play an iconic Asian conqueror.

Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi 

Actor Mickey Rooney was cast as Audrey Hepburn's comically-frustrated (some say racist) Japanese neighbor Mr. Yunioshi in the brilliant 1961 film adaptation of Truman Capote's 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany's.

A role that director Blake Edwards obviously intended as over-the-top comedy that's now seen by many as an extension of the kind of degrading "Yellow menace" stereotypes of Japanese people that were so common in print, cartoons and films in America during World War II.

White actors playing Asian characters has come to be known as "Yellowface".

A play on the term "Blackface" used to describe white actors who used to play black people by putting on black makeup.


In various forms, Yellowface continues to be an ongoing issue in major Hollywood productions, spurred not by any lack of qualified and talented Asian or Asian-American actors.

It's largely the result of the mostly white male directors, producers, casting agents, marketing executives and agents responsible for making the decision to cast more well-known white actors in roles written for people of Asian descent on the premise that it will "boost box office draw for mainstream audiences."

You may recall the controversy that surrounded director Cameron Crowe's decision to cast Emma Stone as Allison Ng in the 2015 film Aloha; a character who was Hawaiian and 1/4 Asian with a father who was half Chinese.

Josh Duboff's June 3, 2015 article in Vanity Fair offers an excellent summary of the controversy as well as the text of Cameron Crowe's heartfelt apology and explanation for the casting decision that generated such negative buzz for Aloha and led to it bombing at the box office for Sony.

As much as I admire Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper (who co-starred in Aloha) as actors, the reality is that the both of them are A-Lister's who are going to get the lion's choice of the quality scripts that come down the pipeline in Hollywood; based not only on their talent and looks, but on the fact that the bulk of the roles in those scripts are going to be written for white people.

So given the startling lack of quality roles for Asian-Americans and Asians in mainstream Hollywood films and television, one would think that Sony would have actively looked to cast an actress of Asian descent for the role of Allison Ng - because it would have served the story better in terms of authenticity and because it's good for the industry as a whole.

Tilda Swinton & the Ancient One, the Asian character
she was cast to play in 2016's Dr. Strange  

More recently the issue came up again in 2016 with the release of the box office smash film adaptation of the Marvel comic Dr. Strange.

The powers that be at Walt Disney Studios and Marvel Studios made the decision to cast the enigmatic British actress / performance artist Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One.

An ancient Asian sorcerer who taught Dr. Strange who is central to the story.


For years the character in the Marvel comic book has been an elderly Asian man, and certainly there are scores of Asian male actors who could have owned that role in the film.

But Marvel Studios decided to cast the Nordic-blonde Swinton, and make the Ancient One a somewhat androgynous Celtic character.

Which, in terms of cross-gender casting is fine, but why?

Did making the Ancient One a Celtic woman make Dr. Strange a better story?

It'll be a long time before we see an elderly blond female character be played by a young Asian male actor in a major Hollywood production.

Margaret Cho

Comedian / writer Margaret Cho penned an open letter to Swinton accusing her of being complicit in the 'Whitewashing' of a character who should have been Asian.

The letter was published in the Hollywood Reporter and offers a piercing critique and insightful analysis of how the film and television industry perceives and treats Asians - maybe CBS execs should have read it before letting Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park go from Hawaii Five-O over a few measly dollars.


Don't get me wrong, I don't think the executives at CBS responsible for this were being intentionally racist or ethnically insensitive.

But I do believe the current state of diversity in mainstream film and TV should have better informed their decision.

Interested in some more perspective on this issue?

Read "What It's Really Like to Work In Hollywood (If You're Not a Straight White Man)", an article in the New York Times by Melena Ryzik from 2016 that offers some unique insights from 27 different men and women who've that found success in the industry is a complex and often rocky road.

Their real-life observations bring home the harsh reality of the specter of ethnically diverse casting decisions that reflect the broader diversity of the American film audience that has loomed over Hollywood for years.

Compensating talent fairly regardless of gender or ethnicity is yet another unpleasant chapter of a long story that has thus far had a decidedly non-Hollywood ending.

Perhaps the courageous decision by Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park will mark a change in a story arc that needs a major plot change.

Left Untouched - Oscar Boycott Blowback & Straight Outta Compton

UK actress Charlotte Rampling 

Over the course of this first month of 2016 I've already used this blog as a platform to vent about the film industry's ongoing struggle with diversity epitomized by the blowback over the Academy choosing not to nominate a single person of color for any of the 20 acting awards categories.

But with the 2016 SAG Awards coming up this Saturday, I wanted to circle back and take a quick look at some of the fallout from the Oscar nomination controversy since I blogged about it last Tuesday.

First let me say that I was quite impressed with the quality of former model-turned actress and 60's "It Girl" Charlotte Rampling's work on Showtime's series Dexter during the 2013 season, and more recently on the second season of the BBC series Broadchurch.

But given the litany of complaints from actresses about the lack of quality film roles for women "of a certain age", it struck me as more than a bit ironic that that the 69-year-old Rampling (who received a 2016 Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work in 45 Years) caused a stir during an interview last Friday morning with the French radio network Europe 1 when she announced that the protests over the Oscar nominations were "racist to whites."

Obviously Rampling is entitled to her opinion, but I felt that was a bit much.

To me, the reactionary tone of her comments made it seem as if she completely misread the widespread controversy over the Oscar nominations flap.

Hollywood executive DeVon Franklin

Most of the informed opinions and comments I've read from African-American and white Hollywood industry folks who were upset about the 2016 Oscar nomination seem more focused on the need of the Academy (and the film industry) to make inclusion and diversity in front of and behind the camera more of an industry priority.

With all due respect to Ms. Rampling, it's much more complex than some simplistic sweeping judgement that every one of the thousands of white Academy members are all "racists".

Cheryl Boone Issacs, the Academy's president,  is African-American and there are a number of African-American, Hispanic and Asian Academy members.

I think DeVon Franklin summed it up nicely in a short op-ed he wrote in the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

Franklin is the African-American producer and chairman of Franklin Entertainment and a former senior VP of production at Sony's Columbia Pictures and MGM executive who produced such films as the remake of The Karate Kid, The Pursuit of Happyness and Jumping the Broom. In the THR article he wrote (in part):

"What we have seen in the Oscar nominations is only a symptom of the larger problem. It's not like the Academy and Hollywood system are two independent entities; this is an issue of Hollywood not having enough systems in place to deal with the problems that have been generational in terms of embracing all things that are different. Part of the problem is that, historically, the issue of diversity ends up falling on the shoulders of the human resource departments at the majority of studios and agencies. And unfortunately, the creative initiatives that actually produce change get left untouched. " 

But to be fair, Rampling wasn't the only high-profile actress to react a bit defensively to the Oscar nominations boycott protests and the explosion of the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. 

Penelope Ann Miller as Eve in ABC's American Crime

As Scott Feinberg reported in the January 29th issue of The Hollywood Reporter, actress Penelope Ann Miller (whose resume includes roles in films like Chaplin, Carlito's Way, The Freshman, and Awakenings) was one of the Academy members from the actors branch who took issue with being associated with what she felt were sweeping charges of racism leveled against the Academy. 

As Miller told Feinberg in the THR interview, she herself cast votes for African-American performers in the 2016 Oscar nominations, "But to imply that this is because all of us (Academy members) are racists is extremely offensive. I don't want to be lumped into a category of being a racist because I'm certainly not and because I support and benefit form the talent of black people in this business." 

As Feinberg noted, Miller had a meaty role in African-American writer John Ridley's critically acclaimed ABC series American Crime; Ridley won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 2013 for Twelve Years a Slave and is the author of seven novels.

Miller will also appear in the upcoming film about the true story of Virginia slave Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion The Birth of a Nation, which recently garnered a record $17.5 million bid for distribution rights by Fox Searchlight at the Sundance Film Festival - a clear sign that the film industry is already actively seeking out films and performances by African-American filmmakers and actors that will qualify for the 2017 Oscar race.

So clearly she's not a racist ( and I don't think anyone suggested she was) but I respect her coming out and setting the record straight.

Actress Whoopi Goldberg

Obviously the reactions from Hollywood actors/actresses and executives has been varied.

On the other side of the coin there were the high-profile decisions to boycott the Oscars altogether by director Spike Lee, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith and later, her husband Will Smith.

Talk show host, comedienne and Oscar-winning actress Whoppi Goldberg was predictably blunt about her feelings about calls for other African-American actors to boycott the Oscar Awards ceremony in February.

As Goldberg, herself  a voting member of  the Academy was quoted as saying:

"Boycotting doesn't work, and it's also a slap in the face to [host] Chris Rock. So I'm not going to boycott, but I'm going to continue to bitch."

While it is important to remember that there were no Hispanic or Asian faces on the 2016 Oscar nominations either, Whoppi is not the only African-American who disagreed with the Smith's and Lee's decision to skip the 2016 Oscars.

Luther Campbell

On Tuesday, the Miami fixture and popular former Two Live Crew frontman / rapper Luther Campbell penned an op-ed in The Miami New Times titled, "Boycott Will Smith, Not the Oscars, Until He Does More For Black Actors".

In his op-ed, Campbell, a long-time community activist who's been giving of his time and money to inner city Miami youth for years, suggested that Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith's reasons for boycotting the Oscars were more selfish as he (Will Smith) was upset about being overlooked for his role in the film 'Concussion'. 


I don't know Will Smith personally and he's notoriously guarded about his private life, but whatever specifically motivated his decision, I still think it took some cojones for him to publicly announce he was boycotting an industry event like the Oscars.

Regardless, Campbell took Smith to task for not using the millions he's made over the course of his career to do more to promote diversity in the industry.

Last year, after the Academy failed to nominate a single actor / actress for the 2015 Oscars, the African-American former attorney and writer April Reign coined the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which blew up on social media as thousands of Twitter messages used the hashtag to voice the outrage that millions of people of all races felt.

#OscarsSoWhite creator April Reign

Her hashtag creation has exploded once again, and in the wake of the second consecutive year of the Academy nominating no performers of color, Reign offered a more practical solution to the problem, saying:

"I wonder if it makes sense to review how people become members and the requirements with respect to voting. For instance, it is not required that members actually view the movies before they vote."

Reign raises an important question that many have brought up; that some Academy members may have failed to nominate some performances simply because they didn't see them.

Or, in the case of a film like Straight Outta Compton directed by F. Gary Gray, the Academy membership (which is over 70% white with an average age of 63-years old) might simply not have felt connected enough with the story material to bother to see it - or be interested to.

As I've mentioned, as a member of the Screen Actors Guild, I make it a point to see as many of the nominated films as possible before I cast my vote for the SAG Awards.

I wanted to conclude this blog by saying that I've seen The Big Short, Spotlight and Straight Outta Compton. All of which are excellent films based on real-life experiences-stories.

Each of these films is vying for the SAG Award that recognizes an entire cast as an ensemble; a category the Oscars doesn't recognize (as if the Oscars telecast isn't long enough without adding a category where the whole cast has to come up on the stage...).

Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell & O'Shea Jackson, Jr.

The SAG ensemble award is quite prestigious and coveted by actors, and I have to say that having seen all three films, my vote is going to Straight Outta Compton.

I think it's possible a number of Academy members made the mistake of assuming that this film was simply about rap music.

It traces the career arc of the gangsta rap super group NWA and chronicles their rise from young kids living in the notorious Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles aspiring to create their own brand of hip-hop music, to their rise to global fame, and the eventual departure of stars Dr. Dre and Ice Cube onto huge solo careers.

This is one of the best films I've seen all year. It's a classic American story that traces the lives of characters that everyone can identify with; regardless of whether you like rap music or not.

The three main characters (pictured above), are played by Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre), Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E) and O'Shea Jackson, Jr. (Ice Cube), and they deliver nuanced performances that evolve and change over the course of the film.

These young actors breathe life, humanity and depth into musical icons who, for most people, have only really been known from the millions of albums they've sold since the late-80's.

Paul Giamatti as Jerry Heller

Paul Giamatti's role as record producer Jerry Heller helps to anchor these character performances in ways that are profound and offer relevant commentary and insight into the American music industry.

This film is filled with universal themes that resonate with film audiences like family, friendship, forgiveness, the burning desire to "escape and make something of oneself" - and the perils and pitfalls of fame and fortune.

Some members of the Academy's writers branch, like Jeremy Larner, have said publicly that they felt this film was not worthy of a Best Picture nomination because, in his words, it's "not a great film for reasons of structure and substance."

As a writer I happen to disagree with him. A film does not have to be edited in a complex, non-linear fashion (like The Imitation Game for example) that jumps back and forth in time in order to have solid story structure.

And I'd challenge you to watch the film and say it doesn't have substance. Straight Outta Compton chronicles seismic changes in the music industry in the late 80's and 90's as hip-hop moved into the mainstream and literally altered the definition of pop music and entertainment.

Original members of NWA

In a nod to it's cultural relevance to issues that affect our society today, it also does an excellent job of showing how the outrageous conduct of the police who's presence in Compton and abusive treatment of some of it's black residents inspired NWA to write their classic controversial hit, 'Fuck Tha Police', which was vilified by politicians, conservatives, parent's groups and members of law enforcement in the 90's.

Even as it became an anthem for a young generation that learned how to protest the abuse of police power through the music of NWA.

The acting ensembles in The Big Short and Spotlight were excellent, and the actors in those films are all top notch veterans, but I have to say that the chemistry between the cast of Straight Outta Compton delivered a raw emotion that touched me on profound levels in ways the other two films did not.

Some might reasonably argue that the heavy subject matter of The Big Short (the sub-prime mortgage crisis) and Spotlight (the sex abuse scandal of the Catholic church in Boston) might have had a more widespread impact on the lives of Americans; but the subject matter of Straight Outta Compton is no less relevant to American culture - and it's impact on society just as lasting.

As film executive Devon Franklin noted, there's a lot that the American film industry has "left untouched".

Universal Pictures Donna Langley

But the decision by Universal Studios chairman Donna Langley to greenlight Straight Outta Compton, believe in the story, and make the film with the full backing of the studio paid off.

The film had grossed over $200 million worldwide back in November and was a box office and critical success and is the highest grossing Hollywood musical bio-pic in history.

No simple feat for a film with an R-rating either.

It shatters the Hollywood myth that films centered around African-American stories and characters won't appeal to white audiences, or make money at the box office.

It also helps to remind the film industry that there is reward in taking risk.

While the members of the Academy did nominate the (white) screenwriters of Straight Outta Compton, I think they may have overlooked the performances in this film; particularly Jason Mitchell's outstanding performance as Eric "Eazy-E" Wright.

But critics and audiences did not.

And when I cast my votes for the 2016 SAG Awards later tonight, I certainly won't leave Straight Outta Compton "left untouched."