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.

'Fantastic Four' Casting Controversy: Hollywood's Struggle To Cast Across Ethnic Lines

Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Miles Teller & Michael B. Jordan

The last time ethnically diverse casting choices in Hollywood were a topic of discussion on this blog was just before Christmas back on December 19, 2014 when the cast of director Ridley Scott's 'Exodus: Of Gods and Men' was generating controversy and a lot of chatter on social media.    

The media images of thuggish-looking heavily-armed civilian "Oath Keepers" standing around the streets of Ferguson being ignored by police is just too depressing to contemplate, so I'd like to weigh in on the negative buzz surrounding 20th Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment's latest superhero summer action flick 'Fantastic Four'.

The reviews for this film have been pretty brutal, and that's from critics and fans alike.

'Fantastic Four' scored an anemic 9% on the "Tomatometer" and a 23% audience approval rating on the RottenTomatoes.com Website, which said of the critic's consensus of the film, "Dull and downbeat, this Fantastic Four proves a woefully misguided attempt to translate a classic comic series without the humor, joy or colorful thrills that made it great."

As you may have heard, some of those poor reviews have been attributed (in part) to the controversial decision to cast an actor of color for one of the main characters who's always been a white blond-haired guy with blue eyes.

My biggest concern is that the exclusive hierarchy of studio executives, producers, directors, agents and casting directors who wield the kind of clout to get mainstream films made in Hollywood will read way too far into the word-of-mouth social media buzz surrounding the casting of African-American actor Michael B. Jordan (pictured above) in the role of Johnny Storm, The Human Torch.

Jack Kirby-illustrated Fantastic Four cover

As a self-professed film geek who also grew up collecting comic books (and still does) and has written unsold screenplays and graphic novel scripts, I think part of the problem with the audience reaction to this 2015 Fantastic Four film stems from the departure from the look of the traditional characters in the hugely-popular comic book series.

Fantastic Four fans have remained devoted to the comic book since it first came out in the 1960's during the "Golden Age" of Marvel Comics. The signature "look" of the four main characters has remained relatively unchanged over the years.

Aside from some minor alterations to the color and style of the their distinctive uniforms, and periodic changes to Susan Storm's hair styles over the years, this classic comic book cover from the 1960's (pictured left) is basically the image of the characters that has been ingrained into the minds and imaginations of countless thousands of Marvel comics readers.

Through JFK, Vietnam, the Civil Rights struggles of the 60's, the NASA moon landings, Nixon, Watergate - the Fantastic Four pretty much remained a constant.

That "constant" was comforting to fans in the same way the Enterprise crew's Starfleet uniforms on the original 'Star Trek' television series, Detective Columbo's rumpled trench coat on 'Columbo', Archie Bunker's chair on 'All In The Family', or Hawkeye Pierce's worn Army fatigues on 'M.A.S.H' were aesthetically comforting extensions of the characters millions loved - aspects of the characters that defined them.

From my perspective, the differences between the Fantastic Four characters as seen in the image above and the casting of the 2015 film, were simply too jarring for some of the hardcore geek fan base that loves the Fantastic Four; and even the younger generations who flocked to see the 2005 and 2007 films.

As much as I respect the young actors cast to play the Fantastic Four in this third film adaptation of the classic Marvel comic book to hit the big screen, (including Kate Mara as Susan Storm / The Invisible Girl, Kamie Bell as Benjamin Grimm / The Thing and Miles Teller as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic) the casting choices are just one of the reasons this film has performed well below expectations.

But it's the casting of an African-American actor to play Susan Storm's brother Johnny that's been one of the more controversial issues being discussed on social media.

Michael B. Jordan as 'Wallace' on HBO's 'The Wire'

Now make no mistake, I'm a huge fan of actor Michael B. Jordan (pictured left).

His work as a performer stood out on HBO's 'The Wire', and considering the level of talent in that cast, and the fact that David Simon's show is regarded by many critics as arguably the greatest television drama ever created, that's no small feat.

Jordan played the character Wallace with a piercing sensitivity and quiet gravitas as the character struggled to find balance between his "day job" in "The Pit" as a low-level drug dealer for the notorious Barksdale crew in the low-rise projects, and raising four young children in squalid housing conditions without the presence of an adult.

Wallace's ill-fated and heart-breaking efforts to try and escape "The Game" and leave the projects of West Baltimore behind later in the series brought grown men (including yours truly) to tears - I know I'm not the only guy who cried when Wallace was killed on 'The Wire', nor am I ashamed to say so.

Jordan's critically acclaimed work in the 2013 film 'Fruitvale Station' about the true story of 22-year-old Oscar Grant's last day before he was shot and killed on a subway platform by police demonstrated that Jordan is one of the most talented young actors working in film today; and clearly a future star.

But that said, while Fox casting him in the 'Fantastic Four' reflects positively on his talent and status as an actor now seen by the industry as a 'bankable' star, I don't think the casting choice served the story itself.

As much as fans of the Fantastic Four comic series and film fans in general also like Jordan as an actor, I think Johnny Storm being reintroduced in the reboot of the franchise as an African-American created a lot of confusion and awkward discomfort.

'Fantastic Four' just wasn't the right project to do that.

The Fantastic Four have been around since the 60's and Sue and Johnny Storm being siblings is just part of that story line; they happen to both be blond and blue-eyed. There's nothing racist about that; that's the way legendary Marvel illustrator Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee created the characters.

Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura on  the original 'Star Trek' 

Imagine if a new 'Star Trek' film came out and Lieutenant Uhura was cast as a blue-eyed blond; how do you think long-time fans of the show would react?

Uhura's race was an essential component of 'Star Trek's' identity in the same way Sue and Johnny Storm almost looking like twins was an essential component of the Fantastic Four.

When Fox made the decision to change that character element, they essentially tried to fix something that wasn't broken.

From a media marketing standpoint, it was kind of like Coke introducing New Coke.

A major studio like 20th Century Fox has more than enough resources to hire writers to come up with an action vehicle for Michael B. Jordan to act in with a diverse cast; but even if their intention was to try and attract more younger African-Americans into seeing the film, trying to thrust Jordan into the Johnny Storm role was a mistake - and it cost them.

To me this is not about the money. The studio executives from Fox who put $120 million into the production of the latest 'Fantastic Four' plus millions more to market it would obviously disagree with me on that, but box office numbers are how Hollywood gauges success, so let's look at those quickly. 

Fantastic Four was released over the weekend of August 7th on 3,995 theater screens during what was generally a pretty busy three day period for film releases, but it only pulled in $26.2 million.

To put that into perspective that's the lowest box office opening for a major release featuring Marvel characters since 'Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance' premiered to a $22.1 million opening weekend back in 2012.

Compare that to the staggering $191.3 million 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' made for Disney's Marvel release over it's opening weekend back in April; it's since made $1.3 billion worldwide.

Again, what troubles me is that the Johnny Storm casting issue will overshadow the other  reasons that the 'Fantastic Four' movie didn't connect with audiences.

First, in my opinion Miles Teller, cast as Reed Richards, was not an effective casting decision either.

Teller is clearly a talented performer as demonstrated by the critical acclaim he received for his acting performances in the 2013 film 'The Spectacular Now' and in the Oscar-nominated 2014 film 'Whiplash'.

Fox's decision to cast him makes sense, particularly since his role as Peter in the mainstream film adaptation of the widely popular Young Adult trilogy, 2014's 'Divergent'  and  2015's 'Insurgent' makes him an appealing choice to help draw the coveted teen demographic to the movie theaters - but casting him as the young Reed Richards in 'Fantastic Four' just didn't seem to excite fans.

'Fantastic Four' director Josh Trank

Fox also took a pretty big risk in handing off the reins of a $120 million production to newbie director Josh Trank too (pictured left).

Trank impressed the industry and fans with his directorial debut, the 2012 surprise sci-fi hit 'Chronicle'; which Michael B. Jordan was also cast in.

That sci-fi film grossed over $125 million for Fox and it was made on a budget of $12 million.

When it debuted at number one at the box office, at age 27 Trank became one of the youngest directors to open a number one film; which puts him in some impressive directorial company.

Steven Spielberg was 28 when he directed 'Jaws' and James Cameron was 30 when he directed the original 'Terminator'.   

You can see why Fox took a gamble on Trank, but handling a $120 million dollar production is a lot different than directing a $12 million film.

Trank clashed with film executives over changes and re-shoots and later shot himself in the foot when he sent out a widely-read Twitter message that essentially shifted blame for the poor quality of the film onto the interference by film executives; he tried to delete the Tweet but it had already gone viral.

As Kim Masters wrote earlier this morning in a Hollywood Reporter story about what she termed the "Fantastic Four Blame Game": 

"Days before Fantastic Four opened, director Josh Trank sent an email to some members of the cast and crew to say he was proud of the film, which, he wrote, was 'better than 99% of the comic book movies ever made.' 'I don't think so.' responded one cast member." 

That kind of arrogance, as well as the decision to publicly air his grievances with the same film executives who rolled the dice and gave him the chance of a lifetime to helm a super hero movie with a $120 million budget says a lot about Trank.

It also offers some psychological insight into his decision-making ability and how that might have affected the kinds of questionable day-to-day decisions on the set and in post-production that led to the film being what it is.

In the wake of the phenomenal success he had with 'Chronicle', in 2014 Trank was also tapped to direct the new 'Star Wars' stand-alone film for Disney, but left the production after clashing with Lucasfilm executives over the direction and execution of the film.

To be fair to Trank, he's gone on record as saying his being personally overwhelmed with the degree to which he was under the microscope and in the public eye during the filming of 'Fantastic Four' led him to rethink being the director of an installment in the nearly-mythical 'Star Wars' franchise.

So it's obviously not fair to simply blame the problems with 'Fantastic Four' on Michael B. Jordan being cast as Johnny Storm, but the week before the release of the film, when the casting change was already creating buzz, a couple of radio DJ's in Atlanta did just that.

Jordan's Atlanta interview

What should have been a fairly straight-forward radio interview of the featured 'Fantastic Four' cast members devolved into an uncomfortable example of how race can impact perception in America.

As Krystie Lee Yandoli wrote in a July 31st piece for Buzzfeed.com, Jordan and two of his 'Fantastic Four' cast mates, Kate Mara and Kamie Bell, got up and walked out of the interview after one of the DJ's interviewing them continued to obnoxiously press Jordan to explain how his African-American character could possibly be the brother of Kate Mara's character who is white. 

Jordan was patient and professional about it as he tried to explain to the DJ that there were any number of reasons a black person and a white person could be siblings, but the interview turned south and the three actors simply got up and walked out.

But as we know, controversy over casting characters is hardly new for Hollywood and it's interesting how audience and fan reaction to Hollywood casting decisions can vary widely.

Authentically Asian? Actress Emma Stone

Director Cameron Crowe was recently forced to issue an apology for his decision to cast white frequently-blond haired actress Emma Stone (pictured left) as character Alison Ng, who is one quarter Asian, in his recent comedy 'Aloha'.

Vanity Fair's June 3rd article by Josh Duboff was just one of the slew of mainstream and social media articles covering the casting flap after fans and some critics reacted negatively to Sony's decision to not cast an authentically Asian actress for the role.

The racist e-mail exchanges between former Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin that were leaked last December and the fact that Amy Pascal was the one who greenlit 'Aloha' only adds to the burden Sony faces as it struggles to overcome the pall of bigotry and ethnic insensitivity that hangs over the studio like a cloud.

Consider this, Pascal was also the one who greenlit 'The Interview', a dark comedy about a fictional assassination attempt of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

It was okay for Sony to cast an Asian actor to play a buffoonish Korean dictator who's portrayed as an idiot, but when it came to casting the part-Asian female love interest opposite Bradley Cooper 'Aloha'  no talented Asian actress could be found? Really?

The decision backfired for Sony and Crowe as many viewed it as another example of Hollywood "white-washing" film casts because of producer's apprehension about non-white actors in principal roles in mainstream commercial films.

In all fairness, sometimes Hollywood just can't catch a break.

Snarky bloggers like me give them grief for not putting ethnically diverse casts into mainstream movies, then when Hollywood tries to cast across ethnic lines, audiences rip them apart for it.

Do film executives deserve credit for trying? Absolutely.

Decades of history in the film industry isn't going to change overnight and maybe Fox deserves a measure of credit for taking a shot at casting Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch in 'Fantastic Four' even though the film didn't click.

But not every project is going to be a hit. It's already made over $62 million and will make more overseas and on VOD or OTT digital video services like Netflix or Amazon.com; and a sequel has already been announced for 2017.

Who plays the Human Torch next time is yet to be seen, but there's no question Michael B. Jordan has a positive future ahead of him as an actor.

Hopefully next time, the executives at Fox will roll up their sleeves and attach him to an innovative project with an original story line; one where the character can be defined simply for who he is and the choices he makes and not for who the audience expects him to be.