AsianAmericansinfilm

By Lillian Liu

Kintaro Hayakawa, known as Sessue Hayakawa, was born in Minamibōsō, Japan on June 10, 1886. He was the first Asian actor to be a lead in an American film. After being offered a lead role in a 1914 drama called The Typhoon, his popularity increased as he starred in The Cheat (1915) and The Dragon Painter (1919). At the height of his career, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. However, Hayakawa was often typecast as a villain or exotic lover, which was thought to have fueled anti-Japanese sentiment in America. This constant portrayal of Japanese men as cruel or barbarous offended people in Japan, and many saw Hayakawa as a traitor. Hayakawa was also tired of being typecast, and in 1949, he said, "My one ambition is to play a hero."

Anna May Wong, her birth name Wong Liu Tsong, was born on January 3, 1905 in Los Angeles Chinatown. When she was 17, she got her first lead role in The Toll of the Sea (1922), making her the first Chinese American to star in an American movie. However, due to constant discrimination, stereotyping and her lack of lead roles, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 and moved to Europe, where she was in many films such as Schmutziges Geld (1928) and Piccadilly (1929). In 1935, she protested against unfair typecasting by refusing to play a stereotypical oriental dragon lady in the movie, The Good Earth. Wong was also the first Asian American to star in an American television show, leaving a lasting impact and changed the mindset of many Americans towards Chinese people.

Vera Mindy Chokalingam, also known as Mindy Kaling, was born on June 24, 1979 in Massachusetts. She is a daughter of Indian immigrants, and attended Dartmouth College, where she majored in theater. She produced the 2012 television show, The Mindy Project, one of the first American television shows starring a South Asian actress. As a producer, she co created the TV series Champions (2018), Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019), and Never Have I Ever (2020-). Her many achievements include starring in Ocean’s 8 (2018), being on Time 100: The Most Influential People of 2013, nomination for an Emmy, receiving the Norman Lear Achievement in Television Award, and writing numerous books.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Constance Wu's parents were Taiwanese immigrants. She gained recognition for her portrayal of Jessica Huang in the ABC television comedy Fresh Off the Boat (2015-2020), which garnered her four nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. In 2018, she starred in Crazy Rich Asians, a rom-com that is one of the only movies with an all Asian cast. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and she wrote a memoir, Making a Scene, in 2022. Constance Wu is a prominent actor who has helped promote Asian representation in film.