Why Sandra Oh's SAG Award Win, Doesn't Signify Strides in Diversity
Sandra Oh literally dominates any role she embarks on ( Grey’s anatomy , most notably!) - she proves this by winning the SAG award for best female actor in a drama series for her role as Eve Polastri in Killing Eve. Eve Polastri is an undercover agent who’s on the hunt for an expert assassin but they both get engrossed into an obsession with each other ( The boss babe even scored a Golden Globe for the role early last month). May it continue to grow,” said Oh. “Are we there yet? Of course not. But it’s always good to have something to aspire to and to move towards. For us to see ourselves is a deeply human need and I’m here to do my best to fulfill that.”
Despite being one of the very few Asian actors that have major on-screen rolls at this current moment in time, it still doesn’t indicate that Hollywood has achieved total diversity.
In a 2018 Consensus, there are over 17 million people of Asian descent living in the United States, making 5.8% of the overall American population. For mainstream media , the numbers aren’t reflective of this . The gals over at Teen Vogue , realized that only one percent of Asian actors have leading roles in films, which is quite disturbing. The disruption is often times seen through the lens of “race-bent” casting in films adapting books and other texts that don’t necessarily look like what the characters should be ( When Scarlett Johansson was cast for the lead role in Ghost in the Shell , who was derived from a manga series, and the characters in The Last Airbender).
Some of the conversations I’ve had with some of my friends who are of Asian descent, were always out of curiosity. They would always be curious as to why they haven’t really seen people like them besides Keanu Reeves or Olivia Munn ( who are often in white-washed roles). They too believe that they live in a world that doesn’t make efforts to embrace ambiguity but instead reward whiteness as a privilege . Although Oh has proved the ability for an Asian to win an award for their contributions ( even if there is a privilege hold-up), Hollywood definitely has made attempts to insert people of color into the landscape of television and film. This was done most recently in last year‘s Tomb Raider staring Daniel Wu and Alicia Vikander . Another production called Silicon Valley Cast Jimmy O. Yang and Kumail Nanjiani in complex supporting supporting roles ( Nanjiani is a software engineer, and Yang plays a lackluster app developer ). Although these are strides are necessary for the growth of cinema, progress is still running slow because a lot of these films won’t have Asian Americans in leading roles for big studio films unless there’s an element of tokenism such as Crazy Rich Asians recently and The Joy Luck Club back in 1993.
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Moreover, The New York Times made reports that when searching for the lead male role for Crazy Rich Asians, the movie producer was told at the theater schools they went to, that there hadn’t been any Asian male graduates in years. Also, a study done by numerous universities stated that during the course of a year, over 200 scripted shows that were on cable TV and other broadcasting platforms had only a third of Pacific Islander or Asian American people. It’s mind blowing because a lot of the shows are set in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco which has higher population is Asian American and Pacific Islander people across the country.
In other art forms outside of acting, Asian Americans have consistently proved fruitfulness as writers, directors, fashion designers, photographers, etc. The creative intelligence of Asian Americans in these fields are accepted and celebrated, but when it comes to representational art, they remain unseen. It almost gives you the impression that only when Asian Americans and other minorities are hidden, they’re allowed to succeed to their full potential because these positions don’t necessarily require visibility which is completely unfair . Only consistent efforts to make more films with Asian actors and actresses can help eradicate people who have a preconceived notion of one culture , even if it’s not true . We must band together to uplift each other , so our creative dreams can flourish!
Cover via Tom & Lorenzo
