By Greg Lehman
Daily Titan Staff Writer

From left, “Fast and Furious” director Justin Lin, ensemble co-artistic director Philip W. Chung, actress Elizabeth Ho and actor Roger Fan discuss the presence of Asian Americans in Hollywood during a presentation in the Titan Student Union Monday, Nov. 9. Photo by Ron Fu.

Guest speakers director Justin Lin, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble’s co-artistic director Philip Chung, improvisational actor Michael Hornbuckle, actress Elizabeth Ho and actor Roger Fan all weighed in on their personal opinions about the place Asian-Americans hold in modern filmmaking in a presentation for assistant professor Eliza Noh’s Asian American Film and Video class in the Titan Student Union Monday.

Noh said that the event was an effort to educate the campus about the Asian American experience in film and to promote a new play, “Grace Kim & the Spiders From Mars.”

“I really wanted the campus to see that there is really big community of Asian American artists,” Noh said. “I just wanted people to know that we actually had some pretty high and hard-hitters in the Asian American art world here, and that’s a really rare opportunity for our campus to have that kind of event.”

Justin Lin, who directed “Better Luck Tomorrow” and the two most recent films in the “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, said he could see the rationale of putting certain ethnicities in certain roles, but he does not agree with it as it limits talent and equality.

“It doesn’t really make sense,” Lin said. “I don’t know if this white kid is going to draw in more people. And that’s something that you find out, that the studio system, the networks, and stuff like that, they’re very backwards, you know. They’re very conservative.”

Lin said this conservative approach works with film companies investing up to hundreds of millions of dollars in a movie. Because these companies are worth billions, they expect to see a profit of hundreds of millions in return. Lin said that this can be guaranteed by playing certain actors and actresses, but that it can lead to a stagnate process where certain people, especially Asian Americans, can be excluded.

“I’m not here to judge,” Lin said.

He made it clear that the creators should be able to do what they want to do, but his disagreement lies in how the business is run by monetary gains.

“It’s a wild, wild west,” Lin said. “I don’t think they’re racist or anything like that, but it’s just that they don’t have a different perspective.”

Lin said that he still suffers personally from a close-minded atmosphere in the movie business.
“We’re at a time right now where even when I go on set every day, whether it’s Paramount or Universal or Warner Brothers, I still have a hard time getting on set because they think I’m the delivery guy or something,” Lin explained. “I was late for the show this week because the security guard didn’t believe that I was directing an episode of ‘Community.’”

“I think Hollywood has to change,” Lin said. “They might be very slow and very conservative but ultimately I think that talent will prevail. I think that Scorsese with all of his asthma and stuff as a kid, he also knew he was going to be a great filmmaker. You have to believe in that. I think that ultimately that is what the business is. It might be the hardest thing, it might be one in a million, but you have to keep going.”

Ho voiced her strong stance of not taking roles that will take away from her artistic pursuits and give in to stereotypes.

Ho said that roles as gangsters, prostitutes and cleaning ladies were the most common ones she was getting, and she saw that these seemed to be the limitations placed on Asian American actors. Recently, she found fulfillment in a new play she had come to promote, “Grace Kim & the Spiders From Mars.”

“It’s a great play,” Ho said. “I’m really proud of the work that everyone has done, it’s been a great experience in the community.”

Fan, who acted in “Better Luck Tomorrow” and “Annapolis,” said he enjoyed coming and talking to students.

“I like the movie business. I love acting and stuff like that,” Fan said. “But I find the most rewarding part about the whole process is actually being able to connect with people, students actually. For me, when I was in college I didn’t have anyone who was kind of maybe a little bit ahead of me doing something that I really want to do.”

Fan said that he hoped that by speaking at the open event he could maybe help people avoid “potholes” in life. “I just really enjoy it, I really do,” Fan said. “Maybe I see a lot of myself in the audience.”

Chung said when he was in college he remembered thinking how it would be good for people who had already made it to come in and talk about their experiences.

“I think it’s something that we all feel happy about doing,” Chung said. “We do what we can to try and kind of fill in what (students are) learning.”