Rarely does high-income films have lead cast from the Asia Pacific Islands: NPR

Not only is actor Dwayne Johnson saving the world fast and ferociously, but also Hollywood from largely excluding Asian and Pacific Island actors from leading roles in movies over the past ten years.

Population of the Asia-Pacific Islands Spread and Depiction Through 1,300 Popular Films It is yet another report on the whiteness of the film industry that arrives in the middle of Asian American Heritage Month, Pacific Islands and Central Violence against Asians increased in the United States

As the title indicates, the study by Nancy Wang Yuen and Stacy L Smith and the University of Southern California Anenberg Inclusion Initiative analyzed 1,300 films to track the representation of API personnel on both sides of the camera and between company executives from 2007 to 2019.

The authors say that what they found showed only 44 movies – 3.4% – included an API or co-performer, and only six films led or co-led by a woman from the API. In greater detail, the group’s work reveals that of those 44 films, 14 of them have starred Johnson. That’s one-third of the films starring API personnel. Additionally, nearly 40% of the reviewed movies had no API representation at all.

“People often ask me if the representations of Asian Americans and the Pacific Islands are improving,” Yuen said. “Unfortunately, when acting seems symbolic, Hollywood does the bare minimum for inclusion.”

Yuen noted that in 2019, 30% of the primary and secondary characters of an API were either the only ones in a movie or had never interacted with other API characters. “We need to see more than one API character on the screen interacting with each other in useful ways,” she said.

Just over 7% of the US population is known as API, however, the study, which was funded in part by Amazon Studios and the UTA Foundation, shows that they are nearly absent from mainstream films. And a closer look at the characters they portray provides even more frustrating information. Over 41% of the API characters in the best movies of 2019 experienced some disparagement, including racial or sexual slurs. And 25% died by the end of the movie.

“With the escalation of violence against the American Intellectual Property Association in the United States, the on-screen deaths of Asians and Pacific Island personalities are particularly exciting,” Yuen said, adding that the images “could fuel the hatred against the Association.”

Only six of the 1,300 films analyzed featured an API girl or woman as a lead or participant.

Follow the study prof A recent study It shows that nearly 80% of Asian Americans say they do not feel respected and are discriminated against by their fellow Americans. In the largest group of respondents, 42% of those surveyed said they could not name a single prominent Asian American.

And according to the report, looking for movie industry executives behind the scenes is just too bad. Less than 4% of 1,447 directors over 1,300 top movies were from API.

The study says: “Forty-seven of these API directive approvals were held by men and three by women.”

This does not include the director’s recent win Chloe Chow, Which became this year The most decorated director In one award season and the first Asian woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director Bedouin. It also does not include recent awards for actor Stephen Yun who became the first Asian-American man to receive a nomination for Best Actor, and Yoh Jung Eun For which she won the Best Supporting Actress award, making her the second Asian actress to win an Academy Award.

The report states, “Not a single API woman has taken the sole credit for directing a live action movie across 1,300 highest-grossing films from 2007-2019.

Smith, who led the study along with Yuen, says, “The inclusion of the API community so far has been little more than just talk. Opening the behind-the-camera opportunity for the API community, and in particular, API women, is essential to see more. Realism, human imagery on screen. ”