Now, I'm a little older, I've worked within the studio system, and I realize, it's nothing personal. It's about economics.
The best advice I ever got was from a Jewish American agent, and he said, "Look Sung, I don't care what color you are. If you can make me money, you could be blue. It doesn't matter. You don't have to speak one word of English. If you can make money for us, you're going to be put into movies." And a lot of people point fingers at the actors and say how could you take this role, but Asian Americans need to step back and take a look at themselves. Besides the educated filmgoer, the general public doesn't care about Asian Americans. They're not going to go out to buy a ticket because there are Asian American actors or an Asian American director. Paramount showed us this chart: Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics. And we asked them, where's the yellow part? And they said there is none, because Asians consume like Caucasians. You guys buy, you dress, you read and you're educated like white people. There's no demand for it.
When Better Luck Tomorrow was released, less than 5% of the ticket sales were from Asian Americans. So we also go, maybe it's because of lack of content. And there has been. Slowly though, [as with] Tokyo Drift and The Motel. I've realized that with the younger generation, there is this demand for someone to identify with. So I think there is positive change. But you can talk or argue, and you end up going in circles.
