Brenda Song not ‘Asian enough’ for Crazy Rich Asians, director responds

Brenda Song confessed that she was not allowed to audition for Crazy Rich Asians for apparently not ‘being Asian enough’ during an interview with Teen Vogue.

According to reports, Song’s managers talked to her after a message from the people behind the film stating that according to them, she was not right for the role. Song stated that according to the people who ran the film, her image was not Asian enough in very few choice words.

The actress shared that a large part of her career saw herself auditioning for Caucasian roles and have gotten cast a lot of times and it was hard for her not to even get the opportunity to audition for the Asian-centric film and felt that they had faulted her for playing Caucasian characters that left her feeling lost in the scheme of things.

Crazy Rich Asians was adapted from a series of books that the actress was a big fan off and made a huge impact in the romantic comedy genre.

Song has been working with Disney since the early 2000s where she starred in many Disney Channel original movies where she was widely known for playing one of western pop culture’s original crazy rich Asian, London Tipton, the hotel heiress in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Song currently stars in Dollface, Hulu’s new comedy series alongside Kat Dennings, Shay Mitchell, and Esther Povitsky.

After Song aired out her grievances, Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu went to Twitter to address Song’s claims. In his tweet, Chu shared the link to the article about Song and said ‘Nope’. According to the director, he loves Song as an actress and that it was unfortunate that this form of miscommunication happened. Cho further stated that she knows who she is and that the actress did not need to audition and clarified that he was a fan of hers. The director repeated his statement after seeing many outlets report on the situation and said that those words would never come out of his mouth because it did not make any sense.

Cho even shared a 2018 article regarding the film’s open casting call and said that one of the fondest memories he had while doing Crazy Rich Asians was when they opened their auditions to everyone around the globe with their open call and said that their casting team were moved by the hundreds of very talented actors around the world who sent out their audition tapes to them.

The actress meanwhile shared that she was very grateful for every job and opportunity that came to her and that all she can do is continue to dish out good auditions to the best of her ability.

 

Alain Ang
Alain Ang
Alain Ang is an editor for Best in Au. He enjoys writing about entertainment, movies, and lifestyle. On off days he spends his time with his rescue dogs, Sansa and Heart, digging holes in Minecraft, and developing his novel.
Share this

PEOPLE ARE READING NOW