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3.03.2008

the asian guy in milk

I recently heard that Kelvin Yu has a role as Michael Wong in director Gus Van Sant's upcoming biopic on San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the United States, who was assassinated in 1978. In real life, Wong was one of Milk's close supporters and political advisors. But dude, look at the character's description, according to this casting call:
Role # 1 Michael Wong

Seeking 1 talent(s) for this role

Chinese-American (CHINESE-AMERICAN ACTORS ONLY). Michael is fiercely intelligent (a nerd, even), and asexual. He is one of Harvey Milk's political advisors.

Searchable talent specs:

Gender: Male
Age: from 20 to 30
Wow. Doesn't really waste words, does it? Just another nerdy, asexual Asian male in a Hollywood movie. What else is new? I find it hard to imagine how either of those qualities will be strongly relevant to the character or story. But that's Hollywood for you. Hardly revolutionary. (Thanks, Thom.)

UPDATE: But wait. It gets worse. Check out a very interesting follow-up to this post here.