This year, Chloé Zhao became the most decorated filmmaker in a single awards season and made history as the first Asian woman to win the Best Director Oscar. Steven Yeun was the first Asian American man to land a Best Actor nomination, and his “Minari” co-star Yuh-Jung Youn took home the Best Supporting Actress trophy, becoming the second Asian actress to win an Oscar, and the first since 1957. These are strides worth celebrating but, as a new report from Dr. Nancy Wang Yuen, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative makes clear, the industry is still far from an equitable place for the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community.
An analysis of the representation of the API community, on both sides of the camera, across the top 1,300 movies from 2007 to 2019, “The Prevalence and Portrayal of Asian and Pacific Islanders across 1,300 Popular Films” arrives in the middle of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and in the wake of growing anti-Asian violence in the U.S.
7.1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as API, yet only 5.9 percent of the 1,300 movies’ 51,159 speaking characters were API. Two-thirds of the films failed to meet proportional API representation, and 39 percent featured zero API characters. Considered separately, 40.2 percent of the movies had no Asian characters, and 94.2 percent had no Pacific Islander characters.
Just 44 films (3.4 percent) featured an API lead or co-lead, and only six films were led or co-led by an API woman. Yes, you read that right but it’s so shameful it bears repeating: only six of the top films since 2007 had an Asian or Pacific Islander woman lead or co-lead. These API leads/co-leads are comprised of 22 individual men and four women. The latter are Constance Wu, Hailee Steinfeld, Auli’i Cravalho, and Chloe Bennet. Wu and Steinfeld both starred in two movies, while Cravalho and Bennet toplined one apiece. Overall, women only represented one-third of API characters.
“People often ask me whether representations of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are improving,” Yuen remarked. “Unfortunately, when representation looks like tokenism, Hollywood is doing the bare minimum for inclusion. In 2019, 30% of API primary and secondary characters were either one of the only, or interacted with no other API characters on screen. We need to see more than one API character on screen interacting with one another in meaningful ways.”
Credit: USC Annenberg
Breaking down the data further, just 15 API characters in the top films from 2014-2019 were LGBTQ, and none were transgender. Less than two percent of API characters in the top movies from 2015-2019 were portrayed as having a disability. Only 19.6 percent of all API women characters were aged 40 or older. “The image of API characters is predominantly young and largely male, straight, and able-bodied,” the authors conclude.
When API characters are included on-screen, they are often stereotyped, tokenized, or victimized. “The stereotypes still present in top films include the persistent emasculation of API men — 58% were shown with no romantic partners compared to 37.5% of API women without partners — as well as that of the perpetual foreigner, evidenced by non-U.S. accents and use of non-English language,” per the study. “Most troublingly, portrayals of API characters still include violence, death, and disparagement.”
Credit: USC Annenberg
“With the rise of anti-AAPI violence in the United States, on-screen deaths of Asians and Pacific Islander characters are particularly jarring,” Yuen said. “In the top 100 films of 2019, just over a quarter of Asian and Pacific Islander characters die by the end of the film and all but one death ended violently. This, along with 41.8 percent of API characters receiving on-screen disparagement — some of which are racial slurs — films can fuel anti-AAPI hate,” she explained. “With over 6,603 hate incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate from March 19, 2020 to March 31, 2021, Hollywood needs to take responsibility for problematic representations of Asians and Pacific Islanders.”
The behind-the-scenes numbers are also discouraging. Only 3.5 percent of the 1,447 directors across the 1,300 top films were API. Forty-seven of these API directing credits were held by men, and three by women. Jennifer Yuh Nelson worked on two “Kung Fu Panda” movies and Loveleen Tandan co-directed “Slumdog Millionaire.” Zero API women were credited as the sole director of a top-grossing live-action pic between 2007 and 2019.
“Not one API woman has received sole directing credit for a live action top-grossing feature film in the last 13 years,” Smith emphasized. “Inclusion of the API community thus far has been little more than lip service. Opening up opportunity behind the camera for the API community and in particular, API women, is essential to seeing more authentic, humanized portrayals on screen.”
Credit: USC Annenberg
Meanwhile, 2.5 percent of producers in the 13-year sample were API, as were 3.3 percent of casting directors. “Yet the influence of API creators is undeniable,” the authors note. “Films with API directors or API producers featured more API leads/co leads than those with non-API directors or producers behind the scenes. API directors and casting directors were also responsible for casting more API talent in speaking roles on screen than non-API directors or casting directors.”
“In order to reconcile past harm, invisibility, and stereotypes on screen, we first need to confront the hard truths and data,” said Latasha Gillespie of Amazon Studios, which helped fund the report. “This study is an opportunity for all content creators and media companies to examine any root cause decisions that contributed to our current state, but more importantly drive ongoing accountability in our work.”
Read the entire “Prevalence and Portrayal of Asian and Pacific Islanders across 1,300 Popular Films” report here. The findings and other research from Yuen will be presented at VOICES: API Representation in Film & Media on May 20. Registration for the virtual event is now open.
