A hurtful casting call for ‘Angels’ role

It seemed almost too good to be true. When the first “Charlie’s Angels” movie was released in 2000, we at the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) could hardly believe that a major motion picture had cast an Asian American actress, Lucy Liu, to play one of the title heroines.

For almost a decade, we had been lobbying Hollywood to portray Asian Americans prominently and fairly. We were sick of the usual Asian images in the media: funny-talking foreigners, inscrutable villains, pliant lotus blossoms, asexual eunuchs. Seldom seen were starring roles for Asian Americans as regular Americans, whose race wasn’t an automatic mark of foreignness or exoticism. With “Charlie’s Angels,” we hoped that Hollywood had finally gotten the message.

Unlike the recent films featuring Asian martial-arts stars from abroad, “Charlie’s Angels” portrayed Liu’s Alex as an acculturated American, not as a representative of an overseas culture. For this, MANAA gave “Charlie’s Angels” a Media Achievement Award, and we were thrilled when director McG attended our annual dinner to accept. We at MANAA hoped that this gesture of appreciation would help further understanding between the filmmakers and the Asian American community.

When MANAA got word last year that the “Charlie’s Angels” sequel would include Alex’s parents among its characters, we were all abuzz. Here, we thought, was a rare opportunity to show an Asian American family in a major Hollywood movie. Here was a chance to show them lovingly interacting like normal Americans, a chance to show an Asian American lead character drawing strength and pride from her Asian lineage. And we speculated among ourselves who the lucky Asian American actors would be to get their big break and shine alongside Liu as her parents.

Then the news hit us like a punch in the stomach: Only Alex’s father would appear in the sequel, and he would be played by British comedian John Cleese. Alex’s Asian mother would be reduced to an image in a photograph glimpsed for only one second.

The uncommon opportunity to see an Asian American family in a major Hollywood movie was torn up and thrown away.

As a finished film, “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” reneges on the inclusive promise of its predecessor. As Alex’s biological father, Cleese is simply preposterous in the role. Liu is clearly a full-blooded Asian and couldn’t convincingly be half-white. And even if one accepts the idea that Alex is biracial -- which is not germane to the story -- why is her Asian parent not allowed on screen?

Adding insult to injury, the Asian men who do appear in “Full Throttle” are merely fleeting, one-dimensional villains: thuggish Mongolian soldiers and Japanese gangsters. With Asian men portrayed so demonically, why would an Asian American woman want one as a father?

Granted, “Full Throttle” is a frothy action flick that doesn’t take itself seriously. But even escapist entertainment can carry deep-seated messages. This movie’s underlying message is that Asian men are believable as nefarious villains but not as loving fathers.

And even though “Full Throttle” plays on racial confusion by implying that Bernie Mac is playing Bill Murray’s “brother,” the story eventually tells us that they are not blood relatives. By contrast, the movie’s press kit describes Alex as “the fruit of [the Cleese character’s] loins.”

Would Hollywood ever cast an Asian actor to play the biological father of a Caucasian? We at MANAA are deeply disappointed. To put it bluntly, “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” took a rare opportunity away from underemployed Asian American actors and absurdly gave it to a non-Asian star who didn’t need the break -- and whose participation in the film is not being publicized. By doing this, the movie marginalizes and discounts Alex’s Asian heritage.

If Hollywood is not going to cast an Asian actor to play the biological parent of a character who is clearly a full-blooded Asian, this doesn’t bode well for true diversity and equal opportunity in the entertainment industry.