Hollywood’s Latest Take on Interracial Romance

“Mission: Impossible 2” may have pulled off one stunt that’s even more daring than anything John Woo concocted with motorcycles or cars--the on-screen interracial romance between Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton.

In society at large the idea of someone like Cruise having an intimate relationship with Newton may not seem so remarkable, but when he appears as Ethan Hunt with Newton at his side in “M:I-2,” it’s somewhat revolutionary. After all, the relationship stands as one of the few times a major motion picture has romantically matched a white male lead with a black woman.

In the 1960s, Ian Fleming’s James Bond series introduced interracial interaction in its most accepted cinematic form. Of course, Sean Connery and the subsequent Bond incarnations have been so cosmopolitan that their entanglements with exotic women were not only accepted but expected. Although the racial barrier has taken several substantial hits in the last 40 years (think James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in 1970’s “The Great White Hope,” among others), Hollywood seems unable to make the big leap that society has. Even with 1991’s “Jungle Fever” and recent interracial relationships, however shallow, in such films as “High Fidelity” and “Boiler Room,” on-screen romances between blacks and whites seem taboo.

But, in at least two recent films, Warner Bros.’ “Romeo Must Die” and Iron Hill’s “Catfish in Black Bean Sauce,” men of Asian heritage are romantically involved with African American women and incorporate hip-hop sensibilities into their characters.

In “Romeo Must Die,” Hong Kong fugitive Han Sing (Jet Li) arrives in America on an assassination mission and eventually falls in love with Trish O’Day (Aaliyah), even though their families are in the midst of a turf war. With “Catfish in Black Bean Sauce,” an African American couple adopt Vietnamese children Dwayne (Chi Muoi Lo) and his sister Mai (Lauren Tom) from a refugee camp.

While people of these backgrounds interact every day in the U.S., their relationships have never been presented realistically on screen, industry insiders contend.

“I think the only reason we pay attention to it is because it’s two minorities that we haven’t seen on screen before, without any stereotypes involved,” says Glenn Thomas Ford, a casting director and film producer who has worked on such films as “The Velocity of Gary” and the upcoming “Used Books” and “Bricks.” “It’s normal everyday folks allowing themselves to be African American and Asian American. I think the world is just allowing itself to reflect itself.”

Often treated as second-class citizens in America, African Americans and Asian Americans have had to battle oppression and persecution from not only whites and the federal government, but from each other. Still, studio executives more often seem comfortable backing a film that has a minority involved with another minority than one that has a white linked with a minority.

“Anything is less difficult for the powers-that-be to deal with than relationships between whites and blacks,” says Mary Alice, who portrays the woman who adopts Lo’s character in “Catfish in Black Bean Sauce.” “This is something that stems from us [African Americans] being here. It’s nothing new. It’s something that’s ongoing and has to do with the underlying racism. It seems to be more permissible for a white actor to kiss a black woman than for a black man to kiss a white woman.”

For example, those interviewed for this article found it highly unlikely that Julia Roberts’ and Denzel Washington’s characters in “The Pelican Brief” would work together, spend time in a hotel room alone and not have a romantic exchange. But in “The Bodyguard,” which starred Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, the couple kissed.

In “Romeo Must Die,” however, the Sing and O’Day families replace the Montagues and Capulets, respectively, as Han and Trish defy their families by supplying each other with information vital to the other’s family and eventually becoming romantically involved.

Dwayne is engaged to Nina (Sanaa Lathan) in “Catfish in Black Bean Sauce,” which doesn’t sit well with his sister, who would rather her brother be involved with a woman of Asian heritage.

Studios Ruled by an Older Generation

However, the younger generation overall seems more open to interracial dating and interaction.

“I think it’s still the same old issues, where the decision-makers [at the studios] want to make sure that everybody will not be upset by it,” says Lo, writer, producer, director and star of “Black Bean Sauce.” “I think that my generation and the younger generations don’t see it as a problem, a threat. I saw [‘M:I-2’] and I said, ‘What a great couple. What a sexy couple.’ I think it’s the people that make the decisions who think that way, and most likely they’re white males who are maybe in the older generations who don’t think America is ready for that [type of relationship]. I believe that they are, especially when the box office is really fueled by the younger generations.”

And that younger generation thrives on hip-hop, which may have something to do with its greater acceptance of interracial relationships.

Although Ice Cube included the incendiary song “Black Korea,” which details the adversarial relationship between Asian American business owners and their African American patrons, on his 1991 album, the platinum “Death Certificate,” the music quickly turned from confrontational to unifying. When the Wu-Tang Clan emerged in 1993 with its debut album, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” it opened the door for a marriage of hip-hop music and martial-arts themes. A major part of the nine-member Staten Island, N.Y., group’s appeal and allure came from the Asian themes and influences it incorporated into its music. Some of the group’s members (Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa) and song titles (“Drunken Master”) were even named after martial-arts characters and films.

For Isaiah Washington, who portrayed O’Day henchman Mac in “Romeo Must Die,” the hip-hop and martial-arts connection was born of the oppression that African Americans and Asian Americans have experienced in the U.S. “Kung fu was always a release for me,” he says. “I felt like if I learned kung fu too, I could do battle against all of my enemies that are keeping me so-called ‘down in the hood.’ ”

With thousands of African American children feeling the same way, and hip-hop becoming more and more of a cultural force, it was a seemingly natural fit to place hip-hop and martial arts together in a film with blacks and Asians in the primary roles.

“The audience wants to see something new,” says Li, an Asian box office star who also appeared in “Lethal Weapon 4.” “This was the first time that kung fu and hip-hop were put together and it gives you a totally different feeling.”

Yet the feeling is irrelevant if money isn’t made at the box office. But the mix of African Americans and Asian Americans must have seemed bankable to “Romeo Must Die” producer Joel Silver, who has also been behind such blockbusters as “The Matrix,” “Die Hard” and the “Lethal Weapon” movies.

Still, as society becomes more integrated, despite the legacy of deeply rooted racism, most studio-backed films are still far off the mark in representing the makeup of couples in metropolitan cities around the country.

But with the success of “M:I-2” and “Romeo Must Die,” the tide seems to be changing, if ever so slightly. “It takes time, education and interaction,” Alice says. “You have to get to know each other so that you can get past the myths that have been perpetuated.”

And, eventually, Lo says he hopes that white moviegoers in general will support films that feature African Americans or Asian Americans without a musical or martial-arts background.

“I’d like to see Caucasians or anyone else come to see movies [featuring either blacks or Asians] for something beyond the hip-hop, beyond the martial arts,” he says. “I’d want them to come see it because it’s a good movie, about a father and his child. Well, this father and child happened to be African American. Let’s go see it. Father and child is a universal theme. That’s what I’m trying to get at. It’s about mother and daughter, family, relationship. All of those are universal. Every country has them. It doesn’t have to be black, white or yellow. It’s really everybody.

“I think hip-hop and martial arts may be breaking through for us, but I hope that it’s only a beginning,” Lo continues. “It’d be sad if that’s the only thing getting through. I really do not want [‘Rush Hour’ and ‘Shanghai Noon’ star] Jackie Chan representing Asian men, period. I think he’s one voice and he’s a valuable voice, but he should not be the only voice.”