Donnie Yen says Hollywood definitely racist
I was not intrigued, not inspired. I wasn’t convinced by the roles they offered me, no matter how sweet the talk was.
LOS ANGELES: Hollywood is definitely racist, figures martial arts actor Donnie Yen.
He experienced this when filming his role as the blind monk Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One.
Disclosed a disillusioned Donnie: “I was not intrigued, not inspired. I wasn’t convinced by the roles they offered me, no matter how sweet the talk was. We were at a big event held by Dalian Wanda a year before I agreed to do Crouching Tiger. Everybody under the sun came. I remember hanging out with Leonardo DiCaprio eating pizza, just chilling. It felt great because, I mean, these are people who wouldn’t normally sit at a table in China, hanging out with Chinese actors, eating pizza. I remember thinking – this is how it should’ve been for a long time. The producer was there saying, ‘ Donnie just do this movie blah, blah, blah.’”
Donnie had also starred opposite Vin Diesel in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, tearing down wide American boulevards on a motorcycle and throwing punches at the bad guys.
In November 2016, Yen made his hands- and-feet imprint at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. It would seem as though he’s embraced Hollywood with a fervour, but as it turns out he went to Tinseltown to do battle.
On what made him decide to participate in the second instalment of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Donnie explained: “But I had no interest in Crouching Tiger. I’d done it all. I’ve done martial-arts movies all my life. There’s no challenge in playing that role. The reason I was finally convinced was because my mentor, Yuen Wooping – the man who brought me into the industry – was going to direct it, so I said yes because it was a matter of respect and face, but that’s it. I said it to the producer’s face, too. I wasn’t that interested.”
But then came Star Wars and Yen signed up. The prevailing reason is because of his children’s enthusiasm for the franchise, but there’s more than that – Donnie saw an opportunity.
“When I took on the role in Rogue One, I felt it was important for me to take a step forward, to develop it so that it would be less clichéd.
“I know they wanted Donnie Yen because he’s Ip Man. They wanted Ip Man in Rogue One. I get it. But I don’t want to portray another stereotypical Chinese martial-arts man. I worked with the producer and director to develop his blindness, to change the lines, the way he looks and the way he speaks so that the character had an added layer.”
Added Donnie: “There’s a large audience that has never watched Asians in films before, so it takes time for them to process an Asian actor. To realise that he’s no different from a Caucasian actor or a black actor.”
While studios are still taking their sweet time introducing Asian faces to Western cinema, the very same ones are casting Chinese mega stars for films that want to make bank in the booming market in China.
Big names – the likes of Fan Bingbing and Angelababy – have been slotted into feature-length blockbusters and given one line to mumble, to cater to the Chinese market. Unsurprisingly, this blatant tactic has failed.
On what Hollywood can learn from this failure, Donnie said: “They need to learn from their mistakes. Look at all these actors and actresses that now say no. It proves it doesn’t work. You can’t just put an Asian actor in there and expect that, because they show up for a second, you’ve covered the Asian market. That is a joke.
“I’m glad Asian actors are stepping up and saying no. If you’re gonna spend months away from home and devote time in your life to work on a film it had better be worth it.”
Donnie Yen, actor