Breaking into Hollywood
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is the first Hollywood film in 25 years to feature a fully Asian star cast
the Chinese matriarch in Crazy Rich Asians may be the first Hollywood movie in 25 years with an all-Asian cast but the filmmakers hope it will be enjoyed by moviegoers of all backgrounds.
The romantic comedy about an Asian-American New Yorker who goes to Singapore to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy and tradition-bound family of Chinese descent is based on the 2013 best-selling book of the same name by Kevin Kwan.
“It’s been way too long since we had an all-star Asian cast in a Hollywood studio movie, but at the same time, this movie is for everyone,” Kwan said at the red carpet premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“My books are read around the world Model Carmen Soo. Actor-comedian Jimmy O. Yang. in 20 languages, and in the US 80 per cent of my readers are Texan, Oklahoman, Kansas — like, white people — and they love my books. So it’s a movie that everyone can enjoy and appreciate,” he said.
The movie stars established actresses like Michelle Yeoh, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Constance Wu from US television comedy Fresh Off the Boat along with newer faces like New York rapper and actress Awkwafina and Henry Golding, who was raised in Britain.
Director Jon M. Chu said no single movie could represent all the Asian people in the world but he hoped the plot and the array of actors in Crazy Rich Asians would show that “we’re layered and complicated and not just the token computer guy or the sex kitten.”
“All these things just help get people more information about who we are as a people and help differentiate that we’re not just one blob being Asian,” Chu said.
Crazy Rich Asians releases in the UAE on August 16. —Reuters Actress Gemma Chan. Actress/rapper Awkwafina . Actor Pierre Png. Actress Victoria Loke.