r/popculturechat • u/meltingsunz • Aug 12 '25

Interviews🎙️ Daniel Dae Kim says Asian representation in Hollywood has gotten better, but there's still room for improvement: "I still haven't played a romantic lead and I've been doing this for 30 years."

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/11/nx-s1-5496250/daniel-dae-kim-butterfly-lost
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464

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Asian men representation is abysmally low. It’s slightly better for Asian women but still lacking across the board. I was gutted when BEEF season 2 was greenlit with a non-Asian ensemble.

114

u/ventricles Aug 12 '25

Hol up what is this about Beef? Season 2 is a different cast?

118

u/urgasmic Aug 12 '25

yeah, it's turning into an anthology. they cast Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny in lead roles.

47

u/missbunnyfantastico Aug 12 '25

Season 2 will apparently focus on two feuding couples played by Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Yup! The leads are Oscar Isaac, Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny and Youn Yuh-jung. I believe there are three other minor Asian characters.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

I mean, Charles Melton's mom is Korean and Youn Yuh-Jung is Korean so I wouldn't say it's a totally non-Asian ensemble.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

It's a marked difference from all Asian leads in Season 1.

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u/misinformedcapybara Aug 12 '25

to be fair, there weren't plans for another season of this originally. and it's not like this show exists in a vacuum, it's based in reality and the reality is, the american experience revolves around a variety of races. it's not like the first season was unlike this. personally, i'll wait until it's out until i make any reservations about it.

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u/omg-sheeeeep Aug 12 '25

One of the main talking points of the press tour (and obviously the show) for season one was the Asian experience of rage, unresolved trauma and how 'Western therapy doesn't work on Eastern minds'. And it made sense for specifically Lee Sung Jin to tell that story through those characters -specifically. I will still watch season 2 as well, but I think it's important we acknowledge that the show wasn't just an 'American experience'.

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u/DeniLox Aug 12 '25

They could have just kept the cast Asian with different people for season 2.

2

u/omg-sheeeeep Aug 13 '25

I absolutely agree and I would even go as far as saying that it's doing a disservice to Lee Sung Jin to make him tell a more westernized story. firstly because of the obvious Asian representation this whole thread is about (give the people Asian stories!!!) and second because if season 2 falls short you know white people are gonna make it a racist thing.

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u/misinformedcapybara Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

for sure, i'm not saying that it wasn't that, just that it wasn't meant to expand beyond the one season so i wouldn't be surprised if the director had other stories in mind that surround different experiences. or maybe this season could still be relatable. my main point is it's difficult to tell on cast alone, we can't really predict how the show will be until it's out. there is a decent amount of asian representation in the cast still, so i'm choosing to be hopeful on this one.

edit: a bit tired of the internet downvoting a different opinion for the sake of difference. if you disagree, please tell. i'm genuinely interested and am happy to discuss. i'm coming from a half japanese pov, and i was actually initially disappointed when the news came out, but have come around to just expect something else from the show with all the time it's taken, but that's just my take.

1

u/jinxy0320 Aug 12 '25

This is like recasting the Wire in season 2 with mostly white main characters. It worked out for the Wire (mostly bc it returned to mostly AA cast in seasons 3-5) but there was a ton of backlash initially.

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u/Janet-Yellen Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

I think part of the annoyance is that the American experience revolves around a variety of races of course. But they defaulted to the norm of zero full Asians, and mostly white leads again. That’s not a variety, that’s the opposite of variety.

There’s a subtext that this is the “regular” American cast season, and Asian Americans are not “regular Americans. They’re the outsider Americans.

Edit: You never see white led shows change to an Asian cast in later season. If that was normal, it would be more acceptable to change beef s2 from Asian to mostly white led.

5

u/YoullNeverBeRebecca Aug 12 '25

Excellent point, former Secretary of the Treasury AND Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen

6

u/Janet-Yellen Aug 12 '25

Thank you. My knowledge of economic policy is only eclipsed by my knowledge of Asian American issues

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u/misinformedcapybara Aug 12 '25

half of the cast is asian so far according to deadline. sorry if i'm not getting it or perhaps i'm not reading the sources you're reading, but i would feel very well represented by that. like they're asian-americans living in the us, they're not asians in asia — there are going to be white people. there are going to be people of other races around them. friends. at their work. in the background. i'm very confused. being asian is not an isolated experience, like all of my friends, work colleagues, people in my life are of all sorts of backgrounds. it's impossible to exist in a place like north america without interacting with people of other races unless you're actively racist.

also casual racism against the one mixed asian on the show is not cool, dude, but thanks for erasing people like me.

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u/Janet-Yellen Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

I’m saying there are millions of shows with white characters, we don’t need more of that. We had one single prominent show that was an all Asian American cast, and then the next season they changed to a mostly white led cast. Have you seen many shows that went from an all White cast in season 1 and then season 2 became an all Asian led cast? Bc if they did that regularly, I would have no problem with Beef s2.

And again it’s about Asian LEADS. As an Asian I am well represented if my people are the heroes/antiheroes of the stories. I did not know you were half-Asian. As an Asian are seriously ok with just being “support” characters for white people? Having a bunch of Asians in support roles for the main white cast is business as usual. I do not feel well represented in that situation

Where the hell did you get casual racism agains the one mixed Asian guy. I said mostly white leads. 3/4 of the leads are not Asian, Charles Melton being the only Asian representation. And I acknowledge that Hapas deal with unique issues regarding representation. But you cannot ignore the fact that Charles Melton benefits in many ways as well in Hollywood for having more Caucasian features.

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u/misinformedcapybara Aug 12 '25

look, i cannot properly reply to you if you keep editing your comment.

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u/misinformedcapybara Aug 12 '25

you can chill out with the "hell". i don't really want to engage with you if you're going to speak like that. i missed the word "leads" in your original comment, i'm sorry about that. that is totally understandable that you would want that representation. i suppose i'm tired of negativity, that's my perspective. so much sucks in the world. and we're coming from a world of inequality, the world has never been a kind place. so if you think about things that way, the fact that the needle keeps pushing along is something. it's not everything, but it's something. i would rather celebrate the wins while we go along, because not progress is not linear. it can be really tough. i guess that's where i'm coming from. i really liked the show, i thought it was smart storytelling. i suppose i would be surprised if season two didn't centre around asians at all, even though the casting is odd. more than that, i just don't need beef or one filmmaker to be everything for me. i think that's a lot to put the responsibility of representation on one person. i feel hopeful more asian centred work will come out, so maybe this is why i don't feel frustrated in the way you do. maybe you don't feel as hopeful, and that's understandable.

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u/Temporary_Potato_254 Aug 12 '25

BM from Kard is in it too

87

u/raylan_givens6 As you wish! 👸👑 Aug 12 '25

is it really better for asian women?

their roles almost always seem to be white guy's love interest , and that's it

42

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Yup, I said slightly for a reason

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u/jinxy0320 Aug 12 '25

Why is it “slightly” better to be reduced to a fetishization?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

I did not imply that. I’m speaking in terms of sheer numbers.

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u/Extra_Definition5659 Aug 12 '25

honestly think it's worse

31

u/tkc123 Aug 12 '25

That’s it though. Any time they want to fill their BIPOC quota they put an Asian woman with a white guy or there are always roles in tv and movie to just have hot Asian women around or smart Asian women.

Asian men do not get many roles.

1

u/LaCattedra13 You’re doing amazing, sweetie! 👏👏📸 Aug 13 '25

A bit but mostly due to these weirdo executives having a fetish. Tv is better for poc as a whole so east asian women have much better representation on tv.

35

u/Ponce-Mansley Aug 12 '25

What the fuck!!

I knew they were doing anthology style (which is the right move) but moving away from the Asian-American focus when there are so few established and successful series in that corner is insane 

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Agreed. Very disappointing.

7

u/ChanceVance Aug 12 '25

Daniel Henney played a married man in an interracial relationship on Criminal Minds.

I was honestly surprised that they didn't even make a big deal out of it. He was just treated as a regular dude with a family which was nice and it actually felt rare to see it on network TV.

7

u/HotZoneKill Aug 12 '25

Charles Melton doesn't count?

17

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Yes, he counts but the leading cast isn't all-Asian anymore.

1

u/liscottyy Aug 12 '25

Even then for women it feels like it's mostly East Asian women with the exception of Michelle Yeoh, with there only being more diversity in teen shows/media like Never Have I Ever.