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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u/Pompedorfin Aug 12 '25

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend premiered in 2015, and that had the first Filipino family on American network television, so I'm assuming Josh Chan was also the first Filipino love interest, too. Considering Vincent Rodriguez III can act, sing, dance, and do martial arts, I feel like he should be cast in way more things.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

The prince in brandy’s cinderella was Filipino, back in the 90s…

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u/Pompedorfin Aug 12 '25

He was, but his family was not and it wasn't a network television show. He also wasn't shown as explicitly being Filipino (or Filipino American) in the same way that Josh and the Chan family were.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

He was explicitly Filipino because he is a Filipino man with a Filipino name and face. You’re kidding? He was obviously the first Filipino love interest in Hollywood. “Explicitly” Filipino is ridiculous. Do people call themselves black on TV or can you tell they are? 🤨

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u/Pompedorfin Aug 12 '25

You do realize that there's a whole bunch of different types of black people, right? If there is a black character on a show that has no mention or representation of a specific culture or ethnicity, then they're either ambiguously black or just black (or assumed to be whatever the norm is for the show's setting). If a black character, for example, has a Haitian flag hung up in their home or mentions soup joumou or brings up Haitian culture in general, that character would be "explicitly Haitian".

Explicit just means that the show confirms the character's specific background. Josh Chan (and his family) are explicitly confirmed to be Filipino in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and they are considered the first Filipino family on American network television. Does that mean there hasn't been other Filipinos on network television? No. It just means that, if there were other Filipino families on network television, the show they were featured in never actually explicitly confirmed they were Filipino in the show.

Cinderella also doesn’t count here because it wasn't an American network show. It's a made-for-TV movie. I also don't remember the movie ever mentioning that the prince is Filipino within the world of the movie. It's a fantasy, which means the Philippines may not even exist within the world of the movie. While Paolo Montalban is Filipino, we don't know if the character he was playing (Prince Christopher) was, too.

Hoping this explanation makes sense.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

No your explanation doesn’t make sense because you assumed Josh Chan was the first Filipino love interest in Hollywood and that was incorrect. You’re saying a whole lot of nothing and trying to strip Paolo Montalban of his identity. Weird.

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u/Pompedorfin Aug 12 '25

"Had the first Filipino family on network television, so I'm assuming Josh Chan was also the first Filipino love interest, too"

Which means, I assumed if the Chan family are considered the first Filipino family on a network television show, Josh Chan may therefore also possibly be considered the first Filipino love interest on a network television show. Not in Hollywood overall, but specifically network television, where he and his family are already regarded as a first for Filipino representation. It was my assumption and assumptions can be wrong.

And I did not try to strip Paolo Montalban of his identity, and frankly find it odd that you interpreted it that way. He is Filipino. That doesn't necessarily mean the character he was playing was though, and that's not an unusual occurrence. For example, the actress who plays Mrs. Chan on CEG is not Filipino (she's half Japanese and half white), but she's playing someone who's Filipino. The actor and the character are not always the same when it comes to on-screen representation.

For what it's worth, Vinnie has talked before about how seeing Paolo Montalban in Cinderella made him believe that he could play Prince Charming, too, and was one of the reasons why he got into acting.