WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 14: Brenda Song attends HFPA And THR Golden Globe Ambassador ... [+]
Ever since her first television role on the Nickelodeon show 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, actress Brenda Song has been breaking barriers.
As the daughter of immigrants — her mom is Thai and her dad is Hmong — she’s consistently worked in Hollywood on mainstream shows. She’s represented Asian Americans on children’s shows from a young age, with roles on Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs) The Ultimate Christmas Present in 2000, Get a Clue in 2002, Stuck in the Suburbs in 2004 and Wendy Wu: Homecoming Princess in 2006.
NEW YORK - MARCH 06: (L-R) Actors Dylan Sprouse, Brenda Song and Cole Sprouse visit The World of ... [+]
A guest starring role on That’s So Raven and a recurring role on Phil of the Future eventually led to being cast as a regular on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody in 2005 alongside Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse and Ashley Tisdale.
In short, she single-handedly represented Asian Americans to a new generation of a impressionable television viewers in a way that was so seamless that it may have gone unnoticed.
Fast forward to today as the now 31-year-old has continued acting, most notably with recurring roles on Scandal in 2012, New Girl in 2013 and Station 19 in 2018 and lead roles on Dads in 2013, Pure Genius in 2016 and the upcoming Hulu comedy Dollface.
The thing about Song’s success is that she’s “fit in” so well that her ethnicity has rarely come up in her roles.
Ricky Ullman, Brenda Song, Amy Bruckner and Andrew James Allen (Photo by Jesse Grant/WireImage)
Desperate to be Crazy Rich
But when Crazy Rich Asians was being cast, Song saw this as her opportunity to truly step out and represent. After all, her character on The Suite Life had already been dubbed the Original Crazy Rich Asian.
“A lot of people don't know this, but I never got to read for Crazy Rich Asians, ever,” Song told Teen Vogue in a new interview this week. She loved the Kevin Kwan books and had asked for the chance to audition.
Instead she was told that she wasn’t right for the role. “Their reasoning behind that, what they said was that my image was basically not Asian enough, in not so many words,” the actress revealed. “It broke my heart.”
As she searched for an explanation, she tried to figure out her place in the industry: “I said, ‘This character is in her late to mid-20s, an Asian American, and I can't even audition for it? I've auditioned for Caucasian roles my entire career, but this specific role, you're not going to let me do it? You're going to fault me for having worked my whole life?’ I was like, ‘Where do I fit?’”
LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 02: Jon M. Chu speaks onstage at CinemaCon 2019 The State of the Industry and ... [+]
Crazy Rich Director Jon M. Chu Responds
After the story came out, Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu responded immediately on Twitter: “Would these words ever come out of my mouth? Nope makes no sense. I feel horrible she thinks this is the reason. The fact is I love Brenda Song and am a fan. I didn’t need her to audition because I already knew who she was!”
While that answers the reason why she wasn’t given the audition, the question about why she wasn’t right for any role in the film still remains up in the air.
But to emphasize his point, Chu tweeted the words twice, once first following a “I dunno” emoji and another time with a face palm emoji.
