CVK
Asian Media Watchdog, which along with Asian Media Watch is one of the leading Asian-American media watchdog organizations, and one of the powerhouses behind the Hot 97 “tsunami song” campaign, has posted a lengthy interview with director Greg Pak (”Robot Stories”) on their site. Greg talks about the state of Asian-American media representation, the positive effects of 2003’s “Better Luck Tomorrow,” his advice to aspiring Asian-American actors and filmmakers, his political activism, among other things. Here’s Greg on the issue of mixed identity vs. Asian-American identity:

AMWD: You’re half Korean-American and half white. Now some so-called half Asian-Americans like for example Keanu Reeves, Russell Wong, and yourself, chose to put their Asian-American identity more up front more than others. For example, Keanu Reeves doesn’t really talk much about his Asian background. Was it your conscious decision to position yourself more as an Asian-American filmmaker?

GP: …A lot of the movies that were really important to me happened to have Asian characters in them. Asian or mixed race people in them and that’s just because of the experiences I’ve had and the person I am. Like I said, when I was making those films I said “Why not?” and I made the movies exactly the way I saw them in my head and so that’s why most of my stuff I guess has had Asian-American characters. That’s just how I grew up and how I identified myself over the years…

If you’re a mixed race actor and someone wants to cast you as a Latino or if someone wants to cast you in a non-racially specific role, then I think it would be a very rare person who would say no to that. One, because actors just want to work, and two, because actors are very up for different kinds of challenges. I’m sure there are many mixed race actors who have taken different kinds of roles just because it’s a good challenge.

I think it would be great to work with Keanu Reeves on a role where his Asian ethnicity could come out in some way with a character. To actually use Keanu Reeves in an Asian-American story or as an Asian-American character, I’d love the opportunity to do that. Just maybe that will happen someday.