President Donald Trump has declared war on diversity, equity, and inclusion, a pretty transparently fascistic move meant less as a way to improve the lives of Americans and more as a way of exerting control (with the added benefit of reinforcing the country’s white supremacist structures). As to the effect this will have on Hollywood, “We’re already seeing it,” says Butterfly star Daniel Dae Kim in a new interview with The Associated Press. “If you look at what happened with Paramount and CBS News, we’re seeing a chilling effect on free speech and journalism and DEI. ‘DEI’ is a bad word these days, but to me, DEI’s not a fad. The idea of inclusion is not something that’s a political trend. It’s my life. It’s what I’ve lived every decade I’ve been in this business.”
Trump’s meddling comes at a time when representation in media has finally taken some big strides forward (which is, of course, why he and his cronies are meddling in the first place). In a separate interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, Kim said he thinks things have changed “for the positive”: “When you look at movies like Crazy Rich Asians and you see this idea of a romantic comedy that centers Asian Americans, it’s something that could not have been done when I started my career. Just could not, I can’t imagine any studio executive saying like, ‘That sounds like a moneymaker!'” He reflected. But while there are “unquestionable signs of progress that we have to note and appreciate,” he regretfully added that, “I still haven’t played a romantic lead and I’ve been doing this for 30 years. It’s been a goal of mine since I started, but I just can’t seem to get cast as someone who gets the girl.”
For the AP, Kim expresses gratitude that he’s come far enough in his career that he can be more discerning with the jobs he chooses, as opposed to younger actors of color who sometimes take stereotypical roles just to break through. However, with a higher profile comes greater responsibility: “I don’t ever escape the fact that whatever I do will be watched and seen by so many people and judged through their own lens and filters,” he says. “I’m human, so everyone feels on certain days like, ‘Oh, this is too tough,’ or on another day, ‘I can’t wait to do this.’ But one of the reasons I think I act and produce is because I feel like there are a lot of stories to be told that haven’t been told yet, and one of those stories is a Korean American story.”
