Stephanie Hsu recalls walking out of an audition that asked her to sound "more Asian"

"Life is too short to completely dehumanize yourself," the Everything Everywhere All At Once actor says in a new interview

By Katie Chow  |  January 11, 2023 | 11:42pm
Aux News Stephanie Hsu
Stephanie Hsu recalls walking out of an audition that asked her to sound
Stephanie Hsu Photo: Amy Sussman

As awards season ramps up, so does the discussion of how much progress has or hasn’t been made since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign launched in 2015. (See: host Jerrod Carmichael’s opening monologue from the Golden Globes last night.) Everything Everywhere All At Once has been at the forefront of the conversation since its release last year; Michelle Yeoh could become the first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards since 1935. In a new interview with the New York Times, Stephanie Hsu, who plays Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan’s daughter in the A24 sci-fi film, opens up about the long journey to landing the groundbreaking project.

“I had no interest in selling myself or just shrinking myself to an inappropriate cameo just so that I could say I added one more thing to my résumé,” Hsu describes. “I remember in 2012, I went into a commercial audition and they were like, ‘OK, could you do it again, but with a more Asian accent?’ And I said, ‘I’m so sorry, but this role is not for me. I don’t do that and I’m not interested in this part.’”

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel actor goes on to recall walking out of the audition, only to end up meeting another actor who felt like he had no choice but to do the stereotypical accent.

“I understand that people want to make it and they only see one path and have to bend and fold to have a life in the arts, but I always thought if that’s how it’s going to go for me, then I’m going to work at a bar or in a wood shop,” Hsu continues. “I have to make things that matter to me. Life is too short to completely dehumanize yourself.”

Of course, holding out paid off, and Hsu immediately became one of 2022's top breakout stars for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, in which she plays both an ordinary woman struggling to connect with her mother, and a nihilistic villain determined to destroy the multiverse. In the process, her onscreen family also offered her some perspective off-camera.

“James Hong [who plays Yeoh’s father] started acting at a time when people wouldn’t even say his name, they would literally just call him ‘Chinaman’ and say ‘Get on your mark,’” she adds. “Michelle waited almost 40 years for her first chance of being No. 1 on the call sheet, and Ke left acting for [nearly] 20 years. As successful as this film has been, the biggest fear on the other side is ‘What if this is my last chance?’”

Head over to the New York Times to read the full conversation.

 
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