Actor Growth

So tomorrow I will be acting in a short film and was given a script not too long ago. It is going to be a comedy and I am going to play one of the lead characters that by the sounds of it is the type of person that gets dissed/demeaned by his friends all the time.

I don’t mind it too much as it is for fun and when it comes to acting it’s always interesting to play different types of role. The interesting thing is that most of the roles I have played are usually very dramatic or over the top comedy. Why that is interesting is because most people have told me that I would be stereotyped to death during my initial years as an actor.

I haven’t found that to be the case actually and this role is the first I would say that would fall in that lines of a stereotype as a lot of Asian actors I see are usually stuck playing the role of like say the geek that can’t get the girl. I’m guessing the stereotypical reason for that is that a lot of Asians are into things like computers and Anime.

One of my goals in acting from day one ever since I was encouraged to enter the field has always been to try and break a stereotype that an Asian can only play the stereotypical roles or can’t act good enough to be a lead for more demanding roles. With that in mind, I do indeed become a little more sensitive in terms of the types of roles that I accept.

Of course, one thing that crosses my mind from a professional point of view is that I am not exactly in a position to really be too picky about the type of roles I do as the experience and growth is really beneficial. It is one of those challenges though where I try to do things that will help me grow in the industry while aiding me in my personal professional goals as well.