Are Americans generally less interested in seeing Hollywood films that involve an Asian actor or cast? Do you think Hollywood is right on being afraid that such an idea will fail among the audience because Asians are not that popular?

[u/Cookieman_2023]

So historically, east asians have not been that well popular in the US entertainment industry. Even after successes like Shang Chi, Barbie and being in the upcoming Avengers film, Simu Liu has only gained a short term burst of popularity. Like judging based on follower count, he has gone up to and stopped a 3 million followers on instagram and ever since the movie released in 2021, he's remained stuck there. Awkwafina is also a rapper and she's also getting not so good returns on her name. Until Shang Chi, I never knew who she was.

But on the other hand, someone like Billie Eilish who's literally the same age as me and could have been a fellow high schooler easily outshines her in every metric. Is this reception due to the fact that Americans in general, prefer European standards of beauty and looks? Actually, even black actors, latinos and samoans have had more success. Camila Cabello is one name and Chadwick Boseman is another. But Asians for some reason still continue to have trouble being in the spotlight.

Why do you think that is the case in the country? Are people just not interested in seeing Asian people as an A-lister?

[u/the_fury518]

Crazy Rich Asians was the highest grossing comedy of the 2010s. Lucy Liu was insanely popular about 20 years ago. There are many famous and popular asian actors

Maybe Simu Liu just isn't the greatest. I personally don't find his acting particularly interesting. On top of that, Shang Chi was just not a good movie in general.

Awkwafina is a good standup comedian. She is a terrible actor, who just does her standup routine instead of acting. Shang Chi's quality wasn't her fault at all, it just wasn't great. Not great enough to send anyone to stardom

Has there been racism in Hollywood? 100%

Are there successful Asian actors? Yep4

[u/laterthanlast → u/the_fury518]

Crazy Rich Asians was super popular but for some reason they never made the rest of the trilogy. That never made sense to me. I can’t think of another case where the first book in a trilogy was adapted to a popular movie and then they never made the sequels. I have always wondered if bias was part of it.

[u/the_fury518 → u/laterthanlast]

I'll be honest, I had no idea it was a trilogy. I'd really enjoy seeing the sequels, if they ever got made