“There aren’t enough – not anywhere near – Asian-American faces up there to represent our population.”
Sandra Oh is a Canadian/American actress best known for her role as Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy. She has been recognized for talent and has won two Golden Globe awards among others for her acting. She is the first Asian to do, allowing her to be a huge inspiration for young Asian people everywhere who one day want to involve themselves in the entertainment industry.
Nationality: Canadian-American
Industry: Entertainment
Q: I read an interview from 2004 where you were talking about how you’re not an easy sell in Hollywood. Has anything changed since then? Did you feel it was an uphill battle to get this part, which wasn’t written as an Asian character? Or was everybody just like: “Oh, clearly you’re the perfect person for it”?
A: “I think it’s both of those things, honestly. It’s taken me 30 years to get this part. I see that so clearly. And they just thought of me. It definitely holds both. Have things changed? I could say yes, because as you mention, in the original novellas, there’s no real specific reference to Eve’s race, but she’s definitely white. That’s one big change, that people would be willing to go off book and say, “Well, that doesn’t matter.” Because for decades and decades and decades, and still, it seems to matter to people. What I’ve always had a problem with is that it seems to always go just one way, and never toward diversity.”
