Simu Liu, who made a splash last year in Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, revealed in a recent Indiewire interview that he had been up for the male lead for the 2018 blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians, but lost it, and he was told he didn’t have the “It factor”.
In response to a tweet from Indiewire, some netizens said that Henry Golding, who had found great success as the movie’s lead, had been cast because he is half-white, which gave him the right “look” for the movie. This caused an uproar among Southeast Asian Twitter users, who said that Golding, who is half-Malaysian with Iban roots, actually looks more Southeast Asian than Liu, who was born in China and raised in Canada.
Nick Young, the character Golding played, is, after all, the heir to an uber-wealthy Southeast Asian—Singaporean—family.
Here’s Indiewire’s tweet:
The tweet sparked a whole argument about beauty standards, representation, and what “Asian” is supposed to look like, as commenters tried to identify what the “It factor” is.
And, after some netizens claimed that Golding has more of the “It factor” because he’s biracial, many sprang to his defence.
A number of netizens pointed out that there is no one standard of what “Asian” looks like, in spite of Hollywood stereotypes.
Some Twitter users said they found pitting the two actors against one another to be unnecessary.
And Liu himself posted a tweet saying Crazy Rich Asians had been “perfectly cast.”
/TISG