Brian Tee Cast in "Crash" Series

May 30, 2008

When I first saw the film "Crash," everyone told me how amazing it was and I admit, I was initially moved by the clever (if not convenient) depiction of intertwining ethnic groups in Los Angeles. But after reading some more critical reviews of the film, I realized that I did feel a bit manipulated by Haggis and Co. Thandie Newton's character is sexually assaulted by Matt Dillon's character, yet she has to be saved by him later from a burning car? And as much as people praise "Crash" for its multiethnic cast, there was no prominent Asian/American character in the film. The ones that did appear were either a) a shrewish, loud older Chinese woman with crazy hair b) a van full of illegal immigrants or c) an older Chinese man that was smuggling said immigrants.

Do I have high hopes for the series? Not really, especially judging by the snippets of character info from Hollywood Reporter above. I don't even have high hopes that a good portion of America actually gets the Starz network. But I'm always happy to hear that actors of color are getting work, especially Asian American actors. Hopefully for Tee and the other actors' sake, the "Crash" series won't crash and burn.

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Sylvie Kim

contributing editor & blogger

Sylvie Kim is a contributing editor at Hyphen. She previously served as Hyphen's blog coeditor with erin Khue Ninh, film editor, and blog columnist.

She writes about gender, race, class and privilege in pop culture and media (fun fun fun!) at www.sylvie-kim.com and at SF Weekly's The Exhibitionist blog. Her work has also appeared on Racialicious and Salon.

Comments

Comments

"Crash" was some bullshit! It was so clearly how white people think about multiculturalism. The Asian slaves might have been the worst part. Remember at the end? Once, a white girl in a creative writing class I was in told me to watch that movie so I could understand better how to write about race relations. I nearly socked her.
Oh, I hadn't heard about the TV show. That's great they have an Asian American in the cast. Can't wait to see it.
Here's some thought-provoking reading regarding the portrayal of race relations in American media:"Can White Hollywood Get Race Right?" by Jeff Chang and Sylvia Chan: http://www.alternet.org/movies/23597/