Walking Dead Star Still Struggles For Auditions, Blazing Own Trail

In a recent interview with The Wrap, Steven Yeun, better known as The Walking Dead's "Glenn", talked about how even though he has a role on one of the most popular shows on cable TV, he is struggling to find more auditions, and that it's part of a systematic (and sadly, still unsurprising) bias against Asian-American actors:

“People ask, ‘So, how are the roles now? You must be getting so many.’ And it’s like, I don’t know if you know, but I’m Asian still,” Yeun told The Wrap earlier in July, laughing. “It’s not a complaint, that’s just how it is now, and I have to forge my own path through it and see that through. I think that if I had not been Asian, I probably would have a whole plethora of roles, at least to audition for, but it’s just not what has been written.”

Looking to change the way Hollywood directors and casting companies choose their talents, Yeun announced that he will producing and write his own feature films in order to support, and increase the visibility of, Asian actors.

Hollywood has continuously taken roles that were originally written with Asian characters and then cast white actors in the roles instead-- The Last Airbender, Oldboy, even Dragonball Z! Even 21, which was based on the story of real life MIT Blackjack Team that was completely Asian-American, had most of the principal characters recast as white people. So taking matters into their own hands might be the only real way to make any real and lasting changes in the entertainment industry