Japanese actors/actresses in Hollywood

[Zauriel]

I have three questions to ask for your opinion on them.

1. Why aren't Japanese-born Japanese actors and actresses popular in America? Sure, native Japanese actors and actresses have starred in many Hollywood movies like "The Last Samurai " and "Snow Falling on Cedars".
But do you guys remember their names viidly? Do you say their names as a daily word or a household word? I can remember the Star Trek actor George Takei's name almost daily but he was born in America, not Japan.

Oh, heck, Only a few foreign-born actors have become prominent Hollywood actors. Including Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Salma Hayek, Charlize Theron, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. As far as I know, even after starring in a few Hollywood movies, Most Japanese actors never became permanent Hollywood actors unlike other foreign-born actors such as Schwarzenegger.

And here is the second and third question.

2. What do you think of Japanese actors' English? Is their English excellent?

3. What do you think of their accents? How do you feel about their accents? Comfortable? Puzzled? Weird?

 

[Mal]

1) Why should there be a bunch of japanese actors/actresses in Hollywood? Last time I checked Caucasians weren't really well represented in the HK or Bollywood movie industry. I mean, just think about it for a bit - pretty much every region of the world has its own entertainment industry, the only reason why the USA's is so ... hmm I guess "important" or whatever, is just because its the one that makes the most money and is seen by the most people outside of its native region. Because of this is often alot easier for people to get involved with their own native entertainment industries. As you noted there are very few foreign born actors in Hollywood and infact I wouldn't even consider Jackie Chan or Jet Li to be "Hollywood" at all, I doubt they would either despite being in a few Hollywood films. And why would they care? The HK movie scene is pretty rad and they have more than enough wealth and fame in Asia that the fact that they have popular American recognition is just icing on the cake.

Basically I guess what I am saying is that American movies are made for a domestic audience first and foremost. Because of that they are more likely to star American actors/actresses regardless of ethnicity. Obviously the rule bends a little bit when it comes to English and Canadian actors as well, but for them the draw of comming to the states to perform is pretty damn high - there is no language barrier and we can all pretty much fake each others accents, Eh? The only reason why anyone outside of the States sees these things is because there is money to be had exporting it.

Lastly - I'm not so sure that most Japanese actually care enough to actually want to work in the states given the logistical work involved when they have their own perfectly fine movie industry. I mean, as much as I love HK action cinema, I'm not sure that my first choice would be to fly over there to try and work in movies (if I was an actor anyway) - especially given my total inability to pronounce most chinese words correctly. (I swear I spent 10 minutes being coached by my girlfriend and her brother and sister on how to say something and they kept saying, "no no, its like this" and I was going "But thats what I said!!! *slams head into table*"

2) English skills don't matter to much if you're acting, you just memorize lines and repeat them. This is why when I'm driving with my girlfriend I can understand HK pop if they sing in English, regardless of the fact the singer in question doesn't actually speak it that well.

3) Funny you should bring that up, in the States a measure of someones "American-ness" can be directly related to how well they can affect an American accent. Obviously since we live in an extremely heterogenous society the only way that we can identify each other as Americans is by our language skills. Completely the opposite of Japan where if you basically don't look Japanese you are pretty much always gaijin regardless of if you hold citizenship or not or if you can affect fluent Japanese language skills.

As far as tolerance towards accents go... this is basically very dependant on how much exposure someone has had to different accents. I don't think it makes anyone feel wierd but it definately can make it hard to understand people. For instance I used to have a really hard time with a co-workers really pronounced Indian accent, but after a few months I got to the point where I could understand him (Although I hate how he shakes his head left-right instead of up-down when you are explaining something, I'm always going: Sri! Up down is yes, left right is no!! You're making me confused " Also I got a pretty good handle on understanding accented Chinese as well - although my GF and her siblings are all Americans, her parents are immigrants so when we first started going out I had a hard time understanding her folks. Her dad was pretty good because he used to lecture at college, but her mom has a very classic sloppy southern Chinese slur and it took me forever to understand what she was saying.

Oddly enough I have the least problems understanding Japanese accents unless they are REALLY bad. Infact most Japanese I have worked with here in the states get a pretty good handle on pronunciation within a few years and infact one of the best non native english speakers I have heard was my friends wifes father (what a mouthful). He is a naturalized Japanese-American (by marriage) and he actually has a bit of a midwestern accent.

Oh and in a slightly related topic to accents - one of the most humorous moments I had was when my GF's cousins came up to visit for her brothers wedding. They are all from Atlanta, Georgia. For some reason I found it hysterical to see a bunch of Chinese people talking with outrageous southern drawls. I think it was the cognative dissonance between two pretty bad stereotypes - The smart Asian guy and the stupid Redneck.

Funny stuff.

 

[gokarosama]

A related question: Why, in the upcoming film version of "Memoirs of a Geisha," has/have the leading role/s been given to Chinese actresses?

I think there is no doubt many Japanese would love to have that "Hollywood" cachet, as has been attained by Watanabe Ken (much is made of his appearance in the new Batman movie).

Yuki Kudoh, by the way, was the actress in "Snow Falling on Cedars," which made barely a ripple in Japan. Chiaki Kuriyama's appearance in "Kill Bill" was likewise unheralded. Possibly because all she did was giggle and act in a cartoonish showdown fight.

Norika Fujiwara has long expressed her desire to be a James Bond "girl."

I think one of the main reasons Japanese actors/actresses are not in the forefront of Hollywood cinema is lack of English ability. That and the fact that Japanese entertainment machine churns out stars for specific reasons. The Japanese celebrity-making process reminds me of what it must have been like in Hollywood in the early and mid-20th century, where you belonged to the studio, which trained you to sing, dance, act, and comport yourself.

But what we have to remember is that unlike, say Charlize Theron, Arnold, or any of the other actors you mentioned, Japanese actors are going to LOOK ASIAN. Jackie Chan and Jet Li really don't act, do they, they are action stars in very genre-specific movies.

Hollywood does not exactly clamber for Asian faces, and when it needs some, there are enough Asian-Americans to fit the bill without demanding the paychecks Japanese stars might be used to.

I still wonder about "Memoirs of a Geisha" though.

 

[Mal]

A related question: Why, in the upcoming film version of "Memoirs of a Geisha," has/have the leading role/s been given to Chinese actresses?

Thats hollywood for you. Remember, it wasn't all that long ago in Western (Cowboy) movies that Native Americans were all played by Mexicans on the screen. I currently reside in the San Fransico Bay area. I can with a high degree of accuracy tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai (the largest Asian communities in this area). However, California (especially the Bay area) is a unique cultural landscape so I've been exposed to all these different people enough to learn the differences - the rest of the Western world probably hasn't had that much experience so passing off a Chinese as a Japanese is pretty easy to do.

Why did the movie studio do this? Probably just because they liked the Chinese actresses better and figured almost no one in the domestic audience would either notice or really care.

I think there is no doubt many Japanese would love to have that "Hollywood" cachet, as has been attained by Watanabe Ken (much is made of his appearance in the new Batman movie).

Maybe? There really is no way of knowing this I guess.

Yuki Kudoh, by the way, was the actress in "Snow Falling on Cedars," which made barely a ripple in Japan.

I like that movie but in all honesty it didn't do that well over here in the States. Infact I think it lost 22 million on domestic ticket sales. Not alot of incentive to bankroll an overseas publicity campaign when you're already 20+ mil in the hole.

Chiaki Kuriyama's appearance in "Kill Bill" was likewise unheralded. Possibly because all she did was giggle and act in a cartoonish showdown fight.

Exactly, the role wasn't really worth noticing - hence few people noticed.

Norika Fujiwara has long expressed her desire to be a James Bond "girl."

Her and probably every other actress on the entire planet. Personally I don't understand it, but hey I lack a vagina so I'm not an authority anyway.

I think one of the main reasons Japanese actors/actresses are not in the forefront of Hollywood cinema is lack of English ability. That and the fact that Japanese entertainment machine churns out stars for specific reasons. The Japanese celebrity-making process reminds me of what it must have been like in Hollywood in the early and mid-20th century, where you belonged to the studio, which trained you to sing, dance, act, and comport yourself.

I can see my way to this view point. It somewhat backs up my point about these actors/actresses not really caring too much about Hollywood fame - What is the incentive to jump ship out of their system and try to break into American cinema? Seems risky (and slightly stupid) to me.

But what we have to remember is that unlike, say Charlize Theron, Arnold, or any of the other actors you mentioned, Japanese actors are going to LOOK ASIAN. Jackie Chan and Jet Li really don't act, do they, they are action stars in very genre-specific movies.

Ok first off, you say Arnold is an actor but Jet Li and Jackie Chan aren't? Please Looking Asian isn't necessarily the kiss of death for a Movie/TV Career in the states. If anything it does limit the types of rolls you get since its unlikely you'll get a lead a role, but thats mostly because of marketing demographics. Notice the trend here, Leads in American Films: White, Black, Hispanic (pretty much in frequency as well). What are the three largest 'ethnic demographics'? You guessed it - White, Black and Hispanic. It's not a conspiracy or racism, its just flat out capitalism. This is pretty easy to prove if you've paid attention to the dramatic increase in Hispanic/Latino oriented media/products/commercials here in the States. It's gone up so much over the last decade because everyone is predicting that Hispanic/Latinos are going to be the largest ethnic minority in the country and of course everyone wants a piece of their money >< It kind of makes me wistfully think of capitalism as serving some sort of role as a racial equalizer, well so long as everyone has equal chances to earn money I suppose - we're still working on that.

Hollywood does not exactly clamber for Asian faces, and when it needs some, there are enough Asian-Americans to fit the bill without demanding the paychecks Japanese stars might be used to.

Correct. Money, Money, Money. There is no shortage of Asian-Americans here out west

 

[Zauriel]

I see, Thanks very much for your in-depth opinions, Mal and gokarosama.