ABSTRACT
Hollywood,2 the most influential entertainment conglomerate in the world, relies on conventions such as formulaic plots and typed characters. Howard Becker (1982: 46) points out that art forms designed to reach the maximum number of people in a society, such as film and television, take advantage of conventions in an established way. One consistent convention employed
by Hollywood is the manufacture of characters based on racial and gender stereotypes, resulting in the frequent misrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities. Consequently, professional actors of racial minorities-who often have to embody these stereotypes in order to secure roles-bear the responsibility of developing characters beyond the assigned stereotypes. This case study explores how Asian American professional actors interpret and negotiate the types of roles available to them and how they maximize occupational opportunities while pursuing nontraditional roles in Hollywood.3
Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a Los Angeles-based Asian American theater group, the study uncovers how Asian American actors consciously and proactively embody, challenge, and redefine racially delimited roles within and outside of Hollywood.4
