Welcome to the AAPI List! Every Wednesday in May, we’ll feature a member of the AAPI community and share how they’re blazing trails and taking names.

Can we get quiet (and more Asian representation) on set?

Ren Hanami (she / her) has been asking that question ever since she developed SAG-AFTRA’s first committee advocating for Asian and AAPI talent. She’s now the chair of the Asian Pacific American Media (APAM), a team representing performers from different disciplines who all need to remind casting leads, producers, directors, etc. to give them more credit… and credits.

Here, we chatted with Ren about her first role on stage, her honest thoughts on cultural representation, and what needs to happen to see more AAPI roles on the B-I-G screen.

How did you get affiliated with SAG-AFTRA?
I did my first professional show while I was a student at UCLA. I got cast in a Flower Drum Song stage musical, which was great because seeing Nancy Kwan as a lead in the original film was the epitome of seeing people I could identify with on television. Because of the musical, I met some incredible people and was offered an equity contract. That next year, I started doing background acting and was accepted into the Screen Actors Guild.

What does the APAM committee do?
APAM emphasizes education, outreach, realistic representation, equity, and inclusion. And it’s been a long road. I’ve been a member of these unions for over 40 years and we still face the same kind of battles. It’s, “You’re not Asian enough. You’re too Asian. You’re not really 100% X, Y, Z ethnicity.” We really want to reach our members and get beyond all the Asian hate and stereotypes, which is why we did the anti-hate campaign. We reached out to our broadcast members like Juju Chang, and that became our committee’s focus along with advocacy groups like East West Players and the Japanese American National Museum. We also do town halls with other committees like the Writers, Directors, and Producers Guilds of America, which all have Asian Pacific American committees. We figure that if we’re writing, directing, and producing together, then we can call the shots more. We also partner with Casting Society of America (CSA), which has really good programs around the country that help target diverse groups.

How does your education work help actors navigate the industry?
If an actor didn’t go to a school where [hiring laws] are taught, they don’t know how to answer uncomfortable—and often illegal—questions like, “What ethnicity are you?” or “What’s your sexual orientation?” So we have been advocating and reaching out to actors to say, “Go to the union and just have them advocate for you.” The union will kindly remind them that the actors shouldn’t be put in this position.

What’s your response to filmmakers who say they can’t find qualified Asian and AAPI actors?
There are enough Asian actors now to cover Asian and AAPI characters, so we don’t need to cast a Caucasian actor. Sometimes the people making those decisions say, “Oh, but we need a name. We need a star.” And our argument has always been, “Well, unless you give us the opportunity, we’re not going to be able to have stars.” And as they can see, once you give us the opportunity, we get stars. Like right now, look at Michelle Yeoh with Everything Everywhere All at Once.

A report last year said less than 6% of speaking roles in Hollywood films went to Asian and AAPI actors. What do you think it’s going to take to see more representation?
One of the ways I’ve personally benefited is from studios hiring newer directors and writers that come from the BIPOC community. I just worked on a Blumhouse movie called Unseen. It’s the first time that I know of where the director (Yoko Okumura), the 2 leads of the project, and a co-star were all Japanese American Hapa. Then with big industry projects, there are casting directors who fight for talent that writers, directors, and producers haven’t even thought about. Also, getting more writers of color into the writers’ rooms for TV and studio projects. That way, we’re going to have people from the communities actually telling their stories and making us all more 3-dimensional, instead of, “Oh, she can just play the nail salon person.”