EW: Back To Work With Grey's Anatomy

Entertainment Weekly went on the set of Grey's Anatomy for a behind-the-scenes feature which you can see in their upcoming issue, and they caught up with Sandra Oh who was also there on her day off from filming:

Source: EW. Issue: Sep 6, 2013. Via @lavender_indigo.
Scan: lavenderandindigo.

The issue will be on stands tomorrow, Aug 31st.

Saying Goodbye To Cristina Yang

Sandra Oh announcing her departure from Grey's Anatomy at the end of season 10 was rather big news in the world of pop culture last week. Sandra Oh and Grey's Anatomy were a trending topic on Twitter for hours after the news broke, and the news has inspired a slate of articles like these:

SLATE: How Cristina Yang Changed Television 

I want to take this occasion to celebrate Yang, one of TV’s most original and influential characters. Grey’s may be years removed from its buzzy, Emmy-winning start, but in Yang, the loveable, persnickety careerist, Rhimes and Oh have created a complex workaholic who has begat a whole generation of female protagonists, none quite as impressive as she is. - Read more

..... 

The Daily Beast: Pull the Plug on 'Grey's Anatomy' 

A Grey’s Anatomy without Sandra Oh’s fan-favorite doc, Cristina Yang? Oh, my.

Without Cristina Yang, who’s going to call the bull? Who’s going to deliver witty one-liners? Who’s going to take a stand against the allure of the McMen? Most importantly, who’s going to inhale candy and hot dogs and do so elegantly? The answer is no one. - Read more

 .....

Pajiba: Saying Goodbye to Cristina Yang, One of the Best B*tchfaces on Television

But I think that any complex, well-acted character deserves attention and Sandra Oh has done a fantastic job bringing Cristina Yang to life for ten years. I will miss the character, and will probably stop watching the show once she’s gone. The relationship between her and Meredith has been the backbone of the series since the first episode, and I don’t see how they can keep it going if she leaves. 

Goodbye, Dr.Yang, you were too good for the show you were in and I hope there are better things waiting for you in your future. That goes double for Sandra Oh. - Read more

.....

Sandra Oh in the latest digital edition of EW: 

 Scan credit: @lavender_indigo

Source: TV Guide: August 26 – Sept 8, 2013.
Scan credit: @lavender_indigo

Cristina/Owen: We Let Them Keep Guessing 'Till They Figure Us Out

UPDATE: Tidbit from THR added.

It's all fun and games until somebody brings up the baby issue.

After a lot of drama, heartbreak and a divorce, Cristina and Owen are a couple again, but the fact still remains that she doesn't want kids and he does, and that is an issue that is yet to be resolved.

Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes discussed the looming baby drama in an interview with TV Line, revealing that we will see Cristina and Owen settle this issue once and for all:

[Spoiler alert]

TVLINE | When will Cristina and Owen’s lingering baby issue rear its ugly head again – because I know it’s coming.

It is going to come up. I’m so happy right now because they decided not to talk about it. Divorce has sort of freed them from feeling like they have to. It’s going to be complex. There's something very intense about the idea that Cristina is a woman who does not want children. She’s unapologetic about it. She does not want them. And there’s nothing wrong with not wanting children. 

I love babies. If you gave me 40 babies I’d be thrilled. But this idea that if you place a baby in a woman’s arms and she’s going to melt is not true for some people. 

I feel really strongly that we allow this character to be who she is, this woman that does not want children. She’s a surgeon and a scientist first before she is anything else, and Owen has to deal with the fact that he is in love with somebody who is a genius, versus being in love with somebody who wants to have a family. That is going to be a complex thing for them. 

And I’m enjoying watching them deal with not dealing with it at the moment. But yeah, they’re going to have to really talk talk about it and figure it out and struggle to figure out if they can be in love despite the fact that he wants kids and she doesn’t.

UPDATE: Excerpt from Shonda Rhimes' interview with THR where she confirmed that Cristina won't be changing her mind about having a baby and talked about Cristina and Owen moving back to the firehouse:

"I'm very determined that we need to have a character who is unapologetic about not wanting children, who isn't going to suddenly find herself with a baby and suddenly soften up and discover, 'Oh, I wanted babies all along.' For Cristina, having a child would possibly mean a life of depression."

[...] 

"I wouldn't say that there's hope for them returning to firehouse as a couple because I actually gave the word we could dismantle that set," showrunner Shonda Rhimes tells The Hollywood Reporter. "But they are genuinely happy and their happiness doesn't necessarily mean that they need to be in the firehouse. The firehouse is a place of their past; a lot of painful things happened there."

And as for what the future holds for the couple:

And just as Owen will struggle as chief to keep a handle on Seattle Grace -- with the crash survivors on one side and others, like the outspoken Bailey on the other -- he and Cristina will also continue to find their foothold as a couple, with the baby situation likely to come up again for the beleaguered couple.

"I've never been interested in telling story like a fairy tale," Rhimes warns. "We're not headed to any fairy tale moment. But I do think that this is a couple that is going to struggle to figure out ways to remain in love."

Read more at the source.

Electrifying Acting By Oh And McKidd

That's what you can expect in next week's episode of Grey's Anatomy. Here's an episode write-up from the latest issue of US Weekly.

Scan by: @lavender_indigo

Sandra Oh teased about this episode in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

Their relationship, Oh notes, will come to a "crescendo" around Christmastime when Cristina reveals how she's coping with his divorce request and what Owen does. "I like to think of it as an exciting beginning," she says.

Sandra Oh At The East West Players' Forum - Recap

Sandra Oh participated in an important panel discussion last night hosted by East West Players about diversity in the American theatre and how to provide more opportunities for American Asians, and Broadway World has a recap of the discussion which you can read here.

Photo from the event by Michael Palma.

Sandra Oh addressing the artistic directors present in her speech:

“…to you in power, to see this not as a burden, but to open and examine the limited thinking we have right now, and grow past it....I understand the reactiveness to [protect] the purity of artistic freedom, but there is room [for diversity]. We are asking the artistic directors to be our advocates, because you are in the room [making decisions].” 

Big Death Ahead on Grey's Anatomy

Somebody is leaving Grey's Anatomy at the end of this season, and while we will have to wait until the season finale to find out who, Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes talked about the departure in brand new interview in the latest issue of TV Guide magazine, where she also gave away a few tidbits about the season finale. Check it out in the article below:

Grey's Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rhimes tells me exclusively that a beloved character will die in the ABC drama's May 17 season finale. There's some really shocking, horrible moments, " she says. It can't be worse than two years ago when a gunman hunted the doctors like animals, can it? "Yeah it is. It scares me how fans are going to react."

The heart stopping drama begins in the May 10 episode, with a "big case that takes a group of our people out of the hospital. Its sort of the medical case of their lives", says Shonda who hints that the patient could be one of their own.

That episode will also give the first glimpse of Derek and Meredith's completed dream house, which Shonda planned to burn down in the finale before deciding, "I was not ready to do that. I hope we can use it next season".

More juicy finale deets: Look forward to some "extraordinarily romantic Ben and Dr Bailey stuff "with Bailey making a decision that will fundamentally change her life." Mark and Lexie...will have some very beautiful moments that I hope fans are going to really love".

Cristina continues to struggle with the fact that she is a "gifted, talented surgeon first before being Owen's wife." Shonda wouldn't reveal anything about Callie and Arizona, which, frankly has me worried. And what of Meredith and Derek? After repeatedly saying she didn't know the status of Ellen Pompeo's and Patrick Dempsey's contracts, Shonda now says she's not allowed to discuss it. 

And even by the end of the finale, viewers may not be clear as to who will return next fall. "We sort of end with our breaths held, " she teases. "We were joking that if this was the series finale, we'd be good. But we've been told very clearly it's not."

Credit: RysenSun/TWOP (Thanks to Ann for the heads up.)

A longer interview will be published tomorrow on TV Guide.com

Big Scene Coming Up For Cristina/Owen And Other Grey's Tidbits

In the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes shared how she spent a day at work (March 5), and here are some interesting tidbits that she revealed about Grey's Anatomy and Cristina/Owen:

Grey's Tidbits

Cristina/Owen

There's a big controversial scene coming up between Cristina and Owen that Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd shot that day, which is to air in a future episode. Here's what she said about that:

Full scan here thanks to @lavender_indigo

And as for the season finale of Grey's, Ms. Rhimes tweeted yesterday that the finale is going to have a "shocking ending", which is to be expected with the cast contracts still being up in the air. 

Grey's Anatomy: Suspicious Minds

Blurb from the latest issue of TV Guide about next week's episode of Grey's:

Huge thanks to lavender_indigo for the scan.

Grey's Anatomy: The Season 8 Finale Is Set

Grey's Anatomy is still one of ABC's top-rated TV shows, and Sandra Oh and other original cast members are currently in negations with the network about their future on the show, as their contracts expire at the end of this season.

Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes revealed in an interview with TVLine that not even she's aware of what's happening on in the negotiation room, and how not knowing who'll come back for another season has affected her plans for the season 8 finale:

“I have figured out how the season is going to end, which was the most complex puzzle I’ve had to put together — ever,” Rhimes tells TVLine. ”We have all these moveable pieces of who’s coming back and who’s not, and finally I just decided to focus on what was going to be best creatively for the show and figure out a way to make it work REGARDLESS of what is happening [off screen].”

That’s a change from Rhimes’ initial goal, which was to wait and see how negotiations with core castmembers (Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Justin Chambers, included) played out and then solve the finale conundrum — a plan she now admits made her rather anxious.

...

Rhimes insists she doesn’t “know anything about what’s happening” with regard to the contract talks. “I write the scripts,” she notes, “I don’t negotiate the contracts.” 

More on the cast's contract negotiations: Ellen Pompeo speculates, Kevin McKidd's gut feeling, TVLine's Michael Ausiello guesses.

Grey's Boss On Cristina/Owen, and Alternate Reality Episode

TV Line did a Q&A with Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes where she teased about what's coming up for Cristina and Owen in the next few episodes, and what to expect form the alternate universe episode:

[Spoiler Alert]

TVLINE | Speaking of which, what is this going to do to Cristina?

Shonda Rhimes: [Henry's death] is a catalyst for Cristina and Owen to [face] what is the real problem in their relationship, which is Cristina had this abortion that Owen’s not comfortable with. The unresolved tension about the abortion really explodes in these upcoming episodes. Everything just blows up to holy hell.

...

TVLINE | There’s also the big alternate universe episode. How did that come about?

One of our writers, Stacy McKee, pitched it. And I said the only way it could work is if Meredith’s mother never had Alzheimer’s and Richard had picked Ellis to stay with versus staying with Adele. To me, the most interesting way of viewing an alternate universe is, “What if Meredith had never been dark and twisty? What if she’s a bright shiny girl?” Well, for starters, she never would’ve been in a bar to meet Derek. And from that, the entire world changes. Would Meredith and Cristina have ever been friends if Meredith was a bright and shiny person? 

TVLINE | Sounds like a lot of work went into breaking this episode. 

We had the best time figuring out what pieces of the world no longer exist because Meredith is a cheerful person.

Sandra Oh: 'Daughter of Immigrants, Artist and Proud Canadian' - Press Tidbits

Press tidbits about Sandra Oh at Canada's Walk Of Fame:

• This time, he [Burton Cummings] said, he was delighted to meet Oh, who starred in one of his favourite films, Sideways.

The award-winning Ottawa-born actress plays Dr. Christina Yang on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.

“I am you, daughter of immigrants, artist and proud Canadian,” she told the crowd. - Montreal Gazette

...

• [Burton] Cummings said he was was a big fan of Oh in particular, and referred to her 2004 comedy "Sideways" as "one of the greatest movies ever."

Oh said she was thrilled to meet Burton and Bondar and expressed credulity that her signature will be on a Toronto sidewalk. "It's just quite hilarious and odd and I never thought that this would happen," said Oh, now best known for her co-starring role on the TV medical drama "Grey's Anatomy." - Brandon Sun

...

• Actress Sandra Oh walked up on stage amazed with the crowds of fans who greeted her and the star dedicated to her achievements. When asked if this was typical for her, she exclaimed “Are you kidding me?” She waved at the crowds, overwhelmed. - Epoch Times

Why Cristina Yang Had An Abortion

Grey's boss Shonda Rhimes explains it all in an interview with NY Mag which you can read below:

Last week, one of Grey's Anatomy's main characters, workaholic surgeon Cristina Yang, had an abortion. This is a fairly rare occurrence on prime-time television (not that it never happens: Friday Night Light went there fairly recently), and so we asked Grey's creator and showrunner Shonda Rhimes to talk with us about it. Rhimes, who is currently in production on three TV shows (Grey's, Private Practice, and the mid-season drama Scandal), and, in the spirit of full disclosure told us she's on the board of Planned Parenthood, Los Angeles, spoke with us about the episode, the taboo, and the lack of difficulty in getting this story line cleared.

So having a main character actually have an abortion is a pretty rare thing on TV.
You know, it’s interesting because it’s true, I feel like it doesn’t happen often and they don’t talk about it and it feels ridiculous to me because it is a legal choice in our country. But what I was trying to do is, I wanted to portray that character honestly. I really wanted Cristina Yang to stay true to who Cristina Yang is. And I feel like that is a character who has never really wanted to be a mother.

It's clear to anyone who watches the show that this was very in character. It almost would have been particularly odd to go another way.
Exactly. For her to suddenly — or, you know, there was a way to do it. We argued about it all summer long, actually. There was a way to do it, but the portrayal of motherhood that would have followed would have been so painful to watch that I don’t think any of us wanted to sustain. We couldn’t sustain it. The idea that this woman would have a child that she did not want and resented for ruining her career and resented Owen for making her have [it] would have been hideous.

Did you have to run this story line up the flagpole? Talk to network executives?
I didn’t ask anybody.

Really?
Yeah. Part of the luxury of my job is that I don’t necessarily have to ask anybody anymore. I didn’t ask anybody, we just did it.

And then do you get notes on it, or are you past that point, too?
I’m sure people have thoughts about these things. I’m fortunate to be in a position in which those thoughts about these things don’t have to play out in my hands. I already knew what we were going to do and we did it. Nobody asked me about this.

That seems surprising, right? I’m surprised by that.
You know what, though? It’s interesting, I feel like I work with a lot of women. There’s a lot of strong, smart women, and everybody reads the scripts. I think everybody understands the realities. We all know that these things aren’t necessarily done, but I didn’t want to do an episode [puts on ponderous voice] “The Grey’s Anatomy: Abortion Episode.” Like, that wasn’t the point. I think for me the point is it’s a painful choice that a lot of women have made in their lives and we just wanted to portray it honestly and with a really good conversation that I think started in the season finale and carries over in this episode. And see what happens after. I try to discuss this a lot. Addison on Private Practice is an abortion provider. There are only a certain number of abortion providers in the country and she is one of them. And she is a character who in the past had had an abortion and we talk about this issue a lot. And I felt like it made sense; I wouldn’t be doing it randomly, it made sense for the character of Cristina Yang. And the network, I think, stays behind that, stays behind my choice to do that, anyway, for the character.

Have you had any reaction to it since the episode aired? I know you don’t pay much attention to reactions …
I was gonna say, if I went online or read articles or actively, you know, read my tweets as opposed to just checking for a couple of questions and answering them, I probably would have seen a lot of reactions. But it seems fairly quiet around my house.

Cristina has had an ectopic pregnancy way back in the beginning of Grey's. Meredith has had a miscarriage. Have you ever not had an abortion on the show for reasons that weren't organic to the characters?
You know, in the first season of Grey’s when Cristina Yang got pregnant, my intention — having never worked in television before — was that she was gonna have an abortion. Like, that was my intention: Cristina finds out she’s pregnant, she’s gonna have an abortion. We had it all laid out. I knew what was gonna happen and I had some very strong conversations with Broadcast Standard and Practices back then about the topic. And nobody told me I couldn’t do it, everyone just had very strong opinions about it. And then I went into the writers’ room and somebody pitched what would then be the medical reality of Cristina having the ectopic pregnancy and collapsing in the O.R. and that’s how Burke finds out that she’s pregnant. That was so much more interesting to me, story-wise, that I let go of what we were going to do and did that. But I do remember it was going to be a battle. I was perfectly willing to face the battle, maybe naively so, but it was gonna be a conversation. A big one.

So the thing that’s different between now and then is that now people don’t fight you because you’re more powerful?
Yeah. I mean, yeah, in a lot of ways, I think that that’s one of the differences. I think that I’ve earned my place in my job versus the very first season of my very first television show. Now we’re in the eighth season of my third television show, it’s not as big of a deal for me to just stand up and say, “This is what we’re going to do and I’m not discussing it.”

Do you feel like this is advocacy?
I don’t think it’s about the agenda. I think it’s important [that] I try to do what’s right for the characters. In Private Practice, we had a character, Naomi, [who] was staunchly anti-choice, staunchly pro-life. Viciously so, in a lot of ways, in a way that I thought was really kind of beautiful and religious and different from the way I think at all. What I also thought was that her point of view is valid, has merits, and should be portrayed and portrayed strongly. I feel you have to portray all different sides of who people can be if you’re going to create a world. And I feel like Cristina’s choice to give up a child, to have an abortion, is her choice. Meredith would never have had an abortion, I don’t think — I’m not saying she’s not pro-choice — but she would never have had one for herself because she wants a child so badly. I like that we’re portraying all of the different sides. It’s not a political agenda as much as me trying to make the world as full and round and as complete with peoples’ opinions as possible.

What are your thoughts, peeps?

Grey's Anatomy Season 8 Preview

Hey peeps. We're back after a mini-hiatus, which means there'll be lots of updates coming up today so keep checking back. 

First up is this article from The Hollywood Reporter who had a chat with Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers recently where they talked about what's coming up in season 8 of Grey's Anatomy and this is what they said:

There’s no theme this season. With the medical drama is effectively splitting its run in two and taking a long hiatus over the holidays, Rhimes is approaching the season as two mini installments. “I don’t have a theme,” Rhimes tells THR. “It feels really weird to say that but I actually don’t have a theme for this year. It’s hard to put a theme over something when you only know half the story.” The good thing about a split season? “There will be a cliffhanger that will carry us through until we’re back on the air, I think, in January,” she says.

Cristina won’t change. A pregnant Cristina and new mother Meredith have very different baby drama in the two-hour opener. “The season premiere really is about how Cristina’s pregnancy impacts her relationship [with Owen] and what it means for them in the future,” Rhimes says. “The decision she makes and that he makes really are going to have long-reaching repercussions.” While Cristina has been very clear in her decision to not have children – the character had an abortion at the end of Season 1 – Rhimes says she will approach it in an interesting fashion. “I try to keep it honest to how I think people really behave as opposed to sugar coating it,” she notes.

More dance time? While Meredith’s tampering with Derek’s clinical trial has created a massive rift between the couple, and Cristina and Owen’s vastly different views on children, executive producer Beers note that the upcoming season will have “lots of good Cristina-Meredith stuff.” Hopefully that means more scenes like this.

Read more here

Chemistry

Why do some people like Cristina and Owen on Grey's Anatomy? The following is an observation from an Italian journalist from an interview with Kevin McKidd and Sandra Oh published in the Italian magazine Telefilm in September 2009:

(Translation from Italian) 

McKidd, former star of Journeyman, resumed the role of the hero in the white uniform of the Dr. Owen Hunt, saving human lives again, but this time without temporal lifts and with the help of the scalpel. It could only be a doctor from the camp, used to discipline and ready to adventure, the kind of man Cristina can fall in love with. After Burke Indeed, the comparison would be difficult to stand ...

In fact, just to see him next his colleague Sandra Oh let me understand why these two work together on the screen. They sit in the middle of the corridor Seattle Grace Hospital, on the set in Los Angeles. She arrives a little late but as soon as she sees him from afar she lights up and runs to hug him, she brings her chair near to his chair and, constantly looking at him, she speaks looking into his eyes.

She recalls me Gillian Anderson: When I met Sandra Oh the first time it seemed a bit icy and detached, unwilling to autoirony, while with Kevin as shoulder she becomes another person, cheerful, amusing and almost funny. Just as Mrs. Scully's The X-Files: she seemed austere and a British demeanor, but with David Duchovny she suffered almost a metamorphosis, as if she had seen the sun for the first time. The Americans call it "chemistry" ...

Unfortunately, we don't have the actual interview part with Sandra.

Via KMKOnline

Forever Ago

Since it looks like it's going to be all quiet on the Sandra Oh news front during the summer, we'll be posting some new-old Sandra news each week.

First out, an article/photo shoot/interview from Agenda magazine from the late 1990's:

Grey's Anatomy: Cristina, Meredith and Alex Graduate In Season 8

A news tidbit about season 8 from the latest issue of TV Guide that mentions Cristina, Meredith and Alex becoming full-fledged doctors and their new job opportunities:

Does this mean we've seen the end of the annual Cristina-has-to-beg-for-surgeries storylines?

Scan via lavender_indigo

Grey's Anatomy: There Can Be Miracles When You Believe

We mentioned in an earlier post that season 8 could be Sandra's final season on Grey's Anatomy if she chooses not to renew her contact. Grey's boss, Shonda Rhimes, addressed this issue in an interview with TV Line, saying that because next season could be the original cast's final season, season 8 will be spent "doing nothing but telling stories about the originals". Sounds too good to be true, non?

Read more about this and her take on Cristina/Owen in the season finale in the interview below:

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy‘s grand Meredith-Derek romance need to know — in the wake of the unsettling events of Thursday night’s season finale — that series creator Shonda Rhimes aims to have the end justify the means, as the ABC drama enters what may be the final season for Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey, whose deals expire in a year.

TVLine spoke with Rhimes the morning after the assorted emotional bombshells were dropped, solidly rattling Meredith’s newly official marriage, Cristina’s future with Owen, and Alex’s latest (and failed) bid to move past Izzy.

TVLINE | Do you think you steeled yourself enough for the blowback from Meredith/Derek fans? Or did you feel you had some “capital” to spend, having just given them a wedding?

I don’t know if I steeled myself for the blowback. I’m sure there’s going to be some, but I’m not even sure I thought about it. I was busy thinking about setting us up for next season, which might be the final season for the [original cast members]. I wanted to spend next season doing nothing but telling stories about the originals, and I felt like in order to do that, we wanted to put everybody in a place where the focus was squarely on Meredith and Derek, Cristina, Alex….

.....


TVLINE | I was going to bring up Ellen’s quote from a year ago, where she said she would “probably not” renew her contract after Season 8. But it sounds like you’re preparing for next season to be her and Patrick’s “last hurrah.”

It might be the last hurrah for a lot of them; you never know. I really don’t know and I don’t presume to know. Everybody [including Chandra Wilson, Justin Chambers and James T. Pickens] has an individual choice to make and I get that. It’s been seven really amazing years. Everyone has a choice to make. All the originals are in play.

TVLINE | You’ve done an excellent job of having Cristina stick to her guns on the baby issue – do you think you can hold your ground and in fact have a lead character on a Big 4 network’s pride-and-joy terminate her pregnancy? Or realistically are there other factors in play?

No one’s ever told me I couldn’t, so it never occurred to me I couldn’t. It is a polarizing issue, and we deal with a lot of polarizing issues. Addison performs abortions on Private Practice all the time, and she’s had one herself; Violet has had two herself. I don’t feel like that’s the point. Every woman has her legal, God-given right to choose.

TVLINE | Are we counting Cristina and Owen as a “Break-Up”?

[Thinks for a moment] I don’t know. That one, I don’t know. I’m still debating what’s going to happen with Cristina and Owen, in my own head. Every day I change my mind about what’s going to happen with them.

There are enough cast members on Grey's Anatomy to make up two shows, so a spin-off for the rest perhaps for this to actually be possible? :D We'll believe it when we see it.

Here is a reminder what was said in another interview last year before season 7:

Shonda Rhimes: "My feeling is, let's spend time telling some amazing stories about Derek, Meredith and Cristina while we have them. I only want our originals staying as long as there are compelling stories to tell for them."

So peeps, what's your take on this?

Shattering Asian American Stereotypes

Here is an interesting article from SAG with a an write up and analasys on the panel discussion Sandra Oh took part in a few days ago on Asian representation in entertainment :

We have all seen the Asian stereotypes in film and television: the nerdy student, the submissive lotus blossom, the sinister Fu-Manchu or Dragon Lady type. On May 10, 2011, in honor of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Screen Actors Guild Affirmative Action & Diversity invited a group of distinguished Asian American entertainment industry professionals to the SAG national headquarters in Los Angeles to discuss how to overcome the stereotypical portrayal of — and lack of portrayals of— Asians in television and film.

The program, The New Asia America: Transforming Perceptions, was presented by SAG National Ethnic Employment Opportunities Committee and included Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy), James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China, Kung Fu Panda), Chris Tashima (Visas and Virtue, Day of Independence), producer Ken Mok (America’s Next Top Model), casting director Julia Kim (My Bollywood Bride, But I’m a Cheerleader) and Ellen Ho (Ktown Cowboys), and was moderated by Jodi Long (Sex in the City, All-American Girl).

“Asians and Asian Americans have for too long been a missing presence in popular film and television, or relegated to one-dimensional characters in minor roles,” said National EEO Committee Co-Chair Vivicca Whitsett. “We hope this event helps to revive this discussion and inspire Asian actors and those of every ethnicity to make their voices heard.”

According to Screen Actors Guild casting data reports, only 3.8% of all television and theatrical roles were portrayed by Asian Pacific Islander actors in 2008, compared to 6.4% portrayed by Latino actors, 13.3% portrayed by African Americans and 72.5% portrayed by Caucasian actors.

“About one in 20 people in the United States identify themselves as Asian or Pacific Islander. Increasing Asian representation in entertainment — both in front of and behind the camera — is vital to a true reflection of the American Scene,” said National EEO Committee Co-Chair Bertila Damas.

The panel discussion covered many topics, including whether Asian actors should turn down stereotypical roles, the role of the artist in helping to affect change and how to get more Asian storiestold.

The panel praised portrayals of roles for Asian actors that are complex and multi-dimensional , such as Oh’s portrayal of Dr. Christina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy and the multiple strong Asian characters of Lost, which included series regular Daniel Dae Kim, who played Jin Kwon on the series and now stars as Chin-Ho Kelly in Hawaii Five-0.

“[Lost was] one of the first series where the Asian males were not emasculated,” Mok said, adding that Kwon and Miles Straume, played by Ken Leung, were fully realized characters.

Tashima warned that it is not always easy to judge a role from the script. Oh said actors can help make change through their performances that go beyond the written word.

“It does not matter what part it is — I will transcend it. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have any dialogue, I will transcend it. It doesn’t matter what wardrobe I’m wearing, I will transcend it,” Oh said.

Mok, who became a producer after working as an executive for NBC and ABC, said it is ultimately up to Asians to tell their own stories, and that is the way that these stereotypes will finally fade away. With a global audience easily accessible via the Internet, there have neverbeen more opportunities for people to create their own projects and tell their own stories.

“The only person who is going to help you in this industry is yourself. You’ve got to take things into you own hands.” Mok said.

Hong, a former SAG Board member, agreed.

“Here you have to be a capitalist. You have to pursue what you want as a businessperson. You split yourself down the middle and half of you is the businessperson and half of you is the creative person — the actor,” Hong said.

A Discussion On Being Asian In The Entertainment Industry

A brief recap about what was discussed at the panel discussion The New Asia America: Transforming Perceptions last night in which Sandra Oh participated in, in honor of the Asian Heritage Month:

After watching Tashima's Academy Award–winning short "Visas and Virtues" and documentary short "Long Story Short" from moderator Jodi Long, a heated discussion began almost instantly.

Long kicked off the panel by asking, "We know where we come from, but what is our future? Where do we go from here? What shift is needed? We can play more than dragon ladies and newscasters. We're multifaceted human beings. How do we transcend other people's perceptions and how do we continue to do our work in spite of what we come up against?"

"We're still caught in a cliché," said Hong. "I don't have the answer to how to break the cliché. That image is still out there."

Hong admitted he wasn't proud of some of the stereotypical roles he played early in his career, though other panelists professed that without his pioneering efforts, they wouldn't be where they were in their careers today.

When Oh questioned Hong's reasons for continuing to take on stereotypical Asian roles, Tashima piped up saying he didn't believe actors should have to be revolutionists.

"Gedde Watanabe was dragged through hell for his role in 'Sixteen Candles,' " said Tashima. "He didn't create that role. That was John Hughes. If Gedde didn't [play the role of Long Duk Dong], someone else would have. And if an Asian wouldn't do it, they would have put a guy in yellow-face."

Moderator Long said she believed one of the best ways to get past the clichés was to write and create your own project. "If we don't tell our stories, who is going to tell them?" she asked.

"Not all actors are writers," Tashima pointed out. "Nobody ever told Robert De Niro, 'You want to work? You better write your own roles.' That's just a thing that minorities get all the time."

Mok said he believes that real changes in perception will happen only if the people behind the scenes—such as directors, writers, and producers—change their perceptions.

"Usually on a television series, 'diversity' means you have one Asian person, one black person, or one Latino person," he said. "That's not diverse to me. On 'America's Next Top Model,' me and Tyra [Banks] fight that fight all the time. Diverse to me is if we have 14 girls on the show, seven or eight of them are women of color. We have to fight that fight every day. But I feel like when you start doing that, it changes perceptions."

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Hear Ye All Grey's Musical Skeptics

Did you cringe watching the sneak peeks/promos for the musical episode of Grey's? You weren't the only one because Sandra Oh and a few of her fellow original cast members were skeptical about it as well. 

Here is the tidbit from TV Guide:

Before signing off on the idea, ABC executives needed some convincing. So series creator Shonda Rhimes recruited Sara, Kevin and Chandra to perform a cabaret-style presentation of favorite songs heard in Grey's early years. The next step: hiring a vocal coach and luring skeptical cast members like Patrick, Ellen Pompeo (Meredith), Sandra Oh (Cristina) and Justin Chambers (Alex) — none known for their musical stylings — to participate in the background chorus. "Everybody had their own reaction," says Sara. "And understandably so. For some, it can be confronting."

Sandra and Patrick Dempsey remained unconvinced because they are the only ones who won't be doing any singing in the episode.