The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun has spoken about the micro-aggressions he faced as an Asian-American actor at the start of his career.
The star, who is set to appear in the hotly-tipped Minari later this year, recalled an uncomfortable experience at his first-ever audition.
During an appearance on Variety’s Award Circuit podcast, Yeun shared a story from his first-ever audition, which was for a show called Awesome ‘80s Prom. “I auditioned with Ferris Bueller’s opening monologue and they were like, ‘That’s good – can you do that all again in an Asian accent?’” he explained.
“At the time, I’ll be honest with you, I knew I didn’t want to do that so I kind of rejected it. But the system had no clue that’s not what I wanted. We were just in a different time. I remember my only response to do that was I did a shitty accent and phoned it in, and then I left.”
He continued to say that the production still wanted him for the role “because that’s how far…