The Afterparty S2: John Cho says Hollywood is opening up to Asian actors

John Cho says that Hollywood has started opening up to Asia actors as “part of a larger trend of globalisation”.

The Afterparty Season 2 starts streaming on Apple TV+ from July 12 with new episodes released weekly on Wednesdays.

Video transcript

JACK SHEPHERD: This series puts a spotlight on-- on an Asian family. Do you think you've seen a palpable difference in the way Hollywood are approaching these roles and these movies? What's your take?

JOHN CHO: It's part of a larger trend I would say, of globalization, of-- of access to entertainment and the fact that, you know, everyone seeing entertainment is not necessarily just a domestic product, but an international product. Then you're really going, well, this is really stupid. Of course-- of course, there are people from all walks of life that we can photograph into stories. And so it seems a lot simpler when you are seeing these economic ties go all over the world.

POPPY LIU: I feel really excited that there is like an entire intergenerational Asian family and like, that it's-- like, we are just kind of living our lives. We're not necessarily unpacking race or "Asian-ness" like, although like, that's also really important to do in storytelling too. But like, you know, I think oftentimes, like, that ends up being what is additionally tokenizing about an experience. Like, you have to talk about your marginalized identities.

You have to like, unpack it. You have to talk about the trauma related to it or whatever. And I think we also deserve to be able to just like be an Asian family in a comedy murder mystery, like "Escape Room," "Clue-esque" show, and not have to go into like, I don't know, like unpacking our identities in that way. So it felt so refreshing, and it felt just exciting.

KEN JEONG: The fact that this-- this spotlights an Asian-American family, I think the-- the stakes in this particular season were a bit more personal in season two than in season one that was about a high school reunion, where not everybody really didn't have as deep a friendship bond, you know, where the-- all parties involved, there's a deep familial bond. And everybody-- there-- there's an empathy point of view I feel like in season two that was-- it was a bit more emotional I felt like than season one. Yeah, I think that's what struck out to me as is-- definitely just as a fan of season one. I really loved that.