Growing up, I never saw any Asian faces on TV, so it didn't feel like a viable option.
There are no Asian leading men in Hollywood. There's not an Asian Ryan Gosling or an Asian Brad Pitt.
Quite honestly, I never thought it would be possible for Asians to make it in the States. But now I feel like it's totally changing. You see so many Asian celebrities now, and more and more of them are taking bigger roles in movies. I feel like everything has changed.
I am Chinese. I speak fluent Mandarin. And I go, 'Man, it's about time a Chinese person could step up to a Hollywood screen, and international screen, and help save the world.'
If you take a step back, you realize that the TV landscape really has been... There have been some amazing shows in terms of representation, but not for Asian people.
I don't want to be defined as the Asian leading man. I want to be the leading man. Henry Golding.
Working on 'Fresh Off the Boat' has been really enlightening to me because it's made me actually think about the roles that Asians and Asian-American women have played in media. Not because I didn't think it was important before, but because before, I was really focused on just paying my rent.
Every time I do something, I think, 'Am I portraying Asian people in the way I want to be portrayed?'
When you're 1 out of 5 Asian people on TV, all the pressure is on you and you have to represent.
People say, "How come you play bad guys so much?" And I say, "Well, have you seen many Asian good-guy roles?"
American comedies about Asians have never been funny to me. That always kind of pissed me off.
