USA: AZN Asian Excellence Award nominees and presenters applaud Hollywood's open arms

Record ID: 203443

  • Title: USA: AZN Asian Excellence Award nominees and presenters applaud Hollywood's open arms
  • Date: 24th May 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANIEL DAE KIM, FROM TV SERIES "LOST" AND CO-HOST OF 2007 AZN ASIAN EXCELLENCE AWARDS, SAYING: "Do I think there is progress? Yes. I definitely think there has been progress the fact that we can have a celebration like this tonight signals some level of progress. I think that there is still a long way to go. But the good news is that people like Grace (Park) on television and everyone that we are honouring here tonight they all represents a step forward."
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVADQSERA5JYN6KNWYB3I7RWPXR2
  • Story Text: Stars of Asian and South Asian descent are on the ascent and celebrities at the 2007 AZN Asian Excellence Awards in Los Angeles, California weigh in on the significant achievements in entertainment.
    After years of relative anonymity, performers of Asian and South Asian (Indian) heritage are establishing a small but growing presence in TV and film, breaking stereotypes along the way.
    With hit Television shows like "Lost", Heroes" and Sanjaya Malakar of "American Idol", U.S. viewers are seeing a broader range of performers who trace their roots to the world's second most populous country.
    Stars lined up to be a part of one of the biggest nights for Asian Americans in Hollywood -- The 2007 AZN Asian Excellence Awards in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday (May 16). Hosted by "Lost's" Daniel Dae Kim and "Battlestar Galactica's" Grace Park, the show paid special tribute actor Chow Yun-Fat, fashion designer Vivienne Tam, and celebrity chef/restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa.
    Actors of Indian descent like Kal Penn star in the film "The Namesake" and appeared this season on "24" and is in an ABC pilot, The Call. It was Penn's stereotype-defying stoner bit in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" that has helped pave the way to how minorities are seen.
    "Obviously diversity makes great moral sense and it's great to represent what America really looks like, but even above and beyond that it make financial sense too. So I hope that it is a trend that continues," Penn said on the red carpet.
    A film by one of Asia's hottest directors opened the 60th Cannes film festival Wednesday, launching a frenzied 12-day cinema extravaganza featuring top Hollywood stars.
    "My Blueberry Nights", about a girl's heartbroken travels across the US by Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wai, kicked off the race for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize in France.
    "There was nobody out there (when I started in Hollywood) I mean there was like me and B.D. Wong and a couple of people and we did our television shows "All-American Girl" that was the first time we had seen an American-Asian family and so you know it's amazing how things have changed so much and grown so much so it's really thrilling to see the changes," said actress and comedian Margaret Cho, who is a a performer at the event.
    In his major role on the hit ABC series "Lost", Kim, a Korean born American raised actor portrays his character Jin Kwon as a native Korean, both culturally and in his first language. He shares a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for his ensemble work in the acclaimed dramatic series.
    "Do I think there is progress? Yes. I definitely think there has been progress the fact that we can have a celebration like this tonight signals some level of progress. I think that there is still a long way to go. But the good news is that people like Grace (Park) on television and everyone that we are honouring here tonight they all represents a step forward," Kim said before going into the show.
    Los Angeles native and current Vancouver resident, Grace Park broke into Hollywood when she appeared in Jet Li's, "Romeo Must Die", "The Dead Zone" and "Outer Limits." She has worked for the past five seasons on the acclaimed Canadian series, "Edgemont", and featured recurring roles on "The Immortal," and "Jake
    0", Battlestar Galactica, "Stargate: SG-1," and "Andromeda".
    "I think people are finding themselves, how to tell a story, and how to think outside their own boxes -- the ones that we have been watching being fed it's hard to break out of you know the mold that you have been fed (about Asian Americans) also now holding up on your own. Do I think we have far to go? Yeah but not really in a way that it's like we are so far behind but more like it's an exciting journey. It's an adventure we are all going on it together and I feel a good response. People are responding and the energy's up, you know, so lets run with it," Park said.
    The Favorite Reality Star category highlights Asian American reality stars from TV's most popular reality shows including "The Survivor" and "The Apprentice" and Sanjaya Malakar of "American Idol".
    Malakar was born in the Seattle area to a Bengali-Indian father and an Italian-American mother. At 17, Sanjaya Malakar was the youngest of the twelve male semi-finalists in American Idol season 6. He lived in Hawaii for four years to perform with the Hawaii Children's Theater. He auditioned for American Idle in Seattle with his older sister, and although both of them got golden tickets, only Sanjaya made it to the Top 24. He realised he was different from the other contestants when his American fans told him what an inspiration he is.
    "Actually the first person that ever, like somehow they got my phone number, and it was the first fan that I have ever talked to she was a Indian from Florida. I talked to her for like an hour and forty five minutes because I had never experienced a fan before. It was really cool to talk to her and kind of, talk to her and connect with her, as a fellow Indian," Malakar said.
    The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to actor Chow Yun-Fat, whose career has spanned two decades and several continents. He began his career in Hong Kong acting in TV and film. After receiving acclaim and numerous awards for several roles in the early 1980's, he captured the attention of John Woo, who cast him in the fast-paced gangster film "Yin Hung Boon Sik" ("A Better Tomorrow"), which went on to be an commercial success.
    With the global interest in the Hong Kong action genre, he was lured to the US and appeared in "The Replacement Killers" with Mira Sorvino, "The Corruptor" with Mark Wahlberg and "Anna and the King".
    He returned to Asia in 2000 for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and next he stars in the third instalment of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End".
    "He is kind of like Cary Grant isn't he? Yeah kind of has a old movie star quality about him. The first time I ever had dinner with him I was looking across the table at him I didn't feel like I was having dinner with a actor from our time period I felt like I was having dinner with Cary Grant or something," Quentin Tarantino told Reuters.
    The Pioneer award is presented to Nobu Matsuhisa who was born and raised in Japan. Matsuhisa apprenticed in the sushi bars of Tokyo before he ventured overseas to Lima, Peru.
    Classically trained, he was challenged by the culture and regional ingredients in Peru, which ultimately contributed to his inventive style.
    From Peru, he went to Argentina and then back to Japan, Alaska and, finally, Los Angeles where he opened his first restaurant in 1987. In 1994 he opened his famed "Nobu" in partnership with actor Robert DeNiro in New York City. Today, he has two restaurants in New York, as well as restaurants in Beverly Hills, Malibu, Los Angeles, London, Aspen, Tokyo and Las Vegas.
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