'Gran Torino' Star Bee Vang Denounces Film's Anti-Asian Slurs
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“Gran Torino” actor Bee Vang published an op-ed in NBC News’ “Think” column on Wednesday criticizing the anti-Asian slurs in the 2008 movie directed by Clint Eastwood.
Playing Thao Vang Lor in the film alongside Eastwood, Vang said the lead role was a historic cinematic moment for Hmong people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group, around the world. While the story is about two people from different backgrounds that came together to form an unlikely bond, the film featured a many anti-Asian slurs.
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“At the time, there was a lot of discussion about whether the movie’s slurs were insensitive and gratuitous or simply ‘harmless jokes,'” Vang wrote. “I found it unnerving, the laughter that the slurs elicited in theaters with predominantly white audiences. And it was always white people who would say, ‘Can’t you take a joke?'”