Brenda Song wasn’t allowed to audition for Crazy Rich Asians as she wasn’t ‘Asian’ enough? Jon Chu responds

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) director Jon M. Chu has responded to Brenda Song’s shocking allegation that she was stopped from auditioning for his movie because the actress wasn’t “Asian” enough. 

When Crazy Rich Asians released in 2018, it beckoned a new calling for Asian representation on an extremely large scale. Not only was the Jon M. Chu directorial critically acclaimed but it was also a major box-office success with a budget of just $30 million. The romantic comedy starred Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong and Michelle Yeoh and was nominated for two Golden Globes. With such a phenomenal success story, it comes as a major surprise to many that The Suite Life of Zack & Cody star Brenda Song had a shocking revelation to make about the audition process of Crazy Rich Asians.

While speaking to Teen Vogue, Brenda shared that she never got a chance to audition for Crazy Rich Asians. When the 31-year-old actress asked her managers to ask for a meeting or audition for any role in the movie, the reply she got back was that Song wasn’t the right choice! “Their reasoning behind that, what they said was that my image was basically not Asian enough, in not so many words. It broke my heart,” the Dollface star shared.

“I said, ‘This character is in her late to mid-20s, an Asian American, and I can’t even audition for it? I’ve auditioned for Caucasian roles my entire career, but this specific role, you’re not going to let me do it? You’re going to fault me for having worked my whole life?’ I was like, ‘Where do I fit?,'” Brenda recalled.

Jon took to his Twitter page to respond to Song’s claims tweeting, “??Nope. I love @BrendaSong and that sucks if anything of that nature was ever communicated. It’s gross actually. The fact is, obviously I know who she is and didn’t need her to audition. I’m a fan of hers! Nothing more nothing less. Bums me out she thought it was anything but.”

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