Chinese-Canadian actor on Hallmark’s All’s Fair in Love & Mahjong and token Asian roles
As Hallmark’s mahjong movie faces a backlash, actor Derek Kwan talks about championing authentic Asian narratives by making his own films
For Vancouver-based Kwan, who plays supporting character Gary in the movie, that dynamic reflects an uncomfortable truth about an industry that all too often sidelines Asian voices – where Asians are allowed to exist but only in the background. Kwan has not watched the film.
“In Vancouver, the roles that are always available and that they’re always auditioning for are these supporting roles,” says Kwan, 36. “The industry is so tough, and it’s very much like, take what you can get. You either don’t do it and not work, or kind of just have tougher skin, let it blow over you, and just suck it up and do the job.”
This is not the first time Kwan has done the “token Asian” type of gig. For the better part of a decade, Kwan has been an industry go-to for these supporting roles – detectives, paramedics, boutique hotel clerks, policemen, the waiter who glides through a scene with a line or two and then vanishes. If you have watched other Hallmark films, chances are you might recognise him.