Paladino Casting recently apologized for the “no monolids” casting call shown here after being called out by Simu Liu on Twitter. I think that Dino Ray Ramos put it best when he said that they were basically looking for Asians who don’t look Asians. To me, this casting is appalling for many reasons, but the issue of monolids and beauty is problematic for many reasons.
It’s hard not to agree with with Simu Liu’s assessment on monolids, but that isn’t the only problem.
“Skin tone: Clean, white, and pinky.”
Definitely proves Dino Ray’s point. I also thought the following was odd:
Must no have allergies/food restrictions.
Can’t be a vegan or have Celiac’s disease? No peanut allergies? I can see some of this as valid. The casting was done for Kinder Joy, which makes chocolate candy which could have nuts or dairy products, and the role could be involved with eating it, but it seems that it would be easy to work around this. This casting call also made me glad that I work in Tech. I am used to being in situations where specific talent is uncommon and companies sometimes must work hard to recruit and retain that talent, as opposed to the acting business where talent is common and companies can afford to be picky and to put in odd restrictions like this.
While it is easy to complain about this casting call, what is harder to deal with is the deep internal insecurity that Asians and Asian Americans have over monolids. Blepharoplasty, a procedure to eliminate the monolid, is the most common plastic surgery in South Korea, although not to look Western. If Asians in Asia don’t like having monolids, it seems extra difficult for Asian Americans to not feel insecure about them.
Ironically, the sponsor of the commercial for which the casting call was made, Kinder Joy, is owned by Ferrero of Italy. Ferrero-Rocher chocolates are popular with immigrants to the US, including Asian immigrants.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Disgusted
- Sad
- Angry
