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Movies and Mystery Peoples pt. 2
Ended up re-watching The Debut, and being the geek that I am, looked up what Wikipedia had to say:
Right after Gene finished shooting the first 10 mins of his thesis project, he sent the movie script to potential financial backers and was turned down. Gene and John went around Hollywood, "shopping" the idea of The Debut to all the major Hollywood studios(Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Universal). Most of the studio executives didn't know what a Filipino/Filipino American was and told him the film needed a white actor in a lead so the film can be marketable.
Um. Living in California (or anywhere on the West Coast) and you don't even know WHAT a filipino IS? Seriously?
Also:
The most difficult role to cast was finding the love interest of Ben. Most of the females that auditioned were, light skinned Filipinas or Half Filipino/European females or as Gene puts it, "Miss Saigon Girls." Actress Joy Bisco was chosen after she heard at a club they were looking for dark skin Filipino American actresses.
Colorism, roles for darker women, etc. Guh.
Right after Gene finished shooting the first 10 mins of his thesis project, he sent the movie script to potential financial backers and was turned down. Gene and John went around Hollywood, "shopping" the idea of The Debut to all the major Hollywood studios(Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Universal). Most of the studio executives didn't know what a Filipino/Filipino American was and told him the film needed a white actor in a lead so the film can be marketable.
Um. Living in California (or anywhere on the West Coast) and you don't even know WHAT a filipino IS? Seriously?
Also:
The most difficult role to cast was finding the love interest of Ben. Most of the females that auditioned were, light skinned Filipinas or Half Filipino/European females or as Gene puts it, "Miss Saigon Girls." Actress Joy Bisco was chosen after she heard at a club they were looking for dark skin Filipino American actresses.
Colorism, roles for darker women, etc. Guh.