Direct Talk

The movie "Crazy Rich Asians"
was released in 2018.

It achieved a huge success,

amassing a worldwide box office
revenue of 240 million dollars.

What sets this Hollywood production apart

is its predominantly Asian cast,
directors, and scriptwriters.

Historically, Hollywood often
relied on Caucasian actors,

as there was a belief that
"Asian people don't attract audiences."

The movie's success marks a significant
milestone challenging stereotypes.

Today's guest is Adele Lim, a film director
and co-writer of "Crazy Rich Asians."

Coming from a Chinese-Malaysian background,

Lim lives in Hollywood and dedicated to
creating opportunities for minorities in film.

For a long time, we had to bear
the burden of our entire culture.

This is a constant struggle and
fight for not just Asians, but,

you know, women, people of color in our
industry, other underrepresented cultures.

Lim is enthusiastic about
revolutionizing the film industry

and shares her story with us.

Trailblazing Diversity in Hollywood

The movie is based on a bestselling
2013 novel that sold millions.

The love comedy takes place in Singapore.

Real estate tycoon Nick
and his girlfriend Rachel

face harassment from jealous women
during their visit for a friend's wedding.

However, their enduring love
triumphs over adversity,

making it a Singaporean Cinderella story
that resonates beyond racial boundaries.

It topped the U.S. box office for three
consecutive weeks after its release.

The film became a phenomenal success
despite the absence of well-known actors.

Well, we didn't anticipate
the level of success.

The director, Jon Chu and I just
hoping that the movie would do alright.

And when it began to snowball
and the success grew,

we were just still in shock.

I think we're probably still in shock.

I think Crazy Rich Asians became the hit
that it did because it brought

a global audience into a different world
that they had not seen before,

that they had seen many worlds
portrayed by Hollywood,

but not one that highlighted
an Asian experience quite like that.

For a Western audience
and for a global audience, seeing

an Asian family, and Asian society
portrayed with that

fun and that luxury and that
wish fulfillment was a very new thing.

So I think on both sides
it was fun for the Asian diaspora

to be able to see ourselves
on a Hollywood screen like that.

And it was also fun for the rest of the world
and the Western audiences

because it was a new and novel thing.

Movies led by non-white directors
in Hollywood often face budget constraints.

Caucasian directors dominate
over 70% of major films

with budgets exceeding $30 million,

while 76% of films
directed by people of color

are produced with budgets below $20 million.

Moreover, only 6% of Oscar
nominations for Best Director

go to non-white directors, and awards won by
Asian women directors remain notably scarce.

If a television show featuring an Asian face
did not work in America,

often it would be blamed because of audiences
don't really care for this kind of hero.

But we have white television shows
and white movies that fail all the times.

They don't have to handle
that same sort of burden.

When you only show one kind of face
as a hero or one type of story as a hero,

it has an effect on the rest of the world,

making other people feel that
their stories are not as worthwhile,

that people who look like them, or if
you're a certain sex of your certain color,

that you don't get to be
the hero of the story.

That is a vicious, nefarious lie

that even though what we do
is seen as fun and entertainment,

they have real world implications.

We want to be able to have a
different variety of stories being told,

and we want to be able to fail, we want to
be able to be given the same latitude.

Lim was born in 1980 as a Chinese Malaysian
in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur.

She was exposed to Hong Kong
action movies during her childhood

witnessing the portrayal of
strong and dynamic Asian women.

In addition, her resilient character
was notably shaped

by the influence of
her grandmother and mother.

My grandmother was a teacher
in postwar Malaysia,

that she always loved teaching
and she was also an entrepreneur.

I think I also got my love for
American television and movies from her.

She would come back from
watching these movies

and she would sing all the songs
to her children and talk about the stories.

My mother was an advertising executive,

and she became a CEO.

And she ran the Southeast Asian
regional conglomerate of companies.

I always took it for granted and
I have more of an appreciation for it now.

How wonderful they were as role models
my grandmother and my mother in my life.

Lim's interest in writing
sparked during her teenage years

when she started crafting articles
for a local daily newspaper.

She moved to the U.S. when she was 19

and pursued a degree in TV and film
at Emerson College in Boston.

Following graduation, she relocated to L.A.

as a screenwriter and producer,
making many hits.

However, during that period

she noticed that the majority of
individuals in Hollywood were white,

and occasionally faced
discriminatory remarks.

That previous that was a lot of
misogyny or racism.

And even if it was not overt

that people thought it was all right
to make certain jokes or all right to,

you know, make you feel othered,
and that's a term we have here where

you are just made to feel that
you are not part of the main culture.

And when you look at most of
the stories in television and in film,

Asian women were portrayed one of two ways,
which was either the Dragon Lady,

very fierce, very remote,

or some kind of a victim sex worker.

I thought growing up
as an Asian female in Asia,

I want to tell stories that empower people,

that make them feel like
their stories are worthwhile,

that they can be the heroes of those stories.

Around that time, Hollywood
witnessed signs of transformation,

specifically during the January 2016
Academy Awards announcement.

The majority of the 20 nominees
in the acting categories were Caucasian,

leading to criticism that
the Oscars were too white.

The awards ceremony faced a boycott from
filmmaker Spike Lee and actor Will Smith,

while the hashtag "Oscars So White"
went viral on social media.

With growing momentum
toward diversity in the film industry,

an opportunity presents itself to Lim.

A close friend, Director John Chu,
invited her to collaborate on a script.

"Crazy Rich Asians" was already
in production written by a white male.

However, seeking a more
authentic portrayal of Asians,

Chu reached out to Lim for guidance.

Having read the book, I was delighted

because I had been working in
Hollywood for 16, 17 years,

but I never read a story that was
inspired by my own culture.

And the book was just delicious
and so full of wonderful world details.

And I felt like I really had to do it

because if I didn't write it,
somebody else would do it

and not do justice to
that culture and the humor.

And it was wonderful.
It was as easy as breathing, I like to say.

And suddenly this awareness of,
oh, is this what,

you know, white American writers feel
all the time that freedom and that ease.

I think for any writer, for any creator,

we want to put as much of our own
emotional damage into those characters.

It's almost a form of therapy.

But then a problem emerged.

There was a wage disparity between
Lim and the white male co-writer.

While the man received an offer of
approximately 800,000 to a million dollars

Lim was offered just 110,000.

Lim expressed deep dissatisfaction
with the significant wage gap.

Despite the sequel to the film being in
progress owing to its tremendous success,

she insisted on being excluded
from the project.

It felt for me very important, considering
the success of Crazy Rich Asians,

to put Asians on that same playing field,

that if we were able to show ourselves
as equals in that way,

me accepting anything less than
equal pay for equal work

felt like I was doing a disservice
to our message.

The most gratifying part of that experience
was having women from all walks of life

and all different industries
reach out to me, saying

that they had been struggling with
those same issues in tech and finance,

but because of the nature of their jobs,
they weren't given as much as much attention,

as much publicity about it.

But it was a wonderful sense of
community among women

and again, other groups have who have been
discriminated against in the past,

who haven't been given as many opportunities
to be able to come together and say that,

you know, it's an injustice that we feel
that we will not allow to go by anymore.

Currently, Lim devotes her energy to the
creation of films in her role as a director.

In 2023, she saw the release of her
inaugural feature film, "Joy Ride."

In this comedy film, the main character,

who was adopted by
a Caucasian couple during childhood

and moved to the U.S. from China,

embarks on a journey across Asia
to find her birth mother.

In the movie, Lim addresses discrimination
experienced by Asians living in America.

She humorously portrays
the sexuality of Asian women

with impactful dialogue
and well-crafted pacing.

Nearly the entire cast and
production team of this film

consists of individuals of Asian descent.

Moreover, the entire leading cast comprises
Asian women, generating attention.

In Hollywood, Asian women
have been sexualized and fetishized

it as the object, honestly,
of a white man's fantasy.

So with "Joy Ride"
it felt like an opportunity,

an opportunity for us
to reclaim our sexual identity,

that we as women, we as Asian women,

any women have a sexual life that is
joyful and fun and that is of our own.

For our movie, I think we took great pride
in the fact that we have the female lens

that we are looking at the male characters
with the female eye and

seeing how they are desirable to us and
talking about our sexuality as something open,

as something to be proud of and
not something that is to be ashamed of.

It was a lot of fun.

Beyond film production,

Lim also focuses on fostering young talent
for the future of Hollywood.

One notable initiative
is participating in CAPE,

supporting Asian American
and Pacific Islander creators.

Lim regularly provides
practical guidance on scriptwriting

to dismantle the stereotypes of
Asia perpetuated by Hollywood.

In August 2023, Lim was inducted
into the Asian Hall of Fame,

a tribute to those who have advanced
cultural and social contributions in the U.S.

Her success in uniting Asia
and the world audience through film

resonated across the United States.

So I'm very active with CAPE,

which is the Coalition for Asians
and Pacific Islanders and Entertainment

that brings together these young creatives,

but also established working professionals
to give young up and coming voices,

the support and the mentorship and
the resources they need to succeed.

Because without that, we are not represented
in Hollywood behind the cameras.

And if you don't have
the representation behind the cameras,

you're not going to have
the stories that really highlight

and portray our stories
the way they're meant to be told.

There is never one person
who suddenly blows open the doors

of opportunity in our industry or anywhere

that it all has to do with little chips in that barrier.

And all I can hope for is that
I have contributed to that

to crack open the door a little bit more
for the people coming behind me.

Lim left us with her favorite words.

My motto is come from joy,

because in the work that we do,

it's so easy to be weighed down by
fear and expectation and insecurity.

But if you always come from a place of joy,

you know you're coming from
some place that is authentic.

If you have a story
that you are dying to tell,

I would encourage you
to do it and put it out there.