Kal Penn shares cringeworthy audition scripts from his early days as an actor
Minorities in Hollywood: You've come a long way, even if it doesn't feel like it. Actor Kal Penn found some of his old audition scripts, and the snippets he shared of accented or stereotypical South Asian roles would not survive today's scrutiny. Or at least would get the social media flogging they deserve.
The entertainment industry still has a lot to fix when it comes to minority representation (ahem, Ghost in the Shell), but Penn's tweets show that things have — somewhat — improved.
SEE ALSO: 'Ghost in the Shell' gets brutally dragged in its own viral campaign
Penn's thread started with a call for actors that included snake charmers, fire eaters and a "Gandhi lookalike." (At least they spelled Gandhi right?)
Found a bunch of old scripts from some of my first years trying to be an actor. pic.twitter.com/GydOwlUKGW
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
He recalled being repeatedly asked for accents and prompted to make them more "authentic" to meet production needs — but according to Penn, "authentic" is a code word.
Jeez I remember this one! They were awful. "Can you make his accent a little more AUTHENTIC?" That usually meant they wanted Apu pic.twitter.com/3F5XRORO3n
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
A role on the short-lived Smart Guy, starring Tahj Mowry as a 10-year-old in high school, was for a foreign student whose few lines reference child labor and abduction. Oh, and he has a long, difficult name, just for laughs.
Oh wait yes they did pic.twitter.com/xwB3qIoXoF
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Ha, ha! Foreign names are so funny!
Friggin King of Queens man! I used to love that show until I got to audition for it lol pic.twitter.com/2BYu0nnd57
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
One commercial called for a character in a "perpetual state of perspiration" for which Penn had to apply Vaseline to his face on set. And who can resist a dung reference?
This was for some project called The Marriage Clause I guess. pic.twitter.com/0yKjepAHqy
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
South Asian representation has increased and improved exponentially since the scripts Penn shared, but as Aziz Ansari pointed out in the damning Master of None episode "Indians on TV," plenty of auditions still pigeonhole actors into stereotypical roles. Luckily, Penn's current role as White House Press Secretary Seth Wright on Designated Survivor shows quite the progression.