长篇深度纪实：拍一部纯亚裔好莱坞大片的艰难 [美国媒体]

左起：《疯狂的亚洲富人》导演朱浩伟和演员阵容：郑肯、奥卡菲娜、吴恬敏、陈静、杨紫琼和亨利·戈尔丁。 ROZETTE RAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES



亨利·戈尔丁饰演的尼克。 SANJA BUCKO/WARNER BROS.



好莱坞上一部以亚洲演员为主的影片是1993年的《喜福会》。 HOLLYWOOD PICTURES

In January2017, the director Jon M. Chu announced an open casting call for Asian andAsian-American actors for his movie adaptation of “Crazy Rich Asians.” Recordedin the kitchen of his West Hollywood home (you can see his fridge in thebackground), the online plea instructed anyone interested in joining hisall-Asian cast, from aspiring actors to “cool personalities with hiddentalents,” to post a two-minute video of themselves on social media. “We arelooking for you,” he beamed.

2017年1月，导演朱浩伟宣布，要为他改编自《疯狂的亚洲富人》(Crazy RichAsians)的电影公开招募亚洲和亚裔美国演员。他在西好莱坞家中的厨房里录制了一段视频（你可以看到背景中的冰箱），这则网络英雄帖称，有意加入其全亚裔阵容的人——从有志成为演员的人，到“身藏才华的有型人物”，去社交媒体上发布一段两分钟的视频。“我们正在找你，”他笑着说。

The call wasan enticing one. The romantic comedy was going to be a major feature film, witha reported budget of $30 million; its inspiration, the best-selling novelby Kevin Kwan, had already sold millions ofcopies. And then there was the sheer singularity of it all. How often did aHollywood filmmaker go looking for a whole bunch of Asians for anything? Thelast time a major Hollywood film set in the present day showcased a majorityAsian cast was a whopping 25 years ago, with “The Joy Luck Club” in 1993. Manyof the folks Mr. Chu was seeking now weren’t even alive then.

这个召集令令人心动。这出浪漫喜剧将是一部大片，据报道预算为3000万美元；它改编自凯文·关(KevinKwan)销量达到数百万册的畅销小说。而且，这样的机会实在难得。多久会有一个好莱坞电影人去找一大群亚洲人来拍东西？上一部以亚洲演员为主的时装好莱坞大片，还是1993年，也就是25年前的《喜福会》(The Joy LuckClub)。朱浩伟现在要找的人当中，许多当时甚至还没出生。

For Asian andAsian-American viewers, the film, which opens on Aug. 15, is important not justas something of a cinematic Halley’s comet — before “Joy Luck Club,” there was“The Flower Drum Song” in 1961, and then, what? There’s also an eager hope thatif this movie succeeds, it just might stave off another quarter-centurydrought. Producers use something called “comps” — recent films similar to theones they’re pitching — to help sell studios on their ideas and budgets. Forthe producers of “Crazy Rich Asians,” there weren’t any. For scores ofAsian-themed films to come, the hope goes, “Crazy Rich Asians” could be thatcomp.

对于亚洲和亚裔美国观众来说，这部将于8月15日上映的电影不只是一部哈雷彗星式的电影——在《喜福会》之前，还有1961年的《花鼓歌》(The FlowerDrum Song)，然后还有什么？大家存在一种热切的希望，那就是如果这部电影成功了，可能会避免又一段25年的空白。制片人爱用“参照对象”（跟其推销的电影点子类似的近期作品）来帮助他们向电影公司兜售自己的想法，拿到预算。对于《疯狂的亚洲富人》（又译：《摘金奇缘》）的制片人来说，他们手里完全没有参照对象。未来的众多以亚洲为主题的电影希望《疯狂的亚洲富人》可以成为那个“参照对象”。

When Mr. Chumade his online pitch, the film seemed a godsend for Asian actors, aspiring orotherwise. Forget a few token parts here and there; in this one film, Asianactors would play everything: the romantic leads and sympatheticsidekicks, the comic foils and cads, the faces in the crowd. With more than 4billion Asians on the planet, how hard could it be to cast this thing?

当朱浩伟在网上发出选角令时，对于亚洲演员来说，无论是否心怀大志，这都可谓天赐之物。忘掉起点缀作用的龙套吧，在这部片子里，亚裔演员扮演所有的角色：无论是浪漫的主角和讨喜的配角、充满喜剧色彩的小角色，还是路人甲乙丙丁。地球上有超过40亿的亚洲人，为这部片子选角能有多难呢？



Many of thesedebates wouldn’t be nearly as fraught “if there were enough roles to goaround,” said Nancy Wang Yuen, the author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actorsand Racism.” She added: “We shouldn’t be fighting over scraps. We should befighting for the system to expand, so that all of us can get access to roles.”

《电影不平等——好莱坞演员和种族主义》(ReelInequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism)一书的作者王岚芝(Nancy WangYuen)说，很多争议本来不会那么焦灼，“如果有足够角色的话。”她还说：“我们不应该为残羹剩饭大打出手。我们应该为系统的扩展而奋斗，这样所有人都可以获得角色。”

Indeed,according to a recent study by Ms. Yuen and others, 64 percent of television series inthe 2015-16 season didn’t have a single Asian-American regular; another report revealedthat of the top 100 films of 2017, nearly two-thirds didn’t include a singleAsian or Asian-American female character.

事实上，根据王岚芝等人最近的一项研究，在2015-16年度，64％的电视连续剧没有一个亚裔美国人的常规角色。另一份报告显示，在2017年票房前100位的电影中，近三分之二的影片中没有一个亚洲或亚裔美国女性角色。

On a recentmorning, Mr. Chu was here in his West Hollywood home, recounting the joys andstruggles of casting his all-Asian feature. Sporting a white baseball cap andgray T-shirt, he talked about hiring legends (Michelle Yeoh) and relativeunknowns (Henry Golding), Asian stars (Singapore’s Fiona Xie) andAsian-Americans on the rise (Awkwafina).

在前不久的一个早晨，朱浩伟来到他位于西好莱坞的家中，讲述了他在打造全亚裔演员阵容过程中的乐趣和挣扎。他穿着白色棒球帽和灰色T恤，谈起自己如何招募那些传奇人物（如杨紫琼）、相对不出名的人（亨利·戈尔丁[Henry Golding])、亚洲明星（新加坡的谢宛谕）和亚裔美国新秀（奥卡菲娜[Awkwafina]）。

Mr. Chu alsoexplained why he had cast such a wide net in the first place, supplementing theusual Los Angeles and New York casting calls with a five-continent search andan online open call. “We just didn’t want to miss anybody,” he said. “I wantedthis to be the ‘Avengers’ of Asian actors.”

朱浩伟还解释了为什么他一开始就从如此广泛的范围内选角，不仅依靠通常的洛杉矶和纽约选角电话，还在五大洲搜索，开设了在线公开电话。“我们只是不想错过任何人，”他说。“我希望这成为亚洲演员的《复仇者联盟》
(Avengers)。”



Early on, Ms.Jacobson and Mr. Simpson had certain actors in mind, like Ms. Yeoh, who was oneverybody’s wish list for Eleanor. Unlike most of her castmates, Ms. Yeoh hadappeared in dozens of films with all-Asian casts, like the Jackie Chan classic“Police Story 3: Super Cop” and the Oscar-winning “Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon,” so, in some ways, this was nothing new. But those weren’t Hollywoodproductions. “It was very important for me to see an all-Asian cast here,” shesaid. “Twenty-five years? I don’t even understand why it’s taken so long.”

在早期阶段，雅各布森和辛普森心目中有一些特定的演员，比如杨紫琼，她是所有人心目中埃莉诺的理想人选。与剧组大多数演员不同，杨紫琼曾经出演过数十部全亚裔演员的电影，如成龙经典的《警察故事3：超级警察》和奥斯卡获奖影片《卧虎藏龙》，所以，在某些方面，这并不是什么新鲜事。但那些都不是好莱坞的影片。“对我来说，在这里看到一个全亚洲演员班底是非常重要的，”她说。“25年？我甚至不明白为什么花了这么长时间。”

For otherroles, the producers sought the help of veteran casting directors withconnections to actors throughout Asia, like the Canada-based PoPing AuYeung(“The Forbidden Kingdom”). They also looked at stage actors in New York andLondon, and checked in with some of the world’s top drama schools, particularlyin their search for the man who would embody Nick. “Ordinarily when you’recasting and maybe looking to break somebody, you go to the big theaterprograms,” Ms. Jacobson said, adding, “But they were like, we have not had amale Asian graduate in years.”

至于其他角色，制片人们去向与亚洲演员有联系的资深选角导演寻求帮助，比如加拿大的欧阳宝屏（《功夫王国》[TheForbidden Kingdom]）。他们还去看了一群纽约和伦敦的舞台剧演员，并与一些世界顶级戏剧学校接洽，特别是在寻找饰演尼克的演员期间。“通常选角期间，如果想捧一个新人，你会去看各校的大牌戏剧专业，”雅克布森说。“但他们说，我们已经很多年没有男性亚裔毕业生了。”

When Mr. Chuannounced his open call, thousands of videos poured in. Working actors from theUnited States, Singapore and elsewhere submitted auditions alongside thoseoutside the industry who figured they had nothing to lose.

当朱浩伟宣布他的公开热线时，数以千计的视频涌了进来。来自美国、新加坡和其他地方的职业演员与那些认为自己没什么可以失去的业外人士一起前来试镜。

Among thehopefuls was Cheryl Koh, better known as the YouTube singer Cheryl K, whosevideos have garnered more than a million views. Although she was trying out fora role, any role, it was her 15-second, a cappella snippet of Jessie J’s “MammaKnows Best” that convinced the filmmakers to give her a shot at singing thesong under the opening credits, a Mandarin and English version of the Beatleshit “Money.”

有望成功的人选包括雪莉·高(Cheryl Koh)，她更为人知的身份是YouTube歌手，艺名雪莉·K(Cheryl K)，她的视频获得了超过100万的观看。尽管她非常努力想要得到一个角色，什么角色都行，但她只得到了很短的亮相机会，她清唱杰西·J(Jessie J)的《妈妈最懂》(Mamma Knows Best)的视频片段打动了影片制作人员，让她演唱开场字幕时的歌曲——普通话和英文版本的“披头士”金曲《金钱》(Money)。

“When I gotthe news that Jon wanted me to do it, I couldn’t stop screaming,” she said.

“当我听说乔希望我做这件事时，简直无法停止尖叫，”她说。

The cast soonbecame increasingly international. There was Gemma Chan and Jing Lusi fromBritain; Chris Pang and Remy Hii from Australia; Pierre Png, Ms. Xie and a hostof others from Singapore; Ronny Chieng and Ms. Yeoh from Malaysia; Lisa Lu andJasmine Chen from China. Nico Santos had spent his childhood in the Philippinesbefore moving to the United States and co-starring on “Superstore”; Mr. Chiengwas born in Malaysia and had gone to school in Australia before getting aregular gig on “The Daily Show.” Among the American-born crew, there wereactors who hailed from Detroit (Ken Jeong); Queens (Awkwafina); and Richmond,Va. (Constance Wu).

演员阵容很快变得越来越国际化。来自英国的嘉玛·陈(Gemma Chan)和陆思敬；来自澳大利亚的克里斯·彭(Chris Pang)和瑞米·许(Remy Hii)；来自新加坡的方展发、谢宛谕和其他一些演员；来自马来西亚的钱信伊和杨紫琼；来自中国的卢燕和佳思敏·陈(Jasmine Chen)。妮可·桑托斯(Nico Santos)是在菲律宾度过童年，然后前往美国，在百味超市(Superstore)中出演角色；钱信伊出生于马来西亚，定期出演《每日秀》(The DailyShow)，之后到澳大利亚上学。美国出生的演员包括来自底特律的郑肯(Ken Jeong)；皇后区的奥卡菲娜；以及弗吉尼亚州里士满的吴恬敏。

“Ken Jeonghad to fly out to Kuala Lumpur just to shoot for a couple of days, and itwasn’t a ton of money,” Ms. Jacobson said. “But he was like, I want to play anypart that you have for me in this.”

“郑肯必须飞往吉隆坡，只是为了几天的拍摄，报酬也不算多，”雅克布森说。“但他说，我愿意在这里饰演你给我的任何角色。”

With theentire world to pull from, the filmmakers faced several concerns about who theycould cast to play what. There were the accents, of course. Whoever played Nickhad to nail a British accent, which left out many of the Chinese box-officedraws under consideration.

由于演员来自世界各地，电影制作人们对他们可以扮演什么角色有了一些顾虑。当然，口音是问题之一。不管由谁来扮演尼克，他都必须有英国口音，因此许多中国的票房明星都不能考虑。

And thenthere was the Singaporean sounds of Nick’s friends and family. “This is theonly accent I can do,” said Mr. Chieng, who grew up in Singapore. “I don’t knowif you’ve heard many people with this accent, but it’s pretty specific, let’sput it that way.”

然后，尼克的朋友和家人必须有新加坡口音。“这是我会说的唯一一种口音，”在新加坡长大的钱信伊说。 “我不知道你有没有见过很多带这种口音的人，但是这么说吧，它是非常有特色的。”

With much ofthe action taking place there, there was a push to get as many Singaporeans aspossible. If that wasn’t possible, the producers said, they wanted to understandwhen a non-Singaporean could fill a Singaporean role.

由于大部分拍摄都在新加坡进行，所以需要尽可能招募更多新加坡人。制片人说，如果做不到的话，他们想知道，什么地方可以让非新加坡人来饰演新加坡人的角色。

“Wedefinitely always had ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ in our heads,” said Ms. Jacobson,referring to the 2005 film that starred three prominent Chinese actresses asJapanese women. (Unlike “Crazy Rich Asians,” that film, directed by RobMarshall and based on a book by Arthur Golden, was a period piece, set in Japanbefore and after World War II.)

“我们肯定总会想起《艺伎回忆录》(Memoires of a Geisha)，”雅克布森说，她指的是2005年那部由三位中国着名女演员饰演日本女人的电影。与《疯狂的亚洲富人》不同，那部由罗伯·马歇尔(Rob Marshall)执导，根据亚瑟·高登(ArthurGolden)的书改编的电影，是一部历史剧，发生在第二次世界大战前后的日本。

In the end,only a handful of YouTube hopefuls got parts in “Crazy Rich Asians” — a womanin a text messaging scene here, a groomsman there. But now, said Mr. Chu, hehas “the most amazing database of Asian talent that can speak English.”

最后，YouTube上的希望之星中只有几个人参与了《疯狂的亚洲富人》——这边在发短信的戏里放一个女人，那边放一个伴郎。但现在，朱浩伟说，他拥有“能说英语的亚洲人的最佳人才库”。

One of thelast actors to be hired was Henry Golding, who auditioned for Nick. On paper,he was perfect. He was handsome and charismatic. Born in Malaysia to a motherfrom the Iban tribe there and a white British father, he had grown up inLondon, where he had acquired the requisite British accent, then spent much ofthe rest of his life in Asia, where he had worked as a travel host for BBC andDiscovery Channel.

最后一位被雇用的演员是亨利·戈尔丁，他为尼克试镜。简历上的他非常完美。他英俊，很有领袖魅力。他出生在马来西亚，母亲是马来西亚伊班族人，父亲是英国白人；他在伦敦长大，在那里得到了这个角色所必需的英国口音；然后，他人生的大部分时间都在亚洲度过，担任BBC和探索频道(Discovery Channel)的旅游节目主持人。

The fact thathe had never acted before seemed to only add to the Cinderella charm of hisstory, which went something like this: With just a few months to go beforefilming started and no Nick, an accountant with the production in Malaysia tolda line producer about this sexy travel host “all the girls were gaga over.”From there, Mr. Golding’s name went up the chain.

他之前从未当过演员，事实上，这似乎只会为他的故事平添一丝灰姑娘的魅力，事情是这样的：再过几个月就开拍了，但他们还没找到尼克的人选，剧组在马来西亚的一位会计对制片人提了一句关于这位性感的旅游节目主持人的事，“所有女孩都迷恋他，”从那时起，戈尔丁开始被纳入考虑范围。

But when hiscasting was announced, the actress Jamie Chung, among others, criticized the decision.Ms. Chung, who is Korean-American, had been told by Mr. Chu that he was lookingonly for Chinese-Americans for the role of Rachel, so casting of a half-whiteactor as Nick seemed like a betrayal.

但是当他饰演尼克的消息宣布时，演员钟洁咪(Jamie Chung)等人批评了这个决定。钟洁咪是韩裔美国人，朱浩伟曾经告诉她，他想找一个华裔美国人饰演雷切尔的角色，所以让一个有一半白人血统的演员来饰演尼克似乎是一种背叛。

Asian-Americanjournalists and bloggers wrote about the controversy,noting Hollywood’s historical preference for biracial Asian actors (such asNancy Kwan and Keanu Reeves) and hinting (sometimes more than hinting) thatbiracial Asians weren’t “real Asians.” The controversy became so heated thatMr. Golding and other stars were compelled to address it in interviews andonline posts.

亚裔美国记者和博客写手们写了许多关于这一争议的文章，指出好莱坞过去对白人和亚裔混血演员（如关南施[Nancy Kwan]和基努·李维斯[KeanuReeves]）的偏好，以及暗示（有时候不仅仅是暗示）白人和亚裔的混血儿不是“真正的亚洲人”。争议变得非常激烈，戈尔丁和其他明星被迫在采访和网络帖子里回答这个问题。

Ms. Chungwalked back her comments soon after — “I am sincerely sorry about the ignorantcomment I made earlier in the year,” she tweeted — and apologized to Mr.Golding.

钟洁咪很快就收回了自己的评论——“我真诚地为今年早些时候发表的无知评论感到遗憾，”她发推文说——并且向戈尔丁道了歉。



With more andmore people talking about diversity in casting and calling out examples ofwhitewashing, Mr. Chu sees positive developments, particularly forAsian-Americans. This week Netflix will begin streaming “To All the Boys I’veLoved Before,” a coming-of-age tale starring the Vietnamese-American LanaCondor. And on Aug. 24, two years after #StarringJohnCho began hyping the actoras “the star we deserve,” there’s “Searching,” a thriller starring, yes, JohnCho.

随着越来越多的人谈论选角多样性并举出洗白的例子，朱浩伟看到了积极的发展，特别是对于亚裔美国人来说。本周Netflix将开播《致所有我曾爱过的男孩》(To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before)，这是一部由越南裔美国人陈东兰(Lana Condor)主演的成长故事。还有，8月24日，在 #StarringJohnCho 将这位演员奉为“我们值得拥有的明星”两年之后，一部名为《网络迷踪》(Searching)的惊悚片将由……没错……赵约翰主演。

“If we make adecent showing on that first weekend, there are like six Asian-American leadmovies set up at different studios,” Mr. Chu said. “They’re not greenlit.Everyone’s waiting to see how this one does. But if this one does well, we’llimmediately have more chances. And if it doesn’t, we’ll just have to do itagain.”

“如果我们在第一个周末有不错的表现，不同的制片公司就会投拍大约六部以亚裔美国人为主角的电影，”朱浩伟说。“这不是绿灯。所有人都在等着看这部影片做得怎么样。但如果这部反响好，我们立刻会有更多机会。如果不好，我们就必须再来一次。”