The #AAIronFist train continues! For the latest edition of Hard NOC Life, we welcome journalist Charles Pulliam-Moore and actor/dancer Cole Horibe stop by to talk about why having Iron Fist be an Asian American character makes the most sense. We should also point out that this episode was recorded the day before Scott Buck was announced as the showrunner of the forthcoming Netflix series.
Topics covered on the show include:
- The problematic aspects of Iron Fist’s comic backstory
- Danny Rand and the “mighty whitey” trope in western fiction
- The lack of meaningful roles for Asian Americans to be seen as leading men
- The fallacy of the “Asian martial artist” stereotype
- Marvel’s lack of representation in its cinematic universe
All this and more on Hard NOC Life! Watch it on your screen, hit “play,” and check this.
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Cole Horibe YOU should play iron Fist! Audition…. Audition!!
Wow….you are RUGGED and Gorgeous!
Interesting. I’m an Asian American actor in Los Angeles. This is something we deal with daily. We almost had our moment. Legendary Films and Warner Brothers teamed up(at the time) was going to remake the old tv series Kung Fu into a big budget film. I was signed to play Kwai Chang Caine in the movie (months of auditioning), but I wasn’t allowed to discuss it. Even then I saw a push back that people hoped the role would be Asian American. Good news it was, Bad new it never got made and was eventually shelved. This was back in 2008 or so. We are starting to see male actors of Asian decent playing main characters, which is a great thing! Hopefully this will make the switch … fingers crossed.
Kawi Chi Caine*