Have you ever wondered what kind of roles an Indian-American actor gets?
In a series of illuminating tweets actor, Kal Penn posted screenshots of various scripts he had received in the early years of his career, providing a sad and unsurprising look into Hollywood and racism.
Penn exposed shows ranging from Sabrina the Teenage Witch to “some shitty MTV show” to King of Queens, which he said he “used to love”—until he had the chance to audition for it.
The script excerpts he has provided cover familiar, racist stereotypes: descriptions of “funny” extreme Indian accents, “humorous” lines over how to pronounce Indian names, and characters who speak in a language that’s “peppered with Indian cultural references.”
Penn captioned the scripts by recounting fights over accents—“Can you make his accent a little more AUTHENTIC?”—and general stereotyping.
Penn’s tweets illustrate where Hollywood attempted to represent minorities a decade ago. Hopefully, Penn’s tweets illustrate how far we have progressed in the years since.
Pakistani actor Kumail Nanjiani, for one, saw Penn’s tweets as a blast from that unfortunate past. “I remember seeing these kinds of things when I was starting,” he tweeted in response. “We still have a long way to go but we have come so very far.”
You can check out Penn’s tweets below.
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
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
This was a pilot called The Stones. Tried to convince them to let me speak without an accent & make it funny on the merits (was told no) ? pic.twitter.com/SuUVYT7rip
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Womp womp pic.twitter.com/fyonwmreBa
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Ha! In this audition for Smart Guy, they didn’t even give the character a name! pic.twitter.com/z2D8E5rx8J
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Oh wait yes they did pic.twitter.com/xwB3qIoXoF
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
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
I do not remember this audition except that it was for some shitty MTV show and the big joke was an accent and too much cologne ?? pic.twitter.com/7HZbhQCkaB
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Whoa I remember this! This was one of my first commercials. The makeup people would use Vaseline to get the sweaty unwashed look going pic.twitter.com/X7z4EI4drQ
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
This was for some project called The Marriage Clause I guess. pic.twitter.com/0yKjepAHqy
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Sabrina the Teenage Witch! Man. We got INTO it about why he had to have an accent. I’m laughing about it now but they were such dicks ? pic.twitter.com/kXdHjVsqvT
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
There are too many in this stack to tweet, I’ll be here all day. That said, there were also some wonderful 1st audition & work experiences!
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
