- Hollywood premieres on Netflix on May 1.
- The series features several real-life characters, including Anna May Wong, considered to be the first Chinese-American movie star.
- Wong was snubbed multiple times for Oscars and locked out when auditioning for The Good Earth.
Netflix's Hollywood takes viewers back to a golden age of Hollywood cinema, where anyone who was anyone belonged to only a few studios, where miscegenation laws and sexual bigotry required gay and interracial couples to hide in plane sight, and where an actor like Anna May Wong, through no talent or will of her own, could never land a leading role, even in a Chinese movie, because: ticket sales! But those were the golden years, the best years.
Hollywood, of course, is taking a jab at those practices (though, it's still very much an industry-celebratory spectacle; if there's anything Hollywood loves more than making money, it's making money by writing about itself).
Still, we can learn a bit about the past from Hollywood.
Though deprived of May's talents then, audiences now can at least come to know the L.A.-born actor. She appears in the series early on, seemingly washed up and liquored up, jaded about Hollywood's "progressiveness" and angrily bemoaning her racially typecast roles: temptress, courtesan, some "sexed-up" far east character.
How much of this is true? Who really was Anna May Wong? How did she become famous? And, more importantly: Why wasn't she more famous?
Anna May Wong became famous during the silent movie era.
Wong grew up just outside Chinatown in Los Angeles, an area that saw increased presence of motion picture production, which would shoot on location. Wong (born “Wong Liu Tsong”) adopted her stage name “Anna May” when she was eleven. She began working as an extra and dropped out of high school in 1921, after which she scored her first screen credit, as a mother in Bits of Life.
Despite impressing critics, Wong found herself mostly in supporting roles, as studios were unwilling to carve out lead performances for the Chinese-American actor. Due to anti-miscegenation laws, Wong wasn’t able to kiss a non-Chinese actor on screen, barring her from more roles.
Fed up, she moved to Europe in 1928, becoming renowned in Germany as both a film and stage actor. Wong's first “talkie” (non-silent movie) was in 1931.
Wong was passed over as lead for The Good Earth, which went on to win an Oscar
Wong returned to Hollywood but was still typecasted, playing evil or seductress-like Chinese characters. In 1935 she auditioned for the lead role The Good Earth, based upon the book by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl Buck. Though Wong seemed a favorite for the role, MGM passed her over, after casting Paul Muni as the husband (which barred Wong from kissing him on screen). MGM cast Luise Rainer instead, meaning both leading roles went to European actors. Wong was offered a supporting role, a home-wrecking courtesan, which she rejected, finding it absurd that the only Chinese actor should play the least sympathetic Chinese character.
As depicted in Hollywood's second episode, Rainer won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
General Photographic AgencyGetty Images
She died of a heart attack
It wasn’t until the later 1930s that Wong was given leading performances, though in B-movies. Wong continued to act through the 1940s and 50s, often taking several-year-long absences. In 1961, Wong died of a heart attack at the age 56. She had developed a heavy drinking habit earlier in her career and had once suffered an internal hemorrhage.
Wong has since become a symbol for resilience in the face of industry discrimination.
"Hollywood" - Google News
May 02, 2020 at 09:15PM
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The True Story of Anna May Wong, the First Chinese-American Movie Star - menshealth.com
"Hollywood" - Google News
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