Chloe Bennet, who stars in TV series Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, has said she had to change her name from Chloe Wang in order to make it in Hollywood.
The actress praised Ed Skrein for recently pulling out of Hellboy. His casting had been criticised for “whitewashing” the original character, who is of Asian heritage.
She told an Instagram follower who queried her name change: “Hollywood is racist and wouldn’t cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable.”
“Changing my last name doesn’t change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese… It means I had to pay my rent.”
She added: “I’m doing everything I can, with the platform I have, to make sure no one has to change their name again, just so they can get work.”
Chloe, who plays a secret agent, has previously explained how her name change led to a more successful career almost immediately.
“Oh, the first audition I went on after I changed my name, I got booked,” she told The Daily Beast last year. “So that’s a pretty clear little snippet of how Hollywood works.”
The actress has since created RUN (Represent Us Now) a group which campaigns for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities to be better represented in Hollywood.
She praised Skrein’s decision earlier this week, saying: “DAMN, that’s a man. Thank you @edskrein for standing up against Hollywood’s continuous insensitivity and flippant behaviour towards the Asian American community.
“There is no way this decision came lightly on your part, so thank you for your bravery and genuinely impactful step forward. I hope this inspires other actors/film makers to do the same.”
“Fellas, take note. That’s how it’s done.”
