People in the industry thought it was laughable that I should be going up for things that didn't clearly state what race the part was intended for.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I got into the race and people literally laughed. They thought I had no chance of winning.
It's hard to say what role race really played in my case.
What I really hoped to do with my work was to at least be able to define my relationship to race.
I was critical of race-based affirmative action early on in my career and I've changed my mind. And I've publicly acknowledged that I was wrong.
I think it was hard for people to cast me as an ethnic, as an Asian American woman.
I learned at a young age that we were going to have to be personable, going to have to be marketable, and going to have to be creative in order to have a race team.
I sincerely hope that I shall always be a credit to my race, and to the motion picture industry.
My partner and I won the race, and I threw my hat into the air and bent to pick it up. Everyone started laughin' because I had split the back end of my pants out, and I wasn't wearing shorts.
I had to endure the worst time of all in terms of racial discrimination in Hollywood when I first started out. It was inconcievable to American directors and producers that a Mexican woman could have a lead role.
Being 'ethnically ambiguous', as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role. Morphing from Latina when I was dressed in red, to African American when in mustard yellow, my closet filled with fashionable frocks to make me look as racially varied as an Eighties Benetton poster.