Gedde Watanabe’s Accent
“Sixteen Candles” The movie that featured  characterization of an Asian exchange student named “Long Duk Dong” played by Japanese American Gedde Watanabe I found this interview he did back in 2014 interesting. This movie of course also brought up a lot of questions for me with the way it portrayed an Asian character.
Do you remember auditioning for Sixteen Candles?
I was living in New York and had been in the original cast of [Stephen Sondheim’s] Pacific Overtures and done work with the Public Theater and Joe Papp. My agent at the time sent me the script. It said the character of Long Duk Dong was a foreign exchange student and from Asia, but that was about it. To set myself apart, I asked a friend of mine who had a thick Korean accent if I could hang out with him and learn. I then went to the audition in character using my friend’s accent. Which wasn’t a very smart idea because I was basically lying and would have to tell them at some point that I only spoke English and was from Ogden, Utah. The casting director, Jackie Burch, was talking to me like I was from another country. Finally I had to admit I was lying. She wanted me for the role and said, “Don’t tell John.” So we kept it a secret until the table read in Chicago when I took him aside and said, “John, I have to tell you something ... ” He said, “Where’s your accent?” I was just so nervous telling him that I was afraid I’d get fired and aware of my own embarrassment that I’d told a huge lie. But John just had a big chuckle as if to say, “Boy, was I duped.”
Watanabe’s story of his accent and having to produce an accent similar to his Korean friend in order to get this role, and then the director talking him, just hit me I think, as a lot of people when they are seeing an Asian face they expect some sort of accent or that they are not American. The questions “What are you?” or “Wow, you speak English so well” happens too much.Â
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