An Asian American actress who appeared in an episode of the television series The Office says she wasn’t pleased with how she was portrayed on the mockumentary sitcom.
Kat Ahn played a waitress in the 2006 episode “A Benihana Christmas.” The actress said she was disappointed when she realized she was “just there to be the joke,” according to a Washington Post report published on Friday.
“You’re told to shut up and be grateful,” she said. “Actors have no power until they become a star.”
In the episode, Ahn’s character and another waitress go from their restaurant back to an office Christmas party with Steve Carell’s character, Michael Scott, a Dunder Mifflin paper distribution company regional manager. At one point, Scott loses track of the girl that he originally paired up with and realizes he can’t tell the two women apart. He later marks her arm to distinguish between them, a decision for which he is later mocked.
ASIAN AMERICAN VETERAN AND TOWN TRUSTEE BEARS CHEST SCARS TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT DISCRIMINATION
Ahn also spoke about the storyline in a January TikTok.
“I actually understood why BIPOC actors play racist roles. You know, sometimes, you gotta pay your rent. Sometimes, you want to join the union. Sometimes, you just don’t want your agent to drop you,” she said. “Also, this episode was before, you know, wokeness.”
She added: “The storyline with myself and the other Asian American actress is that we were the ‘uglier’ version of the actresses at the Benihana. Also that all Asian people look alike, we’re one big monolith, and we’re just one big walking stereotype without any personality or individuality. Which is problematic.”
Some actors from the American version of the popular series have since commented on some of Scott’s more ignorant blunders.
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In an episode of the podcast Office Ladies, hosted by Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer, two of the show’s mainstays, the pair agreed that the episode made them “cringe.”
“The climate’s different. I mean, the whole idea of that character, Michael Scott, so much of it was predicated on inappropriate behavior,” Carell told Esquire in 2018. “I mean, he’s certainly not a model boss. A lot of what is depicted on that show is completely wrong-minded. That’s the point, you know? But I just don’t know how that would fly now. There’s a very high awareness of offensive things today — which is good, for sure. But at the same time, when you take a character like that too literally, it doesn’t really work.”
