Hi Lin,
I think if people read the article completely, they will understand what Darren is saying, but when the writer just grabs a single sentence out of context and tweets it, then it's misleading.
I'm not really very good in terms of maneuvering Twitter, so I'm not sure if I'm missing anything, but I don't see that many negative responses replying to the Vulture tweet, and none that are new. I just went to that Vulture tweet and scanned quickly the dates of the responses, and there are no new responses dated today. So it's a moderate response. It's not so big that I would be too concerned, or am I missing something? I went to Darren's tweet about Stephen King and scanned the responses and I didn't notice any negative tweets. Why are people being concerned about a backlash? Am I missing something?
In terms of my position, I definitely remember Darren saying many times previously that he was proud of his Filipino side. And I remember him talking about white privilege. But it's one thing to feel you have white privilege because you pass as white (when you are bi-racial), versus whether you internally identify as part Asian-American. You can pass as white and thus have white privilege, but still identify as part Asian-American. One doesn't necessarily follow from the other (having white privilege because you pass as white, does not necessarily mean you identify as white and does not necessarily mean you don't identify as part Asian-American). I always assumed he was proud of being part Asian-American, because it's confusing to me to say one is proud of being part Filipino, but not identify as partially Asian-American (since being Filipino is a type of Asian ancestry, and being Asian means you are a person of color).
I think that one cannot assume that because I am a fan of Darren, that I always understand where he is coming from regarding his view on his racial identity as a bi-racial/mixed race person, because he never really discussed it in detail. And it sounds like he has just started thinking about this issue recently (which is interesting too). I also think that I may view what he says on this issue differently from his fans who are not Asian-American or not persons of color. And among Asian-Americans, there also will be disagreement. It's a complicated enough topic that there will be no homogeneous view on that matter, even among Darren fans.
I have a friend who did not watch Glee, who became a fan of Darren because she loves his acting on Versace. She agrees with me on this issue of being confused with Darren's position. But my husband did not find Darren's position confusing. So there will be diverse opinions, even among Asian-Americans. And there will be diverse opinions just in general, among other persons of color and among persons who are not of color, just because the topic is so complex.
Thanks, Lin, I'm also glad the Vulture article (and his tweet) cleared things up for me.
Lin wrote:I get that it's a touchy subject that people are going to have a reaction to, but what an awful position to be in to always be expected to phrase everything perfectly. I sometimes get haunted hours later by random things I said in totally mundane, inconsequential conversations and that I wish I could take back or rephrase even though no one else probably thought twice about it or remembers, so having so much weight put on my every word sounds like a nightmare. I know Darren hates being misunderstood, so that must suck for him.
I understand what you are saying, and I am sorry for how Darren must feel like he is living in a fishbowl and being judged. Being interviewed by the press is so hard, and being a celebrity being judged by so many people is also incredibly hard. I had to be interviewed by the media for couple of my previous jobs and it's so easy to be misquoted or have a quote taken out of context. But it comes with the territory and it's something that one needs to prepare for, by putting thought into possible questions
before the interviews. Of course, one cannot anticipate every question that these media folks come up with. However, in this case, where Darren is an actor who is part white, part Filipino, playing a character who also is part white, part Filipino, it's not so surprising that he may be asked about his mixed race/mixed heritage. I'm not saying it's easy to field these tough, tough questions on
controversial issues, on the spot, spontaneously, but there are ways one can minimize problems by thinking and preparing for these interviews.
And I know how much Darren hates being misunderstood. I'm sorry that this is happening. I don't really know how big a deal it is, because as I said, I haven't seen that much of a "backlash." But maybe I'm missing what's going on, on social media. I don't know what you mean by the tagline getting seen in the preview on Twitter. Is it possible Darren could contact the reporter and explain the situation, that it's not cool to pick out a statement out of context (out of context of the entire interview)?
And yes, I agree, there are people who love to jump in with their so-called social justice concerns as a thin cover for fueling negativity against Darren. Most of these folks as you said, are people still obsessed with the "injustice" of Darren getting too much screen time on Glee--the gall of Darren, when he is not even an "original cast member." I have made the mistake of commenting to one person on one of the YouTube videos and it came out so quickly what the real basis of her views were (because on Glee, he got too much screen time!).
In time, hopefully, these folks will let go of their obsession and move on. We just have to be patient. (Hopefully, Darren does not spend time reading comments from these people who carry their grudge.)
Yes, the number of the reviews on
Versace became overwhelming, so I stopped reading them as well. (But it is so lovely to see so many critics loving Darren's acting!) I still haven't had a chance to post my thoughts on Episode 8, so I need to do that soon.
I'm also a slow writer and a slow typist. I make so many typos and grammatical errors. And I can imagine since German is your first language, that writing in English is an additional challenge.
Wow, I'm glad this well-known German podcaster has become a fan of Darren. I think Darren has gained a lot of new fans, some of them quite important. Hopefully, he will get some great opportunities from being connected with this wonderful project. I really hope so.
My husband and i were talking about which episode did we like the best. The very weird thing is for me is that I hated, hated the type of violence in Episode 4. But I loved much of the acting in the episode. I think Darren's acting was so good in the episode, how he was so quietly creepy in some parts of it, and then so erratic in other parts of the episode, and outright frightening and horrifying in other parts of the episode, and one brief moment, vulnerable and sad. I can't believe I can have such mixed feelings from extremely disliking part of Episode 4, to loving other parts of the episode. I know exactly what you mean about the cold, dead-eyed stare that Darren did as Cunanan. My hubby is a tough critic but he also thought Darren was very good at switching back and forth from extremely different moods so rapidly.
haha. It's interesting to me that the effect of Darren's acting as Cunanan lingered with you when you looked at the Esquire pics of Darren as Darren. I had a weird reaction when I saw the Computer Games video that Darren did with Mia and lots of his StarKid friends. His eyes looked scary in that video sometimes, and Versace had not even aired yet--but I wondered if he unconsciously was staying in character, because I don't remember his eyes looking scary before.
Lin wrote:Maybe it was because I wasn't totally awake (that's what I get for watching at 4am, whoops). It thankfully went away after I went back to sleep.
haha. I'm glad it was just temporary, Lin.