Racism, Sexism, and Hannibal: Eat The Rude

[Cranberry]

Link to a blog post of that title by Hettienne Park, who of course plays (played?) Beverly Katz on Hannibal. Apparently fans have been berating creator Bryan Fuller for "fridging" her character, and this is her eloquent and well-thought-out response. She not only discusses racism and sexism, but the TV industry in general and why they make some of the calls they do.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Cranberry

[ElectricBoogaloo]

TV Line interviewed Hettienne Park and she discussed it some more:

TVLINE | You wrote a long and complex blog post about Beverly’s death, about fan outrage over the killing of a strong Asian female character, about your experiences on the show and more. What prompted you to write that?

I’m on Twitter, and we try to interact with the fan base as much as we can. It’s because of them we got a second season. I follow Bryan’s lead because he’s incredibly generous, opening up those communication channels to people. I’m not sure if people realize it, but he hardly has time to eat or sleep. [Laughs] So the fact that he makes himself available to the fan base is amazing. He’s such a generous and caring person. I started getting messages from some of our fans that he was being attacked. I took a little peek and I was really saddened, because I think everyone’s entitled to their opinions, and I respect those opinions, but the way he was being attacked it went beyond the subject at hand. It got personal and vicious and ugly. He’s a fantastic human being, and him being accused of being racist and sexist was shocking and sad. So I just wrote it and stuck it on the Internet and it seemed to spread really quickly. I just wanted to stand up for my friend, really.

 

TVLINE | You addressed in your blog how there’s still a desire among minority viewers to see more representations of themselves on TV, to see more diverse casting.

It surprises me how attached people are to the character [of Beverly], though I do understand it. Everyone’s rooting for Will, and Beverly was his real lifeline. As far as her being an Asian female getting killed off the show and people being upset about it, I understand that, too. When I was growing up, there were no Asians on TV. The only Asian I saw on TV was Connie Chung. And when I look back, I think it’s a shame [beverly] couldn’t have lasted ’til the end of the season, because I do think there’s a strong need for – forget about Asian – a strong female character who doesn’t have to play into any clichés. There are strong women who exist in the world. It’s not like this is some crazy idea out of left field. And certainly there aren’t enough roles for minorities. It’s nothing new. Is it surprising that it’s still like that in 2014? It’s disappointing, but I don’t know how surprising it is. But I do believe it’s changing. And just the fact that Bryan was open-minded enough to even consider blind-casting this role, then giving it to an Asian woman, was great. It’s a step forward. I don’t really think of myself as Asian. I know maybe that sounds weird. But I just play it the way it feels right, and if people can identify with that, that’s great. And if the outside of me is Asian and people are rooting for that, that’s great, too.