Katie Leung was a guest recently on the latest episode of Chinese Chippy Girl podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts. Katie Leung is best known for her role in the Harry Potter films as Cho Chang. The host starts off by fan-girling over the fact that she’s now speaking with Katie (rightfully so, because who wouldn’t?) and they briefly give their intros and then jump right into the topics at hand – representation and racism. Katie talks about how she finds there’s this enormous pressure for one person to represent an entire culture because there isn’t enough representation in the media and film industries. She expresses her realization of putting such a burden on one person being unwarranted because the individual that is on film isn’t particularly representing the person watching, but themselves. She chalks this up to the mindset within the Asian culture of being a collective instead of one’s own individuality.
Katie then states she feels there is pressure on her to represent an entire culture, but also feels it’s mostly on her end. She states:
it’s hard to pinpoint how much of that is me, and how much of that is the media…it’s more me for sure.
This is perfectly understandable because people often want to put their best foot forward and be the best version of themselves. She goes on to say that she wanted to be a good role model for kids because she was working on Harry Potter. “I think having that in my mind really kind of hindered me from really wanting to freely express what was going on because you kind of want to show that there is…you know “dreams do come true” bullshit, but actually in the end there are a lot of obstacles you have to get through”.
Katie was 16 years old at the time when she was casted to play Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films. The host of the podcast recounts the amount of hate she witnessed seeing, not for Katie’s character in the films but for her as an individual. Katie elaborates on what happened during that time and even recounts the events that led to the world finding out she had gotten the role of Cho. She describes the immense pressure she felt due to the leak even when she was still in school, and briefly talks about the lurking paranoia caused by strangers taking secret photos and following her around.
I was googling myself at one point and was on this website dedicated to Harry Potter fandom, and I remember reading all of the comments. There was a lot of racist shit!
She goes on to say she mentioned it to the publicist, who then told her that if she were asked about these racist websites and the comments, to simply say it’s not true and it’s not happening. This is a routine tactic by corporate and PR in charge of any franchise to protect it at any cost, even if it puts their cast in harm’s way. Of course during this time the Harry Potter franchise has taken off in popularity and catapulted it’s young star actors into a type of mega-stardom. Katie made her debut in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire was released in 2005 it grossed $896.4 million in the box office alone, not counting the profits made from various merchandise that was being sold. She goes on to say how extremely grateful she was for the opportunity, but feels remorse for not speaking up about it at the time.
This begs the question: if she had said something, would the studios have re-casted the role to to throw off any negative media attention and to protect the franchise, knowing more sequels were to come in the future? We may never know.
Hey! I’m Lais a.k.a. Chipz-N-Stix and I love video games and nerd culture overall. I typically do reviews and impressions on video games as well as offer some helpful tips and tricks to enhance your gaming experience. From time to time I tend to touch on certain topics that get you thinking – things that would matter to the individual. I’m also a self-proclaimed Pokemon Master but that doesn’t mean you can outright challenge me. I have to “motivate” my team for that!
