#Joshua dela cruz tv

But then to do so as an Asian man is incredible. It’s such a huge show that I never thought that I would ever be in this position. “I used to watch the show with my little sister, I remember sitting on my aunt’s pink rug, watching every morning and playing along with her. “The opportunity to become the host of ‘Blue’s Clues & You!’ was something that I never saw in a million years because it’s such an influential, huge show,” he added. So why am I going to try to fit into that box? I should just be myself and pursue film and television, right?” “As I started to figure out who I am as an Asian actor, I started realizing that the box created is screwed up. I never saw things people that I identified with that weren’t a foreigner or a villain.” I knew about BD Wong, I knew about Lou Diamond Phillips. “Even when I went into school, I was like, ‘I’m going to study theater, I’m going to be in musicals.’ Why? Because I knew about Lea Salonga.

#Joshua dela cruz tv

“I never saw myself as a TV actor,” Dela Cruz recalled. ‘Real Housewives of Dallas’ Star on Violence Against Asian Women: ‘There’s Already So Much We Have to Deal With’ (Video)ĭela Cruz credits both the change in his personal perspective and the colorblind casting process to landing this role. “I realized the power in identity, and celebrating who you are, and what that is, and how that can unlock a greater power.” You are Filipino American.’ That was a huge moment in my life because then things really began to unfold,” he added. “Then going into ‘Aladdin’ and being in a diverse cast that was unapologetically Black, Latin, and Asian and everything that I realized, ‘Josh, you look the way that you look You are Asian. In a new teaser video that was just released, Josh calls up his cousins on his handy dandy notebook, which is a phone on the other side.

And how could I be emotionally available and as honest as possible if I was telling myself, ‘Don’t see me as Asian, just be ethnically ambiguous?'” You’re supposed to be as honest as possible in the moment. “As an actor, you’re supposed to be emotionally available. And that’s when I realized, ‘Oh, I have been ignoring and suppressing who I am in order to fit into this world.’ That is the status quo,” Dela Cruz admitted. “ are actors that were not ashamed of who they were. After joining “Here Lies Love” - the story about former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos - at the Public Theater and working with other Filipino actors did the actor have a breakthrough. It wasn’t until he got involved in the Asian theater community that he began to change his thinking about himself and, more importantly, how he represented himself. And I knew that if it weren’t those shows, I don’t have a great chance.” “I would walk into auditions and say to myself, ‘Please don’t see me as Asian, please don’t see me as Asian.’ Because I knew that there were only like five shows that were for people like me on Broadway, and which were written by white men.

“When I graduated college, all I wanted to be was ethnically ambiguous so that I could work,” Dela Cruz told TheWrap’s Lawrence Yee. ‘Kung Fu’ Star Tzi Ma Explains Why This Asian Dad Is Unlike the Others You’ve Seen Him Play