Why Jimmy O. Yang Turned Down Starring in a William Hung Biopic | Joe Rogan

Most insulting thing I've gotten. This is recent. I don't even know how I should talk about it. But anyways, I should because it's just funny. You know, I'm at the final at this point of my career. People send me scripts if I want to do it. It was just very flattering. I'm like, oh, great. So there's an email my agent sent me. He's like, you're going to be really angry at this. I'm really happy about it. I was like, oh, fuck, not a good way to start an email for me, agent. And they're like, they want you to play a lead in this biopic. I was like, oh, shit, what's up? You know, like I'm ready. And then they're like, yeah, but it's the biopic of William Hung. I was like, brother, are you kidding me? The Virginia shooter? No, no, no, no, no. Oh, that's that guy. He's the American. Terrible singer. She bangs motherfucker. I met that dude. Look, nothing wrong with the guy. No, it's definitely something wrong with him. Well, yeah, yeah. But yes, yes, yes. But he's not malicious. No, no, no, no. Might be a little Asperger or something. I don't know what it is. But I thought it was that one dude who was a shooter. I read. University. Yeah, that's tough, too. I read all 115 pages of that script. I've never been so angry reading a script like I wanted to fucking vomit. And why were you angry? Well, you got to understand, I think William Hung set us back like 10 years. Look, nothing wrong with that, brother. It's not his fault. Right. Maybe there's a very nuanced way to write this movie of why American Idol producers picked him out of the crowd and featured him just to make fun of him. And why the rest of America laughed at this guy. That might be an interesting story. Well, wasn't that the whole thing about American Idol? It's like you had real talent, but then you also had delusional people. And the delusional people was part of the thing. Oh, it was funny. I love watching that. But I think it just cut so deep as an Asian guy. It's the opposite of Bruce Lee. William Hung is the exact opposite of Bruce Lee. But there's something wrong with him. I mean, as a human being, there's something to be said. Like, I get that the guy signed a release and I get that that's part of the fun with the show. But there is kind of a difference between people that are mentally challenged and someone who's just not very talented. But people are laughing at him. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. He's mentally challenged. There's something wrong with him. When I say there's nothing wrong with him, I don't mean he's not autistic, mentally challenged, whatever it may be. I'm saying there's nothing wrong with his intentions. He's a dreamer. He want to make it. Right. Right. So there is, sure, a very nuanced way to write about William Hung that could work. But we just shouldn't make that movie. Have we ran out of Asian people out there that I can do biopics about and a fucking William Hung script lands on my desk? Well, isn't that that's a part of the problem with reality TV in general, right? It's like what they're trying to do is there's some reality TV that's based on actual events that are taking place. But a lot of it is like they're taking you have to sign these releases on a lot of these shows that allow them to edit your words in a very distorted way. Like you can you and I can have a conversation. You could have an answer to one question and they'll put that answer on another question that's totally unrelated. Right. You look like a real piece of shit. And they're 100 percent allowed to do that. And they do that for the storyline. They do that for the narrative. They don't care about your reputation. They don't care about what happens when you go back home. People like, how can you fucking say that, Jimmy? Like, I didn't. You don't have access to the raw tapes you can't release. You know, no one's going to believe you. But that's they've victimized people on purpose just so that they can make a good what they call a good show. Yeah. But they're doing that with him. It's different because he's got a problem. It's not like he's a guy. Like, it's not like if I decided I was going to be a singer and I went on American, America's Got Talent, I was terrible. Yeah. And I was I'm singing and everybody just they hit the buzzer to get the fuck out of here. Yeah. I'm I can I'm a normal person. Like, if you think I suck, like, I probably suck. Yeah. But if I have a problem, like a mental problem, like there's something wrong with me. Yeah. And I do that and you know there's something wrong with me and you still put me on television, that's where we're getting weird. That's where we're getting like, are you you're profiting off taking advantage of somebody? Yes. Yeah. Yes. You're profiting off of someone who's clearly mentally handicapped in some some way, shape or form. If there's a spectrum of mental disability, he's on that spectrum. It's not you. It's not Jamie. It's not me. It's not like, oh, there's a regular guy. Yeah. You know, we're all different, but regular, like you can talk to them. Yeah. That guy's off. Something's all you know, he's off. Yeah. But they like perfect. Run it. Perfect. Line them up because people laugh. They know people laugh. And why are people laughing? Look, it's tough being, I guess, one of few Asian actors in America, right? I'm very fortunate to be in that position. We all kind of know each other. It's a small circle. I'm very proud of all of us. But early on in my career, I got some flack from Silicon Valley. My character, you know, it was an accented character, which I mean, for me, it's a little different because I came to this country when I was 13. I couldn't really speak English. I was like, okay, I'm just gonna play an earlier version of myself. I understand. I'm gonna try to put some humanity in his character. But then some articles or whatever, it's like, this is offensive stereotype, blah, blah. And that really looked into that. I was like, okay, I get it. Eventually, the character became a more three dimensional character because the joke's no longer on him just being foreign. It's on him being like a diabolical coder person or that. But it's tough being an Asian actor because now not only do I have to, uh, uh, uh, uh, decide on playing a part of that by looking at, oh, is this a good script? I got to look at the cultural ramifications. Is this good representation? Because there's so few of us, each of us that does something means so much more. Right. Uh, that was the beef with the Apu character because there wasn't a lot of Indian. Yeah. And then you characterize whatever. Now that's what's great about, uh, uh, Crazy Rich Asians. And then I had a lot of fun on that movie because for one of the first times I wasn't the only Asian dude on set and I can just play a character. My character is an asshole in that movie, but I can just lean into that and be a character actor and play it. And it's a powerful, funny movie. It's a great production. It came out excellent. Everybody enjoyed it. And there's a whole spectrum of Asians. It's not just one Asian representing all Asians. It's your handsome Asians, your asshole Asians, the, uh, a romantic lead and also the bitchy ex-girlfriend, whatever. So we can just actually be actors for the first time and not be actors slash Asian representatives. So when something like William Hung comes to the table, just can't do it, man. I mean, come on. I get it. You know, it's interesting that that it's like when someone gets offended at racial stereotypes, society puts it through this filter of whether or not it's valid. And I'll give you an example. The Sopranos, the Italian American Anti-Defamation League or whatever the fuck it is. I don't know. They were, they were pissed at the Sopranos. They're pissed that it was, uh, it was reinforcing negative stereotypes about Italians. And I'm Italian and everyone I know that's Italian was like, what the fuck are you talking about? Those are real people. I know guys like that. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is offensive. What's offensive? Reality. Yeah. Is the mob real? Are those fat guys real? Do they eat pasta like that? Yes, that's real. Yeah. Like that's not because Italians aren't really discriminated against. So it's it doesn't hold any water. What also you are Italian. There's a ton of Italian actors, comedians out there. So Sopranos is not the only place where you see a talent. Right. It's not the only representation. So that waters it down and it's fine. Yeah. Because white people, you can play, uh, whatever, uh, mentally handicapped guy, not so smart guy or complete asshole because there's a million other white people.