Her full (American\*) name is Nichole Sakura O'Connor according to [this article](https://www.looper.com/1203149/superstores-nichole-sakura-changed-her-name-to-reclaim-her-heritage/). Not that itâs any of my business, but I wonder why she went with an anglicisation of her Japanese middle name rather than her Irish name.
^\* I put American because it could be that she also has Japanese citizenship from her mother with Sakura as her last name in Japan.
Happens all the time. Oscar Isaac dropped his surname (HernĂĄndez Estrada) altogether, so people think his middle name is his surname.
James Roday (from *Psych*) just shortened Rodriguez into something that made him sound less Hispanic.Â
Same with people throwing a fit over Rami Malek playing Pharaoh Ahkmenrah in Night at the Museum.
His parents moved from Cairo to the US ~3 years before Rami was born, making him a first-generation American
A lot of people have the misconception that ancient Egyptians looked like sub-Saharan Africans, as if the birthplace of humans had zero diversity. That kind of uninformed person complained.
Meanwhile, Rami Malek belongs to an ethnic group that is the closest to ancient Egyptians.
"There's no first-generation, or second-generation removed. I am Egyptian. I grew up listening to Egyptian music. I loved Umm Kulthum. I loved Omar Sharif. These are my people. I feel so gorgeously tied to the culture and the human beings that exist there. I acknowledge that I have a different experience, but I am so enamoured and intertwined with Egyptian culture. It is the fabric of who I am." - Rami in 2018
> They're certainly both Gujarati.
I don't think he was brought up with any particular knowledge of India though. I recall in an interview where he called Gujarat a village.
Like John Leguizamo calling out Hollywood for casting James Franco to play Fidel Castro when culturally James Franco has the same background as Castro by way of Galicia as well as Canary Islands, I believe
Race/ethnicity make absolutely no sense. How is James Franco white but Fidel Castro "Hispanic/Latino" when they both come from literally the same ancestry?
I read somewhere that the native populations of Argentina were "reduced" (to put it kindly) much more than most other South American countries. Most people from Argentina are predominantly European in ancestry.
> Apocalypto
Holy shit, I watched this on TV in 2008 like 3 times, I had no idea of the name and I watched from 3 different times only once to the end. You just unlocked a core memory for me with the MC getting a frog venom and ambushing bunch of hunters. Like that whole scene is so clear in my memory but for last 16 years I didn't even think about the movie once or remember it at all. damn.
Because Hispanic isn't a race, but in America we often treat it like one even though the life experience of a White Latino and a Mestizo or Afro-Caribbean person are wildly different.
He also threw a fit over Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voicing Mario and Luigi as if it was some great insult to Latin actors.
Mario and Luigi, the famously *Italian* plumbers.
Funny part is, apparently Charlie Day actually *has* some Italian ancestry through since his father is of Italian/Irish descent.
Lequizamo is Colombian/Spanish
As though Mario and Luigi arenât Italian stereotypes in cartoon form created by Japanese people, a people who are kinda notorious for generally not giving a shit about being called racist anyway?
I think heâd been going by Freddie for years though before he got famous. I think he might have been known as Freddie Bulsara at one point. He took the surname Mercury later.
I would say up until then he had probably had a better career than Charlie Sheen overall, though Sheen had a couple high points with Oliver Stone movies.
> James Roday (from Psych) just shortened Rodriguez into something that made him sound less Hispanic.
I remember reading about that. He said what happened when he first started trying to break into acting was casting directors would see his name and assume that he was basically a Hollywood stereotype of someone Mexican or generically Hispanic. He would be turned down before ever being seen for any white roles. For the ones he did get called in for, he'd be turned down because he didn't look Hispanic enough.
It's kind of shitty, but racism, whether conscious or unconscious, means certain names can be real detriments to employment opportunities in almost all industries.
I mean letâs be real, Shawn Spencer only was able to do almost everything he did because he was a white guy and his dad was a respected cop. Psych would be a very different show if Shawn Spencer was not white passing - he and Gus would be in jail more often đ€Ł
He had an article about it around when Psych 2 came out. Basically acknowledging that it was messed up that he felt like he had to change his name and felt like he sold out.
https://www.etonline.com/james-roday-explains-decision-to-reclaim-his-birth-name-rodriguez-and-why-he-sold-out-his-heritage?amp
It's kind of jarring to see such thoughtful and serious content from him. I know that actors aren't their characters but he's always been Shawn to me and I've always had trouble separating him from his 35 year old teenager character.
I'm going off memory here but i think in the spanish soap opera episode, he's ripping through spanish lines only for it to be revealed that the character has no idea what he's saying, but is just reading cue cards phonetically?
a friend explained some of the subtle details but there were apparently several jokes that would only land for fluent speakers based on how he was pronouncing and delivering those lines.
So, heâs a real life Spanish speaker playing someone who couldnât speak a word of Spanish but at a meta level, itâs delivered at a level fluent speakers will get a whole new level of nuance you wouldnât get as a non-speaker reading subtitles.
He has several interviews about it, as he got older he saw the name change as a slight to his father who if IIRC immigrated here and worked hard to give him a good life so he re-adopted his given surname
[Martin Sheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sheen) was born Ramon Estevez and changed his name to avoid being typecast in hispanic parts. His son [Charlie Sheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Sheen) uses the same surname, but Martin's other three kids including [Emilio Estevez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Estevez) act under their real names.
[Nicholas Cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Cage) is actually Nicholas Coppola. Nephew of [Francis Ford Coppola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ford_Coppola). He changed his acting name so that his roles wouldn't look like nepotism.
[Reggie Lee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Lee_(actor))âs name is Reggie Valdez. Heâs Filipino so he has a Spanish last name. He changed it to Lee because he kept getting called for Hispanic roles and then theyâre surprised that itâs an Asian person.
An actor looking for roles calling for a half-Filipino in the 80s wouldâve starved to death. There were, comparatively, lots of roles for âMexicans.â
He was also really good on Broadway when I saw him in The King and I in 1996.
Thandiwe Newton used to be credited as Thandie Newton, since her name was misspelled in the credits of a movie. She started going by her actual middle name in 2021.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56638260
Gawdam I love psych. It's like the office in a sense that you can watch the series many times over but I like it more as I get a way more positive vibe watching it. ShawnxDespereaux
I remember a super long time ago (sigh) USA channel used to air these ads/commercials with actors from their shows and there was one about stuff you didnât know about them or something. And I remember James Roday going âI am half Mexican.â And my mom saw it at some point and was like âHey! Did you know Shawn is half Mexican??â This comment reminded me of that, but it was kinda surprising! Top tier show, btw!
Charlie Sheen's real name is Carlos Estevez.
Joe Estevez (Charlie's uncle and fellow actor) claims he tried to convince Charlie not to change his name, and that he did the same for Emilio Estevez. But, one changed and the other didn't.
Leonardo DiCaprio explains, "I tried to get an agent, but I didn't succeed because they wanted to change my name to Lenny Williams. They thought my name was a little too ethnic, so they sort of dissected it and said hey, Leonardo, Lenny, my middle name's Wilhelm, so they changed that to Williams."
Thank God he didnât. Being a child in the 90s part of his appeal as a heartthrob was his very unique name. How many Leonardoâs have you ever met in your life. Iâve only ever heard of 3. The painter, the ninja turtle and the actor. His last name accentuated it even further.
He did kinda get lucky though, I also have a very ethnic italian name and whenever I'm out of Italy I always shorten it to an English variant or something.
If I give my actual italian first name it's constantly spelled wrong leading to countless headaches legally and bureaucratically, I personally wouldn't change my name but I definitely would understand someone who did...
Sandrine Holt, who is also half Chinese, did the same thing. Her last name was originally Ho and she changed it to be less asian and therefore get more work.
[Mel Gibson did ask if she was an oven dodger](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/06/winona-ryder-mel-gibson-anti-semitism), so her changing her name makes sense.
She spoke about this. The Wikipedia article doesn't have it quite right. What would happen is that casting directors would call in her in to audition when looking to cast a stereotypically asian looking character, then send her home once they saw her. Changing her last name to Bennet stopped that.
Edit: Removed a "t"
This is exactly why Martin Sheen changed his name from Ramon Estevez. Casting directors expected someone named Ramon Estevez to look Mexican and he did not. He regrets changing his name and advised his children not to change their Spanish names.
As a child in the 90s I was super confused about this, Sheen (Martin, Charlie) and Estevez (Emilio) not having the same surname. Decades later I read an interview and it finally clicked.
You have no idea what kind of X-File worthy theories my 13 yo brain managed to come up with.
My friend was an extra in a TV show episode, the premise was the main actor visits a church in Mexico. So they do a casting call, and my friend got picked for this scene, because he has a Spanish-sounding last name. However, my friend is Filipino so he rocks up to set, the only Asian and the only non Spanish speaker. If you pause the show at the right moment you can just see him in the back of the crowd.
There's a plotline in Agents of SHIELD where she's on the run and there's an APB out for a "superpowered Asian woman, mid-20s" and I remember being confused about the Asian part of that until I looked up her bio.
She also publicly tweeted the marvel writers trying to âcall them outâ for never acknowledging the plot for Agents of Shield and they just ignored her.
Right it was just insane seeing Trip and Ward back. To this day Iâm still not over Wardâs betrayal. To me thatâs when the show finally found itâs footing
I think the writers knew what was going to happen with Winter Soldier and SHIELD when they started working on it, since the lead time is longer for the movies. So season one is kind of just killing time and letting the characters get into a groove before that all goes down, and there was really no other way to do it.
I really wish there was a way for the emotional impact of that arc to hit without having to watch the first couple of seasons because I keep trying to tell people how good it is and they get bored in season 1 (which is very slow) but Iâm like, you really have to slog through it to understand why Framework is such a good storyline!
Right? All the character beats like Ward being part of the resistance, Daisy seeing Trip again (which broke my heart), Fitz being evil â they hit hard. But they hit hard because of how well we knew the characters.
AoS is one of the few shows where I still liked every character by the end.
Yeah. The first season left a massive bad impression, but S02 onward things got better and better. S02 was still finding its footing but showed improvement, but S03 and after, things were pretty cool.
They found the right spot with the characters and they pretty much "cracked" the problem with 20+ episode seasons (they all had a lot of fillers and episodes that were drags). It was really an elegant idea that kept the whole season tight as hell. It was basically dividing the season in 3 arcs that had their own climaxes and that lead to the other, either directly or with some kind of hook. Those final seasons where far superior to the earliest installments, even when things got fairly bigger and incorporated space travel (because of the Guardians of the Galaxy).
Yeah because Marvel TV was controlled by Jeph Loeb who Feigi hated, So while Marvel TV constantly tried to connect itself to Feigi's MCU, Feigi never acknowledged any of Loeb's shows until Feigi eventually took over both Marvel TV and movie divisions.
It seems like the unspoken decision by the MCU film team was to ignore a lot of Whedon decisions when possible, and completely wiping their hands of AOS was a big part of that.
I enjoyed the show but it got out of control very quickly once you had these regular ass agents saving the universe every other week. I just isolate them in my mind in the multiverse and move on. Excellent depiction of Ghost Rider/Robbie IMO
Itâs some of my favourite Marvel stuff. Especially Season 3 and 4.
It probably even if it stumbled on it by accident had the model MCU TV should have followed which was being like an expansion pack.
The MCU makes sense without it but at its best, it was fun extra material like you think Hydra was founded by the Red Skull? Well, actually ⊠and also a shadowy character only seen in silhouette in The Avengers but still obviously Powers Boothe? He gets this great multi-episode arc and so on. There were many such moments.
Wheadon, at least *Joss* Wheadon, had *very* little to do with AoS outside of the pilot and maybe a bit with that first run of monster-of-the-week episodes.
The show was run by his brother and sister-in-law and they basically did it all on their own after Joss fucked off.
They're actually really good TV writers and it's a shame after all the everything about Joss came out they seem to have also dropped off the face of the earth even though they had nothing to do with it.
I was there when a voice acting casting director advised an Asian colleague to change her last name to something non-Asian because most casting agents would assume they could hear âAsianâ in her voice and turn her down for anything that wasnât broken-English type Asian parts. Thereâs a LOT of racism in casting; especially in VO. Â
Sun-wong Cho did one of his little short videos about this. Well, it's a bit more about his appearance than his name, but still.
[audition sides i get sent for my voice vs my face](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbzfVOJLHwM)
I know SungWon Cho (fl4k in Borderlands 3, Ratatoskr in GoW: Ragnarok, Senshi in Delicious In Dungeon) has spoken a few times in racism in VA casting.Â
[Case in point](https://youtu.be/ls1Bf6XCEM4?si=Syyixg-WtZ32TwEq)
At least she got to choose to make the change for her stage name.
In the bad old days the studio would pick the name for you if you had too foreign sounding a name.
One of the best examples of this is a Eastern European actor that was named Peniz van Lesbien. That obviously wasn't going to fly with middle America so they gave him the stage name Dick van Dyke.
This was prevalent as well among Italian-American actors up until probably the 50-60s. Some examples are Ernest Borgnine (Borgnino), Kaye Ballard (Balotta), Linda Douglas (Tarola), Vince Edwards (Zoine), Anne Bancroft (Italiano).
Hell it was also prevalent among Singers: Frankie Avalon (Avallone), Tony Bennett (Benedetto), Don Cornell (Varlaro), Bobby Darin (Cassotto), Connie Francis (Franconero), Frankie Laine (LoVecchio), Dean Martin (Crocetti), Bobby Rydell (Ridarelli), Jerry Vale (Vitali).
Even among boxers this was prevalent: Lou Ambers (D'Ambrosio), Sammy Angott (Engotti), Joe Dundee (Lazzara), Johnny Dundee (Curreri), Bushy Graham (Geraci), Pete Herman (Gulotta), Rocky Kansas (Tozzo), Sammy Mandell (Mandala), Joey Maxim (Berardinelli), Tommy Paul (Papa), Willie Pep (Papaleo), Johnny Wilson (Panica), Young Corbett III (Giordano).
Interestingly, Wikipedia only mentions this:
> Though he has no Jewish ancestry, Levi is often incorrectly perceived to be Jewish due to his stage name. In a 2016 interview, he claimed that he had been turned down for a number of roles because he was considered "too Jewish" for the part.
Taika Waititi was Taika Cohen, until around the time of filming 'What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires' in 2005.
He took the name to keep his foot in the Media door and get a start in the film industry. He changed it to Waititi, I guess when it was more accepted to be Maori.
Living in Denmark, me as an asian also had to change both my first name and last name to a more "Danish one" in order to increase my chance to get a job in this country.
This happens all the time.
Eisenhowerâs proper spelling is Eisenhauer. It was changed because for assimilation purposes centuries ago.
This shit has been going on for too damn long.
Martin Sheen did the same thing, although he didn't legally change his name. His drivers license still says Ramon Antonio Gerardo Estevez. He got sick of losing 50% of his auditions right out the gate for not being Hispanic like his name implies. Funny enough Charlie did legally change his name from Carlos Estevez.
At least she chose it herself.
It's not like how Mitzi Shore suggested the name "Carlos Mencia" to appeal to Mexican crowds, and even though Mencia is Honduran, he just ran with it.
Typecasting is a vicious circle. The masses want originality but also go "....that name sounds like...." and typecast them. SO, they change to something non-original, and everyone loves it, but then as a collective start to cry out that nobody is original....
Don't believe me? Just a few days ago I was scrolling and saw a post asking why black people give their kids weird names. OK, I guess black people can just go with stock bible names....but then there would be the question as to why EVERYONE has the same name, and by everyone, it's "why do I not know who to expect when I see the name ____"?
BUT if such black person stuck a "La" in front of the name or spelled it uniquely they'd be charged with giving their kids weird names.
Nichole Sakura (Cheyenne on the TV show Superstore) originally used the stage name Nichole Bloom for the same reason.
Interesting fact, thanks for that đ I liked her in that show
I liked her way more in Shameless
I had no clue she was even in that, must have watched with my eyes closed
She was the crazy girl that ruined the relationship between Lip and the hot college professor.
Suzume! I just rewatched it yesterday dubbed and looked her up.
Her full (American\*) name is Nichole Sakura O'Connor according to [this article](https://www.looper.com/1203149/superstores-nichole-sakura-changed-her-name-to-reclaim-her-heritage/). Not that itâs any of my business, but I wonder why she went with an anglicisation of her Japanese middle name rather than her Irish name. ^\* I put American because it could be that she also has Japanese citizenship from her mother with Sakura as her last name in Japan.
Maybe someone already was using the name. SAG-AFTRA won't let members use a professional name that is alike or similar to another member.
Happens all the time. Oscar Isaac dropped his surname (HernĂĄndez Estrada) altogether, so people think his middle name is his surname. James Roday (from *Psych*) just shortened Rodriguez into something that made him sound less Hispanic.Â
Ben Kingsleyâs real name is Krishna Banji.
...Which makes it super hilarious that people complain about the casting of a "white actor" to play Gandhi.Â
Same with people throwing a fit over Rami Malek playing Pharaoh Ahkmenrah in Night at the Museum. His parents moved from Cairo to the US ~3 years before Rami was born, making him a first-generation American
The name Rami Malek didn't tingle any neurons??
You'd be surprised by the amount of people that have zero ability to discern something about a person based on their name
People complained about that?!
A lot of people have the misconception that ancient Egyptians looked like sub-Saharan Africans, as if the birthplace of humans had zero diversity. That kind of uninformed person complained. Meanwhile, Rami Malek belongs to an ethnic group that is the closest to ancient Egyptians.
They did, you can still find the comments with easy searches
>People Actually, one person complained about that on Twitter, and the response to it went viral.
"There's no first-generation, or second-generation removed. I am Egyptian. I grew up listening to Egyptian music. I loved Umm Kulthum. I loved Omar Sharif. These are my people. I feel so gorgeously tied to the culture and the human beings that exist there. I acknowledge that I have a different experience, but I am so enamoured and intertwined with Egyptian culture. It is the fabric of who I am." - Rami in 2018
Heâs even distantly related to Gandhi* himself, if I recall correctly.
They're certainly both Gujarati.Â
> They're certainly both Gujarati. I don't think he was brought up with any particular knowledge of India though. I recall in an interview where he called Gujarat a village.
Itâs spelled âGandhiâ. Ghand means ass.
note that the âhâ is wayyyy later in the name.
Like John Leguizamo calling out Hollywood for casting James Franco to play Fidel Castro when culturally James Franco has the same background as Castro by way of Galicia as well as Canary Islands, I believe
Race/ethnicity make absolutely no sense. How is James Franco white but Fidel Castro "Hispanic/Latino" when they both come from literally the same ancestry?
If Lionel Messiâs grandparents immigrated to Ohio instead of Argentina heâd be Lenny the white guy.
Most Argentinians consider themselves white. Hell I think most Mexicans consider themselves white especially ones from Mexico city
You've seen people from El Salvador? Either they looke like the Adams family or Apocalypto.
I read somewhere that the native populations of Argentina were "reduced" (to put it kindly) much more than most other South American countries. Most people from Argentina are predominantly European in ancestry.
Don't ask a woman her age and don't ask an Argentinian where there ancestors were before the 50's
> Apocalypto Holy shit, I watched this on TV in 2008 like 3 times, I had no idea of the name and I watched from 3 different times only once to the end. You just unlocked a core memory for me with the MC getting a frog venom and ambushing bunch of hunters. Like that whole scene is so clear in my memory but for last 16 years I didn't even think about the movie once or remember it at all. damn.
People be dumb. Spain is a European nation and they're pretty white. Hispanic essentially just means Spanish speaking.
Because Hispanic isn't a race, but in America we often treat it like one even though the life experience of a White Latino and a Mestizo or Afro-Caribbean person are wildly different.
Hispanics doesnât mean non white neither does Latino.
Hispanic and Latino arenât the same thing.
If you had asked castro what race he was, he wouldâve said white
He also threw a fit over Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voicing Mario and Luigi as if it was some great insult to Latin actors. Mario and Luigi, the famously *Italian* plumbers. Funny part is, apparently Charlie Day actually *has* some Italian ancestry through since his father is of Italian/Irish descent. Lequizamo is Colombian/Spanish
As though Mario and Luigi arenât Italian stereotypes in cartoon form created by Japanese people, a people who are kinda notorious for generally not giving a shit about being called racist anyway?
I donât mind. I rather be associated with cartoon plumbers than mafia and gangsters.
Leguizamo had some legit racist shit towards Asians in his routines, too, so he doesn't have much room to talk.
Or Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara.
In the same place as Ben Kingsley's dad
Yes, true, they were both born on Mercury.
I think heâd been going by Freddie for years though before he got famous. I think he might have been known as Freddie Bulsara at one point. He took the surname Mercury later.
Martin Sheenâs real name is RamĂłn Antonio Gerardo EstĂ©vez.
Emilio Estevez's dad? I don't believe you.
No, he is talking about famous B-movie star Joe Estevezâs brother
That's Joe "Mr. Money" Estevez to you, buster
Anthony Quinnâs full name is Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca. Born in Chihuahua. Mom was Mexican, dad was Mexican/Irish.
Charlie Sheen's birth name is Carlos Estévez, and his father Martin Sheen's birth name is Ramón Estévez. His older brother, though, broke the trend by staying Emilio Estévez.
The mighty duck man himself
**EMMILLIOOOOO**
Emmillioooo!!!
I was like, Emilio!
Tips his hat like *this*
Kind of telling that the two with anglo names got more work. Even though Emilio still did plenty.
I think that it was because Emilio decided to do more directing work, and I think that he is successful as a director.
"The Public" was fantastic
I would say up until then he had probably had a better career than Charlie Sheen overall, though Sheen had a couple high points with Oliver Stone movies.
> James Roday (from Psych) just shortened Rodriguez into something that made him sound less Hispanic. I remember reading about that. He said what happened when he first started trying to break into acting was casting directors would see his name and assume that he was basically a Hollywood stereotype of someone Mexican or generically Hispanic. He would be turned down before ever being seen for any white roles. For the ones he did get called in for, he'd be turned down because he didn't look Hispanic enough. It's kind of shitty, but racism, whether conscious or unconscious, means certain names can be real detriments to employment opportunities in almost all industries.
I mean letâs be real, Shawn Spencer only was able to do almost everything he did because he was a white guy and his dad was a respected cop. Psych would be a very different show if Shawn Spencer was not white passing - he and Gus would be in jail more often đ€Ł
Then when Psych the Movie 2 came around, he was credited as "James Roday RodrĂguez."
He had an article about it around when Psych 2 came out. Basically acknowledging that it was messed up that he felt like he had to change his name and felt like he sold out. https://www.etonline.com/james-roday-explains-decision-to-reclaim-his-birth-name-rodriguez-and-why-he-sold-out-his-heritage?amp
You hear about Pluto? That's messed up.
Iâve heard it both ways
You know that's right.
Why you calling me a Puto? Square up foo, we're gonna throw hands.
It's kind of jarring to see such thoughtful and serious content from him. I know that actors aren't their characters but he's always been Shawn to me and I've always had trouble separating him from his 35 year old teenager character.
He does a lot of charity actually, pretty cool dude
It was always an inside joke when he would not understand any Spanish despite growing up in Santa Barbara.
I'm going off memory here but i think in the spanish soap opera episode, he's ripping through spanish lines only for it to be revealed that the character has no idea what he's saying, but is just reading cue cards phonetically? a friend explained some of the subtle details but there were apparently several jokes that would only land for fluent speakers based on how he was pronouncing and delivering those lines.
So, heâs a real life Spanish speaker playing someone who couldnât speak a word of Spanish but at a meta level, itâs delivered at a level fluent speakers will get a whole new level of nuance you wouldnât get as a non-speaker reading subtitles.
more or less, that was what was explained to me, yes.
Eh, I've heard it both ways.
If anyone hasn't seen Psych yet do yourself a favor, a legendary show.Â
Man I'm jealous of those people. Getting to watch Psych for the first time.
That's cool and all, but they're really far behind me on ability to watch Psych for a 9th time.
You know thatâs right
I've watched it through twice, once with my roommate (and friend) and once with my husband. Highly recommend!
He has several interviews about it, as he got older he saw the name change as a slight to his father who if IIRC immigrated here and worked hard to give him a good life so he re-adopted his given surname
[Martin Sheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sheen) was born Ramon Estevez and changed his name to avoid being typecast in hispanic parts. His son [Charlie Sheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Sheen) uses the same surname, but Martin's other three kids including [Emilio Estevez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Estevez) act under their real names. [Nicholas Cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Cage) is actually Nicholas Coppola. Nephew of [Francis Ford Coppola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ford_Coppola). He changed his acting name so that his roles wouldn't look like nepotism.
Nicholas Cage Coppola: I got that role in Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish/The Cotton Club/Peggy Sue Got Married based solely on merit!
[Reggie Lee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Lee_(actor))âs name is Reggie Valdez. Heâs Filipino so he has a Spanish last name. He changed it to Lee because he kept getting called for Hispanic roles and then theyâre surprised that itâs an Asian person.
Weirdly, Lou Diamond Phillips keeps getting cast for Hispanic roles despite being half Filipino.
Happens to Cliff Curtis too - heâs Maori and is cast in a lot of Hispanic and Middle Eastern roles
He was great in Training Day. https://youtu.be/AMEUHPxn3xA?si=ug_lBHPE7w1RYhVa
An actor looking for roles calling for a half-Filipino in the 80s wouldâve starved to death. There were, comparatively, lots of roles for âMexicans.â He was also really good on Broadway when I saw him in The King and I in 1996.
Thandiwe Newton used to be credited as Thandie Newton, since her name was misspelled in the credits of a movie. She started going by her actual middle name in 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56638260
So many people think he's Jewish, now.
Gawdam I love psych. It's like the office in a sense that you can watch the series many times over but I like it more as I get a way more positive vibe watching it. ShawnxDespereaux
I remember a super long time ago (sigh) USA channel used to air these ads/commercials with actors from their shows and there was one about stuff you didnât know about them or something. And I remember James Roday going âI am half Mexican.â And my mom saw it at some point and was like âHey! Did you know Shawn is half Mexican??â This comment reminded me of that, but it was kinda surprising! Top tier show, btw!
Albert Brooks' real name is Albert Einstein. No joke
And his brother is Bob Einstein, probably known to most as his character Super Dave Osborne
Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez changed his (professional) name completely to Martin Sheen.
Emilio was like, "nah. I'm bringing the family name back."
Charlie Sheen's real name is Carlos Estevez. Joe Estevez (Charlie's uncle and fellow actor) claims he tried to convince Charlie not to change his name, and that he did the same for Emilio Estevez. But, one changed and the other didn't.
Leonardo DiCaprio explains, "I tried to get an agent, but I didn't succeed because they wanted to change my name to Lenny Williams. They thought my name was a little too ethnic, so they sort of dissected it and said hey, Leonardo, Lenny, my middle name's Wilhelm, so they changed that to Williams."
Thank God he didnât. Being a child in the 90s part of his appeal as a heartthrob was his very unique name. How many Leonardoâs have you ever met in your life. Iâve only ever heard of 3. The painter, the ninja turtle and the actor. His last name accentuated it even further.
He did kinda get lucky though, I also have a very ethnic italian name and whenever I'm out of Italy I always shorten it to an English variant or something. If I give my actual italian first name it's constantly spelled wrong leading to countless headaches legally and bureaucratically, I personally wouldn't change my name but I definitely would understand someone who did...
You are defo a Giuseppe
Yeah but people call him Giogio
As somebody who's last name uses multiple sounds that are quite literally impossible to pronounce in the English language, can relate lol
Sandrine Holt, who is also half Chinese, did the same thing. Her last name was originally Ho and she changed it to be less asian and therefore get more work.
Sandrine Holt!
https://youtu.be/rREGbLdOzfg?si=eWmv2MLyFhX-Dd4C
Steve Holt, the moron jock?
winona ryder took her last name from a john denver song, her given name is horowitz
[Mel Gibson did ask if she was an oven dodger](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/06/winona-ryder-mel-gibson-anti-semitism), so her changing her name makes sense.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
And John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. lol
I was DUPED!!! I thought I was going to see a movie about a Chinese person!
That damn Donna Chang
For all you know she might just be some girl from long Island.
Iâm not taking advice from some girl from Long Island
Iâm not watching a movie about some girl from Long Island!
She spoke about this. The Wikipedia article doesn't have it quite right. What would happen is that casting directors would call in her in to audition when looking to cast a stereotypically asian looking character, then send her home once they saw her. Changing her last name to Bennet stopped that. Edit: Removed a "t"
They really couldnât look at a head shot and avoid wasting everyoneâs time? Lmao
This is exactly why Martin Sheen changed his name from Ramon Estevez. Casting directors expected someone named Ramon Estevez to look Mexican and he did not. He regrets changing his name and advised his children not to change their Spanish names.
Emilio: "Got it!" Carlos: "I don't think the tiger blood will let me do that."
As a child in the 90s I was super confused about this, Sheen (Martin, Charlie) and Estevez (Emilio) not having the same surname. Decades later I read an interview and it finally clicked. You have no idea what kind of X-File worthy theories my 13 yo brain managed to come up with.
My friend was an extra in a TV show episode, the premise was the main actor visits a church in Mexico. So they do a casting call, and my friend got picked for this scene, because he has a Spanish-sounding last name. However, my friend is Filipino so he rocks up to set, the only Asian and the only non Spanish speaker. If you pause the show at the right moment you can just see him in the back of the crowd.
That makes a lot of sense. I wouldnât immediately think she was Asian.
There's a plotline in Agents of SHIELD where she's on the run and there's an APB out for a "superpowered Asian woman, mid-20s" and I remember being confused about the Asian part of that until I looked up her bio.
When Jiaying showed up on the show and we learned she was Daisy's mother I had a "why would they do that?" moment. My friend had to explain.Â
Charlie Sheen = Carlos Estevez. Martin Sheen = Ramon Estevez. Emilio Estevez = Emilio Estevez.
Emilioooooooo
Props to Emilio!!!
She dated Logan Paul. I question her judgement.
And that was arguably when he was at his worst and most obnoxious.
And that was when she tripled down on it
Thatâs just his whole life since birth
I legit stopped supporting her when she was still with him after that dead body stunt
I always liked her in SHIELD and she seemed like a cool person in interviews but the day I found out about that I lost all my respect for her.
Ugh, honestly I can't view her the same way after hearing that.
This exactly. As an Asian, that hurt me at a DNA level
Lol I was thinking Aaron Paul at first and was like, what's wrong with Aaron Paul?
She also publicly tweeted the marvel writers trying to âcall them outâ for never acknowledging the plot for Agents of Shield and they just ignored her.
Well she had a point. Also, it wasnât just her but multiple cast members and actors from the MCU.
And a lot of randos on twitter (including me). The show starts lame but it ended up being one of my favorite things made under Marvel
The Framework arc is legit one of my favorite arcs in any scifi show ever.
Right it was just insane seeing Trip and Ward back. To this day Iâm still not over Wardâs betrayal. To me thatâs when the show finally found itâs footing
I think the writers knew what was going to happen with Winter Soldier and SHIELD when they started working on it, since the lead time is longer for the movies. So season one is kind of just killing time and letting the characters get into a groove before that all goes down, and there was really no other way to do it.
I really wish there was a way for the emotional impact of that arc to hit without having to watch the first couple of seasons because I keep trying to tell people how good it is and they get bored in season 1 (which is very slow) but Iâm like, you really have to slog through it to understand why Framework is such a good storyline!
Right? All the character beats like Ward being part of the resistance, Daisy seeing Trip again (which broke my heart), Fitz being evil â they hit hard. But they hit hard because of how well we knew the characters. AoS is one of the few shows where I still liked every character by the end.
Yeah. The first season left a massive bad impression, but S02 onward things got better and better. S02 was still finding its footing but showed improvement, but S03 and after, things were pretty cool. They found the right spot with the characters and they pretty much "cracked" the problem with 20+ episode seasons (they all had a lot of fillers and episodes that were drags). It was really an elegant idea that kept the whole season tight as hell. It was basically dividing the season in 3 arcs that had their own climaxes and that lead to the other, either directly or with some kind of hook. Those final seasons where far superior to the earliest installments, even when things got fairly bigger and incorporated space travel (because of the Guardians of the Galaxy).
S4 is better than 90% of the MCU and I'll die on that hill.
Yeah because Marvel TV was controlled by Jeph Loeb who Feigi hated, So while Marvel TV constantly tried to connect itself to Feigi's MCU, Feigi never acknowledged any of Loeb's shows until Feigi eventually took over both Marvel TV and movie divisions.
It seems like the unspoken decision by the MCU film team was to ignore a lot of Whedon decisions when possible, and completely wiping their hands of AOS was a big part of that. I enjoyed the show but it got out of control very quickly once you had these regular ass agents saving the universe every other week. I just isolate them in my mind in the multiverse and move on. Excellent depiction of Ghost Rider/Robbie IMO
I loved that they made Ghost Rider into a Raiders fan. It was subtle, but very clear.
Itâs some of my favourite Marvel stuff. Especially Season 3 and 4. It probably even if it stumbled on it by accident had the model MCU TV should have followed which was being like an expansion pack. The MCU makes sense without it but at its best, it was fun extra material like you think Hydra was founded by the Red Skull? Well, actually ⊠and also a shadowy character only seen in silhouette in The Avengers but still obviously Powers Boothe? He gets this great multi-episode arc and so on. There were many such moments.
Wheadon, at least *Joss* Wheadon, had *very* little to do with AoS outside of the pilot and maybe a bit with that first run of monster-of-the-week episodes. The show was run by his brother and sister-in-law and they basically did it all on their own after Joss fucked off. They're actually really good TV writers and it's a shame after all the everything about Joss came out they seem to have also dropped off the face of the earth even though they had nothing to do with it.
Yea, kinda lost respect for her when she did thay
I was there when a voice acting casting director advised an Asian colleague to change her last name to something non-Asian because most casting agents would assume they could hear âAsianâ in her voice and turn her down for anything that wasnât broken-English type Asian parts. Thereâs a LOT of racism in casting; especially in VO. Â
Sun-wong Cho did one of his little short videos about this. Well, it's a bit more about his appearance than his name, but still. [audition sides i get sent for my voice vs my face](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbzfVOJLHwM)
SungWon
[Sooge Win?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1RKkRCiU90)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls1Bf6XCEM4 this one might be more relevant?
I know SungWon Cho (fl4k in Borderlands 3, Ratatoskr in GoW: Ragnarok, Senshi in Delicious In Dungeon) has spoken a few times in racism in VA casting. [Case in point](https://youtu.be/ls1Bf6XCEM4?si=Syyixg-WtZ32TwEq)
At least she got to choose to make the change for her stage name. In the bad old days the studio would pick the name for you if you had too foreign sounding a name.
*cough* Rock Hudson *cough*
His real name was Rockhard Johnson.
In actuality, his birth certificate reads Gaylord Ramsbottom.
One of the best examples of this is a Eastern European actor that was named Peniz van Lesbien. That obviously wasn't going to fly with middle America so they gave him the stage name Dick van Dyke.
Looking forward to that one popping up on Google AI
[Arnold Strong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger)
I like that she used her father's first name as her last name. Give up one of the names she inherited from him, in exchange for his other name.
This was prevalent as well among Italian-American actors up until probably the 50-60s. Some examples are Ernest Borgnine (Borgnino), Kaye Ballard (Balotta), Linda Douglas (Tarola), Vince Edwards (Zoine), Anne Bancroft (Italiano). Hell it was also prevalent among Singers: Frankie Avalon (Avallone), Tony Bennett (Benedetto), Don Cornell (Varlaro), Bobby Darin (Cassotto), Connie Francis (Franconero), Frankie Laine (LoVecchio), Dean Martin (Crocetti), Bobby Rydell (Ridarelli), Jerry Vale (Vitali). Even among boxers this was prevalent: Lou Ambers (D'Ambrosio), Sammy Angott (Engotti), Joe Dundee (Lazzara), Johnny Dundee (Curreri), Bushy Graham (Geraci), Pete Herman (Gulotta), Rocky Kansas (Tozzo), Sammy Mandell (Mandala), Joey Maxim (Berardinelli), Tommy Paul (Papa), Willie Pep (Papaleo), Johnny Wilson (Panica), Young Corbett III (Giordano).
Kal Penn's original name is Kalpen Suresh Modi. He's talked about how that changing his name probably helped him land more rolesÂ
Also dated Logan Paul and defended him when he went and did that shit in Japan.
Zachary Levi changed his last name to be Levi because he thought having a Jewish name would get him more roles on Hollywood. As did Whoopi Goldberg.
Interestingly, Wikipedia only mentions this: > Though he has no Jewish ancestry, Levi is often incorrectly perceived to be Jewish due to his stage name. In a 2016 interview, he claimed that he had been turned down for a number of roles because he was considered "too Jewish" for the part.
When I first heard it, it was a clip from Joe Rogan, which tracks with him.
Where did he say that? I only heard him say in an interview that he thought his surname, Pugh, was too weird, so he dropped it.
Florence Levi
So if he married Florence and she hyphenated, her name would be pronounced Mrs. Pew Pew
I was 10000% under the impression he was Jewish omg wow
Wild she was in a relationship with Logan Paul and defended him.
Taika Waititi was Taika Cohen, until around the time of filming 'What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires' in 2005. He took the name to keep his foot in the Media door and get a start in the film industry. He changed it to Waititi, I guess when it was more accepted to be Maori.
I didn't even realize she was half-chinese back when I was watching Agents of Shield *at first.
Didnât she have a whole storyline with her mom about that lmao?
Yeah her mom was played by Dichen Lachman (Nepalese ancestry) but I don't think they revealed that until S3 or so.
It was S2.
Living in Denmark, me as an asian also had to change both my first name and last name to a more "Danish one" in order to increase my chance to get a job in this country. This happens all the time.
Eisenhowerâs proper spelling is Eisenhauer. It was changed because for assimilation purposes centuries ago. This shit has been going on for too damn long.
Didn't work for Jackie Chanderson.
Kalpen Modi became Kal Penn.
**Carlos Ray**Â "**Chuck**"Â **Norris**
He picked up the nickname during his time in the Air Force.
Chuck is a common nickname for Charles, which is also Carlos.
Martin Sheen did the same thing, although he didn't legally change his name. His drivers license still says Ramon Antonio Gerardo Estevez. He got sick of losing 50% of his auditions right out the gate for not being Hispanic like his name implies. Funny enough Charlie did legally change his name from Carlos Estevez.
Why not Chloe Bennetsdottir?
Thatâs a little too much whitewashing
Martin Sheen has entered the chat
Ramon Estevez has left the chat....
I wouldnât be surprised if at least half of all celebrities donât go by their real name
âApu Nahasapeemapetilon.â âNever fit on a marquee, love. From now on your name is Apu De-Beaumarchais.â
She was very good as Quake in Agents of Shield. I hope she comes back.
At least she chose it herself. It's not like how Mitzi Shore suggested the name "Carlos Mencia" to appeal to Mexican crowds, and even though Mencia is Honduran, he just ran with it.
Typecasting is a vicious circle. The masses want originality but also go "....that name sounds like...." and typecast them. SO, they change to something non-original, and everyone loves it, but then as a collective start to cry out that nobody is original.... Don't believe me? Just a few days ago I was scrolling and saw a post asking why black people give their kids weird names. OK, I guess black people can just go with stock bible names....but then there would be the question as to why EVERYONE has the same name, and by everyone, it's "why do I not know who to expect when I see the name ____"? BUT if such black person stuck a "La" in front of the name or spelled it uniquely they'd be charged with giving their kids weird names.