WORDS: IRVIN RIVERA

Life just keeps surprising Joe Taslim with amazing opportunities. When he got the call to play Sub-Zero in the 2021 Mortal Kombat film, he was in shock. It wasn’t for an audition. They wanted him, and that’s amazing. It’s not new to have an Asian lead in Hollywood, but it’s rare. It wasn't until recently that you could see the shift in Hollywood’s diversity and representation department. People of color are now being positioned in the forefront. Black leads are being recognized; Asian talents are finally not the funny sidekicks or some random token characters anymore. Though it still obviously needs a whole lot of work, however change is happening.

Despite the mixed reviews, Mortal Kombat is inspiring in it’s own little ways especially in terms of celebrating its Asian cast. Seeing an ensemble of Asians as major characters in a Hollywood, global film is a win for diversity. It may not be that obvious, but it will definitely inspire the audience, especially the younger generations of Asians and make them feel like anything is possible, and that it's possible for people who look like them to do something grand on a global scale and be successful.

This creates doors of opportunities for minorities, encouraging them to rise up to every occasion possible, to pursue their dreams and passions, and carve their own paths.

Joe Taslim is currently one of the few Southeast Asian actors in Hollywood carrying the torch; leading and inspiring the younger generations looking up to him. This book is not just about Joe Taslim’s wins but also his journey in getting there. From spending most of his life in sports, then with years of seemingly unanswered auditions, to even doing a minor directing gig, Joe has been through a lot before life changed course and surprised him with a lot of opportunities. He persevered, he never gave up, and now he plays Sub-Zero.

Joe’s passion in his craft is evident in this book. Read and discover how he approaches acting very seriously and how he prepares for each of his fight scenes. Enjoy the book. We hope you get inspired as much as we did.

How was it to be a part of this huge franchise with a big ensemble of Asian cast? What was that experience like?

Amazing! I did a couple of Hollywood movies where I was the only Asian a couple of times and in this one, it felt like home. It felt so different to see Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Lewis Tan, and 70%, yes, maybe more than half of Asians in this movie, so it felt like home. We felt accepted by Hollywood. We felt like it is time. Once in a while, we need to have this type of movie to celebrate diversity. 

“I always believe the most-craziest villain is not someone who was born evil.”

Yes, and the representation that you guys created is really inspiring. If I was a little kid again, and saw you guys on screen, it makes you feel like, “Hey, I could be that guy too!” That's the exact feeling that I got. I wish there were more movies like this when I was growing up.

Exactly, I felt the same. When I was a kid, and I watched back 20-25 years ago, Dustin Nguyen in 21 Jump Street, I was a little kid so it felt great to see someone look like you in this global TV show. And then when I was older, Sung Kang came from Fast and Furious and I love how they portrayed him very often, in terms of not just the sidekick, but a stand-alone character. It felt great then, and then to be in this movie where we were not the side characters, we're the main characters. It's our story, even though it's a fantasy-action. It felt amazing. It felt like, this is what I want to do, this is why I wanted to be an actor. I want to inspire the younger generation and make them feel that we are accepted. We're not just the audience we are performers as well. Of course, we will have to work hard, but the opportunity is wide open for us as well. That's amazing and that's a very important message.

“It felt like, this is what I want to do, this is why I wanted to be an actor. I want to inspire the younger generation and make them feel that we are accepted. We're not just the audience, we are performers as well.”

Now speaking of visibility and representation, let’s talk about hate towards Asians. It's nothing new. It's been there. How important is it to highlight different types of Asians in mainstream media right now, in terms of all these violence happening towards Asians?

It's very sad that Asians, in general, have been receiving the blame of what's going on. But of course, this is a force majeure. Because, no one knows whatever's going to come in the future, it could be from this continent or that content. It's not fair to blame a specific race just because it's from there.

And then with this thing that's going on, it just makes it more thick, like you said, it’s happened before. It's been happening all over the world. Even here. I live in Indonesia. I am Chinese-descent. And I grew up with that type of energy around me. So even in Asia, we have this sub-Asian racism thing, Japanese, Korea, yes. It’s there. Not just the white or the yellow or the black. This racism, it could happen anywhere. It’s hate, I think they have to put that underlined - its hate. We hate people richer than us, we hate people more successful than us, we hate people different than us, we hate... if something happened, it's easy to blame the specific color, like what's going on right now.

So I think it is important that everybody needs to agree that color is not about white against yellow, and white against black, it's about good guys against bad guys. So I think that what's going on towards Asian is not just Asian people who need to fight back. Our brothers, our White brothers, our Black brothers or Hispanic brothers, they have to be with us because it's not about our fight against a specific race, it's a fight against hate. Everybody needs to hold hands.

And the segregation that people think about Asians - that Asian is just Asian. We both know Asian culture is very rich. We have Middle East, South East, South Asian, East Asian. So people kind of think, oh Asian, then it's just one look. It's pretty funny because I'm from Southeast Asia. but even for me it's very hard. I mean, I know the difference, me and Malaysia and Thai...