Gedde Watanabe has had a successful career in Hollywood. His big break came with the 1984 movie “Sixteen Candles,” where he portrayed the foreign exchange student “Long Duk Dong.” Watanabe's line “What’s happenin’, hot stuff?” is still frequently quoted, but the character was based on many racist stereotypes, including his name — something Watanabe now claims he did not notice at the time.
“Honestly, I thought, this is a great job, and I’ll be paid more for one week on this movie than I was for all my years in the theater,” the actor said People. “I didn’t realize it was a stereotype, because there weren’t many opportunities for Asian actors at that time. There was very little available. So I didn’t see it as stereotypical or racist. Isn’t that strange?”
Watanabe acknowledged that some parts of the dialogue were clearly racist. “I recall the movie using the word ‘Chinaman,’ and even then I thought, ‘Oh, that’s not good.’ But you have to remember that during that time, people still needed to be educated about what was offensive,” he added.
The actor also mentioned that he got so immersed in the character that he used Dong’s thick accent all the time — so much so that when he broke character during the film’s table read, director John Hughes “burst out laughing” upon hearing Watanabe’s real voice.
Watanabe reflected on the shift in acting opportunities for Asian and Asian American actors over the years. “In the ’80s, I often played foreign characters from other countries,” he said. “As I got older, that changed, and I’m grateful for that. But the ’80s were a challenging time for Asian American actors, AAPI individuals; there weren’t many options available.”
“There was no real guidance to help me understand the difference between being comedic and what’s stereotypical and offensive now,” he said.
The romantic comedy also featured Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. It was the first of several movies about American teenage life directed by Hughes.
