Jimmy O. Yang

Growing up, my dad was 'get a real job, don't go pursuing your dreams, that's how you become homeless.' So, do I pick my family or do I pick my own happiness, and how much does my own happiness depend on my family?

When I was on the playground, people were calling me Jackie Chan.

My job is to go into that audition and be good enough of an Asian actor - or an actor in general - to land that role so they don't have to go out and hire a white guy. My job is to make sure I capitalize on these opportunities that other people created.

Maybe my job on this planet is to make the Asian accent sexy.

I was actually fairly athletic and coordinated, but I never played any organized sports.

My mom worked as a manager at a high-end fashion place, so she was always a pretty stylish woman.

I'm a big Clippers fan. I have season tickets to the Clippers. That's the only team I really root for in any sport.

I know Asian actors out there won't even audition for a role that have an accent. But for me, I was the kid with an accent. I still have an accent to some degree.

I studied economics and thought I wanted to play with the stock market - my dad was a financial adviser - and I was going to go down that path. I was an intern at Smith Barney.

Look, to be honest, when certain movies like 'Ninja Assassin' came out, that had a sexy, sexy Asian man with a six-pack, that made some people think, 'Maybe I should go out there and date an Asian dude.' And that did pretty good for us in a way of representation.

My publicist actually told me about the book. She's half-Indian, half-Dutch, and she was like, 'You've got to do this book. It's called 'Crazy Rich Asians.''

When you are in America, at least for me, as an immigrant, I try to be as Americanized as I could. I just want to be an actor, I don't just want to be an Asian actor necessarily.