The following is a list of significant characters who feature in the 2008 film Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood.
Casting calls were held in Fresno, California, Detroit, Michigan, and Saint Paul, Minnesota, from which Eastwood selected ten Hmong American lead actors and supporting actors. Of them, only one was not a first time actor.[1] Of the Hmong cast, five, including Bee Vang,[2] one of the principal actors,[3] were from the state of Minnesota.[2] Ahney Her comes from Lansing, Michigan. The casting agency Pound & Mooney recruited thirty actors and over 500 extras. The firm recruited many Hmong actors from a Hmong soccer tournament in Macomb County, Michigan.[3] Sandy Ci Moua, a Hmong actress based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, assisted with the film's casting of Hmong actors.[4]
One actor who auditioned praised how the casting avoided the typical East Asian stereotypes in favor of authenticity, saying "They could have walked down Hollywood and looked for some Korean, Chinese, whatever, Asian-American actors, and say, 'Hey, can we teach you a few Hmong (words),' like they do in other movies, just mimic the words. But no, they said, 'We want real Hmong-speaking actors.' Asian Americans, we can tell, 'That guy's not Chinese! That guy's not Korean!' So, stop trying to fool us."[2]
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Yuenwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Sternberg, Laura. "Information About Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and Hmong in Detroit." (Archive) About.com. Retrieved on March 18, 2012.
- ^ Lee, Gary Yia and Nicholas Tapp. Culture and Customs of the Hmong. Greenwood Publishing Group. ABC-CLIO, 2010. 79. Retrieved from Google Books on April 14, 2012. ISBN 0-313-34526-0, 9780313345265.