Justin Chon Talks 'Twilight' beginnings & being a Korean actor

You're probably aware of the fact that Justin Chon ("Eric Yorkie" in the Twilight Saga) is a Korean-American actor. You're probably also aware of the fact that his character wasn't precisely written to be Asian.

Per the Twilight Saga Wiki, "Eric is described as being 6'3" with hair "as black as an oil slick," brown eyes, and poor complexion."

In his latest interview, he talked about the challenge that fact presented in his audition for the role inTwilight and how that might help to inspire fellow Asian actors to pursue roles not necessarily designed for them. "'Eric Yorkie' wasn't written for an Asian. I had to beat out all the other white people, and I hope that's sort of a motivator for people."

He also discussed his Twilight beginnings:

"When I first heard about Twilight, when my agent told me about it, he was like 'Yeah, I'm going to send you out for this thing, it's about a family of vampires,' I was like 'Nah, nah dude, I just got done with Nickelodeon, I can't go back for that man, I need to do something gritty, something good,' and he was just like 'Well, Catherine Hardwicke's attached,' and I was like 'Ooh, I likedLords Of Dogtown and Thirteen' . . . 'Kristen Stewart's attached,' so I'm like 'Ooh, I loved Into The Wild' . . . Who knew it was going to be such a hit?"

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