Tia Carrere: Easter Sunday’s Tita We All Want

Mixed Asian Media - August 10, 2022

By Alex Chester-Iwata

*This piece contains spoilers

Jo Koy’s newest film is out. Easter Sunday is the feel-good, family comedy we’ve been waiting for, filled with one of the most diverse casts I’ve ever seen grace the silver screen. This FilAm-centric film is a movie for everyone. You don’t have to be Filipino to get it, and studios need to stop thinking of Asian American films as risks. We are here, and our stories should and deserve to be told. Regardless of your ethnic background, anyone can relate to Jo’s fictitious family in the film.

One aspect of Easter Sunday that (obviously) stood out to me was the recognition of being mixed. It’s overlooked in many, many… many films, and so often mixed Asians never just get to be mixed. They are the “exotic” or “ambiguous” characters. This might be the first film I’ve seen where being mixed was stated with no crazy explanation. It was a pleasure getting to see Jo Koy and Lou Diamond Philips embrace their mixedness.

Another mixed Asian actor starring in Easter Sunday is the one and only Tia Carrere, who plays Jo’s Tita Theresa. You might know her from such movies as Wayne’s World, True Lies, Disney’s Lillo and Stitch, to name a few, and of course the Soap Opera General Hospital.  Fellow MAM writer Rebecca Lee Lerman said, and I quote, “She was the first Asian, romantic lead I had ever seen.”

Many Asian and mixed Asian actors are often asked to do an accent. You might be thinking, “What type of accent? Swedish?” Alas, no. We’re asked to do the dreaded “Asian accent.”

It was hilarious — and very much a reality check — watching Jo’s character go through this ask in Easter Sunday. 

Director: Hey do you do any other accents?

Jo: I mean, like…

Director: I dunno. Um… Oh, you’re half-Filipino right?

Jo: Mhm. Hmm.

Director: Can you do a half-Filipino accent?

Jo: That- That’s what this is.

Director: Really? That’s 50%. You sound 30 to me. Can you bump it up 50? Then we are golden.

Jo: What?

When asked about performing with an accent herself, Tia offered this take: 

“I think of myself as the Asian Meryl Streep of accents. That's a joke. But I have played every single accent under the sun. I'm an actor first, so I'm just grateful that I get up to bat. And if I can do my best in that particular role, if I'm the terrorist in the rice paddy in Vietnam, I mean, I'm gonna do a Vietnamese accent. If I’m the little girl from Canton — and it's written in there, “Cassandra has a Cantonese accent” — I mean, I'm gonna do it. But if I'm a lawyer in Pacoima, I'd have to fight the fight and say, “Why can't she be an American and speak with an American accent?” Might be even funnier if I had a Southern accent, you know what I mean? But it's about taking it on a case by case basis.”

Another golden moment for us mixed Asians is the dialogue between Lou Diamond Phillips and Jo Koy after a comment from Eugene Cordero’s character. 

Eugene: Could have sworn you are Mexican… At this point you got to convince me you’re not Mexican.

Lou Diamond Philips: I’m Mestizo. Half-Filipino, half Scott-Irish.

Jo: Oh, your dad was in the military?

Lou Diamond Phillips: Yes, but did Mel Gibson put me in Braveheart? Oh no.

This scene was so relatable to me. I’ve often been mistaken as Mexican, and I never get the chance to play my non-Asian heritage. The struggle is real.

When I asked Tia Carrere what it was like being part of Easter Sunday with such a multiracial cast (Jo Koy, Eva Noblezada, Brandon Wardell, and Elena Juatco are all of mixed API heritage), she stated:

“An incredible relief for me. As someone who came up not seeing our faces on film or television, who was on a Soap Opera, [the network] said, “Uh, OK, you're in the Asian quarter with your Asian boyfriend.” They never said any specific Asian background. When we left, we went to help ‘our people,’ off in the old country. It was sort of like this strange compartmentalization and fetishizing. I went in for parts and they said, “You're a great actress, loved your read, but we didn't wanna go ethnic with that role.” Didn't wanna go exotic with that role? I look around America and they look like us. They're more people that look like us than these perfect blonde hair, blue eye, model people that are on this whatever world that you're creating.  This false, all American, the false “all American.” So for me, this is a great relief. It's like, yes, we are here front and center, and we can all celebrate together — all the different Asian cultures and  mixed Cultures. I'm Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, born and raised in Hawaii. Everybody there is like five or six or seven different ethnic backgrounds, and it's not even an issue.

So I wanna get to the point where you don’t even know where I came from, and in True Lies it happened. I was an antiques dealer, bad guy, boss lady. I speak Arabic and in the thing, it’s never mentioned where I'm from, and I think that's where we can be. You can look like each of you and be whoever you are, whatever your job is, regardless of what your ethnicity is, and you don't have to explain a backstory. ‘Well, the reason why I'm a CEO of this company is, my mother came over from China and married my father, who was in the military.’ It's like, who cares? I'm here, and I'm a strong woman, and here are the choices I make in the role.”

Tia Carrere is a queen. She’s paved the path for the API acting community. Her career has spanned decades, so I had to ask her if she had any advice for mixed Asian actors.

“Oh goodness. Far be it for me to be the sage of all Asian actresses. It would be to believe in yourself and to trust yourself, to know what your path is. For instance, talking about doing the accent, I was specifically hired to play this character in this part of the world. I didn't think it was a bad thing to do an accent for this role, but in a case where Joe Valencia is talking about it, the accent was the butt of the joke, you know? That's for you to decide within yourself. Does it make sense for this role? Is it something that offends you on a deep core level? Only you can decide that for yourself. To thine own self be true, you know? Really, really hold that space in yourself.”

Easter Sunday is out now in movie theaters! Check it out.