In the past few decades John Hughes' Sixteen candles has been seen in a new light, with many citing the portrayal of foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong, played by Pike Watanabe, as racist. To mark the 40th anniversary of the 1984 classic, Watanabe reflected on the role in an interview with People magazine where he said he initially didn't think about whether the character was offensive.
When he played the character, Watanabe says, he was just happy to get his first big paycheck. “Honestly, I thought, this is a good job, and I'm going to get paid more for being in this movie for a week than I did in all the years I was in theaters,” he said.
On whether he had any hesitation about taking on the role of Long Duk Dong, Watanabe noted: “It didn't really occur to me that it was a stereotype because there wasn't really anything for Asian actors at the time . .”
He continued, “It was just so sparse. So I didn't think it was stereotypical or racist. Isn't that strange?”
However, he acknowledged that some of the language used to describe his character was questionable. “I remember the movie used the word 'Chinaman' and even then I thought, 'Oh, that's not great,'” he recalls. “But you also have to remember that in that period people still had to be informed about parameters, which were the alarm bells when it came to being offensive.”
Long Duk Dong is an awkward, nerdy Chinese exchange student who communicates in broken English and American catchphrases, causing him to be satirized by the rest of the characters.
The actor defended Hughes' decision to write the character, explaining that Long Duk Dong also played against stereotypes in a way. “That was really unusual in a way, that the Asian character got the girl and partied and was in bliss like that,” Watanabe said.
Watanabe, originally from Utah, used a fake, heavy accent Sixteen candles. He said that in preparing for the role, he was inspired by a friend, whose actual accent is similar to that of the character. “I had a friend who was a little bit like him, and he helped me and let me listen to him and talk to him, and then I went in and auditioned and got it,” he said.
To maintain the accent during the making of the film, he employed a method acting technique by talking to it, eventually breaking character while reading at a table, which surprised Hughes. “He burst out laughing,” Watanabe remembers. “He was in shock.”