It’s been a busy year for actor Garrett Wang. In addition to battling outer-space bad guys and developing a crush on his Borg co-worker on “Star Trek: Voyager,” Wang also co-starred in the indie film “Hundred Percent.” Wang will be at a screening of the flick at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; the screening is part of the Asian American Showcase of film, literature and music (for more on the films at the showcase, see Screen Gems in the Movies section, or call 312-443-3733).
Q. Tell me about your character in “Hundred Percent.”
A. Troy is a struggling actor who’s dealing with all the stereotypical roles that are offered to Asian-American actors. He’s having a hard time with that, and he deals with his frustrations with the bottle. (Eventually) he gets the lead role in a film. It starts out as a very non-stereotypical role, then the director starts asking him to play it in a stereotypical way. So he ends up quitting the film.
Q. Could you relate to those struggles
A. Yeah, I think that (stereotypes are) still very prevalent today. It’s been a tough climb for Asian-American actors, especially Asian-American males. If you look back through history, you can count on one hand the number of (television) roles for Asian-American males that were non-stereotyped.
Q. When you first learned about the role of Harry Kim on “Star Trek: Voyager,” did you have any fears that he would be a stereotypical nerdy Asian guy?
A. When I read the original script, there really wasn’t an indication of him being nerdy – there certainly was an indication of him being green. To me that was a good thing, because that meant I could take the character someplace.
Q. But he’s still a little shy – as evidenced by the episode in which he and Seven of Nine, the Borg woman played by Jeri Ryan, almost – but didn’t – become more than friends.
A. I don’t know if in real life Harry would have said no to (Seven’s) proposition. All the crew members were like, “What is wrong with you? Are you crazy?”
