Elevating a character at the heart of Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’

The FAS Current covered the Harvard Foundation and Office for the Arts' event about the new Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Hoon Lee '94, who plays Lee in the series, was joined by co-showrunner, writer, and executive producer Zoe Kazan for a discussion with Professor Ju Yon Kim. Below is an excerpt of the article: 

When Hoon Lee ’94 received the script for the role of Lee in Zoe Kazan’s Netflix adaptation of “East of Eden,” he was prepared to be skeptical. Decades in the industry had left the Massachusetts-born actor wary of roles that perpetuate Asian stereotypes.

But one scene — where the Trask family’s Chinese American servant casts off his feigned accent and explains code-switching to an Irish American neighbor — felt different.

“I read the pidgin English at the beginning, and I fully rolled my eyes. I was like, ‘Here we go,’” Lee recalled. “Then, when I got to the point where he drops the act, I was hooked. I couldn’t believe it. I downloaded the book and I cross-referenced it with that scene, and I was stunned to find that it was so true to the novel.”

Read more here.