It’s been known previously that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” star Chloe Bennet changed her name from Chloe Wang to make her Chinese heritage more ambiguous and on Instagram, she defended the move.
It began on Tuesday when Bennet wrote a post on Instagram sending her praises to actor Ed Skrein, who dropped out of the “Hellboy” reboot after he found out that the character, Major Ben Daimio, was of mixed Asian heritage in the comics.
“DAMN, that’s a man. Thank you @edskrein for standing up against hollywoods(sic) continuous insensitivity and flippant behavior towards the Asian American community. There is no way this decision came lightly on your part, so thank you for your bravery and genuinely impactful step forward,” she wrote. You can see the full post below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYXlLkNDq7W/?taken-by=chloebennet
In a since deleted comment, one user asked Bennet how she could talk about the Asian American community in Hollywood when she changed her last name. Bennet, who is half Chinese, originally went by her birth name, Chloe Wang, before changing it to Bennet during her first audition.
She discussed the move in a 2016 Daily Beast article, adding that she was having trouble getting work until she changed it. Basically, the first time she went by Bennet.
“Oh, the first audition I went on after I changed my name, I got booked,” she said. “So that’s a pretty clear little snippet of how Hollywood works.”
“Changing my last name doesn’t change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese… It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn’t cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable,” Bennet said in the Instagram comments. “I’m doing everything I can, with the platform I have, to make sure no one has to change their name again, just so they can get work.”
She’s co-founded RUN — or Represent Us Now — an organization that hopes to give a voice to Asian American Pacific Islanders.
Bennet’s character on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Daisy Johnson, was originally a hacktivist that began working with the Marvel intelligence organization. She later finds out that she’s an Inhuman, becoming the superhero Quake, and not only using her powers to take down the bad guys but also to campaign for Inhuman rights.
Bennet has also called out Marvel before for their lack of diversity, including the casting of Finn Jones as Iron Fist and the large number of white Chrises that are in the MCU.
“I think they could do better,” she told the Daily Beast. “You know, there are a lot of white guys named Chris. But I think they will, because it’s important. It’s the right thing to do.”