A 2019 Interview About Actors of Color Is Going Viral

Hasan Minhaj explained they can't be 'schlubby' yet attractive in the same way white actors can
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2020 4:15 AM CST

An interview with comedian Hasan Minhaj is going viral—nearly a year after it took place. Last December, Minhaj submitted to a lie detector test for a Vanity Fair bit, and during the segment, he was asked whether it bothered him that Dax Shepard once rated him a 9 out of 10 on the hotness scale. (Minhaj was a guest on Shepard's podcast earlier in 2019, which is apparently where Shepard made the comment.) He said no, joking that Shepard "was going way too high" with that number, per E!. Then, asked how he would rate Shepard on a 10-point attractiveness scale, Minhaj initially balked before settling around a 6.5. That's when things got real, per the Guardian. The bottom line? Yes, Minhaj thinks he's better looking than Shepard, "but I will not get the same opportunities that Dax does." (It's not clear why the interview is circulating again this year; Jezebel chalks it up to "Twitter is bored.")

"Dax is part of a thing where, in show business, there's this whole movement of approachable white dudes whereas with, like, men of color, it's like Idris Elba, Henry Golding, Zayn Malik, or you work in IT. There's no middle," Minhaj explained. "You know how there's a whole class of white dudes, just like schlubby dudes who went to high school with me, but now made it in showbiz? There no like that [for people of color]. You gotta have, like, the V-taper in your abs if you're gonna be Asian. ... You gotta be Daniel Dae Kim ripped. You can't ever have bread or cereal." No official word from Shepard in response (though Jezebel notes he bought a massive truck just as the interview was re-making headlines), but Minhaj tweeted, "Guys, I spoke too soon. I just Googled 'Dax Shepard shirtless'—my bad." Many others, however, were on board with his original assessment of Shepard's looks and all his other observations; ET and BuzzFeed are among those rounding up replies applauding him. (More Hasan Minhaj stories.)

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