Sandra Oh Talks Downplaying Asian Ethnicity to Find Stardom on Greys Anatomy (Exclusive)

Sandra Oh gained fame and fortune starring onGrey’sAnatomy, but playing Dr. Cristina Yang for 10 seasons on the hit ABC medical drama called for keeping her family’s Korean roots under the radar.

“The fact that half of the cast of Grey’s Anatomy weren’t white, that was a thing,” Oh, who was born in Canada to Korean immigrants, says in a clip for director Eugene Yi’s documentary The A List: 15 Stories From Asian and Pacific Diasporas, ahead of a May 13 debut on HBO and HBO Max.

“And it was almost like, ‘Shush. Let’s just not talk about it. Let’s just do it and see if we can get away with it. Oh my gosh, it’s a hit!” Oh says of the groundbreaking, ethnically diverse cast of the Grey’s Anatomy drama, created and executive produced by Shonda Rhimes. Oh broke out in Canadian indie movie hits like Double Happiness and The Diary of Evelyn Lau before moving to Hollywood and making history as an Asian actor with her primetime Emmy nominations for her lead role as Dr. Cristina Yang.

The Killing Eve star, who also appeared in movies like The Princess DiariesandSideways, has talked elsewhere of having to fight for script changes to ensure dialogue for Oh on Grey’s Anatomy fit her character, and how the series’ writers room had a dedicated “Sandra whisperer” on staff to deal with her requests.

“How do you exist in a room that doesn’t want you, or doesn’t respect you? It was a different time,” Oh questions in the HBO documentary that offers personal vignettes from across the Asian American, native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in America.

Oh adds the notion of subsuming Asian-American characters into mainstream white storytelling, or leaving them out as too risky, is hopefully over. “It’s a feeling of where I come from, which is just like, ‘let’s just try and sneak it in. Let no one notice and we might have an existence, right?’ I really hope that kind of thinking has passed,” she insisted after fellow film and TV stars like Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh and Awkwafina also paved the way for Asian actors to follow their lead to Hollywood.

Besides Oh, the doc features interviews by Jada Yuan with pioneering journalist Connie Chung, comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani, comedian and SNL star Bowen Yang, musician DJ Rekha, chef Yia Vang; activist Amanda Nguyen athlete and activist Schuyler Bailar, entrepreneur Haroon Mokhtarzada, photographer Manny Crisostomo, astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala, activist Kathy Masaoka, surfer and scientist Cliff Kapono, and Madelyn Yu, a retired nurse in New Jersey.

The HBO Documentary Films pic is the latest in the The List series of documentary films and other media content that looks at underrepresented communities in America, created by photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. His past projects include HBO’s The Black List, The Trans List, The Out List and The Latino List.

The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diaspora is produced by Yi, Chad Thompson and Yuan, while Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Tina Nguyen executive produce.