'Licorice Pizza' Director Paul Thomas Anderson Responds to Backlash for Scenes with Fake Asian Accent

justjared.com:

Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of the Oscar-nominated movie Licorice Pizza, is finally responding to the backlash the film received for scenes in which an actor uses a fake Asian accent.

In the movie, Pitch Perfect actor John Michael Higgins plays a restauranteur who owns an establishment with his Japanese wife.

He speaks to her with a fake Asian accent that has been called out as racist. The character appears a second time, this time with a second Japanese woman and he repeats the fake accent with her. Anderson basically said in a new interview that he doesn’t understand the backlash. Click inside to find out what he said… IndieWire asked, “Now that Licorice Pizza has been out a while, how do you feel about the complaints that have been made about the anti-Asian character played by John Michael Higgins, who speaks in an offensive fake Asian accent?” Anderson replied, “It’s kind of like, ‘Huh?’ I don’t know if it’s a ‘Huh’ with a dot dot dot.

It’s funny because it’s hard for me to relate to. I don’t know. I’m lost when it comes to that. To me, I’m not sure what they — you know, what is the problem?