So she can't talk about Asian issues and what it means for her to be an Asian woman within the context of her art without then accepting that that means she know has to be the Asian woman people come to for the "Asian Opinion"
That's a ridiculous burden to put on her.
I am openly trans and my art frequently reflects that but I am not comfortable being the person people automatically seek out for the Trans opinion. Fuck there are like 4 or 5 people that only know me as the person they can talk to about trans issues (and this includes other trans people) like the entire sum of my relationship with them is that "trans person they can talk to", nothing more. I do it because I don't want to be an asshole but it's stressful sometimes and somewhat dehumanizing on a certain level. So to say that being open about your issues as a minority means you have to now be responsible for providing everyone who asks the "Minority point of view" is brutally unfair.
I'm LITERALLY just refeerring to Cho's expertise on whitewashing and race and gender politics. It's 80% of her whole act. So she stood out, correctly as someone with insight into those issues, and is in the same "club" as Swinton. So Swinton probably says to her agent - can you get me in touch with Margaret, she has some insight here - as you or I might with an expert in our field that we had access to. It's not like she wandered down to Chinatown and asked the first asian person she encountered. She plainly put a lot of thought, stress and worry into this issue - and instead of commending the effort, we're dragging her around like a bag of trash.
There's ZERO doubt that Cho infered the conversation was private. I mean, look at it.
So here we are: Hollywood is whitewashing stuff.
Someone with influence actually tries to influence, discuss or figure it our from a sympathetic and thoughtful perspective, and they get outed by another actor for behaving in the opposite way they intended to.
I have rarely seen a more cut and dry topic on gaf. And Cho could have told the same story anonymously. "A famous actor called me about an ostensibly racist casting choice..."
This is about Cho's personal behavior, not the umbrella problem - a problem which Swinton acknowledged and in a way available to her - tried to further understand.
Cho has a platform to talk about this stuff already. And is hugely successful at it. She doesn't need to pull this shit. She's already alienated folks because of her stance on weight vascillating over the last decade or two.
CAVEAT: I love both performers. I'm as white as The Ancient One, but about 95% of my remaining family is Chinese and Taiwanese.