Tamlyn Tomita Quotes

Tamlyn Tomita

Profession : Actress

Birth : January 27, 1966

Aren't we all 'Star Trek' fans? That's the show that captured our imaginations after cartoons and everything!

Tamlyn Tomita

The thing I found in correlation with my studies as a history major was that experience taught me you have to figure out your background, where you come from, who you are, and what you want. All of that propelled me into following acting because I had to develop characters as well as develop characters' history which is most important.

Tamlyn Tomita

Film and television are major vehicles for American storytelling, and America is the biggest exporter and influencer in the world in terms of telling stories.

Tamlyn Tomita

I think you can assume because our pool of Asian-Americans actresses or actors - men and women - is pretty small, that whatever project is out there I probably have been asked to audition or I probably chose to not go in it for various aspects.

Tamlyn Tomita

I think that is what all ethnic actors aspire to - to just play a woman who falls in love, or works as a clerk, or whatever - and then, if you want to, to have that luxury to bring in the cultural heritage.

Tamlyn Tomita

I think that the story of mothers and daughters is so universal.

Tamlyn Tomita

When I went in for 'The Good Doctor,' I had just been released from 'Berlin Station.' And when I got the initial role for the 'Good Doctor' pilot, her name was Allegra Abe. That was the script.

Tamlyn Tomita

So if they happen to be over the age of 35 and they're male? They're probably going to recognize me from 'The Karate Kid Part II.'

Tamlyn Tomita

I remember reading one of those big history texts in elementary school, and in that whole book there was one paragraph that mentioned that Japanese-Americans were interned. I went home and asked my father, 'You weren't, were you?' He said, 'Yes, I was.' I was shocked.

Tamlyn Tomita

I'm looking for projects where race is not an issue.

Tamlyn Tomita

I did not want to become an actor.

Tamlyn Tomita

I'm much too egotistical to move outside the acting realm.

Tamlyn Tomita

We have to look beyond what we see as the typical, the 'normal package,' and just see people as who they are. We all have to learn and get along a little better in society.

Tamlyn Tomita

The Asian woman in Hollywood movies has usually been one of two extremes - totally submissive or totally ruthless. In either case her primary function has been decorative.

Tamlyn Tomita

Asian males have not been appreciated for what they are. They have always been dissed for what they are not.

Tamlyn Tomita

JACL has always been at the very forefront of making sure citizens' civil rights remain intact. They fight wholeheartedly against discrimination, prejudice and racial bias and they always provide a calm voice during turbulent times.

Tamlyn Tomita

We have to support everyone so their stories don't get 'invisibilized.' We don't necessarily have to repopulate the next Marvel movie with people of color, but it's just about saying 'We have hearts, we have souls, we have minds, we have faults, we have flaws, and we're super-freaking interesting.'

Tamlyn Tomita

Our old stories happen to be your new stories. The stories that you're seeing as immigrant stories are your grandparents' stories, are your great-grandparents' stories. You just happen to be separated from them a little bit.

Tamlyn Tomita

The only reason I even learned Japanese was to figure out what my parents were getting me for Christmas.

Tamlyn Tomita

Most Japanese-Americans have that legacy. The camp experience is something of a calling card between them. They say, 'So, where were you interned?'

Tamlyn Tomita