9 Mixed-Race AAPI Celebrities Who Talked About Being Called “Racially Ambiguous” Or “White-Passing”

Auli’i, who is of Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent, revealed in a 2022 interview that she was described by casting professionals in Hollywood as “racially ambiguous.” She said, “People didn’t know my face, and when casting did see my face, they’d say, ‘You’re racially ambiguous.’ I’m like, ‘That’s a new term. I’ve never heard that one before,’ which left me even more internally confused because my identity has always been Hawaiian.”

“Suddenly, all of these phrases were thrust at me: ‘Well, you’re white-passing, but you’re also racially ambiguous, so you can play Latinx, you can play Asian, you can play all of these different things.’ I was like, ‘I just want to play smart women. The bar is there,’” the Moana star added.