In reality, the South Dakota-born, Seattle-bred actress is half Japanese and half Finnish.
“They were not comfortable with me because I wasn’t old enough to be the grandma.
I got the part because Margaret was so supportive of me,” Hill reveals.
Amy Hill in ‘Magnum, P.I.,’ ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,’ and ‘All-American Girl’.Credit: Karen Neal/CBS via Getty Images; Everett Collection (2)
Rather than be scared off, Hill says the warnings only emboldened her.
“I felt like I had freedom.
“The pilot got picked up because people liked the show.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
But in particular, people loved my character, which was a shock for them.”
And I know Margaret’s mother and grandmother are both kind of quirky,” she says.
It was so sweet and wonderful because when you are specific it becomes universal."
Everett Collection
So you have to walk that line of enough Filipino to make it Filipino, but understandable.
So that’s also the thing with all the accents.
You don’t want the accent to be the joke.
You want the person to be funny, not the accent."
You’re not white enough."
Turn on the TV.
There’s an Asian!'"
What strikes her too is the increased encouragement Asian American performers have for one another.
“We really support each other so much more now than before.
There was a time when Asian Americans somehow wanted to blend in,” Hill recalls.
“So they didn’t want to go help out the other Asian Americans that were coming.
They were like, ‘There’s not enough room for all of us.
You gotta make it on your own.’
So when somebody works, I feel like, ‘Oh, that’s great!'”
“Every time I’d do a take, I would think, ‘Was that evil enough?
Is that good?’
I’d look at the director and [go] ‘Any notes?’
That was a challenge …
So it’s been a fun ride.”
“I love this show but the writing room is really pretty white, old white guys.
And I’m like, ‘That’s not something you really want to aspire to.’
But I don’t want immigrants, especially like my mother, to disappear.
I don’t want to whitewash our world.”
