’21 Jump Street’ star Dustin Nguyen changed the way we see Asian American men

The "Warrior" star looks back on his groundbreaking turn on the 1980s hit show, nearly leaving acting for good, and his return to Hollywood in recent years.

“We stepped out, and there must’ve been at least 10,000 screaming teenagers,” Nguyen told TODAY. “We were really overwhelmed. I remember thinking this must be like what a rockstar feels like, multiplied by a thousand.” “I got kind of spoiled because after I left the show, then you’re kind of back out there and you’re like, ‘Oh man, I had a really good thing,’” he said.

“I don’t sit and think about ‘I’m a pioneer’ and this and that — you’re just focused on getting another job to keep working — but it means a lot to me,” he said.Nguyen was in his mid-20s and just looking for steady work when he landed the role on “21 Jump Street.” He said the role was initially slated for a character of color, not specifically an Asian actor, and he remembers being at the audition with African American and Latino actors also vying for the part.

Nguyen was born in Saigon and came to the United States from Vietnam after his family fled in 1975 when South Vietnam fell to communist forces. He went to high school in California and landed a few guest roles on soap operas before his big break on “21 Jump Street” as the rare Asian American heartthrob on a mainstream show.

His work not only had an impact on future Asian American actors but Asian actors around the world."Mortal Kombat" star Joe Taslim, 40, an action dynamo who is also part of the cast with Nguyen on “Warrior," remembers watching “21 Jump Street” while growing up in Indonesia. “I enjoyed every minute of it, but maybe because of the way I was raised, my background, I sort of had this innate understanding that it wasn’t going to last forever,” he said. “I was expecting not to work for a little bit after ‘Jump Street.’ I saved up a lot of money, and I lived very modest. I was prepared to be unemployed for a little while, but it turned out to be two years, which seemed like an eternity.

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