Crazy Rich Asians star Nico Santos calls out US media for confusing him with Parasite writer Han Jin-won

Crazy Rich Asians actor Nico Santos has called out a US media post that apparently misidentified him as Parasite co-writer Han Jin-won.

The Filipino-American actor, who portrays Oliver T’sien in the hit comedy and also the character Mateo in Superstore, shared a screenshot after Entertainment and Sports Today reportedly tagged him on its Facebook account.

In the screenshot, Han is shown speaking to TV reporter Margie Rey at the Screen Actor’s Guilt Awards. It was captioned: “BFCA Award-nominated actor Nico Santos (Crazy Rich Asians, Superstore) interview with our TV show host Margie Rey for Entertainment Today TV. #NicoSantos.”

“THIS IS HAN JIN-WON, HE CO-WROTE PARASITE,” Santos tweeted. “WE LOOK NOTHING ALIKE. WE JUST BOTH WEAR GLASSES. JESUS CHRIST. F***.”

A number of high-profile figures in the entertainment industry responded to Santos’ tweet.

NCIS star Diona Reasonover simply wrote: “This is ridiculous,” while others called the mix-up “embarrassing” and “racist”.

At the time of writing, Santos’s post had received more than 29,000 likes on Twitter, and over 3,000 retweets.

E&S appeared to change the caption on its Facebook page following Santos’s tweet to read: “Entertainment Today’s TV show host Margie Rey interviewing Han Jin-won, a Writers Guild Award co-nominee with Bong Joon-ho for Original Screenplay for their film Parasite at the 2020 Writers Guilt Awards at the Beverly Hilton, Saturday, 1 Feb 2020 in Beverly HIlls, California.”

The blunder comes shortly after the BBC was condemned for two separate incidents in which black public figures were misidentified.

In January, the BBC confused LeBron James with Kobe Bryant in a broadcast about the late Los Angeles Lakers legend, despite the fact that James’ name was clearly visible on the back of his vest.

This week, MP Dawn Butler called for better media diversity after the BBC confused her with fellow MP Marsha de Cordova.

Parasite has been enjoying huge success during this year’s awards season, most recently at the Baftas where Han and Bong won Best Original Screenplay, and also Best Foreign Language Film.

The movie is nominated for a number of awards including Best Picture at the Oscars, which take place this weekend.

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