MANILA, Philippines?There are many ethnic actors in Hollywood who dwell too much on stereotypes instead of creating interesting persons.

For example, an Asian character is more often than not created to come across as an ?inscrutable? oriental who?s definitely not to be trusted. Every other Asian actor dwells on that stereotypical characterization, which I find boring and inaccurate.

It cannot be said that there have not been better role models. Certainly, Sesue Hayakawa showed the deep aspect of Asian characters. I still think that the Academy Awards did him an injustice when the Best Supporting Actor Oscar did not go to the Japanese actor for his fine portrayal in ?The Bridge of River Kwai.?

Nuances

I find the same boring tendency among African-American actors. Most of them exhibit ?attitude? rather than the nuances of the character they?re playing. The only black performers who don?t have this characteristic are Morgan Freeman, Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett. This talented trio creates characters who just happen to be black.

I admire Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, but ?attitude? is likewise manifest in their films?but that may well be due to the period they inhabited. At that juncture (about 40 years ago), African-Americans were in the midst of the civil rights campaign. For this reason, I don?t understand why Denzel Washington, who has benefited from the crusading efforts of Belafonte and Poitier, still exhibits ?attitude.?

I?m really quite bored with Hispanics who posture with the ?Latin lover? stance. Only Anthony Quinn managed to shake off the mold and successfully portrayed Greeks, Arabs and other nationals. The same goes for Antonio Banderas, although in ?Philadelphia,? he showed the world a more interesting character.

The scripts of those old films also created stereotypes of French lovers like Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer. Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida also had to cope with their tempestuous Sicilian characters for years.

Scripts

These days, scripts continue to create stereotypes. The ?Zorro? series maintains the Hispanic stereotype. The masked hero continues to be the typically saccharine and romantic Latin lover. Banderas epitomizes the character created by Valentino, Xavier Cugat and Gilbert Roland.

Fortunately, other Hispanic actors like Martin Sheen and Raul Julia were talented enough to break out of that predictable mold and made it easier for Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez and others to create credible characters who ?just happen to be Hispanic.?