I get tired of talking about this. I get tired of living with it. The more I have to think about this, the more it makes me feel more like a politician and less of an artist. In the long run, that’s not good for me or anyone else. I don’t like when an Asian-American actor says, “I’m entering this business to change Hollywood.” It feels like the wrong reason — I would prefer they entered the business for artistic reasons, because they need to do it. I used to get offered roles, and if I felt they were a stereotype, I would [ask] my Korean friends, “What do you think of this?” I would go through these exhausting mental hoops, arguing both sides in my head, picturing this imaginary Asian-American council judging the role. I spent so much energy on that. Now I’m older, and I’m thinking, that’s not healthy! It’s antithetical to the artistic impulse. Actors are supposed to be these runaways that get in a covered wagon filled with hats and tambourines and go from town to town making people smile. Though it’s logical and necessary to think and talk about all of this, it’s a bummer as an artist to have to do it all the time.

What are some roles you’d love to take on?

I’d love to do a Shakespearean role onscreen. There are some radical things I’d like to do. I’d like to be in a western. I’d like to be ultraviolent onscreen; it’s completely different from anything I’ve done. Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I’ve made a career out of not being Asian — a lot of my roles weren’t written as Asian — so there’s an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.

I’m also tuned in lately to my parents’ generation, thinking about their mortality and all the history that will go with them. I’ve wanted to do a project and record Korean-American kids interviewing their parents and grandparents, so we can preserve stories of the Korean diaspora. I guess it’s part of getting older and having kids, you think more about that kind of thing.

What are you working on next?

Right after this, I’m doing a small-budget movie about a Korean man visiting his father, who has fallen ill in Columbus, Ind. He meets a woman, and they’re both mourning their parents in different ways; there’s an interesting relationship. The announcement hasn’t been made, so I can’t talk about it in detail yet, but I’m also acting in and producing a drama in the cable space.

What do you like to do when you’re not acting?

It’s more like, what do my kids want me to be doing? [My wife, the actress Kerri Higuchi, and I] have two kids, 8 and 3. I have this fantasy of just being left alone for a week, so I can clean out the house and garage.