He received the full script during his second audition with director-producer-writer Kelly Fremon Craig, which is when he found out that — “Oh shoot, OK!” — Erwin wasn’t a sidekick or auxiliary character.

In fact, The Edge of Seventeen actively breaks down what viewers may think they know about him based on his ethnicity. “I guess I'm just your average guy, I guess," a visibly nervous Erwin tells Nadine the first time they hang out. Nadine cuts him off and jumps to a slew of conclusions about him. "Wait, let’s see if I can guess ... Your mom gets on you about your grades and practicing your instruments. She makes a great egg sandwich after years of owning a restaurant downtown,” she spews thoughtlessly. “Your dad? Quiet, rough. Never really says, ‘I love you,’ but with a stoic presence, you know he cares.”

What Nadine describes is nothing like Erwin’s life, which becomes clear in the way he responds: remaining silent while nodding politely. Szeto explained his approach and response in that scene: “I’m just like ... that’s really sad if she thinks that of me. I could’ve went the direction of, ‘Oh, those things are true, and now I’m embarrassed’ … But I chose to be like, ‘I’m not like that. I’m sad that you think I’m a stereotype.’” It’s a scene that struck a chord with Szeto, who said he’s dealt with the consequences of such overgeneralizations in Hollywood.

Born and bred in Richmond, Vancouver (a town “full of rich Asian kids”), 31-year-old Szeto grew up in a family of artists. While his grandfather was a famous sculptor and his father a painter, Szeto found himself drawn to the performance arts. “I remember I would sneak off and watch Tom Cruise in Top Gun — that’s the one movie I watched over and over and over again as a kid,” he said, also naming Bruce Lee as one of his idols. “Since Bruce Lee, I haven’t seen any [major] Asian-Americans on the screen, and there was a big void for a while.”

And the Asian-American characters he did see on the big screen weren’t all that complex or true-to-life. That’s why he decided to “take the reins” to play Erwin and give him “as much strength” as possible. Though his character is more reserved, he does stand up for himself and wields sarcasm, exchanging quips with Nadine. “I dedicated Erwin to the Asian-American community,” Szeto said earnestly. “I felt like it was important.”

As Nadine starts spending more time with Erwin in The Edge of Seventeen, viewers discover that his parents — who are never shown in the movie — are living apart from him in South Korea for three months, and he has their huge mansion all to himself. Although Nadine seems thunderstruck by his freedom and wealth, Erwin seems less than thrilled. He’s a “parachute kid,” an international student who moved to the United States without his parents for a more well-rounded education.