Hollywood doesn't like to cast Asians. Roles are scarce, if they’re lucky enough to not get whitewashed. But when Hollywood does want an Asian, they fall into two categories: Blanket Asian or Very Specifically Asian.

The latter, as you might imagine, is more difficult to find. Like, say you're director Alexander Payne, looking to cast a woman to play a Vietnamese dissident alongside Matt Damon in Downsizing, your environmentally conscious satire about people who shrink themselves to save the planet. (But really: themselves.) Because this character was Very Specifically Born in Vietnam, you want an actor from there who speaks the language. You’d have your casting director put out a call for Vietnamese actors, but you would also search other places where non-acting Vietnamese people live: Vancouver, France, Facebook. And then you might discover that the perfect option, actress Hong Chau, was in your backyard—Los Angeles—the whole time.

The Hollywood Breakouts 2017 The Hollywood Breakouts 2017

Payne recalls when he first met Chau for tea: “I was auditioning some real McCoys from Vietnam, and she said, ‘I understand that, but you might want to have a Vietnamese-American woman who will really understand what you’re doing. Who will understand the rhythm of the dialogue, the type of character you’ve written.’ ” An intellectual appeal.

In her words, it sounds more emotional. “I was like, ‘Please God, do not give this role to someone who’s not an actor just for the sake of authenticity,’ ” the Louisiana-raised Chau says. “If someone’s gonna fuck it up, let it be me.”

It’s not often you’re trying to convince a white guy to make something less authentic. But Chau has spent a lot of time thinking about who can play what. Her rules are generous. The thing that really matters: The actor must be “the most emotionally accurate for that character.” She explains: Imagine casting a Blanket Asian character with the last name Park, a traditionally Korean surname. If there’s nothing specifically Korean about the character in the script, does it even matter if they’re played by someone of Korean descent? Couldn’t a Chinese or Japanese actor suffice?

Chau isn’t just talking about which people are allowed to play which roles. She’s confronting a much bigger idea: How authentic does representation have to be? Or really, who deserves to be in movies? If you’re Asian-American—let alone Vietnamese-American—these are questions you’ve been thinking about your entire life.

Midway through, Downsizing surprises you by mutating from Honey, I Shrunk Matt Damon to Love in the Time of Late Capitalism. For all its gags (mini McMansions, giant saltine crackers, a Laura Dern/Neil Patrick Harris sales pitch on the whole thing), the film is surprisingly fatalistic. The world is ending, and Chau’s character is crucial: She makes the case for human compassion in the face of annihilation—a tall order for a movie about tiny people.

She’s the latest entry into Payne’s pantheon of lovingly filmed, slightly amplified tragicomic women: Laura Dern in Citizen Ruth, Reese Witherspoon in Election, Kathy Bates in About Schmidt. “They all share a certain something…an exaggerated comic presence that is designed to have some moment to inspire pathos,” Payne says. “And [Chau] just really nailed that.”

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The 38-year-old actress may be virtually unknown, but Payne isn’t the first great director she’s worked with. You might recognize her in P.T. Anderson’s stoner noir Inherent Vice as Jade (Blanket Asian), giving the hard sell for the Pussy-Eater Special ($22.95) at Chick Planet Massage, or in David Simon’s Treme as Linh (Very Specifically Asian). The latter was so specific that she wasn’t just a Vietnamese character, but one who also lived in Chau’s hometown of New Orleans.