Jo Koy wants to open doors for Filipinos, make a movie in the Philippines

Jo Koy is once again out to prove that he wants to help Filipinos get on the global stage.

In a press conference for his film "Easter Sunday, the Fil-Am stand-up comic said that Filipinos and people of color don't get offers in the challenging Hollywood industry.

“You can only pitch and then you got to hope to God that a studio is willing to fork out millions of dollars to create that pitch. But there are no such thing as offers, especially when you're not the majority color,” he said.

“If you're Filipino, there are no offers, so you got to create an idea. You got to come up with a pitch and figure out a story that they're willing to back and then it still has to make sense because it's a business, right?”

For these reasons, Jo Koy wants to try working behind the camera and create unique characters that go beyond one’s race.
 
“I also want to open doors to not just have specific roles. Because back in the day if you were Filipino, it didn't even matter if you were Filipino. If you were just Asian, they would lump you all in a group. It didn't matter. Like that's how racist Hollywood was," he said.

“They didn't care about specificity, they didn’t care about your individuality,” he said.

He also said that this was what “Easter Sunday” wanted to do — showcase that Asians can act in Hollywood.

“When you try and find a role for Filipino, it's like you're not going to find any," he said. "I don't want to do that anymore. I want to create, like characters that it's like, ‘oh, you're a nurse, that has to be Filipino.’ I don't want that anymore. I want it to be anybody. A CEO of a business [that’s] Filipino, [a] top singer. I don't care."

“Let's just have these roles for everybody. And I don't want to just open the door for Filipinos, I want to open doors for everyone," he added.

Jo Koy said he wants to acknowledge Filipino culture and personalities through the content that he makes, and that he vows to create more — and maybe even make a movie in the Philippines!

“I want to create more, I want to produce more. And yeah, we can bring a movie here [in the Philippines]. How cool would it be to bring an action movie here or something? Why don't I have like a good cop, bad cop thing?”

He added, “Maybe me and Cedric [The Entertainer] will make a movie and come out here and do something, or do something with Tiffany [Haddish] or any of my friends [in the game]. So yes, I promise you I'm making more.”

"Easter Sunday" is now in Philippine cinemas. —JCB, GMA News