Image Credits: Getty Images (left); ‘Sixteen Candles,’ Universal Pictures (right)

The classic coming-of-age comedy Sixteen Candles was released 40 years ago this week.

Decades later, the film holds a special place in the pantheon of pop culture—as John Hughes feature directorial debut, its success made him the voice of a generation, it jumpstarted Molly Ringwald’s rise to It Girl status, and everything from its fashion to its soundtrack helped solidify what we think of as ’80s style. (And how about that hunky Michael Schoeffling, eh?)

But, these days, Sixteen Candles is also not-so-fondly remembered for its most notorious supporting role: foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong, a walking caricature of Asian stereotypes.

Played by gay actor Gedde Watanabe, Dong was a classmate of protagonist Sam Baker (Ringwald), who happened to be living with her grandparents while in the exchange program. Sweet, nerdy, and out of touch with American culture, the character was envisioned as comic relief—unfortunately the jokes came at the expense of the broader Asian community.

In a new interview with People, the 68-year-old star—who was born in Utah and has always spoken with an American accent—reflects on Dong’s complicated legacy:

“It didn’t really occur to me that it was a stereotype,” Watanabe remembers of first reading for the role, “because there wasn’t really anything out there for Asian actors at the time. It was just so scarce. So I didn’t think it was stereotypical or racist. Isn’t that weird?”

In fact, the actor felt that, in a few crucial ways, Hughes’ script was actually working against stereotypes so often found in Asian characters back then, allowing Dong to party, cut loose, “be in bliss,” and even get the girl in the end.

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Though certain bits of dialogue gave him pause (like the use of the word “Chinaman,” for example), the actor remembers Sixteen Candles being too good of an opportunity for him to pass on. Up until that point, Watanabe was working in theater but performing as a street musician to make ends meet, living off the vegetables passersby would throw at him.

“Frankly I was like, this is a good job, and I’m going to get paid more doing one week in this movie that I did for all the years I was in the theater.”

Sure enough, the movie was a modest hit, and affection for it only grew with time, taking Watanabe’s career to new heights. He scored roles in Ron Howard comedy Gung Ho and Weird Al’s UHF, but often found himself type-cast as foreigners:

“In the ’80s, my career was playing a lot of foreign people from other countries,” he shares with People. “The ’80s were a hard time for Asian American actors, AAPI people, there wasn’t a lot out there. There was no real support to guide me about the fine line between being a goof in comedy and what’s stereotypical and what’s offensive now… Now it’s been somewhat defined, but it’s muddied still.”

Image Credit: ‘ER,’ NBC

Eventually, Watanabe did find work that allowed him to break out of that mold, liked when he played gay nurse Yoshi Takata on ER across seven seasons between 1997 and 2003.

Interestingly, though he was living openly as a gay man by that time and has been happily partnered since 1986, Watanabe didn’t speak all that much about his sexuality in the press while starring on ER.

In fact, it wasn’t until his recent role on the web series The Disappointments—about a group of fifty-something gay men navigating middle age—that he really discussed his journey as a gay man on record. In a conversation with co-stars Rich Burns and Trevor LaPaglia, Watanabe spoke about growing up in Utah around the conservative Mormon community, coming out, coming into his own in San Francisco in the ’70s, and later living through the AIDS epidemic.

For an actor whose breakthrough role hasn’t exactly aged so well, we’re just glad to see Watanabe out here still living his best life, representing for the AAPI and LGBTQ+ communities.

Gedde Watanabe can be seen in season one of The Disappointments, now streaming on YouTube—season two coming soon!

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