Can foreigners enter Hollywood?

An aspiring Malaysian actor posted on Reddit:

I am a 18-year old biracial Malaysian kid who wants to be an actor in Hollywood. I’m taking a diploma for performing arts in a college called Sunway University in 8 days and I’m considering pulling out of it because why do something that I like when my dreams might never be fulfilled and the price for taking this diploma is seriously expensive. I am starting to doubt my chances of making it to Hollywood and I suffer from extreme anxiety. Is it possible for someone like me to enter Hollywood? What are my chances?

Breaking into Hollywood is hard. As a foreigner, it would be even harder. So I asked myself:

Do Hollywood actors act with foreigners?

Let’s take Will Smith. He frequently acts with Martin Lawrence, Tommy Lee Jones, Jaden Smith, Jon Voight, and 84 other actors.

His every co-star is a Hollywood actor, except the Spanish actor Jordi Mollà in Bad Boys II, and the Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari in Aladdin. Will Smith acts with just 2% of foreign co-stars.

On the other hand, Jackie Chan is more cosmopolitan. He acts with:

• Chinese actors like Yuen Siu-Tin in Drunken Master
• Hollywood actors like Chris Tucker in Rush Hour
• Japanese actors like Kumiko Goto in City Hunter — which is based on a Japanese Manga of the same name.
• South Korean actors like Su-cheon Bae in Huo shao shao lin men — a Korean/Mandarin film
• Indian actors like Disha Patani in Kung Fu Yoga – an Indo-Chinese film
• Spanish actors like Eva Cobo in Operation Condor – shot in Spain
• Danish actors like Pilou Asbæk in the upcoming film Snafu

Of his 224 co-stars, 70 are non-Chinese. Jackie Chan acts with over 30% foreign co-stars.

Are Chinese films be more foreigner-friendly? Should our Malaysian friend try there instead?

Is Hollywood less open to foreigners than other countries?

I took all movie actors across the world and broke them into groups using a community structure. Actors within the group act mostly within themselves, and less with other groups.

The largest group is Hollywood, with ~80,000 actors (mostly American). They act with each other 90% of the time and act with other groups only 10% of the time.

In comparison, the Chinese group has ~20,000 actors. They act with each other 98% of the time. When they do act outside the group, it’s mostly with Hollywood (0.5%), Japanese (0.3%), South Korean (0.3%), and Indonesian (0.1%)

Clearly, Jackie Chan is more the exception than the norm.

But among the large groups, there are 2 groups that are even more insular than Chinese actors.

The ~8,200 Turkish actors act only with each other 99.1% of the time, occasionally venturing to act with Iranian actors (0.2%).

Even more insular are the ~7,000 Filipino actors who act with each other 99.3% of the time. They occasionally venture out to act in Hollywood 0.2% of the time.

There are no other sizeable groups of actors that’re as insulated.

Hollywood is actually among the most cosmopolitan groups, along with the West European films. So, to our budding Malaysian actor, I’d say:

It’s hard to get an acting break. As a foreigner, it’s 10 times harder in Hollywood. But you’re better off in Hollwood or Western Europe than in any other country, where it would be 50 to 100 times as hard!