Aziz Ansari promoted his upcoming Netflix series Master of None at the EW Fest on October 24 and Vulture was on the scene to capture the highlights.

One of the more interesting reveals from Ansari's interaction was the fact that he actually turned down a part in the original 2007 Transformers because it demanded him to fit a crass stereotype:

"It was a role for, like, a call-center guy who has an accent. And I was like, 'No, I'm not doing it.' And then [friend and co-star] Ravi [Patel] was like, 'I'll do it.' And Ravi did it and made some decent money. And I don't have anything against someone who does the accent. I understand. You got to work, and some people don't think it's a problem."

The actor did speak at some length about the paucity of roles for Asians in Hollywood and how he made a special effort to steer clear from getting cast in that stifling mould.

He ran the audience through a few of the many times that Hollywood has been racist.

"[In one episode,] you see a montage of every Indian character that I remember seeing growing up. And it's just: gas station, gas station, gas station, gas station, weird guy from Indiana Jones who eats brains, Zack Morris making some sort of curry joke. And it ends with Ashton Kutcher's Pop Chips commercial where he dons brownface and is a Bollywood producer named Raj."

He finally added that Master of None was his way of creating a role for himself which dodged all these stereotypes.

Meanwhile, production for Transformers 5 is well underway. Michael Bay is directing and the movie is set for a 2017 release.

Tags
Aziz Ansari, Transformers 5, Movies