Jennifer Cheon Garcia transformed from a vampire into a human in season 4 of “Van Helsing”, giving the Canadian actress a bigger profile – something she says she’s using to advocate against anti-Asian racism.
“Systemic racism has always been a part of any person of colour’s life,” she tells ET Canada’s Sangita Patel. “And of course there were those obstacles, and of course there are still those obstacles to come. All you can kind of do is leave crumbs and ideas of how you want to be treated, and how you want to be seen, and keep going forward.”
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Garcia says using her platform to speak out against anti-Asian hate is something new for her and is bringing her own sense of healing.
“It’s a whole new territory for me, and I’ve always kind of… kept my head down, just hard work, hard work, just keep going, smile, march on forward. So it started a healing process,” she explains. “I think we can all kind of relate to that. Part of healing is acknowledging that it’s there to begin with. And that, I think, is the stage that we are, towards hopefully healing as not only a country but a world.”
The actress says as someone in the spotlight who has Mexican and Korean heritage, she hopes others will be able to see themselves in her when it comes to her “Van Helsing” role.
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“I’m Mexican-Korean and I know there’s other people out there like me, and it’s great to bring that to a character, and have people see someone that looks like me out there, and, you know, kind of relate. And in that aspect, it’s been a real blessing,” she says.
“It’s been an honour to use my platform for this,” she adds.
