List of American Pie characters
This is a list of characters from the film series "American Pie" consisting of "American Pie" (1999), "American Pie 2" (2001), "American Wedding" (2003), "" (2005), "" (2006), "" (2007), "" (2009), and "American Reunion" (2012). Only one character, Noah Levenstein played by Eugene Levy, has appeared in all eight released films. Biggs, Hannigan, Scott, Nicholas, Thomas, Coolidge, Cho, Isfield, Cheek, and Owen all play their characters in four films each; other characters appear in fewer films.
Portrayal of East Asians in American film and theater
Anna May Wong had been considered a top contender for the role of O-lan, the Chinese heroine of the novel. However, because Paul Muni was a white man, the Hays Code's anti-miscegenation rules required the actress who played his wife to be a white woman. So, MGM gave the role of O-lan to a European actress and offered Wong the role of Lotus, the story's villain. Wong refused to be the only Chinese-American, playing the only negative character, stating: "I won't play the part. If you let me play O-lan, I'll be very glad. But you're asking me – with Chinese blood – to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters." MGM's refusal to consider Wong for this most high-profile of Chinese characters in U.S. film is remembered today as "one of the most notorious cases of casting discrimination in the 1930s".