Actress Chloe Bennet says she changed her name because 'Hollywood is racist'

Agents of SHIELD star praised fellow actor Ed Skrein for stepping down from his role in Hellboy over whitewashing controversy

Chloe Bennet says she changed her surname because she was struggling to find work (Getty)

Actress Chloe Bennet has said she changed her name from Chloe Wang because Hollywood is "racist" and she struggled to be cast in roles due to her surname.

Bennet, who stars in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, made her comments in an Instagram post responding to a fan who asked why she had changed her name.

"Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my blood is half-Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese," she wrote.

"It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable. I'm doing everything I can with the platform I have to make sure no one has to change their name again just so they can get work."

Earlier this week, British actor Ed Skrein received praise from Bennet after pulling out of his role in the forthcoming reboot of Hellboy because the character he was playing had Asian heritage.

In a statement he said that there had been "intense conversation and understandable upset" since the news of his casting had emerged and he "must do what I feel is right".

"It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people and to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the arts. I feel it is important to honour and respect that."

In response to Skrein's decision Bennet said: "There is no way this decision came lightly on your part, so thank you for your bravery and genuinely impactful step forward. I hope this inspires other actors/film-makers to do the same."

She praised him for "standing up to Hollywood's continuous insensitivty and flippant behaviour towards the Asian American community".

The debate over Hollywood whitewashing has intensified over the past few years, with controversy over films including Doctor Strange, where Tilda Swinton was chosen to play a Tibetan mentor, and Scarlett Johansson's role in Ghost in the Shell, which was based on the Japanese manga series by Masamune Shirow.

Paramount's domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies later admitted that Ghost in the Shell's poor box office performance was likely in part due to the contrversy caused by its cast, which was predominantly made up of white actors.

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