Photo credit: AP | Julie Chen arrives at CBS's 1st National TV Dinner Night at the CBS Radford Studio in Los Angeles. (Sept. 10, 2013)
"The Talk" co-host Julie Chen revealed on the show Thursday that in the mid-1990s she underwent surgery to widen her eyes and look less Asian for the sake of her career.
Chen, 43, recalled that when working as a field reporter for NBC affiliate WDTN in Dayton, Ohio, starting in 1995, "I wanted to try and get a seat on the anchor desk. So I asked my news director" whether she could be the holiday fill-in anchor. "And he said, 'You will never be on this anchor desk, because you're Chinese.' He said, 'Let's face it, Julie, how relatable are you to our community? The audience can't relate to you because you're not like them.' And he said, 'On top of that . . . because of your Asian eyes, sometimes I've noticed when you're on camera and you're interviewing someone, you look disinterested, you look bored.' "
Chen, who also is the long-running host of CBS' "Big Brother," recalled, "I wanted to cry right then and there. It felt like a dagger in my heart, because all my life my . . . dream was to one day be a network news anchor."
She began meeting with agents for career advice. "And this one big-time agent basically told me the same thing. . . . He said, 'I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger.' "
After she discussed the pros and cons with her parents, Chen recalled, her mother said they'd support her decision and even pay for the surgery by a Los Angeles specialist.
"After I had that done, the ball did roll for me," Chen conceded of her career. "Which I struggle with: 'Wow, did I give in to the man and do this?' " But, she assured, "I don't like to live with regrets. I did it, I moved on, no one's more proud of being Chinese than I am."
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