List of Gran Torino characters

The following is a list of significant characters who feature in the 2008 film Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Casting calls were held in Fresno, California, Detroit, Michigan, and Saint Paul, Minnesota, from which Eastwood selected ten Hmong American lead actors and supporting actors. Of them, only one was not a first time actor. Of the Hmong cast, five, including Bee Vang, one of the principal actors, were from the state of Minnesota.Ahney Her comes from Lansing, Michigan. The casting agency Pound & Mooney recruited thirty actors and over 500 extras. The firm recruited many Hmong actors from a Hmong soccer tournament in Macomb County, Michigan. Sandy Ci Moua, a Hmong actress based in the Twin Cities, assisted with the film's casting of Hmong actors.

One actor who auditioned praised how the casting avoided the typical Asian stereotypes in favor of authenticity, saying "They could have walked down Hollywood and looked for some Korean, Chinese, whatever, Asian-American actors, and say, 'Hey, can we teach you a few Hmong (words),' like they do in other movies, just mimic the words. But no, they said, 'We want real Hmong-speaking actors.' Asian Americans, we can tell, "That guy's not Chinese! That guy's not Korean!' So, stop trying to fool us."

Walt Kowalski is a Polish-American former auto worker who becomes embroiled in a conflict involving a Hmong family and a gang. Walt Kowalski had served in the Korean War and had killed a Korean boy who had been trying to surrender to him. Walt Kowalski has bitter memories of the conflict. He is a retiree who formerly worked at a Ford automobile plant for much of his life, and he owns a Gran Torino he had personally built. He also owns an M1 Garand rifle. Walt's wife, Dorothy Kowalski, is dead by the beginning of the film. Clint Eastwood plays this character.

...
Wikipedia