Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi.

SACRAMENTO — Actor Mickey Rooney said he was shocked that a public screening of his 1961 movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was canceled because of his portrayal of the Japanese landlord Mr. Yunioshi, which many Asian Americans find offensive.

Sacramento Vice Mayor Steve Cohn had planned to show the film, which stars Audrey Hepburn, on Aug. 23 at Glen Hall Park as part of the Screen on the Green movie series. After objections were raised by local individuals and groups, including the Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Advocacy and Leadership (CAPITAL), he decided to show “Ratatouille” instead.

At issue was Rooney’s performance, which included thick glasses, buck teeth and an exaggerated accent. CAPITAL, an umbrella group for more than 90 organizations, said the character was an example of “offensive, derogatory and hateful racial stereotypes.”

In a telephone interview over the weekend with the Sacramento Bee from his Southern California home, Rooney, 87, said, “It breaks my heart. Blake Edwards, who directed the picture, wanted me to do it because he was a comedy director. They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it.”

Having shown a Mr. Yunioshi clip occasionally as part of his traveling stage show, Rooney added, “Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it — not one complaint. Everyplace I’ve gone in the world, people say, ‘God, you were so funny.’ Asians and Chinese come up to me and say ‘Mickey, you were out of this world.’ ”

Rooney, who said he was delivered by a Chinese doctor and served with Japanese American and Chinese American soldiers in Europe during World War II, told the Bee that if he’d known people would be so offended, “I wouldn’t have done it.”

“Those that didn’t like it, I forgive them and God bless America,” he said. “God bless the universe, God bless Japanese, Chinese, Indians, all of them, and let’s have peace.”

‘Fair Criticism’

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, a Sacramento native who supported the campaign against “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” told the Hokubei Mainichi, “I found it surprising that Mickey Rooney was surprised by the way that his character was perceived by Asian Americans.”

Adachi noted that the film figured prominently in the 1993 biopic “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.” In one scene, a young Bruce Lee (played by Jason Scott Lee) goes to see “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” When he sees Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi, he becomes upset and storms out of the theater.

“I think it’s fair criticism of his work, just as an Asian actor would be criticized for portraying that kind of character,” Adachi said.

He added, “The idea is not that Asian Americans are ‘thought police’ or have anointed themselves as politically correct monitors. It’s just that these types of portrayals are no longer acceptable, even in a ‘classic’ movie, in the same way that ‘Amos and Andy’ (which stereotyped African Americans) would not be the subject of a public screening.”

Adachi, who produced “The Slanted Screen,” a documentary about Asian male stereotypes in Hollywood films, is now working on a film about the late actor Jack Soo, best known for the movie “Flower Drum Song” and the TV series “Barney Miller.”

“Early on, he refused to play stereotypical roles and was very vocal about it,” Adachi said. “He understood that these kind of roles did damage — deep damage — to self-esteem and self-worth.

“The fact that Rooney doesn’t get it is more a statement about the times he grew up in. Someone wrote and included this character for Rooney to play and he played it, and it was probably acceptable to the mainstream at the time.

“But the world has changed now, and it’s a good thing that people who are offended by these images are speaking up, nearly 50 years later.”