Agreed. I remember the guy playing Soka in "Airbender" joked in an interview, "They're going to have to use a lot of makeup to darken everyone's skin". It was apalling and frustrating how casually he could toss out a statement whose import is obviously way beyond him. Even then the casing is still...odd. They have the young Indian actor from "Slumdog Millionaire" playing Zuko, when the latter was clearly of a culture based on Japanese culture.
What pisses me off is that they always find genuine ethnic actors to play all the support and background roles. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2010 5:37:35 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Hollywood Whitewash? Persia, Airbender casting angers fans It reminds me of when John Wayne played Ghengis Khan. That was one of the most horrible train wrecks in the history of moviemakingdom. :) It is so "hollywood" to pick whomever is on the top 20 list of stars to do a movie that its a cliche. The way that they do business it is the equivalent of picking a white guy to play MLK. There is very little difference in how they cast movies now versus 30 years ago. On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 2:07 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: This will never become an issue unless and until people of color start playing/rewriting roles based on historical characters that were white. Westerns are replete with characters that were black in real life, who were played by the likes of Clint Eastwood and others. Or maybe if movies made in other countries made as much bank as Hollywood flicks, and those countries always got locals to play white Americans in stereotyped ways, people here would get it. I can think of no reason why the likes of Angelina Jolie, Gyllenhaal, the major cast of "Last Airbender", etc, are played by Caucasian actors. I find it offensive. But then, I also get irritated when characters that are supposed to be Russian, Caribbean, etc., are played by Americans who then have to fake an accent. There are plenty of talented actors from other countries who can do these roles, and you can't always excuse it by saying you need the big megastars to pull in the crowds. In these cases, for example, the target audience of young men aren't going to see "Prince of Persia" because of Gyllenhaal or Sir Kingsley, so their casting isn't really crucial. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" < hellomahog...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2010 4:50:22 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Hollywood Whitewash? Persia, Airbender casting angers fans I say boycott them both and any other film that does the same. On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 8:04 AM, Kelwyn < ravena...@yahoo.com > wrote: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/05/racebending.html And playing Dastan, the hero and titular heir to the Persian throne in the $200-million tent-pole film, is none other than Hancock Park's own Swedish-Jewish-American prince, Jake Gyllenhaal. ------------------------------------ Post your SciFiNoir Profile at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo ! Groups Links (Yahoo! ID required) -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
