George Takei is furious with Marvel’s Doctor Strange.
After Tilda Swinton responded to complaints about her casting as Doctor Strange’s the Ancient One, notable actor and equal rights activist George Takei has stepped up to give his perspective on the casting decision.
Marvel has come under fire lately for casting a white actress in the role of someone who is traditionally Asian. The Ancient One has many Tibetan traditions in the Doctor Strange comics, so many fans were disappointed to see Tilda Swinton, a white actress, instead of an Asian actor in a Marvel movie.
Co-writer C. Robert Cargill defended the casting decision explaining:
“The Ancient One comes from a region of the world that is in very weird political place. He originates from Tibet, so if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place, and that he is Tibetan, you risk alienating 1 billion people who think that that’s bullshit, and risk the Chinese government going, ‘Hey, you know, one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We’re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political…”
But, George Takei is not buying it. Takei’s recent Facebook post about Doctor Strange is a response to Cargill’s comments, as he takes issue with the reasoning behind not including Tibetan characters and changing the Ancient One’s race completely.
Marvel already addressed the Tibetan question by setting the action and The Ancient One in Kathmandu, Nepal in the film. It wouldn’t have mattered to the Chinese government by that point whether the character was white or Asian, as it was already in another country. So this is a red herring, and it’s insulting that they expect us to buy their explanation. They cast Tilda because they believe white audiences want to see white faces. Audiences, too, should be aware of how dumb and out of touch the studios think we are.
Takei’s arguing that just because Marvel wanted to avoid casting Tibetan actors and standing by the Ancient One’s origin as a Tibetan, there’s no reason why the Ancient One could not be played by a Nepalese actor. Or a Nepalese actress. Instead, Takei is suggesting that Swinton’s casting had more to do with Hollywood whitewashing than it did with the delicate political situation in China.
Since Takei’s comments on Facebook were posted, many people have taken to Twitter to call out Hollywood’s lack of diversity. Comedian Margaret Cho, writer Ellen Oh, and the organization Nerds of Color, came together to start a campaign about the lack of Asian American communities being represented in mainstream media and society at large using the hashtag #WhiteWashedOut.
Seeing @margaretcho in the 90s was the 1st time I saw an #Asian woman who wasn’t meek, shy or nice #whitewashedOUT
— Grace Hwang Lynch (@HapaMamaGrace) May 3, 2016
#whitewashedOUT means nobody taking our voices seriously. means it is okay to say racist shit to us because who cares? It’s just Asians.
— Ellen Oh (@ElloEllenOh) May 3, 2016
#whitewashedOUT erasing multicultural AAPI people by casting Emma Stone as a hapa (Chinese, k?naka maoli) woman. pic.twitter.com/F5WnUnWF1G
— Fangirl Jeanne (@fangirlJeanne) May 3, 2016
Unfortunately for Marvel, it looks like their casting decision is going to end up biting them in the butt. Hopefully, they are able to fix the situation before the movie’s release date.
Via: Double Toasted via EW, George Takei
