Hollywood is on edge after movie studios are accused of “whitewashing” and racist casting choices.
According to a new report by THR, Hollywood is on the defensive after several petitions, protests and boycotts regarding the race of certain actors in movies.
Emma Stone as part Chinese in ‘Aloha‘, Rooney Mara as ‘Pan’s Tiger Lily and the boycott of Adam Sandler’s new movie, ‘Ridiculous Six‘, is the latest issue in Hollywood as casting directors are forced to choose between a white actor or a racially specific actor.
Producers argue that they are just choosing the best actor for the job:
“There’s a misconception about the ethnicity of the original character and we felt no obligation to perpetuate that misconception,” says an insider on the project. “We looked at Native American actresses. We looked at African-American actresses. We looked at African actresses. We looked at Middle Eastern actresses. White actresses. After a very exhaustive casting process, we ultimately went with the best actress for the part.”
But, that doesn’t stop fans from boycotting and filing petitions. When Disney announced Rooney Mara – an actress of Irish, German and French ancestry- will play Pan’s Tiger Lily, over 90,000 people signed a petition in protest. Now, as the movie is expected to hit theaters later this year, many executives fear the movie will bomb in the box office just like Cameron Crowe’s ‘Aloha’.
In ‘Aloha’, Emma Stone played a quarter Chinese character even though she is 100% not Asian. Consequently, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans blasted the movie for “whitewashing” Hawaiian culture. “Why couldn’t they find someone who’s part Asian, part Pacific Islander?” asks Guy Aoki, a co-founder of MANAA. “Cameron Crowe’s a guy who purports to love Hawaiian history and culture, but could you have cast at a worse level if you hated Hawaiian culture?”
Cameron Crowe would later apologize, “all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice,” arguing he based the character on a woman he had met who did not look like she was Asian.
But, the issue may just come down to the fact that A-list actors tend to be Caucasian and movie studios would rather put a star in a major role than an ethnically specific actor.
Another veteran producer, who declined to be identified because of the hot-button topic, says much of the controversy surrounding off-race and off-ethnicity castings is naive because studios are putting faith in proven stars rather than excluding particular types of actors. Recent examples have included Exodus (a mostly European cast played Middle Eastern characters),Rosewater (Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal played real-life Iranian Maziar Bahari), A Mighty Heart (Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, who is half Afro-Chinese-Cuban) and Selena (Jennifer Lopez, of Puerto Rican descent, as the late Mexican star). Johnny Depp, who identifies as being of Native American heritage, was adopted into the Comanche Nation while playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger, heading off possible backlash.
But, what about movies that make fun of a particular culture? In Netflix’s ‘Ridiculous Six’, producers told extras to get off set if they are too sensitive following jokes made about Native American cultures. Producers would later cast non-Native American actors to play Native Americans in order to keep production going and avoid further backlash.
Given how America’s current racial climate and the number of race issues, do you think Hollywood trying to cast accurately or do Hollywood producers care less? Either way with the recent backlash, petitions, and boycotts, expect casting directors to think twice before they cast an actor.
Read the full article here.
