Racism in Casting:Prince of Persia/Last Airbender, rough draft

Right so I’m setting up like a custom at my Grandparents house, every time I come I watch a really crappy movie that has a race controversy, first Prince of Persia, now Last Airbender. Both films hired white actors to play the parts of non white characters (for the record, I don’t care enough about these films to look up the actor’s names). In Prince of Persia, the Prince is played by white actor Jake Gylenhaal, while in Last Airbender all the characters but the villains are played by white actors. This has cause a great deal of uproar, especially in the Asian and Asian American communities, an uproar slightly diminished because the films were so bad that nobody really cares about their messages, but honestly, is it racist to have a white actor play a nonwhite role? Now this is a long standing issue, the film industry’s long history of racism and racial profiling so the minorities in America have a very justified chip on their shoulder. I might be bias toward the Asian community, because I’m sympathetic towards their fully justified grievances, and the articles written by Asian Americans tend to be well written, and their argument boils down to A) Many ethnicities are horribly underrepresented in Hollywood, giving the impression that these ethnicities aren’t important, don’t exist or aren’t relatable. B) Hollywood has a long history of type casting and marginalizing ethnicities, and while this is changing for African Americans, its still a big issue for ethnicities with a small population like most Asian Americans C) Blackface and by extension Brown Face or Yellow Face, is racist and insulting to minority groups, and having white actors play non white roles is a form of that.D) We need to have more recognition for minority actors in mainstream media E) Thus, white people should not play non white roles Now since I’m lazy, I’m just going to break my response into bullets as well.1)Ok, now Hollywood’s assumption is that white people are unable to to sympathize with non whites, for the record, with the exception of some Cherokee blood, I am almost the quintessential WASP, just to put my “ethnic bias” out in the open. Personally, I’ve never had any problem with watching movies with ethnic main characters, I sympathized with the pretty much all the characters in Seven Samurai, in Kun Fu Hustle I can feel for the main character even if I don’t identify with him. Maybe that’s because all of the characters are Asians so I identify with the protagonist because the entire cast is equally “different’, but that in a movie where white people are hanging out alongside Asians will I naturally sympathize with the whites? Well, in the film Se7en costarring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, I am far more sympathetic to Morgan Freeman’s character than I am to Brad Pitt. Maybe its because Freeman is a better actor? Possible, but I think its something deeper than that, its personality, I sympathize with Morgan Freeman’s character because I can relate to him, his intelligence, his appreciation of classical books/music/poetry, and his intense cynicism, while Bad Pitt’s emotionally charged life style doesn’t appeal to me. Or in Men in Black, while I enjoy Tommy Lee Jone’s character, I sympathize with Will Smith’s character because he, like me, is a smart guy caught in a world he doesn’t understand. In the end, it isn’t race, or heritage necessarily, so much as just similarity, and while race plays a part in that, its more personality, and its the duty of an actor to make the character relatable and sympathetic 2) Last Airbender opens in an Inuit style village full of Inuit actors then we’re confronted with two absurdly white protagonists, its just so obvious the director is choosing whites over non whites. When I watched Prince of Persia, I didn’t mind, because Jake is a pretty good actor, but I didn’t fail to notice that the only actors with dark skin are extras. And the main actress’ skin was darkened to make her look Indian and she was horrible. Ok, Iranian actors are hard to come by, but there is a huge industry with absurdly hot Indian actresses, and almost all know English. Choosing such a bad actress and actually changing her skin is just insulting. I think the issue isn’t so much the color of the character’s skin, so much as it is the fact that the films are so obvious about their racially driven casting choices, is just insulting. 3) But compared to the source material is it really that racist? For example, in the game Prince of Persia the main character is basically British, he is white, and has a British accent, and the Princess is somewhat dark but she doesn’t really seem Indian beyond a skin color and dress. Would the game have been better if the story tapped more into Persian Culture and Society rather than just the aesthetic. If the it was equally well written, I think I’d enjoy it even more, because its about clashing societies and two ancient cultures that are almost totally unrepresented in video games today. So yes, it if was handled equally well, I think it would have been much more interesting, in fact I could have used less platforming if their was more story and cultural stuff, but I don’t think the game was obligated to be true to the roots of an obvious fantastical Persian world. Similarly, the Avatar TV Show has to deal with race issues, two of the main characters have dark skin, but in a world that draws heavily from Asian folklore and with an Asian atheistic, most of the characters look white. Aang is supposedly from a Tibetan styled culture (people keep calling him Chinese, don’t know why), and yet he looks like a bald white guy wearing vaguely Tibetan clothes. Now I’ve met like half a dozen Tibetans in my life, so clearly I’m not an expert on a society that I’m sure is very ethnically diverse, but every Tibetan I’ve met, even those born in the states, are very dark skinned, brown eyed and with much more “Asian” faces. Similarly, I’ve seen many movies about the Inuit, they all seem very Asian looking, while Katara and Sokka look like well, white people with a really dark tan, or maybe Latinos, but certainly not Inuit. Troph basically is white, and the Fire Nation despite seemingly drawing upon Fascist Japan/Communist China design, are almost entirely made up of white people with “Asian Styled” haircuts, and are certainly not Indians. Ok yes, not all Asian people share a universal look, but they certainly don’t all look like slightly different white people, the characters of the cartoon could pass for Americans in most cartoons. Also the jungle tribes they stumble across look and act like Louisiana hicks, which as a partial southern I’d find offensive if my family wasn’t from North Carolina (hypocrisy ahoy), while you’d think that a Vietnamese, Thai or Cambodian culture would be more appropriate if they were fleshed out in the process. So can we really blame the Movie too much if the show itself is not ethnically diverse in the least? I mean, why not have the Fire Nation look Japanese. Now maybe I’m a little bias because I personally find the “Asian traits” that were omitted very attractive, but I’d still rather have Troph look Chinese. However, lets bear in mind, the animators are drawing from Asian philosophy and culture, but it’s a fantasy world, with a very western world view emerging from the series, so it isn’t like “Fantasy Asia” exactly. I mean, if a bunch people with dark skin settled in the South Pole, I’d expect them to live like the Inuit just because of how useful that method is for survival. I could see a group of White people with a vaguely Japanese styled culture. Its fishy that out of all of the cultures drawn upon, Inuit, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Pacific Islander, none of these people are white and yet white people seem to be everywhere in the world of Avatar. Now I enjoy the show, but I think this is subtler racism. Honestly, quality is an issue, Avatar is a good show so nobody wants to bring up the race issue, because it colors (no pun intended) our view on an otherwise good show, while the Avatar Movie (Both of them actually but I mean the Airbender one) are trash, so people mock its racism 4) So is a film better if it casts people of proper ethnicity? I feel a little nervous making that claim, I mean, because I’m a WASP does that mean that somebody of Irish descent is automatically better at playing an Irish character? I mean, is a random black guy automatically going to be better at playing Martin Luther King Jr. than say, Robert Duvall, who is one of the best American actors at all time? I mean, Robert Duvall who isn’t Irish played Tom Hagen in Godfather very well. However speaking of Godfather, most of the cast for that movie were Italians, and that added a certain something to the film. The way they spoke, their mannerism, the interactions, the film (directed by Italian American director Copula) and so has a certain charm, a feeling of familiarity that is brought out by people who really understand their own culture, enhanced because the characters look Italian. Or watching movies made in their own culture, there is a certain charm that is hard to bring across, like say, Rules of the Game or Yojimbo, those movies are so clearly the product of their respective cultures. Can you imitate that without native actors? I’d say yes, but its much harder. 5) However, even after agreeing with most of the racism, I can’t bring myself to agree with the idea of racial casting, because its not always bad. For example, I love Lawrence of Arabia, I think its an amazing film, and yet despite being filmed in Saudi Arabia, being a movie about Arab culture/history/society, and being about the issue of race, most of the main Arab actors are not played by Arabs, I think only one of them is an Arab. Some are South American, some are Middle Eastern but not Arab, and Sheriff Ali is played by an Egyptian. And yet it’s an amazing film, and the movie’s theme about Arabic culture still ring true, despite the fact almost all of the Arab actors are extras. Lawrence of Arabia is rather ironic, because one of the major themes of the story is that Lawrence doesn’t really identify with his own ethnicity, and seems to project himself as an Arab, which is very interesting take upon the whole idea of race in theaters. You’d think Lawrence (and the average audience member) would sympathize more with the British, but instead he is drawn to the Arabs, possibly because he like them is an outsider (in the film this is attributed to his alleged Homosexuality). Or take Last King of Scotland where African American Forest Whitaker plays Ugandan Idi Amin. Yeah that’s not a typical example, but it still applies, just because they are both black doesn’t change the fact that they are from totally different ethnicity, and even if you traced back Whitaker’s family history, I’d guess that they would come from West Africa because that is where most of the slaves were kidnapped from, not Uganda, in fact I think they darkened his skin for the film so he would look more African. However, he does an amazing job, that is one of my favorite movies of all time, and he does a great job portraying the character. Should they have found some Ugandan actor to play the part instead? Considering how well it turned out, I’m inclined to say know, unless this hypothetical Ugandan actor was somehow better than Whitaker, which I feel is kinda impossible. But again, like with Lawrence of Arabia, the actor shows a great deal of respect (if that’s the right word) for his role. He is speaking in an actual Ugandan Accent, he looks like Idi Amin, he walks and talks like Idi Amin, and honestly it looks like the Dictator was hired for the part. Like in Lawrence of Arabia, race is a plot point in the film, and the fact that Whitaker isn’t African doesn’t dilute the message. In both films, there is a sense that the directors and actors respect the fact that they are playing outside their culture and try to do justice to their portrayals. Ok, so ultimately (I love that word), what do we draw from this, what’s the conclusion? Is Hollywood racist, and is non ethnic casting possible? To the former, I think Hollywood is an absurdly racist institution, but in this particular instance, I feel this stems not from malice so much from the standard Hollywood way of doing business. This doesn’t feel so much like Blackface, instead it feels similar to how Hollywood casts are almost entirely made up of the most good looking people on the planet. You never have women in Hollywood who don’t look almost perfect, you never have men who have a little gut unless it’s a plot point, everybody has to appeal to this very strict standard of beauty, which is non whites sadly don’t fit into with a few exceptions, so to be an Indian American who wants to get good parts you face the same challenge as an American who is slightly overweight, or a women who doesn’t fit that absurd standard of beauty. Its still racist, but its less obvert. Secondly, ethnic casting, I feel like what makes the difference between Last Airbender and Lawrence of Arabia is the amount of respect paid to the source material, in Last Airbender it feels like the white actors were cast off hand and clearly no effort was made for them to blend into their environment, thus making this just insulting obvious, while in Lawrence of Arabia the actors are integrated into Arab culture. So it boils down to respect, I feel like a lot of Asian minorities already have a massive chip on their shoulder due to being underappreciated by the Hollywood elites, are doubly offended by the fact that their cultures are simply dismissed as nothing more than a backdrop which makes people feel unappreciated, while Lawrence of Arabia is very aware of the cultures involved. So I think it ultimately boils down to respect, and a sense of appreciation for the culture involved. Now finally, as an add on point, I would say however that directors should at least start considering using Asian Americans, and by extension, any ethnic minority when the opportunity arises because they aren’t given enough recognition, and often it adds a great deal to the movie, rather than just constantly recasting the same pool. Even if you wish to look beyond the racism associated with this, even if you want to look beyond the insensitivity of leaving out whole cultures from the mainstream media, and even if you want to look past the wasting of perfectly good acting talent, that brings stagnation. Yes, white people are the majority in this country, but always making movies about the same culture and the same society, even one as complicated and diverse as the US white population is inevitably going to breed rot as we just retread the same ground (and judging from the last few years main stream films, already has). It also has this weird effect of thinking that white people are the norm, the standard in the world, and everything else is nothing more than just a commodity, while in reality Han Chinese are the norm due to population and everything else is a deviation. Actually screw the conclusion, I’m unto something here. While we are making movies about our own culture and society, and I’m aware that white people make up about 50% of the population (even more if you count white Latinos), considering Hollywood is the single largest film industry on the planet, I feel like they have a sort of obligation to try to move beyond this very localized ideal of making films, because as fascinating as our own culture is, there is so much more out there. Focusing upon other cultures/societies should be a welcome opportunity for Hollywood, because these are world full of different ideas and different struggles than what is considered “normal”, and ultimately that adds a new perspective and brings new people into the light. We are a multi ethnic country, and we should welcome more input from the massive amount of people within our borders (for that matter, notice a lack of movies about Latinos?) Even a single big name Chinese Actor for example would bring a great deal more attention to the Chinese American community, meaning that people would try to become actor thinking they have a chance at a role that isn’t a random stereotype. These actors will bring in new ideas, new portrayals, could form new movies, I mean what if the next Mifune was in our Japanese American population? And with more actors will bring more recognition to these ethnic groups, which leads to a more culturally aware population, cause I feel like most Americans are in this sort of cultural bubble. Unlike Europe, we aren’t directly confronted with these other societies beyond Hispanics and African Americans, and thus don’t really acknowledge them, I mean I don’t know any Vietnamese Americans, so um, why should I care? So while yes, the racism debate I mentioned (and actually concludes) earlier, is somewhat over zealous, and directors shouldn’t be forced to limit themselves to race when choosing their actors, it is a very viable option, and I feel the more we embrace other cultures the better we will be for it. From EE