White actors taking roles from people of color .......(of course)

[ali032373]

american people are mad because white washing is an american problem.

I bet you no one in china gives a crap. they loved warcraft and the hero in that one was white
white washing to Japan and china doesnt seem to be a big deal

The obvious difference is that whitewashing is happening in films made in America. When it happens to films made in China they might have a problem.

 

[Mr. Green]

Well, another angle is that America is multi-racial. Japan and China are both, mostly Asian. They know a movie is a movie. They have their own movie industry. Their population will always be mostly Asian. America is different. Hollywood doesn't reflect the diversity that is America.

You take the coming Godzilla Resurgence movie for example. It is clearly a Japanese version. Most of the actors are Japanese/Asian. Godzilla itself, is more Japanese design. The Godzilla of 2014 is more Westernized with mostly white cast.

Still, Mr. Green enjoyed the 2014 and he will enjoy the coming Godzilla Resurgence.

 

[ali032373]

Actually the film is a partnership between a chinese film company and universal.

 

[Mr. Green]

why cant white people just extinct WHY WHHHYYYYYY

Stop it, lol.

If everyone is Asian, for example, the world would be boring for sure. Same goes for white people.

Problem is diversity have its own curse, like almost everything else.

 

[Lejuan]

( I also wonder what Lejuan thinks of this)

I've said before, many times, that I don't see whitewashing as a big deal. I understand and accept why it happens, and I'm aware that the film industry evolves to reflect societal attitudes towards ethnicity and gender.

What grates is when issues of access and equity are mocked or derided by the hegemony; the hypocrisy of people in accepting that a white guy can play the role of a non-white character, but that when a non-white plays a white character - or a woman plays a male character - they're quick to point to 'an agenda'.

 

[kiwiatlarge]

I actually thought it was an interesting list, in a TV Tropes.com kind of way, not in a zomg racizm way.

Here's a useless bit of information from someone from my neck of the woods. Maori actors when they make it in the US, are almost always cast as arabs, latin or indian... Basically any ethnicity that is brown skinned except Maori, or even at the very least Polynesian.

Tem Morrison and Cliff Curtis are probably the best two example.. although Tem at least got to be the baddest bounty hunter in the Star Wars galaxy. (Maori were always good explorers mind you)

 

[Mr. Green]

He certainly did well with Jango Fett.

 

[ali032373]

they hire Chinese actors to play roles of sometimes characters of other ethnicity. Majority of actors are Chinese, technically it happens already
Majority of actors in Bollywood movies are Indian actors, even if the character was a different ethnicity, well you get it right?

I am referring to the specific form of whitewashing where a white actor is inserted into a place and time that does not support the existence of the character. Like Matt Damon in ancient China. I thought that's what was being discussed. I don't see that in foreign made films, in the few I have seen.

 

[The Ween]

Nope, we have nothing to do with it. We could give a **** actually.

 

[ali032373]

how does the new rocketeer not do that exact thing?

Black women existed in the United States in the 1940s. There were millions of them.

How many white guys existed in China in 3rd century? 4th? 5th? But there goes Matt Damon. So no, the rocketeer does not do that exact thing.

 

[The Ween]

Black women existed in the United States in the 1940s. There were millions of them.

How many white guys existed in China in 3rd century? 4th? 5th? But there goes Matt Damon. So no, the rocketeer does not do that exact thing.

How many were WWII era pilots though? That's the problem people are having with this.

As for Matt Damon, how does anyone know how many white Europeans were in China then? Also, people are actually making a mountain out of a mole hill about this movie from ONE trailer. It's not like it's a documentary or Damon playing an Asian. There's no whitewashing here.

And I don't see any complaints about Pedro Pascal playing in it.

Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplay for this. Is there any wonder then why Damon is in it?

 

[The Ween]

pilots? where?

(i think there were couple of romans in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations)

Someone has said that Damon's character is a mercenary who is in China looking for gunpowder.

 

[kryptonianmutie]

pilots? where?

(i think there were couple of romans in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations)

I really shouldn't be the one to have to do this but this woman existed even before the 1940's

Bessie Coleman

Can everybody shut up now?

 

[The Ween]

I really shouldn't be the one to have to do this but this woman existed even before the 1940's

Bessie Coleman

Can everybody shut up now?

Of course she did! I tried to find a black woman who flew in WWII but I couldn't find one. There were a few white women though.

Fine, I'm think I'm done with this thread anyway. It's just beating a dead horse.

 

[Thainitty]

White washing Hollywood is old news and the us film industry is the most diverse in the world. Worry about other things than who plays who in what... Like all other regions of the world their respective film industries reflect the countries racial population... Maybe there are more white actors in movie and tv (it seems pretty diverse to me) and in the United States white people make up 77% of the population so maybe that's reflected in the film industry here. I get what Ali is saying about it being a double standard when people seem upset by things like the rocketeer or the ghost busters but no one says anything when a white person plays a character who should be a different race.

 

[ali032373]

pilots? where?

(i think there were couple of romans in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations)

You're talking about someone's occupation or function. Which is a potentially valid claim for another thread. I was talking about instances where place and time does not support the insertion of a white character. The presence of white Matt Damon in 5th century China is not supported- regardless of his occupation or function.

 

[YoNoSe]

Fascinating.

 

[Shawpaw]

This thread is trending stupid now lol

 

[The Ween]

​Sure is.

 

[ali032373]

You can make the argument that a black woman can be in a movie about 1940 America. Maybe she's a secretary, a nurse, a teacher (some of the stereotypes of the time for her demo). Whatever the role. Black women were at least THERE and THEN.

To argue a white man can be in 5th century China strains credulity at best, regardless if he was a mercenary, a butcher, a farmer, a dishwasher, a mechanic. He just doesnt fit. But he's in the movie anyway.

I would argue thats a great example of the third form of whitewashing in film- the insertion of a white actor where it doesnt fit or the character was created solely to place a white performer in the film.