lightskintwin
Banned
And in this mornings official Hollywood controversy, Ed Skrein has been cast as Major Ben Diamio in Millennium and Lionsgates upcoming Hellboy reboot. Skrein is best known as the villain in Deadpool and not-Jason Statham in The Transporter Refueled. The reason this casting pick is ruffling feathers is because, Diamio is a Japanese-American character, while Skrein is not Japanese-American. The irony, of course, is that Millennium is less concerned about American outrage than whether the lower-budget, R-rated, horror-ish revamp can score big in China, so our protests will surely fall on deaf ears per usual. And as much as Id love to point out that Skrein has exactly zero box office pull and little in the way of mainstream recognition, I will admit that he has one of the big advantages of late for snagging big Hollywood roles: He has appeared in Game of Thrones.
Since the acclaimed and buzzy David Benioff/D.B Weiss fantasy adventure (based on George R. R. Martins novels) debuted on HBO (owned by Time Warner Inc.) in April of 2011, it has become a medium-defining smash and a social media-driven juggernaut that has, along with House of Cards, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, come to define so-called Peak TV. The show now regularly pulls in 10 million viewers (and 10 million think pieces) per episode, which is huge for a cable television show. And, more importantly, for the purposes of this discussion, it has provided a wealth of new acting talent from its cast. Many of the shows stars, supporting players and guest stars have gone on to top-line major Hollywood movies. Thanks to a mix of subject matter and timing, it has been especially bountiful to be a featured player or lead actor on HBOs Game of Thrones.
Quite a few Hollywood movies, especially the biggest of big franchise properties, are rooted in fantasy, so a show like Game of Thrones is a boon to the industry as a would-be casting pool. If you need good-looking young men and women who are already experienced in fantasy tropes, sword-fighting, horseback riding, wearing various sorts of period garb, speaking potentially tongue-twisty property-specific dialogue, its your one-stop shopping mall for the next would-be fantasy film franchise. The prestigious, Emmy-winning show debuted right as Hollywood was going all-in with not just creating new fantasy franchises but rebooting as many old ones as possible. If you needed someone who wouldnt look ridiculous casting a spell or swinging a sword, well, there you go.
And since the show is mostly Caucasian, it has (inadvertently?) helped keep the blockbuster casting pool less diverse right as such a thing is becoming a talking point in terms of box office success and social obligation.
This "advantage" doesnt just extend to the various white male actors who have been featured on the sexually-charged sword-and-sorcery show. We have seen (the very busy) Jason Momoa as Conan the Barbarian and Aquaman. Sophie Turner is the new Jean Grey in Foxs X-Men movies. Emilia Clarke co-starred in Paramount/Viacom Inc.'s Terminator Genisys, New Line and MGM's Me Before You and Walt Disney's upcoming young Han Solo Star Wars movie. Maise Williams will star in Josh Boones X-Men: The New Mutants as Wolfsbane. Nathalie Emmanuel (a rare black female cast member on a show not known for swimming in non-white representation) joined Universal/Comast Corp.'s Fast and Furious franchise. And Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasma will allegedly get an actual role to play this time in The Last Jedi. And that's not counting the likes of Lena Headley or Natalie Dormer who were somewhat known and/or busy before joining the show.
But, since movies are more likely to have white guys in the lead roles and major supporting parts, it has also been a boon for the white dudes of note on Game of Thrones. Peter Dinklage is now a regular player in the likes of X-Men: Days of Future Past and Avengers: Infinity War. Richard Madden was (a terrific) Prince Charming in Walt Disneys Cinderella. Kit Harington top-lined (the enjoyable) Pompeii and MI5 (a feature spin-off of the BBC television show). Nikolaj Coster-Waldau starred alongside Jessica Chastain in Mama and then was one of the two lead heroes in (the underrated) Gods of Egypt, a film that caused great controversy since it starred a mostly-white cast in a story that was technically supposed to be about ancient Egyptians. Finn Jones caused controversy when he was cast to as the title character in Netflix and Marvel's Iron Fist (a Caucasian character nonetheless somewhat rooted in Asian mythology) and turned out not to be very good at it.
Ed Skrein is now at least the third race-bending controversy concerning white Game of Thrones actors cast in shouldnt have been a white dude roles.
This also applies to the shows directorial staff. For example, it provided something of a comeback vessel for Neil Marshall (now helming Hellboy) and a calling card for Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys). The show came along at just the right time for an industry that needed hot white people with experience in the fantasy sandbox to play in the next batch of fantasy properties and rebooted IP. Of course, that Hollywood snagged actors known for playing somewhat layered and complex protagonists and antagonists on TV and often cast them as simple heroes, damsels and villains is part of why folks tend to argue that TV is better than the movies. And since the show has, more or less, been focused on white characters, it has inadvertently made it that much easier for investors and producers to ignore minority talent even when it defies logic.
None of this is necessarily the fault of Game of Thrones (which I finally started watching just this week in what I imagine will be a marathon catch-up) as an isolated stand-alone episodic melodrama that takes place in a fantastical version of medieval Europe. Nor is it intended to guilt-trip those who make and/or enjoy the show (I'm one episode in, and I like it so far). Ive long argued that the problem is less with individual shows and movies and more with what we in popular culture designate as important. As long as The Revenant is considered more culturally important than Brooklyn, and as long as The Kings of Summer is more important than Dope or The To-Do List, then the paradigm wont shift.
Heck, even if the show had more inclusive casting, this is the industry where the breakout star of HBOs Girls was (the admittedly quite engaging) Adam Driver. Life finds a way, and there is still no excuse for casting Ed Skrein, an actor with no box office pull, as a Japanese-American character. But as long as shows like Game of Thrones exist to provide Hollywood with a revolving door of fresh young white talent with just the sort of experience required to be a part of the next big movie series, it will be yet another advantage for actors who look like the prototypical next big movie star in an industry seemingly going out of its way not to embrace the future.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottm...ep-hollywood-blockbusters-white/#1ef0b324475b
What say you, Gaf?
