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Is Hollywood 'whitewashing' Asian roles?

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D

Dram

Member
http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/13/is-hollywood-whitewashing-asian-roles/

(CNN) - America’s embrace of Japanese pop culture, particularly manga and anime, hasn’t resulted in an embrace of Asian and Asian-American actors when those storylines go to Hollywood.

Two upcoming feature films based on Japanese material are already stirring controversy after rumors that white American actors will be cast as characters originally written as Japanese.

Tom Cruise is rumored to be in talks to play the lead role in the Warner Bros. adaptation of Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill,” replacing a Japanese main character. Warner Bros., which is owned by the same parent company as CNN, is also in the pre-production stages of making a live-action version of “Akira,” a graphic novel that was made into a landmark 1988 animated feature film in Japan. All of the actors rumored to be in consideration for the upcoming film’s main characters are white Americans, although casting calls invited actors of “any race” to audition.

That’s troubling to both the series’ devoted fans and advocates of diversity in casting.

Kent A. Ono, a professor of Asian-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the practice of casting white actors to play Asians and Asian-American characters has a long history in Hollywood. Until recent decades, this mostly took the form of white actors playing stereotypical representations of Asian characters, such as Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of I.Y. Yunioshi in 1961's “Breakfast at Tiffany’s," Rita Moreno as Tuptim and Yul Brynner as King Mongkut in the 1956 film "The King and I," and Katharine Hepburn as Jade Tan in 1944's "Dragon Seed."

“Not only do Asian-American actors find this a displacement of their ability to work as laborers, as performers in these sort of roles – they also find this an affront to their identity, to their work to overcome racism and be seen as legitimate actors,” Ono said.

The Warner Bros.' planned live-action adaptation of “Akira” has fans watching closely. According to articles in The Hollywood Reporter and sci-fi blog i09.com, Garret Hedlund was being tapped to play the lead role of Shotaro Kaneda, with Kristen Stewart, Helena Bonham Carter and Ken Watanabe in talks to play other main roles. Except for Watanabe, who is Japanese, all are white.

An unnamed studio insider told the Hollywood Reporter for a January 5 story that preproduction had stopped due to issues related to script, budget and casting. Warner Bros. spokeswoman Jessica Zacholl said the studio had no comment regarding the holdup in production for “Akira” or any rumored casting decisions.

Fans are watching what happens with “All You Need is Kill,” too. The original novel focuses on the "Groundhog Day"-like travails of Keiji Kijira, a Japanese soldier in an international army fighting a war against aliens. The character dies, but always awakens to find it's the day before his death. He relives that day until he has amassed the skills and experience to prevent his own death.

In the movie version to be produced by Warner Bros., the character has a new identity – American Billy Cage – and the movie has a new title: “We Mortals Are.” Three of the four actors rumored to be under consideration for the role are white, with Tom Cruise as the speculative front-runner. Also rumored to be in talks were Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Keanu Reeves.

Zacholl said Warner Bros. had no comment about the castings and would not confirm or deny rumors of any decisions related to them.

But in a November 2010 interview with Comingsoon.net, director Doug Liman said the lead actors would be “totally American” instead of Japanese.

But a Racebending.com’s statement on the film points out that even in an American film, a “totally American” cast shouldn't necessarily be entirely white.

“Certainly changes will be made to the story in adaptations, such as setting a story in the United States instead of Japan," Racebending.com states. "What disappoints us is that when these adaptations are reset to America, they do not reflect the diversity of the United States. Many people are of Asian descent but are also ‘totally American.’”
Click to expand...
 
T

The Take Out Bandit

Member
Hollywood is just askeered of AZNs for some crazy reason. Sticking the proxy cracker in that Jet Li / Jackie Chan movie is a fine example of that. Sticking Jet Li in a bunch of direct to DVD quality crap with shitty rappers is another example.

Hollywood is also whitewashing the BBC. Stop remaking crap that is already in English starring white people! :X
 
S

scy

Member
Yes. Nothing new about this :/

Though, to be fair, I'm half-Asian and pass as totally white so, hey :/
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
yea

Exhibit A:

christopher_walken_ballsoffury.jpg
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
BREAKING NEWS: Hollywood seems inclined to make superhero films and franchise remakes. STAY TUNED. And tomorrow night: Is Robert Downey Jnr on a career comeback? Find out as we explore the oldest and most obvious revelations.
 
S

Synth_floyd

Banned
231671_1244779388285_500_281.jpg


Though in Hollywood's defense, they don't give two shits about being fair or honest, only about money. People will pay money to see famous white actors and not Asian actors they've never heard of.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
Yes, and you can extend that to directors, as well. Look at how horribly Ringo Lam was treated in Hollywood. (John Woo did a little better here, but kind of was screwed a little).

On the other hand, Rob Schneider has been in far, far, far too many movies.
 
S

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
The core problem is that there's a bizarre lack of big name asian leads in Hollywood these days. But sometimes they will attach a big marketable name to these projects to get them greenlit and then cast a no-name later.
 
Q

Qwomo

Junior Member
I don't think people fully grasp what an adaptation is.

Of course Akira isn't going to be about Japanese kids in NeoTokyo.

The same goes for most anime.
 
B

British Monsoon

Member
If the majority of audiences didn't have such a hard time with reading subtitles while watching films, they wouldn't even need to make inferior American-made versions of all those successful Asian properties.
 
Z

Zoramon089

Banned
Blair said:
whitepeoplelookingatwhitepeople.tumblr
Click to expand...

This

Qwomo said:
I don't think people fully grasp what an adaptation is.

Of course Akira isn't going to be about Japanese kids in NeoTokyo.

The same goes for most anime.
Click to expand...

So you're saying that there are no asian people in the US? Is that correct? You'd have a point is they wanted to make the entire main cast asian but making the lead, even some of them asian? That was too much?!
 
H

happyfunball

Member
How evil of Hollywood to remake a movie so that it is more relatable to their audience. There would certainly never be the reverse.....oh wait

Sideways
22karp_600.jpg


Ghost
Ghost_%282010-Japanese_Remake%29-p1.jpg


Blood Simple
WOMANGUNNOODLESHOPposter.JPG


The list goes on.
 
J

JdFoX187

Banned
Bootaaay said:
If the majority of audiences didn't have such a hard time with reading subtitles while watching films, they wouldn't even need to make inferior American-made versions of all those successful Asian properties.
Click to expand...

There's no reason a remake of a foreign film can't be just as good, if not better, than the source material. Most studios just see the films as attempts to get a quick cash-in on a popular fad. See The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as a way to properly remake a foreign property. At the very least, it's on par with the original Swedish film. Many consider it better.

I don't see how this is really a story though. It's common knowledge that studios are going to tailor films to their audience. Casting Tom Cruise in a movie adaptation of a Japanese manga is a better sell than casting a no-name Asian person to keep with the original source material. I haven't read it myself, but is there anything in there that would be lost in translation, so to speak, by making the character American? Akira is the one I have a problem with. I don't see how you can make that movie in any way with Caucasian people without it looking ridiculous.
 
LQX

LQX

Member
Japanese are also guilty of this themselves. Look at some of these games where even though they say a character is Japanese like Ryu they still draw them looking white.
 
Joel Was Right

Joel Was Right

Member
There are more comprehensive articles on this topic than the one in the OP. But unfortunately the subject doesn't seem to get much attention outside the messageboards
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Movie studios will cast people who will make them money, the sad reality is that unless it's Jackie Chan or Jet Li doing martial arts, a asian lead can't carry a film with a majority of the movie going public. Let's be real here.
 
S

Sleepy

Member
Sort of on topic: What was the movie about Tolstoy with Paul Giamatti? Not one Russian in the cast. Pretty fucking incredible.
 
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