Alvin blogs on Hyphen Blog about the controversy surrounding the movie “21″ in where a mainly white cast plays the roles of real life Asian Americans who won big in Las Vegas:
While there have not been too many complaints in mainstream media over these developments, one cannot help but wonder what the backlash would have been like if, for example, Hollywood had made the movie ‘Coach Carter’, with a Caucasian actor replacing Sam Jackon’s role, which was based on a real-life story. In terms of marketing or box office numbers, it is also puzzling why they would cast Sturgess (a relative unknown) as the lead student instead of Aaron Yoo (also in the film as a minor role), when the movie already had cast such big-name stars as Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne.
The real-life team of players picked Asian males to do the gambling because they were playing on the perceived racism of the casino management and pit bosses – Asian kids flashing big bankrolls were “sons of Japanese executives” and raised no comment, white kids with big bankrolls were suspicious. This was racist of the real-life team, but also amusing.
Now the moviemakers picked white males to do the portraying because they were playing on the perceived racism of the viewing audience. This was racist of the filmmakers, but isn’t amusing at all. I’m not sure why – maybe because the gamblers were playing a small group of people while the filmmakers are playing a large group?
Interesting how much racism derives from decisions made in response to the perceived racism of other people. Does perceiving someone as racist provoke one’s own personal racism? Is this a when-in-Rome kind of thing?
How weird. Maybe – and this is pure speculation, so swallow with giant heaps of salt – maybe the producers were concerned about the Asian=Math Genius stereotype. Which would be stupid, of course, because the main character in question is based on an Asian math genius. But being stupid is perhaps less a fear than appearing less-than-PC. If that’s the case, what a way to trivialize and infanticize the very Asian community they are trying not to offend.
But, again, I don’t know for sure, so I could be just beating a Straw Man.
EDIT: Oh, wait. Not a Straw Man, after all. I hadn’t read the article before reading the post. My bad. Here’s the salient quote:
Oops. Sorry for the double posting. I was having wetware/software issues.
What makes the casting especially annoying in this case is that, as per the book, the team’s racial make-up was a HUGE part of how they got away with what they were doing. They intentionally chose new members who were / could pass as Asian so as to fit into the casinos’ stereotypes about what a “big roller” looked like. For me, that definitely added to my enjoyment of the story – it wasn’t just a thriller, these kids were also using the same skills and appearance that got them labeled “asian nerds” and using them to make millions of dollars gambling.
I’ll choose to focus on the positive, and that’s that excoriating public reaction forced them to cast Aaron Yoo. It shows that the times are a-changing, even if the times are lazy and want to take a glacial pace.
If that’s what they’re saying, I call bullshit. Asians can be math geniuses provided the role is demeaning enough, but not in rare cases like these when it calls for being a dramatic lead.
And I wish the blogger hadn’t cited “Memoirs of a Geisha” as an example of Asian advancement.
Why is it okay for “non whites” to take the roles of “whites” but not okay for “whites” to take the roles of “non whites?”
It’s called acting, and sometimes non-traditional casting can help subvert the dominant paradigm. There is an all Japanese version of Fiddler on the Roof. Should Jews be offended? Should whites be offended?
One of the current trends in Hollywood is to remake older movies, but to cast them with “non white” actors in the leads, e.g. the Manchurian Candidate.
Where does counting colors lead us? To a colorblind society?
Kevin – the stereotype the writer is referring to is that Asian actors can’t carry a mainstream movie in the US.
Robert – how was the team’s decision to game casinos by using their racism against them racist? do you mean because they chose mostly (not exclusively) asian team members?
Robert – how was the team’s decision to game casinos by using their racism against them racist?
In the same way that a political campaign’s decision to game voters by using their own racism is racist, or a corporation’s decision to game its workers by using their own racism is racist.
I doubt this movie will be very accurate plotwise, so why should the racial makeup matter?
O.K. – as an alumnoid of the scene of the crime, I have to weigh in. The Institute has a student body that is somewhere around 20% or 25% Asian (for you Brits, “Oriental”, as I’m not counting people from the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent). There is no possible way that a scheme like this could be cooked up and executed at MIT without a stack of Chinese and Japanese kids involved. I don’t know what they were thinking when they cast this, but the way they cast this it looks no more like MIT than if they shot it in Harvard Yard.
“Maybe – and this is pure speculation, so swallow with giant heaps of salt – maybe the producers were concerned about the Asian=Math Genius stereotype. ”
They may have been trying to evade the much commoner Asians-as-gambling -addicts stereotype.
“And I wish the blogger hadn’t cited “Memoirs of a Geisha” as an example of Asian advancement.”
Except that in a way, it was – Japanese audiences apparently didn’t mind that all the main parts were played by Chinese actors. That certainly went against what everyone took for granted.
Who said it’s not okay for whites to take over the role of non whites? This happens all the time in the movies and on the stage, and with nary a peep. That’s because most of this turnover is a perfectly legitimate part of the business.
But that doesn’t mean every single instance for any possible reason is okay. Why don’t we debate the particulars of this specific movie?
That certainly wasn’t my experience in Japan itself. Perhaps there’s a disconnect between the Japanese and Japanese-Americans. Regardless, I agree that “you can’t use Chinese actors to portray Thai” or “Hong Kongese is not the same as Taiwanese” are a bit misguided. Studios have limited budgets, the number of Asian American actors is limited, and it hurts pan-Asian identity.
Roughly speaking though, the geisha is to the Asian woman what a mobster is for Italian men or casino owner is to Native Americans. It’d be one thing to just portray these caricatures on film, but the way Memoirs actively celebrated it and was hailed by some as a kind of watershed for Asians in cinema was just ridiculous.
Yeah, I noticed that too. When I saw the previews and they started talking about a club at MIT that wasn’t really a club, I knew what it was going to be about. First thing that came to my mind was “hey, weren’t the gamblers in the original article all Asian?”
It’s obvious racism because the race of the people involved _was_ an issue. To change it is remarkable. And they made them white for the obvious reason that protagonists must be white.
Why is it okay for “non whites” to take the roles of “whites” but not okay for “whites” to take the roles of “non whites?”
So you missed all of those Asian horror remakes recast with white actors? The Departed? etc etc etc? C’mon, it happens so often now it’s almost normal.
Meanwhile, can you name 5 instances of “non whites” taking the roles of “whites”, and not just “this Asian guy has a white-sounding name, he must have taken a white guy’s role!”
You make it sound like Asian Americans have so many roles and whites have so few.
GAAAAH! That annoys me to no frillin’ end. More so when white people see no problem with it or give you any variation of the “I don’t care about color as long as the actors/acting/movie is good” bullshit.
*tosses hands in the air*
@Juan and Joy – see, to me the “remake an Asian movie with with white actors makes sense”. The Ring works just as well set in Japan as it does set in America. It is not a movie about Japan, or about being Japanese. Every country makes adaptations that localize the story – it goes all ways.
This is different. This is based on a story that is already American, and the fact that the protagonists were Asian is not an unremarkable detail – far from it.
The Ring works just as well set in Japan as it does set in America. It is not a movie about Japan, or about being Japanese. Every country makes adaptations that localize the story – it goes all ways.
The problem is that Hollywood exports its movies to every corner of the globe, _and_ controls what comes into its own country, so I’m not sure that’s really even. That “localization” probably gets more play than the original in most countries!
Then you have the “protagonist must be white even if the backdrop is another country or community, whether it’s by replacing the central character or by making up a random one”, the latter being used in movies like The Last Samurai, The Forbidden Kingdom, Lost in Translation, (even F&F Tokyo Drift), etc., but you mentioned that already.
(The third thing is that there are still plenty of stories where it’s very very hard for nonwhites to break in at all because of storyline reasons – and this is very particular to film. You see nonwhites act in, say, Shakespeare plays all the time, but rarely in Shakespeare movies.)
“But that doesn’t mean every single instance for any possible reason is okay.”
Ditto…
Ah, personally, to me there’s a difference between casting for scripts based on fictional characters and those based in non-fiction. Whatever, are you saying that you’d be completely fine with Djimon Honsou playing George Washington, or Ken Watanabe playing Isaac Newton? Contrary to your assertion, colorblind casting rarely works the other way around (non-whites playing whites)… that’s why it’s notable when it happens and Hollywood never misses an opportunity to pat itself on the back for it when it does.
Jeez – its a MOVIE. It is inspired by real events – but it is not claiming to be a documentary. Aside from the raw notion, it is probably almost entirely a fabricated story. And movie studios make movies to make money, period. The actors cast are cast because those are the actors they think will draw the audience and make them money. I’m sure even if it was an all asian cast, the actual actors cast would all be much better looking than the real people involved. As it is, the cast looks like a bunch of models – how many people who look like supermodels do you think attend MIT?
Inspired by real events doesn’t mean you have to copy everything – heck, watch any episode of Law and Order – they take stuff from real headlines all the time as inspiration, but then add all sorts of different twists and changes to them.
DBB, You’re missing much of the point in the sense we’re discussing a deliberate white out that tends to happen almost constantly in media. Chances, images, roles, representations, stories, etc. of People of Coluor purposely aside or ignored favour of portraying more white people. Or just white people entirely.
I think I understand why they did it, but I think its completely unnecessary. The clowns in Hollywood are formulaic and risk averse. They seem to put together movies by running down and checking off standardized “movies-made-easy” checklists.
Handsome white protagonist – Check
Pretty Love interest – Check
Deceased past love interest or family member to add character depth – Check
The loyal black friend – Check …
The people that pay for these movies want a return on their investment and they have determined that some prescribed formula will get them that return. Part of that formula involves having characters that an audience can relate to. In this country the largest potential movie audience is white. I imagine the cast of most movies made in China are Chinese and in India (bollywood) are Indians etc. So the hollywood knuckleheads think that the movie’s main characters also have to be white (there are exceptions like Danzel Washington, etc.) But I think they completely miscalculate who an audience will relate to or want to see.
“The actors cast are cast because those are the actors they think will draw the audience and make them money.”
Isn’t it a problem that they apparently believe that Asians can’t draw an audience?
Jeez – its a MOVIE.
No, DBB… it’s a whole friggin industry.
The actors cast are cast because those are the actors they think will draw the audience and make them money.
We’ve already addressed this. Kevin Spacey and Lawrence Fishburne are the true draws in the film. Anything the MIT students bring to the table are probably just window dressing at this point.
In addition to that, there’s the persistent attitude that Asian Americans can’t bring enough box office draw – but they’ve never really been given the chance to prove it anyway.
Hell, I even mentioned the Forbidden Kingdom, where it wasn’t even about box office draw – they wanted to throw in a white protagonist just because. With friggin Jackie Chan and Jet Li in the film.
Le sigh. This movie piqued my interest when I’d heard what story it was based upon, but since seeing the trailer I’ve lost interest. I look forward to seeing a mainstream film that has an Asian-American (or Asian-Australian, or Asian-whatever) as the protagonist! And like sylphead, I think that “Memoirs of a Geisha” is not an example of such advancement.
@ Robert: Not entirely convinced that the team’s playing on the “perceived” racism of the casino owners in this instance is racist. To make a similar analogy to the ones you made in a later comment, would a female player gaming the casino by taking advantage of the casino’s sexism (e.g., “no GIRL could play cards”) be sexist too?
The Institute has a student body that is somewhere around 20% or 25% Asian (for you Brits, “Oriental”, as I’m not counting people from the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent).
RonF, I’m not sure if you meant your bracketed comment to be tongue-in-cheek, but I’d like to point out that we prefer not to be called “oriental”.
@V
I think he was implying that, in England, it is still acceptable and common to refer to people of East Asian descent as “Oriental” – a factoid that I had never heard before.
Yeah… over there, Asian means South Asian by default.
I see; thanks for clearing that up! I find it strange because down here (Australia) Asian refers both South (including Southeast) and East Asian, and if the differentiation is to be made it’s with those terms or by individual countries.
(Sorry for topic derailment!)