Derik Kirk Kim has been posting about the upcoming movie based on the animation Avatar: The Last Airbender. Although in the original series the four lead characters seemed to be Asian, in the movie the parts have been cast with white actors.
Back in my Drama days in high school, I used to dream of being white so I could pursue acting.
With discrimination like this “Avatar” casting continuing to happen uncontested in Hollywood, my future kids will nurse the same pitiful wish.
And it infuriates me.
If my future kids feel a passion for acting, I want them to be able to pursue it just like any other American. If they’re forced to give up that passion due to a genuine lack of talent or hard work, fine. But I don’t want their dreams to be clipped at the bud by some unassailable, universally accepted dismissal of their existence on the face this country.
Derek also includes this infuriatingly clueless quote from one of the white actors cast:
Due in theaters in summer 2010, “Airbender” has already begun to face a bit of controversy over the casting of white actors like Rathbone, Ringer and McCartney to play Asian characters — a concern the actor was quick to dismiss. “I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan,” he said of the transformation he’ll go through to look more like Sokka.
Excuse me, I must go pound my head against my desk for a little while.
Okay, back.
Derek, who is an excellent cartoonist, is encouraging everyone to write letters to the producers, but is also collecting the names of arts and entertainment professionals:
Since the outraged fans seem to be getting ignored by Paramount, I am starting a petition for professionals in the arts and entertainment industry who want to condemn this move and boycott this discriminatory film if it isn’t recast. If you’re involved in the Film/TV/Animation/Comics/Literary fields in any way and you find Paramount’s racist actions even the least bit reprehensible, please leave your name and occupation in the comments. Or email it to me if you know me personally. If you’re a media or political figure who could also make a strong statement by adding your name to the list (Mr. President?), please do so. I will continue to collect the names as long as they come in and eventually make a comprehensive list to distribute publicly and send to Paramount.
So if you’re an arts or entertainment industry person, please go over and leave your name.
In a follow-up post, Derek quotes the original casting call for the Airbender leads. All four of them begin with the same phrase:
AANG: 12-15 years-old, Male, Caucasian or any other ethnicity.
This is hardly a race-neutral style of casting (not that it should have been race-neutral at all); it implies, as Derek suggests, that they always intended to have a Caucasian lead cast. And as Derek points out, when they sent out a casting call for Airbender extras, suddenly the “Caucasian or any other ethnicity” language was missing; instead, applicants were encouraged to come “in the traditional costume of your family’s ethnic background.”
* * *
In theory, I’m not against race-blind casting. If the entire geek-movie industry had a strong, consistent tradition of race-neutral casting — if movie producers were open to casting people of color as Buttercup and Wesley, as Aragorn and Gandolf and Frodo, as Buffy and Angel, as Susan and Peter, as Mary Jane and Peter Parker — then I think there’d be a much better case for a race-blind casting of Airbender. I’m confident audiences can accept good actors of any color in the leads of fantasy adventure movies (and other movies, as well, but I tend to focus on geek culture).
But in practice, “race-blind” casting doesn’t work that way. Too often, the best roles for people of color are reserved for actors who appear white — and the best roles for white people are also reserved for actors who appear white. It’s ugly, and it’s racist. And it creates a view of the world, in our movies and TV shows, that’s impoverished and narrow.
* * *
In Derek’s comments, a couple of people criticize Derek’s protest, on the grounds that the movie studio is just doing whatever it thinks will make a profit.
I have to admit, I’m not sure what their point is. Certainly, it’s possible for a decision to be both profitable and racist. Does that mean we shouldn’t protest the racism?
Bringing up “profits” doesn’t lead to the conclusion that we shouldn’t protest this sort of thing. It leads to the conclusion that we should be protesting as much as we possibly can. The more protesting we do, the more the buzz for this movie is hurt, the more producers will understand that racist casting choices aren’t profitable. If there are fans outside a hundred opening-day theatres passing out flyers saying “please don’t see this racist movie,” that might convince movie producers to avoid whitewashing adaptations in the future.
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Thank you so much for covering this–and for calling bullshit on the spurious apologist counter-arguments that have been bandied around about “race-blindness.”
The “they’re only out to make a profit” argument bothers me, not only by the implied racism of multiple groups of people, but because of its obvious untruth: the most multicultural show I saw last year was American Idol.
I can’t help but think, “Why are they making this movie if they don’t want to have Asian characters?” Oy. I can’t argue with DKK a bit on this.
I love this show and I’m bummed that the message I get out of it (kids from different backgrounds working together for greater good, yada yada…) is tainted by this BS.
I’d love an email to know where to write my protest.
thnx
What do the creators say about all this?
Not to engage in Dueling Oppressions here, but I have similar frustrations with Hollywood comedies and the general dearth of female leads. Yes, there are occasional exceptions, but how many movies can you think of that fit the mold of “wacky white guy who is a stoner/slob/jackass/’70s dork/spandex-clad freak/ironically-mustachioed loser”? And the women in these movies are typically boring as hell. Talk about a lack of role models.
This is one reason why I (and I alone) disliked “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” It was so sophisticated on race, and so butt-stupid on gender. (Let me qualify that statement by adding that I really like David Lee Roth-era Van Halen, so I’m willing to put up with some degree of prurience.)
Thanks for posting this. I’ve also heard theories that each of the Nations could represent a *different* ethnicity, which would have been so cool on the screen.
There are similar stories coming out of the new Twilight film, where I believe the white actor who played the Native American character is being replaced by a Filipino actor. As frustrating as the Avatar casting is, it’s even worse when it’s assumed that actors of color are interchangeable. Ugh.
I agree wholeheartedly. I think the producers are determined to go forward with these dumbass casting decisions, fine. So I think we need to go forward with protest and boycott plans.
If the primary motivations are profit and the racism is an artifact of that profit motive, then protesting the racism with the producers will fall on deaf ears. You have to look at the sources of the racism and where it stems from if you want to effectively combat it. The profit motives drive the selection of white actors because it factors into better sales (or at least that’s what the produces believe).The racist casting is driven by the desires of the audiences, if you want to combat the racism, combat it there.
Desipis,
I question whether it’s true that the racism in this case is driven by the desires of the audience. The audience — Americans of all ethnicities, not just Asians — helped make the cartoon on which the film is based a hit. That audience seemed to have no problem with the Chinese characters, Korean hanboks, Tibetan monasteries, etc., that permeated the series, nor with the visibly nonwhite coloring of some of the main characters. If I were the studio head who’d greenlighted this thing, and if I were driven primarily by profit motives, I would seriously question whether creating a live-action version which veers so sharply from the source material is going to be profitable, or will it just go the way of so many other cartoons brought to live action — e.g., Speed Racer most recently — and tank. There’s got to be some serious risk to profit in alienating the fans this much.
I especially question this “the audience wants only white faces” logic because we’ve had several examples of nonwhite faces pulling in the bucks as lead actors. If a billion Will Smith movies aren’t enough to prove that it’s the quality of the movie*, not the race of the actor, that pulls in audiences, then what is?
I exempt “Independence Day” from considerations of quality. But it still made a buttload of money with a black guy in a prominent role.
Jen –
There’s a means of measuring gender equality in films that comes from the comic Dykes To Watch Out For. The rules are as follows:
The movie must
A] have two female characters that
B] have a conversation with each other about
C] something other than a man.
:)
Thanks, Michele. As a DTWOF fan, I had actually heard of that. The Bechdel Rule is great.
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This reminds me of the problems with the way A Wizard of Earthsea has been adapted. The novel features a black protagonist. When it was turned into a miniseries, he was played by a white actor. The novel’s various covers have never shown the protagonist’s skin: either he doesn’t appear or he appears from the back, with a robe that leaves no visible skin.