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Fans claim a Hollywood whitewash
May 27, 2010
Deepti Hajela
Noah Ringer plays the heroic Aang in The Last Airbender. Some fans of the original book are questioning the casting of a non-Asian in the role
Zade Rosenthal/AP
NEW YORK, N.Y.—The hopes of many are resting on the shoulders of 12-year-old Aang.
Ever since he first came out of a block of ice in the Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the other tribes in his fictional, Asian-inspired world saw Aang and his power over the elements as their last chance for peace after a century of conflict. Now Paramount Pictures and director M. Night Shyamalan also have high hopes for Aang: that he will attract audiences to see their big-screen — and big budget — version of The Last Airbender, opening July 2.
Yet fans of the original TV series say whatever hopes they had for the live-action movie have been dashed by what is known as “whitewashing” — the selection of white actors to fill the main hero roles instead of the people of colour — including Aang who is being played by unknown Noah Ringer — they say the source material requires.
“To take this incredibly loved children's series and really distort not only the ethnicity of the individual characters but the message of acceptance and cultural diversity that the original series advocated, is a huge blow,” said Michael Le of Racebending.com, a fan site calling for a boycott of the martial-arts fantasy.
Paramount defends the film's casting, noting more than half of the credited speaking roles were filled by people of colour.
“Night's vision of The Last Airbender includes a large and ethnically diverse cast that represents cultures from around the world,” Paramount said in a statement.
That doesn't impress the movie's critics, who claim most of that diversity is found among secondary characters and background extras.
They say Airbender casting is just the latest example of a long history in Hollywood of demeaning people of colour — from having white actors in makeup portray minorities to sidelining them in second-tier roles to replacing them entirely, as they say is the case with Airbender.
They point to examples like the 2008 film 21, which was based on a book inspired by the true-life story of a mostly Asian-American group of card players, yet was cast with mostly white actors in the main roles. They also note Friday's release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a live-action adaptation of a video game that stars white actor Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role instead of an actor with a Middle Eastern background. “This part really needed to go to someone who's Persian,” said Jehanzeb Dar, a blogger and independent filmmaker who is a fan of the video game but has no intention of supporting the movie.
“It's not only insulting to Persians, it's also insulting to white people. It's saying white people can't enjoy movies unless the protagonist is white,” he said.
Disney did not return an email asking for comment on the casting.
“It becomes clear that it's part of the historical pattern of Hollywood and it's not an isolated incident and it's not because they happen to be fictional characters,” Le said. “It's because this is the standard procedure for Hollywood films, and it really shouldn't be. It's 2010.”
Airbender's creators, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, have said they purposely chose to base their cartoon in an Asian-inspired setting as opposed to a European one, incorporating different martial arts, as well as cultural elements like Chinese calligraphy. At least some of the main characters were drawn as people of colour.
Yet when it came time to cast the movie, Ringer was picked to play Aang. Nicola Peltz was chosen to play Katara, the girl who finds Aang in the ice, and Twilight actor Jackson Rathbone was named for the role of Sokka, Katara's brother.
That the initial casting had four white actors in the main roles, and that the three heroes are still all played by whites, is an outrage, said Guy Aoki of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans.
“It speaks volumes when the initial casting decision was to cast four white leads,” he said.
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Fans claim a Hollywood whitewash - thestar.com
So what do you think?
The Last Airbender is a story that draws heavily on Japanese and Chinese culture (Asian), while the
Prince of Persia is set in the Persian Empire, yet the lead roles (and some major roles) are played by whites.
Do you see this as a problem?
While I don't see why an actor cannot portray characters of a nationality or ethnicity other than their own, I think this can be taken too far. I think it's also a problem when you overlook a wide array of actors that
would have matched the ethnicity in question.
The loaded question: Do you think the big cats in Hollywood are reluctant to cast lead actors of Asian or Middle-Eastern descent?
It could be a matter of actor talent/public image/popularity preference vs. availability, etc., but I think it's an issue worth considering.