My first question was, why? This problem has a simple solution, cast people in roles who share the background of the character they are portraying. Alas, it is not that simple. Hollywood is run (primarily) by old, white men and they create the stories that they want to see. These generally feature a white male hero. Yawn.
The arguments that are in favor of whitewashing Hollywood are kind of pathetic. These are some of the ones stated in the article. "White stars in Hollywood have the biggest pull at the box office, therefore a producer will cast a white actor in order to maximize returns." "Many argue that the preferred course of action would be for the industry to cast the most qualified actor for the role." Are you joking? These arguments serve the sole purpose of perpetuating white power. I have a hard time believing that whites make a movie more valuable. Representation is a huge issue here. If an Asian woman saw a movie that featured a strong Asian female lead character, I firmly believe she would be more inclined to go see this movie (which sounds awesome, by the way) than if it were featuring a run-of-the-mill white woman.
Bottom line, Hollywood has no excuses for continuing to whitewash movies. Everyone deserves to see people they can relate to in movies.
Of course but as you know the film industry is big, big business. They play to their audience. The audience is disproportionately white, and what viewers apparently would rather "see" someone that "looks" like them than see a really good actor. Therefore, the industry casts white people disproportionately because the audience buying the tickets demands it
ReplyDeleteWhat we see here is a double barrier. First, mainstream movies don't often feature people of color; second, when they do, white actors are sometimes cast to play these characters. "Blackface" is now frowned upon, but "Redface" is not--see Johnny Depp as "Tonto" in _The Lone Ranger_.
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