Don't believe the hype. This A+/A list mostly movie actress who is an Academy Award winner knew exactly what she was doing when she took a recent role. She knows everything about every role she is offered. She decided the paycheck was worth any backlash.
J. Law?
ReplyDeleteNatalie Portman, Annihilation. Another white-washing scandal.
ReplyDelete@ cheesegrater 15 - what role is getting Jlaw backlash?
ReplyDelete@cebli Don’t know if it’s decent enough, but that “Mother” thing she did got her some backlash. She later claimed she didn’t know the final product would be quite like it was.
Delete*recent
DeleteJLaw, the Red Widow or Sparrow or whatever.
ReplyDeleteAnnE Hathaway/Barbie
ReplyDelete+1 BayArea
ReplyDeleteWhen questioned about the whitewashing, Portman said it was the first she was hearing of it
ReplyDeleteNatalie Portman, for sure. But I have a hard time believing she knew. The reference to the character’s race is like one line in the second book of the series. It’s not mentioned in the book the film is based on.
ReplyDeleteSandra Bullock- Playing Wendy Davis in
ReplyDeleteLet her Speak
Natalie Portman is a die hard zionist supporter. Good thing if the cunt is being called names.
ReplyDelete+1 BayArea
ReplyDeleteI didn't see anyone freaking out about a Wrinkle in Time or Dark Tower.
natalie portman w/the whitewashing of her character for her upcoming film Annihilation
ReplyDeletePortman, playing dumb about the "whitewashing" thing. Color blind casting cuts both ways, kids. Is there an Asian star of the stature to make a sci-fi horror film connect with audiences in US and Europe? No.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I hate this kind of argument. How would one know that an Asian (American) lead wouldn’t be able to connect with audiences? For the most part they are not given the opportunity. 🤔
DeleteNot just Asians, pretty much any one a lighter shade of brown despite demographics changining. Its those folks in charge and they hire the same 3 actors of color. BORING. Welcome to 'merica. At least Disney animation has diversified because who has the most kids, Latinos.
DeleteI know nothing about the books, so I'm not sure if the white-washing criticism is fair on this one. Not the same as Ghost in the Shell, where being Japanese is very central to the original work and character.
ReplyDelete" Is there an Asian star of the stature to make a sci-fi horror film connect with audiences in US and Europe? No."
ReplyDeleteso tired.
GDT put millions behind PACIFIC RIM with a virtually unknown in the US Rinko Kikuchi.
Meanwhile, BLACK PANTHER is putting the test to the notion that people in Asia won't see a "Black film." (leaving aside arguments regarding whether it's a Black film, etc). Domestically, Disney is banking on audience hunger for diverse experiences.
There's an argument to be made that Portman doesn't open big weekends (I'm assuming that what you meant by stature to connect with audiences). The movie in question is not the big opening weekend type. It's going after the same audience that went for ARRIVAL, not STAR WARS.
I'm in Asia and I can tell you that when I went to see "Black Panther" at 13:30 on a Wednesday, it was weekend-level full. When it came out of the auditorium, the cinema was fuller than the weekend I saw "Fantastic Beasts" not long after the release date. It must be HELLISH at the malls right now—especially the ones with IMAX/4DX.
DeleteThat said, I should probably note that I saw that on the first day (February 14) and you could tell what kind of people went to see it (they're the type to *know* to wait for BOTH post-credit clips).
But also, I think Marvel worked harder promoting this one because I walked by the toy shop and they had a FRONT DISPLAY OF TONS OF TOYS. They had none of that when "Doctor Strange" was released (I had to IMPORT my plushie from Amazon). Why are you treat my Bae Stephen like that, Marvel? That's preferential treatment! 🗽👩🏻🚕🍂💛
Sad that there are so many credible guesses. Can we move on from always casting white people already? Audiences are hungry for non-white actors who have a fresher appeal. I like plenty of white actors but seeing them shoehorned into a lead role just cause they are white doesn’t do anyone any good.
ReplyDeleteIt's not Portman, and the 'whitewashing' example is a poor one. The movie is based off the manuscript to the first book, before the other books had even been published. The second book then contains one vague line about the character being 'of Asian descent on her mother's side'. Her race is never mentioned again.
ReplyDeleteBlah blah blah no one cares if someone cared it would not be one of your issues but of course no one cares about your issues or you so drop it already
ReplyDelete@tetsujin, I agree with the general point, but Pacific Rim is a bad example; it did have a disappointing domestic box office, which may well partly be because not enough Americans knew or cared about Rinko Kikuchi and Charlie Hunnam.
ReplyDeletePeople are moving more towards choosing what to see without caring about recognisable faces, but we're not quite there yet.
If Ghost In The Shell had cast an unknown Japanese-American actress instead of ScarJo, I'm willing to bet it would've made less money, sadly.
I thought people came to see that mostly because of Idris anyway?
DeleteGood for her - when black actors take role which were always played before by white people according to SJW/crazy leftist everything is OK.
ReplyDeleteReally? 🤦🏽♀️
Delete@Mem - Typing this as the expensive sequel is about to drop, but well there are parts of the movie that no casting decisions could rescue, like cornball dialogue and a general outlook matching that of a teen age boy. Still, studio didn't balk on the female lead being a non-English speaking Asian woman. Hunnam, despite not being American, is still caucasian.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're talking about properties like RIM and GITS, studios are banking (ha) on a ready-made fan base (anime nerds, etc). GDT wanted to pay hommage to (steal from) Japanese pop culture and GITS was based on a popular title.
GDT went ahead and did the right thing in casting and that fan base rewarded him; those who love the movie really love it. And it was in no way the box office loser that the GITS movie is. The GITS movie *may* have been less of a disappointment for that fan base if it had starred an "unknown Japanese American actress." Hell, an unknown Korean-American actress may have been better.
As it was, GITS received too much negative press before the release. This younger generation of film critics/reviewers doesn't shy away from addressing issues like Whitewashing in reviews unlike in the past, either, and that negative showed up a lot.
These movies are banking on buzz increasingly. Some MBA student wrote a thesis on how Internet buzz can generate big openings for movies and it was so spot on the kid got a six figure job out of it. He probably needs to write another piece on how negative buzz can kill a movie.
@tetsujin, agree with you regarding Pacific Rim and GITS. I do believe that if an unknown Japanese-American (or Asian-American) actress had been cast, the movie would had performed far better at the B.O.. Executives and creative stakeholders have for too long underestimated the power of diversity and representation in film. As we are seeing, it is getting better, but we still have a long way to go.
DeleteMost Asians would notice, though, if they cast a Korean for an Japanese character (both nationalities have a distinct look). It would've been like watching all the Chinese-looking actresses in "Memoirs of a Geisha", maybe white audiences don't care because they think we all look the same, but we don't (like I get discriminated for my hair colour but to most westerners it's just "black hair" when there are nuances).
DeleteThe best Asian casting I've ever seen, believe it or not, are one episode of "Air Crash Investigation" (they probably hired actors of Malaysian Bumiputera actors to play Indonesian pilots) and I saw one of those murder mystery documentaries on YouTube also had really good casting of Malay Asians.
"Most Asians would notice . . ."
ReplyDeleteOnly because of the name in the credits in some cases. Not going to get into that complicated discussion because it's beside the point. I'm saying that people would have preferred the usual generic Asian casting ("uuuh, they all look alike") to casting ScarJo.
Annihilation a white washing scandal? It was only written that the lead character wasn't white in the second book AFTER the screenplay had been written. Is the scandal that the writers weren't psychic? Genuine white washing is problematic. This is not it.
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