From looking at the credits for the Caucasian actors selected to play the lead roles, I see one clear indicator for their selection -- and that is their marketability.
Aside from Ringer, who is trained in martial arts, the other actors are highly recognizable by mainstream American teen and "tween" audiences (Rathbone from "Twilight," Peltz from "Deck the Halls," and McCartney, who's a pop singer).
Interestingly enough, Rathbone was born in Singapore and has lived in places ranging from Indonesia to Midland, Texas. Ringer was also born and raised in Texas. (I guess the filmmakers wanted to make sure George W. Bush will make it out see this one.)
McCartney later dropped out of the role of the villainous Prince Zuko and was replaced by "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dev Patel.
But the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) pointed out that "in a Eurocentric twist, actors of color have been relegated to villain, supporting, and background roles" in the movie.
Again, the bottom line seems to be marketability towards predominantly Caucasian moviegoers.
The Census Bureau estimates that as of 2008, the Asian American population stood at 15,480,349 (13,549,064 of whom are monoracial Asian) and Asian Americans comprise 5.1% of the total U.S. population of 304,059,724.
Taking those numbers into account, one can clearly see why the Hollywood studio and producers chose Caucasian actors for the lead roles.
Nevertheless, I'm asking readers, should Asian actors have been cast in the lead roles for "The Last Airbender" movie?
More here...
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4211-LA-Asian-American-Movie-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Should-Asian-actors-have-been-cast-as-the-leads-in-The-Last-Airbender-movie And one response that disturbed me...
I'm a really big fan of Avatar, and I don't see anything bad in the cast. Besides, that thing of "in a Eurocentric twist, actors of color have been relegated to villain, supporting, and background roles" is a very bad and slight argument. Well, they have to see the series to KNOW that Zuko has his own twist in the book 3, and he is NOT a supporting character in it.
It worries me more than Mr. Shyamalan treat the story with respect. Besides Aang, Sokka, Katara and Zuko will be forever as the cartoons. Any actor will never replace them.
And everybody forgot that Avatar is made in USA?? if Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino are cool with it, so am I.
This is the kind of Avatard we need to go against. Blind fandom.
Hope you guys and gals make your voices heard!