Check your priviledge, movie reviwers
This actually happened ages ago, but I was reminded the other day that it still makes me cranky. This is not any kind of insightful, intellectual, or particularly coherent post. It's written mainly because I can't make my frustration fit 140 characters and just tweet it.
I listen to a podcast that is two women talking about Star Trek and comics and sci-fi, and sometimes about being women, and I generally like it a lot. But back when they reviewed 'Thor', one of them commented that she really didn't like the non-white Asgardians (Asier?) because "I'm sorry, but this is Norse mythology and the Norse just didn't have black people or Asians running around".
This critique of a movie based on it having people who aren't white in it actually shocked me to the point that I stopped listening for a minute and had to go back and listen again. This is largely because on this same podcast the same two women had previously discussed whether Tuvok from 'Star Trek: Voyager' was a black Vulcan, or a Vulcan played by a black actor. That is, whether the features of the actor were necessarily the features of the character. These are people who understand the importance of the presence of minorities on screen and also understand that actors =/= characters. I honestly like the idea that getting the best actor for the role is a little more important than whether they look like the role, and I was surprised in high school to learn that Kenneth Branagh's 'Much Ado About Nothing' caused some confusion in my classmates because you had characters played by non-white actors who were related to characters played by white actors.
Which links nicely back to 'Thor', in a way, as it shares the same director. Were Hogun and Hemidall COCs, or were they white characters played by POCs? More importantly, why does it matter? They were characters played by actors who gave really solid performances. Also, this is movie-verse-based-on-comic-verse not original-Norse-mythology-verse - things are allowed to be different. You are allowed to not completely whitewash this movie. Did having a black actor or an Asian actor or an actor who isn't 100% white and familiar to you on screen really ruin your ability to enjoy the movie? Were you really struck down by a sense of "this is wrong" that took you out of the viewing experience? Because if so, the problem probably wasn't with the casting.
I listen to a podcast that is two women talking about Star Trek and comics and sci-fi, and sometimes about being women, and I generally like it a lot. But back when they reviewed 'Thor', one of them commented that she really didn't like the non-white Asgardians (Asier?) because "I'm sorry, but this is Norse mythology and the Norse just didn't have black people or Asians running around".
This critique of a movie based on it having people who aren't white in it actually shocked me to the point that I stopped listening for a minute and had to go back and listen again. This is largely because on this same podcast the same two women had previously discussed whether Tuvok from 'Star Trek: Voyager' was a black Vulcan, or a Vulcan played by a black actor. That is, whether the features of the actor were necessarily the features of the character. These are people who understand the importance of the presence of minorities on screen and also understand that actors =/= characters. I honestly like the idea that getting the best actor for the role is a little more important than whether they look like the role, and I was surprised in high school to learn that Kenneth Branagh's 'Much Ado About Nothing' caused some confusion in my classmates because you had characters played by non-white actors who were related to characters played by white actors.
Which links nicely back to 'Thor', in a way, as it shares the same director. Were Hogun and Hemidall COCs, or were they white characters played by POCs? More importantly, why does it matter? They were characters played by actors who gave really solid performances. Also, this is movie-verse-based-on-comic-verse not original-Norse-mythology-verse - things are allowed to be different. You are allowed to not completely whitewash this movie. Did having a black actor or an Asian actor or an actor who isn't 100% white and familiar to you on screen really ruin your ability to enjoy the movie? Were you really struck down by a sense of "this is wrong" that took you out of the viewing experience? Because if so, the problem probably wasn't with the casting.