Who do I have to blow to get some representation around here??

[vejiicakes]

Core cast for live-action Avatar movie revealed

ಠ_ಠIs there some way I can call M. Night Shyamalan a race traitor or something without sounding like a crazy Asian nazi? I want to use it. No, I actually really really don't care if these kids do a phenomenal acting job. And is it okay if I claim that it's not just a geek thing? Because it isn't

Comments

[gem2niki]

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As if there aren't any asian actors who can do martial arts out there.... I wouldn't be surprised if Iroh was white then.... >_>;;

The Avatar world is derived of all that is Asian. Not European medieval stuff. Disappointment M. Night Shyamalan. Disappointment for me expecting if there would be any main asian cast. Its like Goku being white because there's not asian actor or what? D:<

*brain damaged*

[vejiicakes]

Hell, the casting politics of the live-action DB movie looks GOOD in comparison--they at least have a handful of Asian actors, AND the fallback excuse of wanting to cast actors of visibility.

The Avatar movie is seriously casting, like, nobodies in the title roles (except for that Zuko guy, man..) so it's not like they're there for the box office draw.

Well, if our kind aren't good enough to play people in settings based off our cultures, I submit that our money ain't good enough for them either, eh?

[gem2niki]

Well, if our kind aren't good enough to play people in settings based off our cultures, I submit that our money ain't good enough for them either, eh?

Boycott!! D:<
Ah...must go back studying for final tomorrow =__=;;

[vejiicakes]

Before moving for boycott, I'm going to see about getting them to rethink these casting decisions. I'm joining ali_wildgoose and writing in to the producers she's tracked down. So far, I THINK these role choices are just the ones who were/are being offered them. If nothing else, whether it gets results or not, I'LL feel better for having done what I could that wasn't completely after the fact.

[popehippo]

I was so going to make a long-ass post like this... BUT I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO INSTEAD.

THANK YOU, BB.

[vejiicakes]

Oh, goodness. Hope I said most of the stuff you were going to, otherwise I'd hope you would post yours as well! ..or even if I did, I'd hope you would anyway.

[shuraiya]

I never knew Shyamalan was SE Asian-- I always thought he was Indian, which I guess is... kind of Southeast Asia, isn't it?

I'm kind of torn on the issue, because I think of films like Memoirs of a Geisha where the leading Japanese geisha were played by Chinese women and did a wonderful job; but then again, that is a lot different than a white person playing a possibly-heavily-Asian-influenced character

[vejiicakes]

Memoirs doesn't come close--I got into arguments with people on that, because so WHAT if they're Chinese? I don't demand that the black/latino/white/etc actors in movies actually come from the country of the character they're portraying, so why should it be any different for actors of Asian descent? It shouldn't, so I don't. If we're working within basically the same race/appearance of race, I'm good to go.

The thing is, of course the kids seemed "whitewashed" in the show. I would actually use the term "Americanized", but there's a tendency to associate that with whiteness, but here's the thing: Aladdin. Takes place in a fictional Middle-Eastern-esque land modeled on classic Arabian imagery. But pretty much everyone but Jafar was a slice of American white bread. But if they took this movie to live-action, would it really be appropriate if they cast all white people in the film

[homasse]

Takes place in a fictional Middle-Eastern-esque land modeled on classic Arabian imagery. But pretty much everyone but Jafar was a slice of American white bread. But if they took this movie to live-action, would it really be appropriate if they cast all white people in the film?

You mean like they did for the upcoming Prince of Persia movie?

[vejiicakes]

*GROAN* OH. MY. GOD. Why do studio execs/whatever think this is appropriate? HOW IS THIS IN ANY WAY APPROPRIATE? This is the kind of Hollywood bullshit they LAMPOONED in Tropic Thunder. GAHD.

[vejiicakes]

YES. OMG. Why do movie makers think y'all are such DELICATE FLOWERS who will wilt at the sight of a non-pale face? That's so insulting O_O

[ryuutchi]

That was pretty much my reaction too. "Wait, WHITE PEOPLE?" I mean, I could almost maybe buy Aang getting turned white because LOL MAIN CHARACTER, even though he's from a tribe of what I gathered were Buddhist monks, but ALL of them?

WHITE-WASHING. >:(

[vejiicakes]

I guess they figured they just COULDN'T have a non-white main character (if it wasn't female and a whore or a hardass kung fu master), and then thought it would just be weird if he were the only white kid in a small group of non-white kids (even though that sort of tokenism happens all the time with the races flipped) so they were like, "We'll make his friends/main rival white too!"

And then presumably, because the individual nations seem to be pretty damn homogenous, this whitening treatment will just have to extend to the rest of the people in the nations already represented in the core group. Which MEANS our only hope of getting a non-white group represented will be with the introduction of the Earth Kingdom. Whoop de doo. (Watch: all the villains will get to be Asian for some reason.)

[ryuutchi]

It's so awful I have NO WORDS. I want to punch someone repeatedly.

And, as some people said over in deadbrowalking, the awful part is how many apologists there will be defending the idea that is was "color-blind casting" and that they "just wanted good actors in the parts". >:(