Avatar live-action movie: Post round-up
DISCLAIMER: If you are remaining neutral/not interested, dudes, that's all good and fine. This is not meant to be an attack on you. These were my reactions to actual commentary/questions made throughout the course of this Avatar casting business; nothing more. (Good idea, Glock!)
My final thoughts (because, you know, my first post wasn't long ( Read more... )
My final thoughts (because, you know, my first post wasn't long ( Read more... )
SOMEONE JUST COMPARED ALL THIS TO ONE PIECE FOR ME
AND I *GET IT*
Well, I mean, I understand why people are upset because the show is about cultural diversity and overcoming stereotypes and everything, and I think the elimination of darker skinned people does eliminate the main point of the show, but I'm still... I don't know, it feels like most people aren't addressing this in particular? I think it's so much more than a race issue, it's like taking away the "follow your dreams, no matter what" aspect of One Piece. ;_;
Reply
Reply
Reply
I.. don't really.. like I said, I always felt the cultural diversity was pretty non-statement. People have prejudice from each other, but it's more because like, this one nation (Fire) is really really oppressive. It's politically motivated prejudice--even though the four nations are pretty homogenous (Fire Nation people are uniformly light skin/black hair/gold eyes and Water Tribe people are all brown skin/brown hair/blue eyes), people actually have to find out what nation you're from before any prejudice actually happens. I mean, aside from the predominantly Tibetan Wind culture and predominantly Inuit Water culture, the only diversity (of the fantasy variety within the show) between the east-Asian-mishmash Fire and Earth nations is that.. one likes red ( ... )
Reply
Reply
I mean, freaking J.J. Abrams was freaking out about his one Asian character in his Star Trek movie, all, "Can I really cast a Korean-American as a Japanese-American??" and George Takei was like, "WTF OF COURSE YOU CAN, YOU WEIRDO." That's more sensitivity than we even need in this industry! (I mean, some fellow Asian-Americans will disagree with me on that, but I think they're full of crap--no one complains when a Brit puts on an accent and plays a French, or a Dominican American plays a Mexican.)
Basically, casting within race, within reason. That's it. that's all we want.
Reply
There could be a million factors dialing into why they chose these kids-- I mean, do the creators of Avatar have any say in it? I'm sure, with the way they've been so studious and careful, that they would have done casting differently.
Reply
I have NO idea, I wish the EW article had been more in depth. But, hey, that's why we're writing in. If these are still just tentative choices, we're hoping they'll at least reexamine their choices. And while I experienced a couple minutes of guilt for entreating the producers to retract some job offers for four young acting hopefuls... really, how hard is it going to be for some pretty young white people to get other jobs in Hollywood? XD
Reply
I had heard that Katara and Aang were confirmed, or am I wrong? I think I would feel the worst for the Aang hopeful, since he was plucked out of obscurity and to have it all taken away from him would be pretty awful. :(
Reply
They have recast if a cast member wasn't testing so well or something, many many times before. Basically, nothing's set in stone until shooting starts (and sometimes, even then). I appease my guilt with two things: 1) That kid is SO going to have other chances, and he's never going to have to justify his presence in anything by being the exchange student or the brainy nerd or the martial artist. Even though he knows martial arts. 2) If he's gotta stay on board ( ... )
Reply
Aang is probably the only character I can see in the main cast as being totally white, while I could see a believable Zuko being half-or-a-quarter-white and Japanese or Chinese (because shit, halfies are GORGEOUS, if they think they can draw girls in with Jesse, they don't know the power of a half-Asian, half-white boy. <3__<3;; I dated one in high school because HOMG BEAUTIFUL). I think the Water Tribe kids probably would look best if they were Pacific Islander or Mediterranean, even if the climate is totally wrong, haha. XD
Reply
I think I'd tolerate a white Aang at this point, because I'm too used to Hollywood saying that people who look like me can take supporting roles, but can't take the lead. And I've always been totally fine with happa taking on "full Asian" roles (mmmm Eurasian Zuko :3)
Reply
Honestly, it does make the most sense for Aang to be white, because even if you do use the argument that his people and his style of clothing is based off of Tibetan monks, Tibetans are pretty dark, as far as Asians go-- well, dark even in comparison to Aang's alabaster (which reminds me, ARE YOU CAUGHT UP IN ONE PIECE?) skin. And oh my god, I fucking love happa. *A* I had a Chinese friend in high school who wanted to marry a white guy just so she could have rice cracker babies (YES SHE SAID THAT EXACT PHRASE AND I *DIED*). But yeah! Wouldn't you think a happa Zuko would be just gorgeous? *u* Or mulatto for the Water Tribe-- or Puerto Ricans or or or-- hahaha, oh man, it's too early to figure all this out.
BTW HOW WAS THE KITTEN I MEAN STUDYING???
Reply
I'd hesitate to agree that it made sense, precisely. I mean based on Aang's character color palette, that's why it would make sense for me that Aang have light skin. And that's not a trait that's even exclusive to Caucasians. So my concern at this point would be that nothing in the mass of pan-Asian cultural cues would support the casting of a white actor. Ex: Gong Li (just for the sake of argument) is just as white-skinned and dark haired and hot as any Rivendell elf maiden, but no one would've even considered casting anyone of her race (or any other non-Caucasian) because the Eurocentric cultural cues just don't support it. Someone would have to have a DAMN good ( ... )
Reply
Okay, well. When I say white, I don't mean Caucasian or European or whatever, I literally mean white, like light colored skin. The semantics of this drive me crazy, haha. I didn't mean that NO ASIANS are totally pale, because I've known plenty, I'm just saying that if one were to argue in the context that he MUST be Tibetan because he's pseudo-Tibetan (ETA: sorry, I wanted to clarify), that wouldn't make sense. And Gong Li sdkfsdklgjsg she is so beautiful FUCK I WANNA WATCH MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA XD; but anyway yeah, I think-- hm, I don't know, I guess I think if they chose a light-skinned Asian boy for Aang, that would TOTALLY make sense. I think that's all that I really mean when I think he should be white-- like, you know. Pale but not necessarily Western. Does that make sense?? The semantics surrounding the racial term "white" just make this whole thing so confusing for me. @___ ( ... )
Reply
Okay, now I'm wondering if what I thought was a general disagreement on racial casting was just confusion over semantics and I kept needlessly making the same points over and over, because I was totally reading every instance of "white" as "Caucasian". Which.. means we might have been agreeing for a good while now. *cough* And no no no, I'm not saying they should cast these guys by exact ethnicity at all--they pretty much can't (and I don't know if I mentioned this to you or if it was another conversation, but I've got zero problem with, say, casting someone who's Chinese as Japanese or Tibetan, etc. I think that's just needlessly finicky). Like, Shyamalan could no sooner do that than Jackson could cast all the Rohan folk from Norway, ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment