Avatar casting and Charlie Chan--way tl;dr

[sistermagpie]

I have not updated for a while! I think I've been too embroiled in reading and participating in discussions about the Avatar situation. For those who don't know Avatar:The Last Airbender is a fabulous anime-inspired animated show from Nickelodeon set in a world based on various Asian and Inuit cultures. EW just announced tentative casting for four

Comments

[anonymous]

What's surprising, sort of, is that M Night Shyamalan, a man of Asian (subcontinent) decent is allowing it. (Maybe he doesn't have a choice, I'm not in the industry: does the director make that decision or is it the producer?)

I imagine he'll play Admiral Zhao for his cameo in the first movie, Long Feng for his cameos in the second, and maybe one of the Fire Lords (Sozin/Azulon) in the third.

Even though the Avatar world isn't 'really Asia', it uses Asian martial arts. Did someone actually say that? If so, I would love to read it. Is there a link? Thanks!

[seven31]

Sorry! I wrote the above.

[franzeska]

It's really a question of how much money the director's last couple of films made and what terms he's able and willing to demand. Demand too much and fail to make a mega-hit and you'll never work again.

[merrymelody]

M Night Shyamalan's last movies were bombs, iirc. (And rightly so, lol.) So yeah, I'd agree, he probably has less power over this sort of thing than on say, his post Sixth Sense/Unbreakable films.

[seductivedark]

I should mention that I don't follow Avatar

[sistermagpie]

That's definitely what I got from Charlie Chan, that it's a Columbo-esque thing playing into other peoples' stereotypes. Theres one movie where a guy does a fake Chinese imitation and Charlie just looks at him like he's an idiot

[franzeska]

This is the one where he says something like "I guess I owe you a 'little dlinkey' now!" after Charlie solves the case? I still remember what a moron that character was.

[sistermagpie]

It's something like that. Or else there's probably more than one person who does that. I have a feeling the one I was thinking of what in Charlie Chan in London and he was some society fop.

[dumbledore11214]

Ok, you know that I loved the show, but shows how little I follow the fandom that I did not even know that the movie is in the making. And at the cast being predominantly white, I just want to scream - LOUDLY.

[sistermagpie]

Hee! It's funny how you can be unaware of these things if you're not in the fandon. The director is M. Night Shyamalan--who isn't white either!

[dumbledore11214]

How.... lovely that. So, um, they are going to do what Asian makeup for them? How very stupid and obnoxious if you ask me.

[sistermagpie]

I don't know what the plan is. I guess the options are a)Make up (which would I think look silly) b) White people in Asian dress in an Asian setting or c) Lose the world-building from the series. Wow. Bad choices.

[horridporrid]

So much agreement. I feel like, we didn't have a black Aragorn, or an Asian Frodo Baggins, so the "colorblind" argument doesn't work. Just as Tolkan's work took place in a world borrowing heavily from various Western European lore and cultures, Avatar takes place in a world borrowing heavily from various Asian lore and cultures. And that's what makes them cool!! It's mind-boggling to me that the producers of this movie version doesn't get that.

Plus, I'm getting really skeptical of the theory that US audiences won't go to movies without white leads. Not that I doubt Hollywood believes it, I just have a hard time thinking it's actually true.

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, that's the thing about all the "it's fantasy" and "it's all about the acting" is that it actually isn't ever. And nobody has any trouble assuming that Narnia and HP are white--okay, that's "real England" (which still doesn't mean the characters necessarily have to be white by these rules), but LOTR is a fantasy world. And here they are wanting British people.

[horridporrid]

And really, if someone wanted to stretch out Tolkien's world, link the Rohan with ancient Mongolians for example, that would be awesome and interesting, and they'd have to defend their choice, and even if it failed, there'd be thinking and purpose behind it. But this? It's not like they're not going to set it in an fantasy-Asian world. There's no thinking going on here.

[jlh]

To be fair, while the trio and most of the "important" characters are definitely white, the universe of HP not only specifically is not entirely white, but the filmmakers, to their credit, in their casting kept true to the non-white ethnicity of every single character so specified. I think it's a great representation of how multicultural modern Britain is becoming, actually. It's unfortunate, of course, that this multiculturalism didn't extend to the trio, the marauders, any of the teachers, or anyone in the MInistry except Shacklebolt. But that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

As for the BBC colorblind casting, I think that has far more to do with their realization that given the pile of period pieces they do they'd never have work for non-white actors if they didn't do something about it. It's unfortunate that that trend confuses the issue.

[sistermagpie]

Exactly! It's not even a subtle implication--people who say "But it's not Asian, it's American" as if this means they should be white. Sure America doesn't have a single race. But I've read people actually suggesting that there aren't enough Asian actors who *speak English well enough* to do the movie. Ummm...what? Millions of Americans who are also Asian?

[franzeska]

Also, if you're doing a movie then location isn't that important. Most of the actors won't live near your locations anyway. The Stargate: SG1 DVDs are full of episode directors bitching about how hard it was for them to find Asian actors for certain roles because there aren't many Asian actors around Vancouver (at least according to them). This resulted in them paying to fly actors in from LA. Sheesh. Not hard, people! Not complicated! (And, like you say, half of the kids in movies don't have any experience anyway.)