When Is Color-Blind Casting Okay And When Is It Not?
It seems like The Last Airbender has at least 99 problems -- excruciatingly bad 3D, thuddingly clumsy dialogue, sub-Jake Lloydian acting and more -- but should the color of its cast really be one of them? When io9 proffered Community actor Donald Glover as a possible new Spider-Man, the internet seized on it as its new favorite meme. Sure, Glover is black while Peter Parker in the movies, TV shows and comic books has always been white, but Glover is hilarious, as Spidey should be, and could have easily played the part. So why was this move lauded while Airbender has been met with protests and picket lines?
This is an honest question, not some Glenn Beckian prelude to a "poor put-upon white folks" rant. I saw The Last Airbender last night, and while it was just as awful as you might have heard, the color of the leads didn't really bother me in the least. Looking at the original cartoon characters, I suppose they look somewhat "Asian," but I'm not sure if Asia as we know it even exists in the world of Airbender.
I don't know whether the film is supposed to take place on an alien planet, in the distant future or in some Tolkienesque fantasy world, but wherever it was, the presence of giant flying 'n swimming Swiffer duster, some monkey-looking creature that seems like it should be She-Ra's best friend, and a pond filled with God-Koi seem to suggest that it's a world unlike ours today. So I can accept the fact that the four tribes of this strange world are a virtual United Colors of Benetton ad, with the fire, earth, air and water tribes each sporting plenty of multicultural members.
It was, I'm sure, a shock to the devoted fans to see some of their beloved heroes cast in a way that they were not prepared for, just as I'm sure some fans weren't initially ready for a black Kingpin in Daredevil, a black Nick Fury in Iron Man or a black James West in Wild, Wild West. But all three actors worked out very well; Daredevil and Wild, Wild West both had their problems as movies, but casting a white actor wouldn't have solved them.
Like I said, this is an honest question I'm grappling with myself. I'm half-Latin and I always liked seeing someone who looked more like me, or my sisters or my mother pop up on the screen. But I do think that it's somewhat unfair to espouse the benefits of color-blind casting one day, and demand fidelity to the source material the next. The part should go to the actor that can best fulfill the role, and if the director says it's these four, I think there's no reason to not take him at his word. M. Night Shyamalan treated the world and its culture reverently enough -- there were certainly no Rooney-level "Miss Go-Righree!" abominations -- that I think any charges of full-on racism is unfounded. The worst that might be said is that 'ol Manoj was a little tone-deaf in regard to how his casting would play with fans of the original Avatar.
It's a complicated issue and there are strong feelings on both sides, but I think no matter what our race, creed, nationality or sex we can all agree on one thing: The Last Airbender is one shitty movie.
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Nah, it's one of the best movies of the year, a fantasy for all time.
I think there is controversy when there is something wrong with the outcome. Last Airbender is an Asian property. The end. Glover might be "hilarious," I never saw his show, but I think you're mistaken to think Spider-Man is meant to be hilarious. There's a difference between smart-ass and all out comedian, right? Glover, to me, just seemed all wrong in vibe. I think why Kingpin and Shield worked well for those black actors were because of their vibe being right. Still, I think as Marvel's biggest fan base is probably nerdy white kids, Spider- Man being their biggest hero, I think there would be natural resistance to making Parker black because you'd be changing something they already know. A black Peter Parker is going to have a different life experience than a white Parker. And when relating to a character as closely as these fans want to, it's a problem. Important, too, that this isn't even an issue. This is just bs that was started on a slow Memorial Day Weekend, if i remember right. So here it is a slow 4th of July weekend.
Never seen the show, but could you say these kids look anything like their cartoon counter-parts??!? Asian doesn't always mean 'slanted-eyes' which is the look i'm sure you're thinking about.
The cartoon character's look more like inuit/native than anything else. And these kid's are straight albino. I mean REALLY ALBINO. What's with the boy pouting his lips?
I also wouldn't mind the race difference if these guys had some personality/acting skills. But I've seen New Moon, and that little boy can't act a character other than himself. Have no idea who the girl is, but she looks russian.
Your talking about racial casting, And how the "whiteys" dont look indian/asian, Lets forget about the 2pictures you show and mention the "WHITE PRINCE ZUKO" is played by an Indian Actor, So wellplayed for the Utter waste of time Artical about color in casting.
In the broader context, turning white characters into minorities is different from turning minorities into white characters because Hollywood makes very, very few movies with non-white leads already. Particularly with Asian and First Nations people (blacks have a decent established base within the industry by now, but it could still be improved).
Consider that Paramount, the studio that made "The Last Airbender", made exactly no films with Asian leads in 2009. Something like "The Last Airbender" is denying Asian actors what should have been a rare opportunity to actually take the lead, in a context that made complete sense, given that the product was derived from Asian culture.
I generally prefer if characters are represented as close to their original intent as possible, as a rule.
The setting of the Airbender cartoon is largely East Asian themed, but its apparent the Indian director has deliberately slighted a large group by casting his fellow Bollywood faces as well as European faces.
on the black nick fury note,
He was based on the Ultimate marvel universe nick fury. The Ultimate marvel universe was a fully separate "re-imagining" of the marvel universe where most of the characters were similar to their old counterparts, but each had some major changes.
In this case, the ultimate nick fury was actually modeled after Sam Jackson (with his permission actually) which was why they cast him in the movie.
Sensible comment!
Donald Glover as Spider-man may be a meme, but I don't think anyone is serious about it.
The problem with color-blind casting is that most audiences aren't color-blind. It doesn't mean we're racist - it just means we acknowledge obvious color differences. It especially applies to a lot of fictional characters. If Spider-man turned black, people would notice and make jokes about it for years on end. No matter how good his performance was, suspension of disbelief only goes so far before we have to address the elephant in the room: we all know Spidey is white. The same applies with Airbender. Even though they don't specify Inuit nationalities, the creators implied it by giving Katara and Sokka darker skin colors. Why not respect that choice?
So when is color-blind casting okay? Almost every other time. If race or color isn't specified, go crazy. Or if no one cares and it actually makes the character better. Personally, I loved seeing Mos Def as Ford Prefect in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," so yes, it can be done.
"But I do think that it’s somewhat unfair to espouse the benefits of color-blind casting one day, and demand fidelity to the source material the next."
They're not diametrically opposed, considering in both cases it's about supporting the casting of actors who normally do not get cast in the roles in question.. The issue is that studios pretty consistently err on the side of whiteness, right?
You're missing the key difference between comicbook characters and characters from a show like Avatar (which unlike so many fools keep saying is an AMERICAN show, not a Japanese one). That difference is in continuity. You see american superhero comics have constantly shifting and changing continuity. Did you know there was an Indian Spiderman for a one shot once? It's the basic idea of the character that is important to an american comicbook superhero. Their race and age don't define them. But in something like Avatar where there is ONE SINGLE continuity, will never be another, and where the races are pretty well defined by background context and such like that part IS important because it is part of who they are as well as giving more depth to the world.
Think of it as if they had decided to change Frodo from being a Hobbit to a Dwarf in LOTR...it completely changes him even if he acts just the same.
Why do people always have to preface their responses when talking about race or more specifically black people?
As commented above, it's not the same because... it's not the same. Big films rarely sport black leads who aren't already established stars; the youngster introducing-franchise-character is almost always a white Anglo male. It takes some courage to fly in the face of that (note that Spider-Man, for all the talk, didn't; Jaden Smith is about as close as this year gets, and that's soft on a number of fronts) and, yes, a certain kind of cowardice to retreat to it. The answer re. The Last Airbender shoulda been: make it in Hong Kong. With somebody else directing.
The mitigating circumstance shouldn't be "Oh, but we made it for a white audience", because that's just encouraging a kind of self-justifying circularity. I'd understand if it were "But we really had to cast these particular actors"... but is anyone getting that from Airbender?
The Last Airbender shoulda been: make it in Hong Kong. With somebody else directing.
Maybe Ang Lee???
I'm pretty sure he would've made sure to cast Asian actors. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wasn't a huge hit in the US but I did know quite a few people who went to see it, and it had an all Asian cast. It was also nominated for several Oscars.
A lot of fans lost their shit when Glover was suggested as Spider-Man. Suggested. Not even cast. If a black guy was really cast as Spider-Man, you can be sure that a shitstorm would soon follow.
color-blind casting is always okay. why? because racism is wrong! moron.
Dixon, here's the differences between those castings.
Peter Parker is white, but ethnicity doesn't plays any significant role in the story or background. making Peter Parker black or latino doesn't really have anything to do with fighting Doctor Octopus or saving New York.
Airbender is different. Fire nation is clearly based on Japan, Air Nation on Tibet. Earth Nation on China. If you watch wu-xia chinese epics (like Crouching Tiger hidden Dragon), Airbender is basically an animated wuxia with absolutely no western influences AT ALL in background, dress, appearance, religious influence etc. The anime transports you into a generic eastern-style world. The characters are even drawn as asian (this is clear if you watch japanese anime. they don't have to be drawn with slanted eyes to signify asian-ness). Ethnicity plays a huge role in the telling of the story.
If this were Braveheart or Gladiator, where ethnicity plays a huge role in the believability of the story, it would be strange to cast Chinese or black actors to play William Wallace. It's the same situation.
Lucky, with Hollywood, that will NEVER happen. Unfortunately, with Hollywood, if it's whitewashing non-white stories, then they take every chance to do so.
The fact that they casted the white Prince Zuko as Indian is even stranger to me. They casted all the protagonists as white and the antagonists as Asian.
I thought the Fire Nation was supposed to be some sort of a Japan analogue. You know, what with all the tea drinking and the go playing and the Imperialist invasion starting.
Is this comment sarcastic? I can't tell.
http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-36-fall-2009/colorblindness-new-racism
I do understand the argument of, there aren't many blockbusters made with minority leads so if an opportunity comes up the should cast minorities, but in the case of Airbender, no matter what the inspiration was it is essentially an Anime. And if you know anything of Anime, it is technically the Anglozing of Asians, done by Asians. So I find it hard to accept the cries of foul play, in terms of race casting for a show whose industry is based on Anglozing Asian characters. So it's OK for Japan to draw Asians as Anglo characters in their cartoons but we are crying racism to Hollywood for not casting Asians in Airbender?
I don't see holly wood doing as much 'Whiting out' minority characters, on the contrary I seen more 'Blacking' that should be white.
there should be some accountability to the source material true, but the acter that can best pull it off should get it...
but on the other hand i don't want to see a black Spiderman anymore then i want to see a White Blade.
now with in the realm of avatar. I don't think it played that big a role in the make or break of the movie. The Water tribe are not asian, and they are not native American, (lets face it, it is vary rare for a native American to have blue eyes)they picked good actors, but like most translations the script (screen play) sucked... changing the cast would not have made the movie any better it would not have made it more or less believable because the flaw was the writers.
oh and by the way... I am NDN.. Native American
Given how bad the movie was, it's possible that casting white actors to play Asian characters was a form of protection, no?
Remember when they made a black Superman starring Shaq? Shazaam?
Did people stay away because it was unfamiliar material, or because it was effing horrible?
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