Recent Posts
Entertainment January 13, 2017
Joseph Fiennes, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Juliette Binoche, Elizabeth TaylorAfter Michael Jackson’s family led the outrage at the casting of a white actor, Joseph Fiennes, to play the late music icon in a British TV show, the controversial episode has now been pulled from broadcast.
The episode of new comedy show “Urban Myths,” called “Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon” and detailing a road trip Jackson allegedly took with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor after 9/11, will not air, Sky Arts announced announced via Twitter.
@SkyArts 1/4 We have taken the decision not to broadcast Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, a 30min episode from the Sky Arts Urban Myths series.
— Sky Arts (@SkyArts) January 13, 2017
Michael’s daughter Paris expressed her anger over the “shameful” portrayal of her late father. “I’m so incredibly offended by it, as I’m sure plenty of people are as well, and it honestly makes me want to vomit,” she wrote. Paris continued, “It angers me to see how obviously intentional it was for them to be this insulting, not just towards my father, but my godmother liz as well. Where is the respect? They worked through blood sweat and tears for ages to create such profound and remarkable legacies. Shameful portrayal.”
@TheMJCast i’m so incredibly offended by it, as i’m sure plenty of people are as well, and it honestly makes me want to vomit.
— Paris-Michael K. J. (@ParisJackson) January 11, 2017
After the show was axed, Paris tweeted her surprise that “the family’s feelings were actually taken into consideration for once,” noting, “we really do appreciate it more than y’all know.”
But while the family succeeded in getting Joseph Fiennes’s portrayal removed from broadcast, he is certainly not the first white actor to play a person of color. In light of this small win, ENTITY looks at five times Hollywood didn’t seem to care so much about whitewashing.
Jolie played real-life French reporter Mariane Pearl in “A Mighty Heart,” which was based on the latter’s memoir of the same name. The film follows Mariane as her husband, journalist Daniel Pearl for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and later murdered by Pakistani militants.
Mariane is of Afro-Cuban descent, and has naturally curly hair and a dark complexion. Meanwhile, Jolie is of mixed-European descent, and has no African roots. The fair-skinned actress shockingly seemed to have sported blackface to look like Mariane in the picture.
There were some complaints about Angelina’s casting, though not enough to have had any impact. Reviews for the film were generally not positive, though most centered around turmoil in Jolie’s personal life at the time rather than her controversial casting.
A backlash erupted on Twitter after Johansson, an American actress of Danish descent, was revealed as the star of this upcoming sci-fi action flick. Her character, The Major, is based off of Motoko Kusangi from Masamue Shirow’s famous manga and 1995 anime, and is supposed to be Japanese.
Fans were furious on Twitter, with Ming-Na Wen posting, “Nothing against Scarlett Johansson. In fact, I’m a big fan. But everything against this whitewashing of Asian role.”
Nothing against Scarlett Johansson. In fact, I’m a big fan. But everything against this Whitewashing of Asian role.? https://t.co/VS6r6iish9
— Ming-Na Wen (@MingNa) April 14, 2016
And Jon Tsuei explained his frustration in a series of tweets, one of which read, “This casting is not only the erasure of Asian faces but a removal of the story from its core themes.”
The makers of the film were unconcerned, however, with CinemaBlend reporting that director Rupert Sanders responded to backlash by saying, “I think whenever you cast someone, someone’s going to be critical of it. To me, I stand by my decision. She’s the best actress of her generation, and I was flattered and honored that she would be in this film.”
Another recent controversy surrounded the casting of Swinton as The Ancient One, who is an Asian man in the comics. On Twitter, user @amxndasantino posted, “The whitewashing was so blatantly obvious that it was cringeworthy and offensive. #DoctorStrange.”
Trang Dong tweeted, “Doctor strange had so many opportunities to be a superhero movie with Asian leads but here we are with eggs benedict and tilda swinton.” The actress, however, defended her casting, telling Out Magazine, “The Ancient One in this film was never written as the bearded old Tibetan man portrayed in the comics.” She has also said that the role was adjusted to be a Celtic woman.
C. Robert Cargill, one of the film’s writers, also defended the casting on the Double Toasted show, saying, “The Ancient One was a racist stereotype who comes from a region of the world that is in a very weird political place.”
He argued that acknowledging Tibet could alienate people and risk the Chinese government refusing to show the film. And he said that catering to China would not have been a better idea, since it would be a terrible idea to cast a Chinese actress as a Tibetan character.”
Binoche, a fair-skinned French actress seems clearly miscast to portray María Segovia, the real-life sister of one of the Chilean miners who had been trapped underground.
Segovia was known for her efforts in helping the miners’ families, working with “Campo Esperanza,” a makeshift tent community set up in the Atacama Desert so family members of the miners could stay close.
Segovia is Chilean, with a dark complexion, quite unlike the actress who portrayed her. However, much like with Jolie’s role in “A Mighty Heart,” critics largely ignored the racial miscast in reviewing the film.
Taylor famously starred as Egypt’s last independent pharaoh in “Cleopatra.” The historical figure is said to be of Macedonian descent with African roots. The British-American actress, however, has a history rooted in Western Europe.
The film clearly avoided social media criticism as it was released before the advent of such things, in 1963. It has since been cited as an example of Hollywood’s long-running practice of whitewashing.
Back in 2014 Jolie was reportedly in consideration to play the legendary pharaoh in a proposed remake, which was also met with criticism.
READ MORE: ‘Hidden Figures’ Recognizes Black Women’s Contributions to NASA’s Space Race
These examples show that Hollywood has certainly had a long history of whitewashing its films. And though Sky Arts listened to its critics, removing the offensive episode, the casting shows that at one point they had thought that it was okay. So one small step… but TV and film still has a long way to go.
