The Last Airbender casting controversy
Jan. 29th, 2009 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterSo Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of my favorite TV series ever. It's an animated series that manages to be suitable for kids while not being suitable only for kids, based on Asian culture, themes, and mythology.
There's a live-action movie being made of it by M. Night Shyamalan. And Night (as he likes to be called) has, inadvertently or advertently, triggered a controversy with his decision to cast four actors of non-Asian descent in the lead roles. (One of those stars, Jackson Rathbone, made some remarks about playing an Asian character that might seem a trifle insensitive—"I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan"—but as he's just a kid and probably being taken out of context anyway, I don't hold that against him.)
(Here's the most balanced article I've seen about the kerfuffle so far. Here's another article about further insensitivity in the casting of extras for the film.)
Given that the characters these actors are playing are "supposed" to be Asian, the reaction this casting choice has provoked has turned rather ugly. As can be seen on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aang_aint_white, many people consider this casting choice to be a throwback to the days of blackface and taped eyes, when actors of ethnic minorities were not considered good enough to play characters of their own ethnicities.
Make no mistake, that sort of casting was common, especially in the early-to-mid twentieth century. Asian characters such as Charlie Chan were played by Westerners such as Werner Olandt and Sidney Toler, and it was common for the Japanese villains in World War II era films (themselves a deplorable ethnic stereotype, albeit an understandable one given the events of the era) to be played by whites. George Takei has a story in his autobiography Inherit the Stars of acting alongside Alec Guinness in eye-tape, and Guinness's complete lack of respect for the Asian culture he was supposed to be representing. Even into the later 20th century this persisted: Bruce Lee did a lot of development work on the '70s TV series Kung Fu—but the network did not want an Asian actor to be seen in the role of an Asian character, so the lead role was turned over to westerner David Carradine instead.
There's been enough of this sort of thing over the years that Asian actors for Asian roles has become a hot-button issue for many Asian-Americans, and it's hard to blame them. All the same, I have a hard time seeing the casting decision in the Airbender movie as having any sort of racist motivation.
For one thing, look at the cast of the animated TV series. There are remarkably few actors of Asian descent in that. Mako, certainly. George Takei had a guest appearance in one episode. Jennie Kwan played Suki, James Hong had a couple of guest appearances…but of the dozens of voice actors, fewer than ten are obviously of Asian descent. Yet, I don't recall people complaining much about the lack of proper ethnic casting in that. We Americans are used to actors in dubbed movies, including dubbed Asian movies, sounding American, because American accents are what sound, to us, culturally neutral.
When you get right down to it, Avatar is supposed to represent a fantasy Asia, not any specific real-world country or ethnicity. That gives the casting director a lot more latitude to cast people of any ethnicity. (And there are Caucasian peoples in the real Asia, too—the Ainu, for instance.)
With that in mind, I would frankly rather see the cast selected for acting ability first and ethnicity second. (And it seems that by and large the fans over on avatarspirit.net agree with me in this.) It's not as if they're And Shyamalan is Indian himself; I find it hard to believe that he would intentionally try not to cast Asians if he felt the Asians could do better in the role.
But on the other hand, I'm not Asian-American. And I expect that if I were, I would probably feel differently about the whole thing. I certainly won't deny their right to be upset. It will be interesting to see if M. Night Shyamalan has any response to the upset Asian-American community.
At any rate, whether or not the controversy brings about any casting changes, it will probably end up selling more tickets—which is probably the opposite of the effect the protesters want to achieve, but that's the way these things tend to work.
There's a live-action movie being made of it by M. Night Shyamalan. And Night (as he likes to be called) has, inadvertently or advertently, triggered a controversy with his decision to cast four actors of non-Asian descent in the lead roles. (One of those stars, Jackson Rathbone, made some remarks about playing an Asian character that might seem a trifle insensitive—"I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan"—but as he's just a kid and probably being taken out of context anyway, I don't hold that against him.)
(Here's the most balanced article I've seen about the kerfuffle so far. Here's another article about further insensitivity in the casting of extras for the film.)
Given that the characters these actors are playing are "supposed" to be Asian, the reaction this casting choice has provoked has turned rather ugly. As can be seen on
aang_aint_white, many people consider this casting choice to be a throwback to the days of blackface and taped eyes, when actors of ethnic minorities were not considered good enough to play characters of their own ethnicities.Make no mistake, that sort of casting was common, especially in the early-to-mid twentieth century. Asian characters such as Charlie Chan were played by Westerners such as Werner Olandt and Sidney Toler, and it was common for the Japanese villains in World War II era films (themselves a deplorable ethnic stereotype, albeit an understandable one given the events of the era) to be played by whites. George Takei has a story in his autobiography Inherit the Stars of acting alongside Alec Guinness in eye-tape, and Guinness's complete lack of respect for the Asian culture he was supposed to be representing. Even into the later 20th century this persisted: Bruce Lee did a lot of development work on the '70s TV series Kung Fu—but the network did not want an Asian actor to be seen in the role of an Asian character, so the lead role was turned over to westerner David Carradine instead.
There's been enough of this sort of thing over the years that Asian actors for Asian roles has become a hot-button issue for many Asian-Americans, and it's hard to blame them. All the same, I have a hard time seeing the casting decision in the Airbender movie as having any sort of racist motivation.
For one thing, look at the cast of the animated TV series. There are remarkably few actors of Asian descent in that. Mako, certainly. George Takei had a guest appearance in one episode. Jennie Kwan played Suki, James Hong had a couple of guest appearances…but of the dozens of voice actors, fewer than ten are obviously of Asian descent. Yet, I don't recall people complaining much about the lack of proper ethnic casting in that. We Americans are used to actors in dubbed movies, including dubbed Asian movies, sounding American, because American accents are what sound, to us, culturally neutral.
When you get right down to it, Avatar is supposed to represent a fantasy Asia, not any specific real-world country or ethnicity. That gives the casting director a lot more latitude to cast people of any ethnicity. (And there are Caucasian peoples in the real Asia, too—the Ainu, for instance.)
With that in mind, I would frankly rather see the cast selected for acting ability first and ethnicity second. (And it seems that by and large the fans over on avatarspirit.net agree with me in this.) It's not as if they're And Shyamalan is Indian himself; I find it hard to believe that he would intentionally try not to cast Asians if he felt the Asians could do better in the role.
But on the other hand, I'm not Asian-American. And I expect that if I were, I would probably feel differently about the whole thing. I certainly won't deny their right to be upset. It will be interesting to see if M. Night Shyamalan has any response to the upset Asian-American community.
At any rate, whether or not the controversy brings about any casting changes, it will probably end up selling more tickets—which is probably the opposite of the effect the protesters want to achieve, but that's the way these things tend to work.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 03:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 04:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 08:12 am (UTC)Earth - China and Korea
Water - Inuit
Fire - Japan
There are a lot of different influences mixed in there - Water has some Polynesian and Fire takes a lot from Tang Dynasty China. The portrayals are far from accurate, but the sheer amount of detail that was worked into the show makes it clear that the racial coding was deliberate.
Plus, for added confusion, everyone's eye color matches their nation's element: gray for Air, blue for Water, green and brown for Earth, and yellow for Fire. A cool idea, but has led to choruses of "Katara and Sokka must be white because they have blue eyes!"
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 09:44 am (UTC)That said, the consistent look of whiteness in the cast (note this is not the same as *being* white -- I have no idea how the actors identify) is a big problem. The characters are obviously not supposed to be white and have only been coded that way because of default, comfy Hollywood racism. I can see a strong case for Aang looking vaguely Saami but that's it.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 11:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-30 11:34 pm (UTC)But has that ever been stated by the creators? Or is this one of those "fandom facts" sort of things?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-31 12:01 am (UTC)The Water Tribe people are modeled with features generally found in various Inuit peoples (yeah, not a single tribal group, that's just a general code name).
They add the "swamp tribe" who look a lot like various Cambodia/Thailand resident boat dwellers - the ones who were visited by Anthony Bourdain a few years back - and then they notably pasted some "southern American hick" accents over the top of them.
The Earth and Fire nations are modeled off various Japanese, Korean, and Chinese sources. The Air Nomads are generally modeled off Tibetans.
They also use specific clothing, art, architecture, and writing styles that are characteristic of particular Asian cultures. Also something you can recognize for yourself if you watch the animation.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-31 12:13 am (UTC)Ah. I hadn't seen anyone state that one way or the other. Of course, I have yet to see any definitive quotes regarding that, but I'm willing to take the word of folks who've likely spend more time hunting up information about it, too.