OMG this is almost as bad as a white man playing Charlie Chan, or Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese man in [i]Breakfast at Tiffany's[/i], or a Sicilian (Espera Oscar de Corti) playing "Iron Eyes Cody," or all of the other white actors playing various non-white characters. But let's lose our minds over a Black girl playing a mermaid. Everyone knows mermaids look like this.
It’s surprising that people become so hysterically upset about [b]fictional[/b] characters being portrayed by diverse actors (as opposed to historical figures like Obama and Zelenski). I know that meme is satire, but in the United States, for the first 50 years (at least) the movie industry used only white actors and actresses to play Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, even black characters (using dark makeup)—and little was said for most of that time. And they often portrayed people who [b][b]actually lived[/b][/b] (John Wayne played [b]Genghis Khan[/b] ?!)
Is it that people today just don’t [b]know[/b] this history ?
@whowasthatmaskedman Mickey Rooney in particular. Can you imagine a white actor doing that today? That would be the end of his career. Or at least one hopes.
More often than not, you can't make a bold decision without (figuratively speaking) stepping on a few toes, anymore than you can make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.
And when it comes to inclusivity in film, television, or anything, for that matter, there will always be a mix of both positive and negative reactions.
@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Yeah but if trends continue in 100 years time and streaming is still around etc, etc that is definitely how they will portray Zelenskyy 😂
@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I mean, sure, there's always going to be fictionalization of history to make it more interesting to the general public, but how far do we take it? Suppose somebody wanted to do a musical bio of Alexander Hamilton starring a Hispanic guy? (That was tongue in cheek, of course. I'm aware they've already done it.)
And then there's always the question people ask when they discuss this, which is what if it was done the other way around? A white guy playing Martin Luther King, Jr would be considered a racist.
@Bumbles I don't know why, but reinventing any character that's been established for that long with a dramatic change like that bugs me. Doesn't matter what the character originally was, either. Like if they decided to cast Ryan Gosling as Blade, I would find that just as annoying. People say it's about racism, but I just don't care for remakes in general, and it particularly drives me nuts when they do a race or gender swap of a character that's been established. The one exception is Aquaman, because it actually makes more sense that he'd be an islander type.
I really don't think so. You can either be historically accurate, or be inclusive.
Now, I'm not saying that you can't have a good time watching a wildly historically inaccurate period piece. Netflix proved that with Bridgerton. But something like that becomes a historical fantasy piece instead of any kind of accurate representation of our past.
In fact, here's a hot take. Rewriting historical eras to make the cast inclusive of all races, orientations, etc., can be damaging to minorities. You are denying these people their truth, and creating a fake world where everyone got along. Suppose I made a Western set in 1850s Mississippi, but I completely glossed over the subject of slavery? Or worse yet, created an inaccurate representation of Mississippi with a black governor? That would be a slap in the face to the descendants of every survivor of that horrible time.
@LordShadowfire Recently, there was a PBS series called "Marie Antoinette" with some modern treatment about the unfortunate queen’s personal life. One thing that was referenced was her and Louis’ friendship with Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the musician and fencing master, a free black man. There was the criticism that writers were "imposing 21st century attempts at diversity on history". [b]Except[/b]…the man existed, and the friendship is a matter of record. Because of colonialism and the slave trade, there have been black people in Europe for centuries, proven by both written references and artwork contemporary to the times. This is not saying there was no racism, not by any means, but scenes in 18th and 19th century Europe where the occasional black person appears is not necessarily anachronistic.
@bijouxbroussard I remember seeing the ads for that show, and looking him up. Things like that, where they explore a chapter of history that the white Europeans would have preferred to ignore, I like.
