A little while ago, I wrote a blog post about Hollywood's extreme whitewashing in the upcoming film
Exodus: Gods and Kings (
here). This week, another one has come to my attention:
Pan. Set to be released July of next year,
Pan is Hollywood's newest rendition of the well-known story,
Peter Pan. The character under heavy scrutiny is Tiger Lily, who was
cast in March as Rooney Mara. Tiger Lily, traditionally portrayed as Peter Pan's close friend and the princess of the Indian Tribe of Neverland, was (logically) expected to be cast as a woman of color. When this news came out, it sparked a massive controversy:
Tweets, hashtags, and petitions protesting this decision swarmed the internet in the following weeks.
 |
Mara's controversial cast portrait (as 'Tiger Lily') in
comparison with the original animation |
While
Mara has the credentials to be playing such a major role (much like the white leading actors in
Exodus), that does not mean that appropriate racial casting should continue to be pushed aside. It is blatantly obvious that Mara is far from being of American Indian descent, and there isn't a way to get around that with makeup or costuming that wouldn't come off disrespectful. This includes the bewildering choice to put red makeup around her eyes in her cast photo, which obscenely perpetuates the "redface" stereotype.
To make things worse,
director Joe Wright stated in March that he was "planning to create a world that [is] very international and multiracial," and it has turned out to be just the opposite: the
entire cast is white. Given a movie
known for its extremely racist portrayal of American Indians, directer Joe Wright had an opportunity to advance the film industry (much like the casting of
Mizuo Peck as Sacajawea in Night at the Museum did). Instead, he chose to take another step backwards. This industry has an unfathomable influence on society and the younger generation, and until it can understand the seemingly clear boundaries, how can we expect anyone else to?
I completely agree with you Abbey. The movie industry should create more racially diverse movies to help educate people. A key factor of racism is the lack of integration in our society. Stereotypes can be easy to believe if someone never meets a person of a different race, which can happen when someone lives in a small town. By watching people of different races play dynamic characters on screen, it forces the viewers to forget their misconstrued beliefs and judge them as a person, not as a stereotype.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is almost embarrassing for the director and the cast, because they are not doing what they were supposedly going to. No progress can be made to improve racial segregation if things like integrating races into movies are not done. The stereotypes, like Thomasina said, will continue to be present.
ReplyDeleteAbbey, Nice job blogging overall this term. You cover a wide range of topics and you have a pretty good number of posts. This post is very good. I like the links to outside sources (including your own post), the pictures, and the bold you've employed here to highlight phrases. I'm glad you refer to the picture of Rooney in the post, and I like the quote of the director. Your claim that "the entire cast is white" is unsourced here and dubious, though. There appear to be a number of actors of color in the cast. This doesn't necessarily derail your main point here. The casting of the star -- the title character -- matters most of all. The animation of "the original" has always struck me as deeply racist, and yes this movie offered a chance to correct a stereotype.
ReplyDelete