Core cast for live-action Avatar movie revealed
ಠ_ಠ
Is there some way I can call M. Night Shyamalan a race traitor or something without sounding like a crazy Asian nazi? I want to use it. No, I actually really really don't care if these kids do a phenomenal acting job. And is it okay if I claim that it's not just a geek thing? Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.
I know people are going to argue that Avatar takes place in a fictional setting, and that because of the stylization of the features of the animated character designs and the non-reality of the Avatar world/countries/whatever, that means there's no proof that these characters are meant to be, for whatever racial equivalent their world would feature, "Asian". Perhaps they'll argue that, after all, some of the voice actors were non-people of color, and surely it stands to reason that the live action cast should reflect this.
Yeahhh how about NO.
If ANY set of fictional cultures/people/locales was ever Asian by any denomination, it was the cultures/characters/setting of Avatar. If ANY show featuring fictional cultures and ethnicities was ever appropriate for live-action depiction with actors of Asian descent, it was Avatar. HOW do you establish a fictional canon based on an amalgamation of real Asian cultures and local costume and written language and art and religion/spirituality on a massive, world-encompassing scale and tell me those people aren't most appropriate to be played by Asians?
And I'm not talking about like, George Lucas-esque artistic lifting from a mix of Asian cultures, I'm talking about an ENTIRE WORLD based entirely in the VISUAL LANGUAGE OF ASIAN CULTURES.
And, ever gullible, I thought, "Well, Shyamalan's movies themselves are pretty hit or miss, but if there's one thing he's sure to sympathize with, it's that saying these characters are white until proven Asian is a massive load of horse shit. And surely, if any director could sympathize with and want to see people of color, especially of Asian descent, find a greater foothold in popular media, it would be a mainstream director who happens to be of Asian descent, amirite? Why, his own daughter wanting to dress up as Katara got him interested in the series in the first place. I mean, ha, that's like the one thing about this movie even he couldn't possibly fuck up!"
Spacey!Luthor: WRONG!
Don't even tell me they couldn't "find" enough English-speaking Asian teenage actors to play four measly character leads in the first movie. They recruited their Zuko from a band for heaven's sake (and seriously, picked the two whitest--and I'm talking about pigment here--teens I've ever seen to play the two darkest lead characters.) It follows that if they got Asian leads, they'd have to have Asian supporters since the respective nations were pretty homogenous, but you know what? Mel Gibson rounded up enough people of color to play an ancient civilization in Apocalypto; the BBC and HBO just collaborated on House of Saddam; Heroes wrangled up enough people of color to populate an Indian city and ancient Japan; even a mid-budget New Zealand production like Xena managed to film a handful of episodes set in fake!China and fake!Japan without resorting to, "here's some Caucasian people; pretend they're Asian plz"--DO NOT tell me there ain't a comparable amount of English-speaking Asians out there who'd be happy to traipse about in costume for a picture that would be the coolest thing Hollywood has ever done re: Asian culture since.. ever.
I mean, I think I'm pretty reasonable in my expectations and the things I take issue with as far as Asian representation in popular media. I'm not the perpetually Angry Asian (Wo)man, I really don't care about picky knee-jerk stuff like Kung Fu Panda characters being voiced by non-Asian-American actors, or Zhang Ziyi (and Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh) playing Japanese women, because I know people were being super finicky about 'em. But this? Ah.. yeah, all this tells me is that Asian actors are too Asian for the most Asian show on TV, soon to be on the big screen. Fan-fucking-tastic.
EDIT: Further thoughts, and a round up of awesomely articulated/proactive links, follows in this post.
Is there some way I can call M. Night Shyamalan a race traitor or something without sounding like a crazy Asian nazi? I want to use it. No, I actually really really don't care if these kids do a phenomenal acting job. And is it okay if I claim that it's not just a geek thing? Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.
I know people are going to argue that Avatar takes place in a fictional setting, and that because of the stylization of the features of the animated character designs and the non-reality of the Avatar world/countries/whatever, that means there's no proof that these characters are meant to be, for whatever racial equivalent their world would feature, "Asian". Perhaps they'll argue that, after all, some of the voice actors were non-people of color, and surely it stands to reason that the live action cast should reflect this.
Yeahhh how about NO.
If ANY set of fictional cultures/people/locales was ever Asian by any denomination, it was the cultures/characters/setting of Avatar. If ANY show featuring fictional cultures and ethnicities was ever appropriate for live-action depiction with actors of Asian descent, it was Avatar. HOW do you establish a fictional canon based on an amalgamation of real Asian cultures and local costume and written language and art and religion/spirituality on a massive, world-encompassing scale and tell me those people aren't most appropriate to be played by Asians?
And I'm not talking about like, George Lucas-esque artistic lifting from a mix of Asian cultures, I'm talking about an ENTIRE WORLD based entirely in the VISUAL LANGUAGE OF ASIAN CULTURES.
And, ever gullible, I thought, "Well, Shyamalan's movies themselves are pretty hit or miss, but if there's one thing he's sure to sympathize with, it's that saying these characters are white until proven Asian is a massive load of horse shit. And surely, if any director could sympathize with and want to see people of color, especially of Asian descent, find a greater foothold in popular media, it would be a mainstream director who happens to be of Asian descent, amirite? Why, his own daughter wanting to dress up as Katara got him interested in the series in the first place. I mean, ha, that's like the one thing about this movie even he couldn't possibly fuck up!"
Spacey!Luthor: WRONG!
Don't even tell me they couldn't "find" enough English-speaking Asian teenage actors to play four measly character leads in the first movie. They recruited their Zuko from a band for heaven's sake (and seriously, picked the two whitest--and I'm talking about pigment here--teens I've ever seen to play the two darkest lead characters.) It follows that if they got Asian leads, they'd have to have Asian supporters since the respective nations were pretty homogenous, but you know what? Mel Gibson rounded up enough people of color to play an ancient civilization in Apocalypto; the BBC and HBO just collaborated on House of Saddam; Heroes wrangled up enough people of color to populate an Indian city and ancient Japan; even a mid-budget New Zealand production like Xena managed to film a handful of episodes set in fake!China and fake!Japan without resorting to, "here's some Caucasian people; pretend they're Asian plz"--DO NOT tell me there ain't a comparable amount of English-speaking Asians out there who'd be happy to traipse about in costume for a picture that would be the coolest thing Hollywood has ever done re: Asian culture since.. ever.
I mean, I think I'm pretty reasonable in my expectations and the things I take issue with as far as Asian representation in popular media. I'm not the perpetually Angry Asian (Wo)man, I really don't care about picky knee-jerk stuff like Kung Fu Panda characters being voiced by non-Asian-American actors, or Zhang Ziyi (and Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh) playing Japanese women, because I know people were being super finicky about 'em. But this? Ah.. yeah, all this tells me is that Asian actors are too Asian for the most Asian show on TV, soon to be on the big screen. Fan-fucking-tastic.
EDIT: Further thoughts, and a round up of awesomely articulated/proactive links, follows in this post.
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Comments
The Avatar world is derived of all that is Asian. Not European medieval stuff. Disappointment M. Night Shyamalan. Disappointment for me expecting if there would be any main asian cast. Its like Goku being white because there's not asian actor or what? D:<
*brain damaged*
The Avatar movie is seriously casting, like, nobodies in the title roles (except for that Zuko guy, man..) so it's not like they're there for the box office draw.
Well, if our kind aren't good enough to play people in settings based off our cultures, I submit that our money ain't good enough for them either, eh?
THANK YOU, BB.
Edited at 2008-12-10 11:17 pm (UTC)
I'm kind of torn on the issue, because I think of films like Memoirs of a Geisha where the leading Japanese geisha were played by Chinese women and did a wonderful job; but then again, that is a lot different than a white person playing a possibly-heavily-Asian-influenced character.
I have to say though, Aang always seemed completely white to me (despite the Air... people... [sorry, I haven't watched very much, I've been saving the DVDs you made me for vacation] seeming to be based on Tibetan monks), while the Water Tribe is heavily influenced by Inuit/Eskimo culture, and the Fire Nation is very obviously Feudal China. You could argue that you can't very well have Asians playing Water Tribe people, because of their Inuit influence-- but where are they going to get someone from those tribes who can act? I don't know of very many Inuit actors. @__@;
I'm hesitant to say that perhaps they may not have been able to find very many Asian-American child actors/actresses to fill the parts, so they turned to kids of other ethnicity. I said on another journal that I think they may have chosen the actor/actress for Sokka and Katara based on their bright eye colors.
I gotta say, though, having Jesse McCartney as Zuko is laughably stupid-- I mean, like. WHAT. I can't imagine him with a shaved head and that ponytail at all.
Lastly, I want... to give them a chance with this, and not completely write them off because they are white, but that's probably my... whiteness... speaking. .__.;
ETA: I hope you don't think I'm writing you off for being upset, Michelle!! ;___; I guess I just don't get it. /lame
Edited at 2008-12-10 11:28 pm (UTC)
The thing is, of course the kids seemed "whitewashed" in the show. I would actually use the term "Americanized", but there's a tendency to associate that with whiteness, but here's the thing: Aladdin. Takes place in a fictional Middle-Eastern-esque land modeled on classic Arabian imagery. But pretty much everyone but Jafar was a slice of American white bread. But if they took this movie to live-action, would it really be appropriate if they cast all white people in the film?
People of the Water Tribes are a little harder to place in the cultural spectrum. I'll agree inasmuch as they seem to be influenced by Inuit culture, and culturally/visually they're very distinct from the mostly Eastern Asian cultures of the other nations (except for like the one Indian-esque guy who showed up to mentor Aang), with their dark skin and blue eyes. But see, all casting had to do (based on my aforementioned standards of racial casting) was pick two kids with kind of dark pigmented skin and pop some colored contacts on them if they needed to. Instead, their solution was to pick two of the WHITEST TEENAGERS I'VE EVER SEEN.
I don't really buy that they couldn't find Asian-American teenagers who wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity for these roles (they're around 15-17--Aang and Toph are the youngest at 12 or so). This isn't five decades ago, where if they had an Asian role that needed filling they just turned to Yul Brynner or Rita Moreno or that black actress they were always lightening up to play matronly Asian madams or Mickey Rooney and told them not to use contractions.
I'd hesitate to say I'm writing off the actors for being white. I'm certainly not faulting them for taking the parts and I'm sure they'll do their best. No, my issue is all in the politics of the movie/makers. I wouldn't see 21 for casting two white actors in place of the two (real life) Asian people/characters they were scripted to play. Unless I can be convinced otherwise or sorely temped, I'm not seeing this for the same reason (and on, I think you could agree, a MUCH bigger scale than just two actors.)
I am white. I am affluent. I got to all your big-budget movies.
I DO NOT NEED TO BE PANDERED TO.
I will not run away because it made me uncomfortable to see so many people who look different to me. I WAS BORN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
No love,
Your Target Demographic
*foam*
Seriously, Jesse McCartney?
WHITE-WASHING. >:(
And then presumably, because the individual nations seem to be pretty damn homogenous, this whitening treatment will just have to extend to the rest of the people in the nations already represented in the core group. Which MEANS our only hope of getting a non-white group represented will be with the introduction of the Earth Kingdom. Whoop de doo. (Watch: all the villains will get to be Asian for some reason.)
WHAT THE FLYING FUCK?!
NICKELODEON/SHYAMALAN DOESN'T CARE ABOUT ASIAN PEOPLE.
The shallower part of me is thinking at least they got a cute guy to be Sokka... And at least they're mostly no-names instead of stars...?
Maybe the rest of the cast will have more diversity? ::hopes::
Especially - ESPECIALLY like this whole 'Oh it's all fantasy' bullshit. So would everyone have been a-okay if they cast the entirety of LoTR with, oh, let's say, African-American actors? NO. BECAUSE THE LESSON HERE IS THAT WHITE IS THE DEFAULT.
AS NON-WHITES, WE HAVE TO REMEMBER THIS. WE ARE ABNORMAL; WHITE IS DEFAULT.
FUUCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK THIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
PS - I was thinking about referencing 21 as well; while that is an epic case of epic whitewash, I find this casting of Avatar to be, quite boldly, yellowface. It dusgusts me.
I'm so ashamed to be in the same broad ethnic category as M Night right now.
I wonder if it's too late to retract the casting decision. I know people who are slated to play parts can be dropped and recast later for a variety of reasons, including if they don't test well early on. This sounds much more set in stone but if for nothing else, I want Shyamalan SHAMED for this. He got into Avatar in the first place because his own daughter wanted to dress up as Katara, and I would muse about the live-action version, thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool if he cast like, SE Asian/Indian (okay I tend to just kinda smush the two together, perhaps inappropriately, maybe I should fix that up in the entry..) teenagers as Katara and Sokka? Yeahhhh.."
Man, it's just... of ALL the shows to go to live-action on the big screen, this was the most likely, and appropriate, for a cast of English-speaking Asians. And for whatever reason, I expected Shyamalan would be receptive to that, based on his own background. Was that unreasonable of me? That must have been unreasonable of me.
Link away! I think it'd be pretty neat to get a database of some sort cataloging the fandom-wide reaction to this. (Because seriously, this isn't just nerd-rage; this is the politics of race in popular media, IN ADDITION TO NERD-RAGE.)
Asians: EXPLAIN YOUR PRESENCE OR LOSE YOUR SPOT TO OUR DEFAULT WHITE PLAYERS.
(Weirdly, I always sort of assumed they'd get a musician/actor-who-plays-or-sings to be Zuko... I don't know why... but I always really envisioned it being this kinda hunky Asian or Eurasian guy from some obscure band. Having said that, I honestly have no idea who this Jesse McCartney guy is.)
At least my face is prone to the rages Katara constantly undergoes! And I've already got the outfit!But no seriously. Seconding all that you've said here, and thirding everything I read out of you in comments. Speaking as their target white-chick demographic, I'm totally appalled by this. Especially the Jesse McCartney bullshits. It's not like it's impossible to translate the characters into real people--hell, there are even cosplayers they could grab that at least look more like the characters than these kids. Does anyone other than the unknown Aang even dabble in a martial art of any kind?
Raaaage. D: D: D: Please, please don't let Shyamalan tone down the settings on top of all this. I mean. The whole fucking cast is white anyway, so why not just stick Ba Sing Se in Europe?!
Let's go find Shamalan and demand that he cast you for Mai. Because then, at least, ONE character will be appropriately cast for the sequels. T_T I'll get my whip and my June boots...I think they'll keep the Asian elements though. I notice these white-washed productions love our interior decorating and fancy weaponry and LOVE the martial arts and exotic clothing. Just not so much the people cuz, haha, ick.
/ramble
but I agree! I always like reading your ranty posts.
Memoirs of a Geisha worked western audiences by portraying the distant, exotic "otherness" that so many still tend to associate with Asians. Avatar, as I envisioned it, would have done the same, but without the element of distant "otherness" to it.
But ehhhh nope, they just wanted to go the route of Orientalism: safe white people but with an exotic spicing of Asian flavor! :D (-_-)
Though right now I'm too exhausted from arguing with people and researching producers to say much more than "YES. THIS."
And if you feel like saying something to Paramount about it, here's some info I rounded up!
Edited at 2008-12-11 04:23 am (UTC)
Thank you for the infopost too, that's wonderful :3
The hell. I...really can not find appropriate words right now to truely express how utterly appaling this is. Just...I'm going to link you in my LJ if that's alright, because you pretty much said how I feel on this whole thing.
Gah, I so agree. I'm not exactly SE Asian (more Middle East) but this is just horrible. I would so love to see more mainstream non-white actors and this is what they give us. I'm quite sure all the Avatards I know here in the Netherlands (most of whom also happen to be white, it's not like they can't handle non-white people) will be confused by these casting choices. wtf.
I did want your opinion on something, though, because of all the rants I've found, yours seems the most reasonable and most focused on the issue at hand. I feel like I ought to be doing something about this, that I CAN do something, but at the same time am not sure if I should. I'm a Caucasian-American Jew, and part of me thinks "I'm not Asian or Inuit, I can't speak from their perspective" because as a Jew, I've had those situations where people have done that and it's annoyed me. Like, the whole "Happy Holidays" bullshit, as though somehow the word "Christmas" makes our poor Jewish ears bleed. So what do I do? Do I even have the right to try and rally the troops, as it were? What do you think?
http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/
(I mean good lord, even WITH Hollywood politics, martial arts -using roles are pretty much the only thing Asians can still get without question!)
I would just like to say that I am a) a big whitey, b) not a proper fan of Avatar but someone who's enjoyed it when I've seen it, and I was totally under the DELUSION that it was set in, you know, China or Tibet or somewhere. In fact when I first saw it I assumed it was a dubbed anime of some kind. How WRONG I was! Obviously all those Asian language characters and Asian culture clothes and Asian architecture and backgrounds are just... coincidental.
In conclusion, some very big fail. I feel sad for Avatar fen.
So of course it makes total sense that they wouldn't cast a single person descended from anywhere near those regions in the core cast. So much sense. *cry*
i have found a site that might be useful to all that want to change the casting choices:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111
it's a link to various new channels and papers with their addresses. good luck spreading your voice!
You know, while I was not expecting at all a 90% Asian cast, I thought this was going to be like Star Trek or The Matrix and be multicultural. You know: Aang as an asian/white boy, Kitara and Sokka as southern Asian or at least indian, Toph Chinese, Iaoh (SP?) has to be played by Jackie Chan. Ohhhhh! And Jason Issac as his character.
I also never understood the need to cast someone else as Zuka, the voice actor creepily looks like him. Dress him up and teach him psychical performance and bam!
But lord...this is like, A Wizard of Earthsea on Sci-Fi all over again!
"It should have not been called Kung-Fu. To me that show was 'Hay...that guy is not Chinese!?!" -- Margret Cho
P.S. This is coming from a half black/half polish guy and a friend who is a die hard fan and has nothing but 100% milk in him. ARG!
I expected a cast that would reflect the apparent cultures represented by the series. I think that's a pretty broad guideline, considering. Since most of the Avatar nations are pan-Asian in design, I just figured most of the Avatar live-action cast would be of Asian descent. It was just what made sense to me--kind of like how the fantasy world of Lord of the Rings cultures were generally Eurocentric in design, hence a generally Caucasian cast, y'know? XD
Sadly, I think Dante Basco might be getting a bit long in the tooth to be playing a 16 (or something) year old boy--I mean he's approaching his mid-30s--but if these were still his Rufio days, I'd be 100% behind this casting choice :D
I keep hearing about this Earthsea business, what happened there? LOL I <3 Margaret Cho.
M. Night's control over the film hinged on the success of The Happening, which tanked at the box office. He wanted to cast unknown actors who knew martial arts and, presumeably, would be actors of colour (which is probably why they're unknown). It is unlikely that he's responsible for the casting.
My point is; Its just not right to exclude anyone when there is no -need- to.
Typecasting IS a given component of film casting, however. The fact that the casting calls for the primary actors said, "CAUCASIAN or any other ethnicity" (which you'll agree differs significantly from saying, "ANY ETHNICITY") draws attention to this.
Saying these parts are inappropriate for white actors is no more racist than it is sexist to say it's inappropriate for men to be in the women's bathroom.
I understand it's an imaginary world, but you'll have to explain to me why all these movies about imaginary worlds that take place in Euro!fantasy manage to have all-white casts and it's perfectly fine (and I believe it IS fine), but when it's an Asian!fantasy, SUDDENLY we've got to have "diversity"?
Besides, the who cast is not white and Zuko's character changed recently.
Well sure--they specify a preference that the main heroes be Caucasian. THEN they cast people of color as either extras/ancillaries, or villains. This is NOT an isolated event, it is a pattern perpetrated through years of Hollywood casting. I'd like to refer you to two other posts I did on this matter:
Part One: A History of Yellowface
Part Two: The Language of Casting
And it's NOT as if Paramount isn't casting by race: just look at the homogenous manner in which they're casting the nations. White actors for the Water Tribe. Brown people for the Fire Nation. South Asians (they even specified which ancestral COUNTRY they wanted auditioning extras to come from!) for part of the Earth Kingdom. If it were a mere matter of casting any old people for any old role/nation, I think there'd be a heck of a more varied mix per nation, don't you?
Edited at 2009-04-19 08:39 am (UTC)