Minorities in Hollywood

[talkbox]

Asians need to be cast in roles other htan alongside black rappers.

[chonies]

I don't know if this is the right thread, but commentary about the new film Aloha is revisiting conversations about whitewashing:

Aloha actually features one of the more prominent Asian/mixed heritage female leads in any studio movie in recent memory.

She just happens to be played by Emma Stone.

The Amazing Spider-Man star locks horns and lips with Cooper as Allison Ng, a promising pilot moving up the ranks. She loves the stars. She’s focused on her career. She impressed Hillary Clinton with her discipline that one time! And she’s all about her native culture. Native, because the blond, green-eyed Ng is one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Hawaiian, and one-quarter Swedish, making Aloha the first major studio movie to explain to white folks how you pronounce the name “Ng” (like ‘ring,’ without the R).

link to Daily Beast

[Ladybug]

I have hated his stupid movies since Jerry Maguire. I'm not surprised he tried to make his manic pixie dream girl multiracial but ended up casting a 100% white woman anyway.

I'd really love some insight into the decision making process for actors. Who reads this in a script by a flop director and decides to do it? Are they pressured by agents or studio heads? Emma Stone is really trying my patience between this mess and staring in two Woody Allen films.

[discoprincess]

Feb 10, 2006 17:47:02 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

I'm not surprised he tried to make his manic pixie dream girl multiracial but ended up casting a 100% white woman anyway

Was someone like Kristina Kreuk not available? Olivia Munn? Nicole Scherzinger (who actually is of partial Hawaiian descent)?

[Pomm]

May 29, 2015 11:16:15 GMT -4 chonies said:

I don't know if this is the right thread, but commentary about the new film Aloha is revisiting conversations about whitewashing:

Aloha actually features one of the more prominent Asian/mixed heritage female leads in any studio movie in recent memory.

She just happens to be played by Emma Stone.

The Amazing Spider-Man star locks horns and lips with Cooper as Allison Ng, a promising pilot moving up the ranks. She loves the stars. She’s focused on her career. She impressed Hillary Clinton with her discipline that one time! And she’s all about her native culture. Native, because the blond, green-eyed Ng is one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Hawaiian, and one-quarter Swedish, making Aloha the first major studio movie to explain to white folks how you pronounce the name “Ng” (like ‘ring,’ without the R).

link to Daily Beast

Kind of a small point, but after that lengthy explanation, I find it funny that they give the wrong pronunciation for the name Ng. It's actually pronounced "mm"


Edit: Am I the last one to notice these 10 year banners under our names? Cute.

[prisma]

When I first heard about this movie, I was offended to see *another* movie with 40-yo Bradley Cooper with a mid-twenties love interest. But then when I read that Emma is playing a Chinese-American-Native Islander character, my jaw hung open. Man, that's offensive. I guess it's a little consolation that the film is being trashed by reviewers.

[chonies]

May 30, 2015 5:52:42 GMT -4 Pomm said:

Kind of a small point, but after that lengthy explanation, I find it funny that they give the wrong pronunciation for the name Ng. It's actually pronounced "mm"

Oh god. All those of years of thinking Ana Ng was a handy tutorial.

[jynni]

I'm pretty sensitive to Hollywood's tendency to white wash roles but can't get too worked up about Emma Stone's casting as a 1/4 Asian character. I'm half Asian and definitely look "ethnic" but know several 1/4 Asians and none of them have discernibly Asian features. This includes my brother's kids (his wife is Caucasian) who both have blonde hair and blue eyes.

[Coffeecakes]

But she isnt majority white though. Her character is supposed to be quarter white with an added native Hawaiian to the mix. I dont think someone with that racial makeup would be lily white as Emma.

[sobe]

I don't think most reasonable critics dispute that it could be possible for a 1/4 Chinese and 1/4 Hawaiian to look as white as Emma Stone (though she probably would have picked up bit a tan in Hawaii). Yeah, genetics work like that sometimes.

Cameron Crowe went out of his way to give this character an ethnic background, set it in a majority API location, and then cast a 100-percent white actress. It's a missed opportunity -- I mean, minority actors and actresses aren't being cast in parts that are explicitly ethnic (see also: Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, in what the studio defended as a "diverse" Peter Pan retelling). Despite that shitty Deadline article said a while back, API and Hapa actresses out there hustling for a few API-specific or race-blind parts. They gotta compete with Emma Stone for "Allison Ng"?