Minorities in Hollywood

[discoprincess]

Mar 10, 2005 7:03:02 GMT -4 sobe said:

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.

Cameron Crowe could have had an out if the background of this character was something else (e.g. 1. "Ng" was actually her former husband's last name and she decided to keep it - kind of like this woman or 2. "Ng" was the last name of her stepfather who adopted her).

[sumire]

As a half-white, half-Japanese person born and raised in Hawaii, I want to say something, but I'm still having a hard time figuring out what, and I need to go offline right now.

In the meantime, Cameron Crowe has responded.

Funny--his description of the genesis of the character is *exactly* what I was guessing.

[Coffeecakes]

Jun 3, 2015 3:49:00 GMT -4 sobe said:

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 sometime

Obviously a mixed child can come out white looking but its not like Asians are rolling in starring roles left and right. It is 20 fucking 15 and Hollywood is still pulling this shit.

[sobe]

Jun 3, 2015 13:42:13 GMT -4 Coffeecakes said:

Jun 3, 2015 3:49:00 GMT -4 sobe said:

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 sometime

Obviously a mixed child can come out white looking but its not like Asians are rolling in starring roles left and right. It is 20 fucking 15 and Hollywood is still pulling this shit.

That's exactly my point in the second half of my original post. If we take it down to the mircro level, sure Allison Ng could look like Emma Stone. But in the big picture, it's just Hollywood casting more of the same white actresses for roles that could go to equally talented and arguably better-suited minority/mixed-race actresses.

Cameron Crowe's backstory is what it is (I have a mixed-race Hawaiian friend!), but I mentally made a wanking motion when I read the sentence about giving the character some of her ethnic background because he wanted to show the "surprising mix of cultures" in Hawaii. Maybe my eyes wouldn't be rolling so hard if there were any POC in the main cast. But instead we get Bradley Cooper, Jonathan Krasinksi and Rachel McAdams, with Emma freaking Stone embodying the surprising diversity of Hawaii.

[tszuj]

Not sure what the right thread is for it, but: Noma Dumezweni is going to be playing Hermione in the Harry Potter stage play. Which is awesome and she's awesome but I hope it doesn't incite racist comments from fans going "Hermione isn't black!!"

[discoprincess]

Bringing this over from the movie trailers thread...

A trailer for the new movie about Nina Simone was released. The casting of Zoe Saldana was controversial from the beginning. Nina Simone was a dark-skinned black woman, and Zoe Saldana is not as dark as Nina. Was it necessary to make Zoe up to be darker to play this part? Were there no other darker black actresses available who were suitable for the part?

Too bad this trailer didn't hit before the Oscars.

[chonies]

This has been bad news since the first.

[Ladybug]

Many black actresses could've done this role justice, but two I'm thinking of are Danai Gurira and Uzo Aduba.

[chonies]

I've seen a couple lists, but I'm curious about the script and which part of her life it focuses on more. They could have cast a few women to play Nina at multiple ages, and I'm not just talking about girl/woman. It could be girlhood/early success/breaking point/life in Senegal and France.

[Witchie]

Saw a link last night to the people behind this movie. The only black person was David Oyelowo, who stars and is one of 15 producers. Everyone from the director to the casting director to the prosthetics and lead makeup artist were white. As chonies said, this movie was a failure from the get go.