Whitewashing In Hollywood
In the past decade, commendable efforts to diversify and include more minorities in Hollywood and TV admittedly have been made, in terms of race as well as sexuality, gender and disabilities. Nonetheless, Hollywood’s ingrained practice of whitewashing, or casting of white actors to play historically non-white characters, continues. Whitewashing, as well as erasure of LGBT and disabled characters, indicates Hollywood’s lack of acceptance for minorities. When whitewashing first originated during the beginnings of Hollywood, it was a direct insult to people of color (POC). In cult classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, actor Mickey Rooney portrays a Japanese man as buck-toothed and squinty eyed, reinforcing the negative Japanese stereotypes that were
…show more content…
The Hunger Games trilogy whitewashed two of the main characters, yet this went mostly undetected by audiences, particularly by those who had not read the books in which the movies were based upon. In the books, Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne are characterized as having “olive skin,” which is most common among Asian and Latin American people. However, the casting calls were open to only Caucasian actors. Casting white actors into the roles of the protagonists diminishes the underlying theme of racial tensions originally found in the books. The directors may have chosen Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth as the main characters because they, in general, think that investing in high profile actors will make the movie more successful.
Even today, defenders of Ghost in the Shell argue that the Japanese main character, Major, could be portrayed as Caucasian because her brain is placed into a cyborg body. Creators then cast Scarlett Johansson as the main character, but still chose to use CGI to alter her facial features, specifically her eyes to look more Asian. Also, the movie is set in Neo-Tokyo but features very few Japanese people, using the Japanese aesthetic without using Japanese people. The movie appropriates and profited off of Asian culture, or at least attempted to, without paying respects where they are
The Hunger Games trilogy whitewashed two of the main characters, yet this went mostly undetected by audiences, particularly by those who had not read the books in which the movies were based upon. In the books, Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne are characterized as having “olive skin,” which is most common among Asian and Latin American people. However, the casting calls were open to only Caucasian actors. Casting white actors into the roles of the protagonists diminishes the underlying theme of racial tensions originally found in the books. The directors may have chosen Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth as the main characters because they, in general, think that investing in high profile actors will make the movie more successful.
Even today, defenders of Ghost in the Shell argue that the Japanese main character, Major, could be portrayed as Caucasian because her brain is placed into a cyborg body. Creators then cast Scarlett Johansson as the main character, but still chose to use CGI to alter her facial features, specifically her eyes to look more Asian. Also, the movie is set in Neo-Tokyo but features very few Japanese people, using the Japanese aesthetic without using Japanese people. The movie appropriates and profited off of Asian culture, or at least attempted to, without paying respects where they are