The Last Airbender's Racebending

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

You know that "Last Airbender" movie that's coming out later this year? The one adapting a cartoon inspired by various Asian cultures? Well, it appears that, despite the cartoon's Asian setting, the movie's protagonists are portrayed by white people, with Asian actors being cast only as minor characters or extras:



Read more about it here.

How can Hollywood get away with this blatantly racist bullshit? It's like they think every fantasy movie needs to have white protagonists, even if the fantasy world is explicitly not based on Western cultures. What's next, a movie set in Africa with white actors playing African characters? Wait, they've done that too---think most movies set in ancient Egypt.

I'm boycotting this. These racist bastards aren't going to have any of my money.

[Bakustra]

SARCASTIC VENT: How is that racism? Where is the racism in making the villain darkskinned and the heroes lightskinned? I think you're reading this into the movie there, you oversensitive bastard! Do you have some proof that this was intentional racism by Nazi-KKK screenwriters? No? Then it can't be racist, now can it?

ACTUAL POST: The answer is focus groups and marketing experts, combined with a healthy dose of timidity amongst film executives. White leads poll better with the majority white audience, and film execs are very resistant to taking risks on expensive films. The endarkening of the one character was an attempt to keep the Asian feel, no doubt, but they probably didn't bother to think about the implications before so doing.

[Teleros]

Pretty much agree with Bakustra on the reasoning behind it. Dunno about everyone else though, but looking at the portraits of the cartoon characters, the one that struck me as looking the most like a white European was the bad guy .

[Artemas]

I always thought of the fire nation dudes as rather darker than everyone else, but I think a great deal of that was due to costume, and general theme.

Though I do wonder where the fuck they would have found blue-eyed inuit.

Maybe the bad guy was actually hired for his expressive eyebrows? (a must for any villain)

[Bakustra]

To be honest, Dev Patel was probably chosen for his role in Slumdog Millionaire, so they could be assured of having an "Asian" young adult star who they know can act.

[Samuel]

I always thought of the fire nation dudes as rather darker than everyone else, but I think a great deal of that was due to costume, and general theme.

The Fire Nation lives around the equator so it is no surprise.

[Formless]

Actually, for me the first thing I noticed that's different between the shots of the live actors and the cartoon characters was how each and every actor looks like he/she's at a funeral. But now that you mention it, the race horseshit is rather cowardly and, sadly, expected coming from Hollywood. That said, I suspect that part of the problem is simply that there aren't a lot of Asian actors of the right age they could have chosen from in the first place, so they likely went with kids they knew could act and do martial arts rather than take a risk on ones they didn't.

[Civil War Man]

I consider the choices for Katara and Sokka to be the more racist of the four. Aang's actor is whiter, and Zuko's actor darker, but the difference in skin tone between them and the cartoon characters is arguably close enough for casting work. But casting lily-white actors for Katara and Sokka can't really be anything but intentional whitewashing or total incompetence.

[Artemas]

Or the dearth of inuit actors?

[Civil War Man]

As I said, there is obviously a bit of fudging when it comes to casting. But I find it hard to believe that they couldn't find actors that were even close in terms of skin tone for Katara and Sokka.

[General Zod]

You'd think the fact that the director of the movie was M. Night would be pretty much a dead giveaway to expect some things to be fucked up. This isn't exactly news, though. Been known for awhile.

[Artemas]

Yeah, they probably could have replaced them with, any sort of brown actors for better effect. But then that gets into the weird anime portrayal of other races, and how they are basically the same race with (occasionally) different skin tone.

I, for one, think Aang looks fucking creepy.

[Formless]

Yeah, they probably could have replaced them with, any sort of brown actors for better effect. But then that gets into the weird anime portrayal of other races, and how they are basically the same race with (occasionally) different skin tone.

I, for one, think Aang looks fucking creepy.

Don't let its choice of aesthetic fool you. Avatar: the Last Airbender is an American production. Not an anime.

[Artemas]

Stylistically, all (that i recall) of the characters were drawn in the typical "anime" style. Slight noses, rounded heads, et cetera. My point is that beside skin tone, in most anime (and anime inspired) works, the actuall race is rather difficult to pin down. For example, Katara and Sokka are dressed as inuit, carry tools and weapons like inuit tools and weapons, et cetera. So I assumed they were inuit. Going exclusively by their facial features and skin tone though (and keeping in mind the context of anime-drawn races), they could be anywhere from a swarthy or tanned european, to east asian, inuit, south asian, north african, hispanic, or other. Which really opens up the casting options anyway.

[Simon_Jester]

This is definitely an example of systemic racism in Hollywood in the casting.

We have yet to see whether the systemic racism will pass through the production-product barrier and infect the movie itself... but that's just because the movie hasn't come out yet.

[Erik von Nein]

The style of the show was meant more to invoke Chinese animation in particular than anime in general. Though most cartoons will have similar stylistic choices for expressiveness and such.

[mr friendly guy]

How can Hollywood get away with this blatantly racist bullshit? It's like they think every fantasy movie needs to have white protagonists, even if the fantasy world is explicitly not based on Western cultures. What's next, a movie set in Africa with white actors playing African characters? Wait, they've done that too---think most movies set in ancient Egypt.

One word. Othello. I remember people bitching when I was in high school how traditional White roles had gone to black people and they mentioned Othello when IIRC Lawrence Fishbaurne played the title role. Ok I am not a fan of Shakesphere, but I am pretty sure Othello being a Moor would have dark skin.

I most probably will watch the last airbender. Just not at the cinema, and planning to watch it for pretty much free, ie borrow it off someone when the DVD comes out because watching free movies online is sooo wrong and will deprive Hollywood of their much needed cash. Part of the reason is this casting choice and the other is because its by the same guy which gave us the "Happening" and a host of other movies which after reading the spoilers I realised it wasn't worth my time.

While some of my favourite shows has white actors playing Asian characters, Kung Fu the Legend Continues springs to mind with the awesome David Carradine, I do think its ridiculous that they can't find Asian actors to play characters which seem Asian in this day and age, even if they have to look abroad. We have seen some Jet Li and Jackie Chan films, and while these actors weren't unknown in the Asian market, I believe at one point they were barely known in the Western markets so the double whammy of casting unknowns plus non white actors effecting the bottom line seems weak.

I should also point out that at the Beijing olympics when it was found out those actors representing Chinese ethnic minorities in traditional dress were not played by ethnic minorities but from a Han Chinese acting troupe (which no one actually tried to hide that) people starting labelling it "fake" and comparing it a white guy blacking up to play a black man. That is soo stupid on so many levels, but my point is I expect these people to start bitching about the Last Airbender's casting choice, but I know that will never happen.

I should also point that some recent Chinese productions they do make an effort to get Caucasian actors to play White characters. That is they no longer have a Chinese actress put on a wig and pretend to be a Russian noblewoman like they did in the 80s. If the poorer Chinese film industry can do it why can't Hollywood.

[Vehrec]

Yeah, they probably could have replaced them with, any sort of brown actors for better effect. But then that gets into the weird anime portrayal of other races, and how they are basically the same race with (occasionally) different skin tone.

I, for one, think Aang looks fucking creepy.

[sarcasm]Obviously, Edward Elric is Japanese in ethnicity. After all, his name, hair color, culture and other factors are unimportant. He was created in Japan, ergo he's Japanese. Never mind that in some of the later animated movies had him in Munich watching Nazi rallies, and not being lynched or anything. He's Japanese, and that's all there is to it.[/sarcasm]

[Dalton]

Just to play devil's advocate, maybe they just couldn't find decent enough Asian actors to fill the roles. It's unfair to automatically assume racism when the rationale behind the casting process isn't even known.

[mr friendly guy]

The thing is they specifically asked for Caucasian actors plus any other ethnicity, and they applied this rule for the good guys, but then for the fire nation (of which most of them were the bad guys) they asked for near eastern, middle eastern, far eastern, asian, mediterranean, latino actors. Its like the good guys are white people but the bad guys are non whites. I think its mentioned every significant fire nation role was given to a non white actor except the previous incarnation of the Avatar.

[Setzer]

I always thought of the fire nation dudes as rather darker than everyone else, but I think a great deal of that was due to costume, and general theme.

Though I do wonder where the fuck they would have found blue-eyed inuit.

Maybe the bad guy was actually hired for his expressive eyebrows? (a must for any villain)

They can just give them contact lenses. Or, ignore it. They did for the Harry Potter movies, and no reasonable fans complained.

[Simon_Jester]

How can Hollywood get away with this blatantly racist bullshit? It's like they think every fantasy movie needs to have white protagonists, even if the fantasy world is explicitly not based on Western cultures. What's next, a movie set in Africa with white actors playing African characters? Wait, they've done that too---think most movies set in ancient Egypt.

...V. Rex, you do realize that unless you go out of your way to find the relative handful of North African actors out there, the people you cast in a movie about ancient Egypt aren't going to look right no matter what? Nigerians don't look any more like Egyptians than Swedes do, by and large.

[sarcasm]Obviously, Edward Elric is Japanese in ethnicity. After all, his name, hair color, culture and other factors are unimportant. He was created in Japan, ergo he's Japanese. Never mind that in some of the later animated movies had him in Munich watching Nazi rallies, and not being lynched or anything. He's Japanese, and that's all there is to it.[/sarcasm]

Interestingly, the Nazis were surprisingly cool with the Japanese, and with East Asians in general. They weren't one of the racial groups Hitler had a beef with, and they weren't actually in Germany's way, so they got off largely free from persecution.

[Lord Relvenous]

I think its mentioned every significant fire nation role was given to a non white actor except the previous incarnation of the Avatar.

Which continues the "white=hero" theme of casting. At first blush, this looks like whitewashing and I find it disappointing but not really surprising. I would much rather had a movie that held more closely to the visual cues of the cartoon.

[Koolaidkirby]

The thing is they specifically asked for Caucasian actors plus any other ethnicity, and they applied this rule for the good guys, but then for the fire nation (of which most of them were the bad guys) they asked for near eastern, middle eastern, far eastern, asian, mediterranean, latino actors. Its like the good guys are white people but the bad guys are non whites. I think its mentioned every significant fire nation role was given to a non white actor except the previous incarnation of the Avatar.

well to be fair they probably cast the fire nation around the kid playing Zuko (wouldn't make sense for an indian kid to have a white family ruling a country of chinamen now would it?)

[Admiral Valdemar]

Or, indeed, Chinese...