Now that I'm sufficiently calm enough, it's time to rant. And I'll endeavor to make this as simple and straightforward as possible.
This is my reaction to the latest news about the movie adaptation of my favorite piece of animation, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Those who know me know I'm an uber-fan of that series. I could say a hundred things about it, but I'll summarize it by giving it the best compliment I can give: It's a wonderfully-written piece of art, and I doubt that I could have written it better.
When I first heard about the live-action movie, I had qualms, since I felt that Avatar as a setting and environment was strictly best as an animation. Then I heard that M. Night Shyamalan was directing. That made me even more nervous. Shyamalan's previous works belong to a completely different genre and mood from that of Avatar, and some of his previous directing decisions have been somewhat... dubious. And then, I heard about the casting. I read that the casting criteria when seeking Aang didn't have racial parameters.
Uh-oh. I then mused on a terrible scenario: That Aang's role might go to that of a Caucasian.
When it comes to casting roles in adaptations, I by default insist that established racial lines be adhered to as closely as possible. When that rumor of Will Smith being considered for the role of Captain America came out, I hated the idea, not because of being biased against Will being black, or the actor himself, but simply because Captain America is white, and so he should be portrayed by a white male. It's that easy.
Moving back to Avatar, I still expressed some hope that they would do the casting justice, especially in casting unknowns possessing the proper racial attributes. I mean, how could they get that wrong? One of the wonders of the Avatar setting is that it's predominantly Asian, including the characters and people. And Shymalan himself is Asian. And his daughters were mentioned to be extreme fans of the show. Surely he wouldn't make an error?
I should have known that something terrible would happen when my friends and I began joking about him casting a white Sokka, or a white Mai, or a white Katara. My group of friends tends to have some degree of prophetic power when it comes to our communal jokes.
It was just a few days ago that I discovered the horror.
The HORROR.
From what casting had been revealed, it was not a single mistake. It was a total, complete, shameful whitewash.
Jackson Rathborne, for all the appropriateness of his role in Twilight, was cast as Sokka. Some white babe named Nicola Peltz was given the role of Katara. And Jesse McCartney was given the role of Zuko.
...
...
...
That was the sound of my soul screaming.
This is the pair that discovers the Avatar in the iceberg:
And this is the guy who's chasing after him:
Who's the Avatar? Some kid named Noah Ringer. He's supposed to be practicing karate. Yay. I bet he's white too. [I hope to God I'm wrong on this, since haven't seen a pic of the dude yet, but I'm not hoping very deeply given what I've seen.]
Apologies for the political reference, but I can't help but wince that I discover this after America wised up and elected their first African-American president.
As I hold my head in my hands, I despair at what went wrong. This is the closest that Shyamalan could have come to a direct betrayal. This movie and story is based on so many Asian cultures. And he tosses in the whitest cast I've ever seen. Nice going. What? They were chosen for their talent? Is Shyamalan and his casting director (if he has one) saying they couldn't find a single non-white actor that could fit any of those roles?
You've got no idea what you're doing, Shyamalan. What little respect I had for you is gone now. I hope your daughters crucify you for this BLASPHEMY.
Meanwhile, we wait in dread for the rest of the cast announcements. I wonder which cherubesque blondie they'll cast for Toph. I'll be printing that actress's picture along with that of the rest of the cast, attaching it to Shyamalan's effigy and setting the lot on FIRE.
Bah.
10 comments:
This has gotten a lot of people upset as well and are trying to do something about it:
http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/
Thanks for your blog post! It's always good to find more people angry about this.
There is not enough tears in the world to weep this bastardization.
Likewise shymalan cannot die enough times to be forgiven for this.
Just to let you know.. according to IMDB, Zuko is going to be played by Dev Patel, who is not Caucasian.
@ Maeglyn: Yeah, I'd heard about that in the long hiatus I wasn't blogging. Dev Patel being cast for Zuko helps, but it doesn't redeem Paramount in any way, shape or form. Jesse McCartney would still be playing the role if he didn't choose to bow out for miscellaneous reasons. Further, you don't see the other members of the main cast being changed. So now, we have the wonderful concept of an Asian being cast in the evil role, while the good white heroes try and defeat him. Yay. If switching to Dev was a casting decision based on racial sensitivity, then they would have changed the actors playing Sokka and Katara too.
EXACTLY! E X A C T L Y !!!!!!!! WTF??? WTF???and also, dev patel was amazing in slamdog m.,but for crying out loud! he's not zuko!he's so damn perky,isnt that's what u call it?so freaking smily all the time!AND I DONT THINK HE CAN DO THE ROUGH VOICE EITHER! AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT GIRL?????she CANNOT pull it off she cannot! neither does 'jasper'.... none of them can.u know what? its pathetic.thats what it is.because theyre all famous,they pick them.or cause theyre pretty or sth.i wanna cry....the avatar has changed me so much+one can learn a lot from it AND NOW THIS!ITS EXALCTLY THIS:BLASPHEMY.AAAAAA!+u know what?lets say its ok that theyre all white.but ATLEAST SWITCH DEV PATEL FOR THE JASPER!AT LEAST! AND I;M SURE THERE ARE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DYING FOR SUCH A CHANCE +R ACTUALLY WORTH IT,BUT NOONE CARES CAUSE ALL THEY'RE AFTER IS PROFIT!THE STUPID SHORT-TERM PROFIT SOCIETY!...and i dont even like the idea of a movie....why do they have to switch it,WHY?since they cant pull it off....such a discrace,i'm so ashamed....theyre ruining everything +i'm going t watch their stupid movie cause i have to + then i'm gonna hate avatar for ever,because i wont be able to get the stink off.....i wanna cry....
The long-term plan, assuming they make no further changes to the cast, is to boycott the film, convince as many people as possible to boycott the film, and make sure the studio makes as little profit as possible. Hopefully, that will result in them no longer making a second and third film.
I'll content myself with collecting the complete DVD sets of the animated series.
Re: Dev Patel as Zuko, Shyamalan has gone on record that the Fire Nation will now be made up predominantly of Indian heritage. My problem with this is; you will now have an all-white hero group...being pursued by a bunch of "evil" people-of-colour. Good image! Also, he's said that this decision was made because he wants to play uncle Iiro himself.
What's going on Ritch!
Good discussion! Now it is time for me to weigh in. Now being a Black Canadian male Im not a stranger to the racial divide. Its hard for ethnics in this White driven media society to get acurate potrayls of themsleves.
For some reasons white hollywood thinks that we can't sell seats. They think the only way an Asian can sell a seat is if he is doing some sort of martial art or if the Asian female is some sort of sexual object for the white male to exploit sexually. Look through the history of hollywood film and you will probably see this trend.
This is why this avatar situation really upsets me because you have a great potential to set an awesome example to promote Asians in film.
I guess we feel that since OBAMA got into the white house we are all going to join hands and sing "we shall overcome", but the fact of the matter is, humans play roles, and Obama is playing one just like the rest of us. He won't make the sweeping changes that is needed in the world, because the world don't change through peace.
Anyways i'm getting off track.
Now, to go and cast white people in this movie is just a slap in the face. Especially when the cartoon cast is clearly Asian. I mean if we did an african based world with black people, would it make since to turn the cast white?
So basically what White hollywood is saying is this:
"Asians are close to white, so, what the heck, lets just make them white."
I find it really funny in this instance how Asians can pass as white when before American born Asians were placed on concentration camps within America.
They were clearly not considered white then.
And getting shaymalam-ma-ding-dong to do this is just an attempt to say, "Look the director is brown and he hired white people so don't blame us."
I don't mean to sound harsh to white people, but give us a chance dammit.
I mean lets look at the film the "forbidden kingdom". I think this movie was the first time JACKY CHAN and JET LI, starred in a film together. If was to do this film i would make it about a disenfranchised Asian youth "white washed" by America discovering the power and the heritage that lies within his blood. But the way the film is portrayed is about some white boy's ultimate fantasy of being an almost pseudo character within a real life kung fu movie.
Out side the exploitative factor of the story the white boy doesn't really know the people he's dealing with.
I'm not even Asian and I am so angry at this situation. IF this is how it is why not make Bruce Wanye black, or Wonder Woman Chinese, or Spider Man Native American. That shit would never happen in a million wears. Because their is a certain empowerment that comes with those roles.
The Cat Woman movie could be considered the only exception to this rule, but since Cat Woman is basically a sexual character it fits in the stereotype of ethic women being portrayed as sexual beings and their bodies being objectified. Thus this change of race is accepted.
I don't know what to say my friends, this is straight up BULLSHIT! We need to get our own producers and gate keepers in hollywood to get the films we want made, made. If not White hollywood will continue to speak for us.
P.S- I don't think Dev Patel is a good choice for Zuko either. He's good in slum dog, but that role matched him. This role doesn't. He should walk away from this one.
DREAL
Being a fan of Avatar, seeing the character selection which is not related to the actual character, it really hurts. As you said, the only way to make them realize is to boycott the movie. At least then, they may try to cast realistically for second and third part (if they take)
No I agree! I am white... and black, and native america... The list goes on. Why is it they couldn't have found a better cast. I mean Jackson Rathbone? And what about Zuko, even in the new casting he looks nothing like the original character!! WHY?
I recently blogged about it as well:
http://serastoff.blogspot.com
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