Hollywood Continues to ‘White-Out’ Minority Roles [Video]

January 31, 2015

Even in the 21st century, the systematic removal of color within big name movies to appeal to a Western audience is still a common practice throughout Hollywood. This practice that was seen throughout Hollywood’s early years is still trickling its way through to today’s most recent high-profile blockbuster movies. Movies such as Exodus:Gods and Kings, The Last Airbender, The Lone Ranger, Batman Begins, The Hunger Games, 21, Prince of Persia, Argo and the most recent casting of the lead in the live action Ghost in the Shell film all share the same bad habit of “whitewashing” minority character leads to appeal to a white audience. The elimination of people of color in leading roles for a white counterpart not only shows a racial insensitivity to minorities, but blocks the chance of a breakout role for a person of color in an industry that already lacks much diversity.

In every generation of Hollywood there is a progression of Oscar-worthy flicks that accurately portray minorities in a positive light, but there are still those few films that cancel out their roles completely. The recent Exodus: Gods and Kings blatantly disregards the fact that Egyptians in biblical times were not white. Director Ridley Scott’s choice to cast Australian actors Christian Bale as the heroic Moses and King Rhamses is not only cultural insensitive, but horribly historically inaccurate. Considering that the pyramids were not constructed during the time of Rhamses’ rule either, the story’s timeline makes absolutely no sense and shows a clear laziness to respect the history of the nation. There should be no surprise that it ended up getting banned in Egypt for the fallacies of both history and religion. Scott’s only defense as to why he chose the majority-white cast was a blunt statement about finding the proper finances to get the movie greenlit.

A sad and appalling truth to the continuing trend in Hollywood for casting white characters over minorities is the lack of funding if the cast is comprised mostly of minorities. This could explain the reason that many lead minority roles have gone to white actors. Disney’s Prince of Persia’s lead role was given to prominent actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Mena Sevari was cast as the lead role of Stuck, a film inspired by the true events of African-American Chante Jewan Mallard. Ben Affleck may have received praise for his portrayal of Tony Mendez in the Oscar-winning film Argo, but it still does not take away from the fact that the real life character is Hispanic. Similar to Affleck’s role, the fictional character Kadniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games trilogy is described in the books as being non-white in appearance, unfortunately it seems that Jennifer Lawrence was more available than any other minority actress. A recurring issue that can not be fixed with just a simple spray tan and darker hair.

Although not a lead role, Johnny Depp’s role of the Native American Tonto in Disney’s The Lone Ranger continued the same whitewashing that took place in the original late-50’s source material. Liam Neeson is a great actor and is well-known throughout Hollywood for his high-grossing action flicks, but his portrayal as the Arabic villain Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins was greatly off from the source material and took away a chance for another Middle Eastern actor to break through in a major blockbuster film.

It would seem that after the backlash that The Last Airbender received from casting a majority of white actors to portray characters originally written as being of Asian descent would have been a clear sign that America is ready for a change from the norm. The casting of Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kutanagi may have got Dreamworks Studios the green light to go into production, but it blatantly ignores the fact that there are still prominent Asian-American action stars who could have done the character justice. Actresses such as Maggie Q (Priest, Nikita, Divergent, Live Free or Die Hard), who is not only a rising star but has proven to have the acting and action chops to make a convincing leader of an counter-terrorist group. The well-known Ziyi Zhang was a go-to in the late 90s to early 2000s for her ability to bring in big numbers at the box office, as well as for her tutelage in martial arts. Other new fresh-faced actresses such as Bingbing Fan (X-Men:Days of Future Past, Iron Man 3), Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim, 47 Ronin), Constance Wu (Fresh off the Boat) and Muay Thai boxer/actress Juju Chan (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, Fist of the Dragon) may not be as well known to Hollywood, but are on the rise and would be considerably more culturally sensitive for these roles.

Though the debate could be that minority actors and actresses do not hold as much weight in the Hollywood box office as a white lead, this is just a common myth and excuse to continue the white-washing trend. Movies like Lee Daniel’s The Butler, The Help, 12 years a Slave and 2014’s Annie have all amassed critical praise and large box office numbers in Hollywood with a ethnically diverse cast. Director/writer/producer/actor Tyler Perry grossed over 130 million dollars and topped Forbes’ 2010-2011 list of the highest paid entertainers with just five movies on his resume. The draw of audience members to minority-rich and culturally diverse movies is there – the only one who does not recognize the strength of the minority is Hollywood.

Opinion By Tyler Cole