Discrimination in movie casting seems to be alive and well :(

[Octoberist]

While i understand the title of The Last Samarai (plural), the movie ends with Cruise in a very heroic and 'romantic' way. It really takes away from Ken Wanabee's character along with the rest of the clan, intentional or not.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Thank you Figs, all this time and people still don't get that Ken Watanabe and his men were The Last Samurai, Cruise character Nathan Algren was the audience's eyes into their world.

We already have a thread on this Rourke casting but the debate seems to have grown legs so I'll leave this thread separate.

I found it odd reading through here and seeing Denzel and Morgan being mentioned yet no one mentioned that right now the biggest movie star in the world and most bankable actor on the planet is Will Smith, an African American.

Things take time, it took time for black actors to become leads but in time it has happened, right now there are not a lot of Asian American actors or even musicians making their way into popular culture, if this starts to happen eventually a studio will take a shot at making an Asian American the lead in a movie, and I don't just mean a one where the character is a figure that is supposed to be Asian.

On a side note I am very interested to see how JJ Abrams new Spy show The Undercovers does later this year, to my knowledge this is the first big network action series to feature both male and female African American leads.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

The Last Samurai is an anti-US story though. It's essentially about an American who has lost faith in his own country finding honour in a different one.

 

[Bruce Malone]

People, the fact is a lot of this actually has to do with overseas issues.
I remember reading an article describing how films that do not feature white leads do not fair as well internationally.

The overseas market is becoming bigger and hollywood is taking note of that. Its not right but ww a white male lead is kind of the generic stock character movies that make alot of money in all parts of the world need.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

ummmm..... Johnny Depp is supposedly playing Tonto in the Lone Ranger movie

and Johnny Depp is part Cherokee

 

[Matt]

Very good question. I'd actually say he shouldn't have gotten an audition in the first place.

Wouldn't that also be discrimination? To refuse to give him an audition because of his skin color?

 

[baerrtt]

People, the fact is a lot of this actually has to do with overseas issues.
I remember reading an article describing how films that do not feature white leads do not fair as well internationally.

The overseas market is becoming bigger and hollywood is taking note of that. Its not right but ww a white male lead is kind of the generic stock character movies that make alot of money in all parts of the world need.

And yet the biggest movie star internationally is Will Smith today and over 20 years ago it was Eddie Murphy.

IMO any issues regarding the 'modern' era Hollywood's failure to feature more ethnically diverse leads (male and female), strong women's roles etc is simply down to the biases and laziness of movie executives and not supposedly prejudiced audiences. Back in the 'old' days when racial segregation was the norm it was easy to understand why the studios, even those that were relatively liberal, never pushed or hired actors of colour.....until they took a chance on one actor by the name of Sidney Poitier who by the late 60s was the biggest movie star in the world.

The belief that mainstream audiences won't take to films with all ethnic casts has been smashed several times already (regarding the Asian issue CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON pretty much kills any argument that an all Asian cast blockbuster would flop in US cinemas) and yet depressingly somehow execs in 2010 are still peddling such discriminatory BS.

 

[Matt]

But once again, what if Rourke simply gave the best performance? Is it really such a stretch to think that an amazing actor blew the director away? Wouldn't it be discrimination not to cast him in that case?

 

[Ace of Knaves]

The Last Samurai is a poor example. As already said, it's about an American, a white American becoming disgraced by his own people and joining another culture/race.

And the end wasn't really romantic for him, he was honouring the Japanese Samurai.

Am i the only one here who noticed Heimdall in Thor being white in the comics but black in the film?

 

[Iceburgeruk]

The Last Samurai is a poor example. As already said, it's about an American, a white American becoming disgraced by his own people and joining another culture/race.

And the end wasn't really romantic for him, he was honouring the Japanese Samurai.

Am i the only one here who noticed Heimdall in Thor being white in the comics but black in the film?

Well to be fair the entire last samurai film is an example fo hollywood filmmaking. Brilliant asian actors play second fiddle to white name actor. And the event the film is based on wasnt an american fighting with samurai it actually was a band of french mercenaries fighting with samurai. But then that story would have a) not featured an american and b) would have disrupted the american myth that the french are cowards. lol

 

[Ace of Knaves]

I didn't think the Asian actors played second fiddle that much. They were portrayed as utter bad asses, especially Watanabe and the other guy, don't know his name, the one who reeeeeally disliked Cruise's character.

And of course Hollywood changes history to favour America, they do it all the time, especially in war movies.

But in Last Samurai they didn't exactly paint a pretty picture of America. They made America look like pricks to be fair.

 

[Iceburgeruk]

I didn't think the Asian actors played second fiddle that much. They were portrayed as utter bad asses, especially Watanabe and the other guy, don't know his name, the one who reeeeeally disliked Cruise's character.

And of course Hollywood changes history to favour America, they do it all the time, especially in war movies.

But in Last Samurai they didn't exactly paint a pretty picture of America. They made America look like pricks to be fair.

Reguardless of how likable or bad-ass the characters were they were still the supporting cast to tom cruise who was the main actor, the only reason the film got made is that they found a story where they could have a white samurai as the protagonist. Asian, black and central/south american actors havent had too much trouble getting good supporting roles, especially in the last couple of decades, but are still blocked by a hollywood glass ceiling from getting the big roles.
Yes america was portrayed as being sinister but that was countered by them using a sympathetic american as the protagonist. With all respect to Tom Cruise, in my opinion in a fair world Watanabe would be getting loads more starring roles than cruise. With all respect there are a lot of untalented white american actors who have careers just because hollywood wouldnt use better and more skilled minority actors. But then thats just how it goes.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Thank you Figs, all this time and people still don't get that Ken Watanabe and his men were The Last Samurai, Cruise character Nathan Algren was the audience's eyes into their world.

We already have a thread on this Rourke casting but the debate seems to have grown legs so I'll leave this thread separate.

I found it odd reading through here and seeing Denzel and Morgan being mentioned yet no one mentioned that right now the biggest movie star in the world and most bankable actor on the planet is Will Smith, an African American.

Things take time, it took time for black actors to become leads but in time it has happened, right now there are not a lot of Asian American actors or even musicians making their way into popular culture, if this starts to happen eventually a studio will take a shot at making an Asian American the lead in a movie, and I don't just mean a one where the character is a figure that is supposed to be Asian.

On a side note I am very interested to see how JJ Abrams new Spy show The Undercovers does later this year, to my knowledge this is the first big network action series to feature both male and female African American leads.

The female lead is African British. She was on the Doctor Who series.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Reguardless of how likable or bad-ass the characters were they were still the supporting cast to tom cruise who was the main actor, the only reason the film got made is that they found a story where they could have a white samurai as the protagonist. Asian, black and central/south american actors havent had too much trouble getting good supporting roles, especially in the last couple of decades, but are still blocked by a hollywood glass ceiling from getting the big roles.
Yes america was portrayed as being sinister but that was countered by them using a sympathetic american as the protagonist. With all respect to Tom Cruise, in my opinion in a fair world Watanabe would be getting loads more starring roles than cruise. With all respect there are a lot of untalented white american actors who have careers just because hollywood wouldnt use better and more skilled minority actors. But then thats just how it goes.

I get what you are saying. But personally, i think Cruise is a brilliant actor. His weirdness with the scientology crap and fame overshadows his talent a lot of the time i think.

 

[Prison Mike]

Happens all the time. Chinese play Japanese, Koreans playing Japanese, John Wayne playing Genghis Khan, white actors playing native Americans in cowboy movies. It is what it is, live with it or don't watch it. I'm pretty sure they would cast a white person to play an Indian if they can get away with it so my Indian brothers don't have much worry ... wait, just remembered Ben Kingsley playing Gandhi.

Kingsley is half Indian so it's all cool!

 

[terry78]

Yeah, Will Smith is bankable, but all the flicks he's had with a white female lead, no romance was allowed.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

I haven't seen Bad Boys for years but wasn't Tea Leoni his romantic interest?

 

[terry78]

Nah, she was kinda asexual there. He was somewhat of a player, but she was basically just there as a damsel. Hitch is like the only big movie where he gets the girl. I Am Legend, he dies. Seven Pounds, he dies. I, Robot he has some witty repartee with Monyahan but no romance, same as in Hancock, which was just implied.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Ahh ok cool.

 

[Prison Mike]

In I, Robot Monyahan touches his chest. For some people on this forum that's like 3rd base!

 

[Venom]

Wouldn't that also be discrimination? To refuse to give him an audition because of his skin color?

If the role requires a certain ethnicity, then that's quite a justified reason.

 

[ChickenScratch]

ummmm..... Johnny Depp is supposedly playing Tonto in the Lone Ranger movie

When I said "Indian" in my initial post I meant Indian, not native American. Though your point is made I find it odd that I was writing about Ben Kingsley as Gandhi and you bring up Tonto.

 

[san15]

But once again, what if Rourke simply gave the best performance? Is it really such a stretch to think that an amazing actor blew the director away? Wouldn't it be discrimination not to cast him in that case?

Blowing the director away would be quite an amazing feat. Given the fact that he probably doesn’t speak a word of Mongolian. It’s not an EASY language to learn. Therefore I can’t imagine Rourke during the audition dressed for battle as Genghis Khan, while speaking fluent english and not have anyone laughing during the whole process.

Why are Asians NOT good enough to portray themselves? After Rourke made his comeback in The Wrestler, he’s now in Iron Man 2 for goodness sake. The movie will probably make over 140 million this weekend in the U.S. and has already surpassed the century mark overseas. Therefore I wouldn’t feel bad for him if he didn’t get to play Genghis Khan and it’s not like he’ll have an extremely difficult time finding other roles.

You need to understand that the pendulum doesn’t swing both ways. That’s why we never had any highly revered Asian American actors. I wish Hollywood would give more opportunities for minorities, because I refuse to believe Caucasians are usually the BEST actors to portray Asians or any other ethnicities.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

Like Will Smith once said, Hollywood only cares for one color...Green.

 

[BlackLantern]

In I, Robot Monyahan touches his chest. For some people on this forum that's like 3rd base!

and to some a white actress touching a black one is a CRIME AGAINST NATURE!!!!

those people are ******ed