Can you tell the difference?
There are many complaints about today's movies such as the lack of imagination and how profitable it is to make a sequel, remake, o live action adaptation. These have been issues for a while now, but there is a more recent problem people are having that has spawned from these very issues. And simply put, the issue people are having is when an actor is cast to play the role of a character of another race. However, where it gets complicated is that there's two sides to the fence. One side is the act of hiring a white person to play a role that doesn't match their race. This has been dubbed white washing and has become distasteful, disrespectful, and generally bad practice to most critics and fans. While the other side of the fence is when a race that's not abundantly shown on TV is hired to play the role of a white character or simply a character that is a different ethnicity.
One of the more recent and publicized occurrences of this came about during the casting for the Hellboy reboot. Ed Skrein has made a statement essentially saying that he doesn't want to be a part of Hollywood's white washing tendencies. This was after the actor leaned that the character he'd be portraying was of another race, and once he did he respectfully turned down his offer.
My gut reaction is that he's making a mistake turning something that may help propel his career even higher then it already is. But it seems like he's getting a lot of support and publicity or his actions. So in the end his decision may drive more attention his way then the film would have. But is this the same as a black actor taking on the role of an otherwise Japanese character? I ask this because we recently saw this exact instance thanks to the newly released Netflix movie Death Note.
Although I wouldn't recommend seeing the movie, I will use it as an example of being inclusive. By that I mean providing the same opportunity to all races and genders in terms of working in Hollywood. And the reason I use this as an example is because of how well Lakeith Stanfield played the roll of L. L is a very odd character that can be easily over done, but Stanfield pulls it off despite some poor plot and writing decisions.
With that said, my opinion is this, unless the actor can prove to me that he can pull of the roll I'd like to see movies stick to their source material. I mean, when Skrein stepped away from Hellboy, the comic book's creator, Mike Mignola even thanked Ed Skrein. To me, this proves that the creator behind the source material might have a vision of the character and how it fits into the story. But if there is a way to branch away from the norm and be more inclusive in terms of character race I'm all for it.
But what do you think? Has there been an actor choice you questioned in the past, and if so, who?
My gut reaction is that he's making a mistake turning something that may help propel his career even higher then it already is. But it seems like he's getting a lot of support and publicity or his actions. So in the end his decision may drive more attention his way then the film would have. But is this the same as a black actor taking on the role of an otherwise Japanese character? I ask this because we recently saw this exact instance thanks to the newly released Netflix movie Death Note.
With that said, my opinion is this, unless the actor can prove to me that he can pull of the roll I'd like to see movies stick to their source material. I mean, when Skrein stepped away from Hellboy, the comic book's creator, Mike Mignola even thanked Ed Skrein. To me, this proves that the creator behind the source material might have a vision of the character and how it fits into the story. But if there is a way to branch away from the norm and be more inclusive in terms of character race I'm all for it.
But what do you think? Has there been an actor choice you questioned in the past, and if so, who?
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