Columnists
The business of colour
Any reasonable Hollywood executive would tell you the decision to cast Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi—the lead character in the live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese manga series Ghost in the Shell—was purely a business decision. Johansson is probably the most marketable actress in Hollywood today. And the character she plays, despite her name, is ethnically ambiguous in the manga series, with wide, blue eyes and straight, black hair. In the still image Paramount Pictures released last month, Johansson seems like a good fit.
So why are so many people outraged by the fact that an actress of Scandinavian descent was cast as the lead in the Hollywood imagining of a Japanese series? Is it the same mildly racist fan purism that caused outrage when Quvenzhané Wallis was cast as a black version of Annie? Is it whitewashing (the modern and less blatantly racist version of blackface; casting white people to play non-white roles)? And why should we care?
In theory, it shouldn’t matter what ethnicity an actor is to play a character, if that character originates in the comic book world, and especially if that character’s ethnicity is not intrinsic to the plot.
Yes, the original Annie was white with red hair and freckles. But making the title character a black girl for the 2014 incarnation didn’t affect her story. Similarly, Major Kusanagi (or, as Johansson’s character will be called, The Major) can be any ethnicity without affecting the storyline.
What seems to be upsetting some people is the lack of equity for actors who are ethnic minorities. And that’s just show business. The real problem is what we see. Hollywood obviously doesn’t have any sort of legal obligation for ethnic parity, but the films created by major studios still represent a large part of the pop culture everyone in the world is exposed to.
When decisions are made to cast white actors for their marketability, those are decisions the Hollywood marketing machine is making about the ethnic diversity everyone is exposed to. As Ridley Scott distastefully said of his film, Gods of Egypt, he had to cast the Scottish Gerard Butler to play an Egyptian deity because someone named Mohammed wouldn’t sell.
Racism, veiled by financial motivation, affects everyone who watches these movies.
It’s not the only reason people are right to be upset by the decision. Hollywood has a very complicated history with its depiction of minorities. While blackface has been taboo for decades, even when black people are cast to play black roles, lighter skin is still favoured. This year, Afro-Latina Zoe Saldana depicted singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone wearing dark makeup and a prosthetic nose.
Asian characters have also been treated cavalierly, with Mickey Rooney’s painful depiction of a Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961 and Gedde Watanabe’s cliché-filled depiction of a Japanese exchange student in Sixteen Candles that perpetuated racism against Asians for years.
This isn’t the same thing as reimagining the ethnicity of a fictional character, of course. But it provides context for the frustration behind it. And while it might not bother you, the next time you watch a Hollywood movie, take note. How many main characters are white? How many minorities are depicted as stereotypes? For viewers who are ethnic minorities, especially in North America, this is a dimension of daily cultural interaction.
With that in mind, the indignation is unsurprising.
Comments (0)