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An episode of Aziz Ansari’s severely acclaimed Netflix show Master of None not too long ago sparked (or slightly, re-sparked) a dialogue about depictions of race in Hollywood. In the episode, aptly titled “Indians on TV,” Ansari’s persona, Dev, struggles to seek out paintings as an Indian-American actor. First he's asked to do an Indian accent, and then, after auditioning for a role on a television display with a fellow Indian-American actor, he comes to the belief that the studios “just don’t need two Indian dudes starring in a sitcom.”
(*10*)Not handiest is it tricky (even in 2015) for people of color to search out good, well-rounded roles in Hollywood, taking part in actual people as an alternative of stereotypes, however there’s additionally the added impediment of whitewashing, during which white actors, through the use of blackface, brownface, and yellowface, play people of color.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia makes gentle of the placement in the course of the ongoing debate between Mac and Dennis about whether or now not it’s ever suitable to do blackface. Dennis expresses his concerns about Mac’s use of blackface in Lethal Weapon 5, while Mac argues, “So much of nice actors have achieved blackface.” And he’s proper. Some of the largest names within the industry have carried out blackface, yellowface, and brownface. With that during mind, let’s check out ten examples, some of which may shock you.
(*10*)10. Emma Stone - Aloha (2015)
Critically acclaimed director Cameron Crowe solid fair skinned Emma Stone for the character of Allison Ng, who is one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Hawaiian, in the movie Aloha, which didn't truthful well with critics and audiences alike (you'll understand how that appears to be a trend with films that have examples of whitewashing).
In reaction to the grievance of his casting selection, Crowe offered an apology and explained that Stone’s character was once actually not meant to have a lot resemblance to her heritage, however some still see it for example of Hollywood’s insufficient representation of people of color.
9. Peter Sellers - The Party (1968)
Legendary British comic and actor Peter Sellers was once well-known for immersing himself in his roles. And he did simply that for the 1968 comedy The Party, dressed in darkish makeup and striking on an accent to play the role of Hrundi Bakshi, an Indian actor who is by chance invited to a Hollywood birthday celebration. The comedy of the movie revolves around Bakshi’s false impression of Western tradition.
(*10*)The use of brownface in The Party is continuously overshadowed by the film’s experimental nature and warm reception, but the stereotypes aren't any less prevalent. Like Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Bakshi is a bumbling figure who stands in comedic contrast to the remaining of the mostly white solid.
8. Mickey Rooney - Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
Legendary actor Mickey Rooney and his portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi, a Japanese guy, in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the first thing that comes to maximum people’s minds once they consider stereotypical depictions of Asians in film. In the movie, Rooney dons goofy massive tooth and thick glasses, with darkened pores and skin and taped eyes, and he speaks in a daft accent. He also fumbles across the screen, bumping into stuff and typically making a fool of himself while serving because the film’s major comedian figure. His role in the film marks a disconcerting development in Hollywood, through which people of color serve as clown-like figures.
(*10*)7. Fisher Stevens - Short Circuit 2 (1988)
Let’s continue with the film that was discussed throughout the episode of Master of None: Short Circuit 2. It's a silly comedy from 1988 about an Indian scientist named Benjamin Jahrvi and his adventures with a robotic. The problem is that Jahrvi is played by means of Fisher Stevens, a white actor from Chicago, Illinois. To play the function of an Indian, Stevens’s skin color was once darkened with makeup and he put on an Indian voice. To his credit score, Stevens played the role so convincingly that it took Ansari years to figure out the real race of the actor.
Ansari lately spoke with Stevens about the movie for a work in The New York Times, through which he mentioned that he felt as even though his ethnicity had been mocked. While he did say that there are more Indian people on TV and in films this present day, he also said the fact that Hollywood still has an extended approach to move.
(*10*)6. Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart (2007)
Although handpicked for the role by way of the individual upon whom the nature was once primarily based, Angelina Jolie’s role as Mariane Pearl, a journalist of Afro-Chinese-Cuban descent, in A Mighty Heart was viewed as but every other example of whitewashing in Hollywood. With reasonably darker pores and skin and curly hair, Jolie’s transformation wasn’t an overly drastic one, however nonetheless Teresa Wiltz of The Washington Post on the time puzzled if it wasn’t “the newest entry in the American canon of blackface - 21st-century style?” Sure, it’s now not moderately at the stage of a minstrel show, nevertheless it’s yet some other example of a task being taken away from a person of color and given to a white particular person.
(*10*)5. Mike Myers - The Love Guru (2008)
Mike Myers’ The Love Guru, which put a halt to the Canadian comedian’s occupation, appears to be more influenced through Sellers’s stereotypical presentation of Indians and different brownface portrayals than actual Indian culture. That is, Guru Pitka hits on virtually all of the stereotypes and isn’t so much a character as a spoof. While Meyers doesn’t wear brownface within the film, he does communicate in an Indian accent and put on vibrant caftans with lengthy hair and a long beard, which was enough for some members of the Hindu group to accuse Myers of creating a mockery of Hindu tradition. As one Hindu leader said of the film, “[People] could have an image in their minds of stereotypes. They will suppose most of us are like that.”
4. John Wayne - The Conqueror (1956)
By no approach a classic, and considered by way of many to be one of the worst films of all-time, The Conqueror tells the story of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire. And of all the actors on the earth, John Wayne, who was born in Iowa and grew up in California and was largely well-known for enjoying tough Americans, played the role of Khan. So it’s no marvel that his position in The Conqueror is thought of as one of the worst casting choices in cinema historical past.
(*10*)To make matters worse, some consider that the film indirectly led to Wayne’s loss of life, because the film was once shot near a nuclear weapons website and a number of other contributors of the cast and workforce (Wayne incorporated) would finally end up demise of cancer.
3. Laurence Olivier - Othello (1965)
While he surely wasn’t the first white actor to play the role (Orson Welles did it in 1952), English actor Laurence Olivier’s portrayal of the Moorish common in Shakespeare’s Othello is remembered by most, perhaps as a result of of how darkish he made his pores and skin, which drew comparisons to Al Jolson’s notorious use of blackface in The Jazz Singer (1927), and because he used a much deeper voice than commonplace and bought a special walking style. Rather than unanimous outrage (even if there was for sure some of that), many critics lauded Olivier’s performance, and he used to be even nominated for an Academy Award.
(*10*)2. Marlon Brando - The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
In one of his less memorable motion pictures, The Teahouse of the August Moon, a 1956 comedy that takes place in Japan in World War II, American actor Marlon Brando performs Sakini, a Japanese interpreter. Like Rooney, Brando portrays the role with darkish skin, darkish hair, squinted eyes, and a stereotypical Asian accent, and prefer Rooney’s Yunioshi, Brando’s Sakini is a comic determine. He’s not silly like Yunioshi, however he’s childlike and innocuous, almost like a Japanese Uncle Tom.
Brando is a particularly unlikely selection for the position of the Japanese interpreter when you consider that, like John Wayne, he used to be known for playing tough guys.
1. Just about everyone in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings, the biblical story of Moses and the Egyptians, is an example of whitewashing in movie on a large scale. Rather than solid Egyptians and Hebrews for the phase of, properly, the Egyptians and the Hebrews, they decided to head with Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Paul, and Sigourney Weaver, who are English, Australian, American, and American, respectively, and, of route, all Caucasian.
(*10*)And you’d suppose the studios would be told from their mistakes, however it appears that’s now not the case, as Alex Proyas’s upcoming Gods of Egypt (2016), which stars Scottish actor Gerard Butler and English actor Rufus Sewell, suffers from the similar lack of diversity as Exodus.
Sources: nytimes.com, telegraph.co.uk, today.com, washingtonpost.com, forbes.com
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