Whitewashing Roles in Movies and TV

This has been an issue in Western and especially American media for years, the whitewashing of roles in movies and tv. There are so many actors of color who are robbed of their chance to showcase their talent due to whitewashing and also the status of an actor. For instance, the  movie, The Great Wall, set in ancient China, has a main character of Matt Damon, who is of European descent and identifies as white. Matt Damon is the hero in the movie that helps the Chinese people fight off lizard-alien invaders. This role could of easily, and would have made a lot more sense, if it was given to a person of Chinese decent. There are plenty of Chinese-American actors or actresses that could have filled this role and executed it. But this is just simply another show that American media is being whitewashed, a country with so many different cultures and ethnicities should have movies and actors that represent that, whilst also being successful.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think that this is an example of the white savoir complex. The casting directors could have easily found a Chinese-American actor (like you mentioned), but they "had" to make sure that the white person saved the day.
January 11, 2020 at 6:10 PM
Anonymous said…
I for sure agree with you. A lot of white actresses and actors have become part of the problem by deciding to take a role that should've gone to a person of color. An example of this is Scarlett Johansson. One of her roles was to initially play an Asian character. I feel like if white actors, directors, producers, etc. weren't so tone deaf, we would see less whitewashing in the film industry.
January 14, 2020 at 8:57 PM
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