Controversial casting in movies

Hollywood has always cast Asian actors without regard to actual country of origin.

Still do, as when the Korean John Cho took over Sulu in "Star Trek" for the Japanese George Takei.

Seems like they generally work harder to match character to actor's nationality now, though...

 

Exhibit A: The film, Ned Kelly, made in 1970.

Starring in the title role: MICK JAGGER.

For the love of God. Why import an Englishman, and not even an Englishman known for his acting abilities, to portray perhaps the ultimate Australian icon? It's not as though we had no actors in this country.

 

Emma Stone in Aloha

The former was the subject of controversy for whitewashing the cast, as Stone's character was meant to be of Asian, Hawaiian, and Swedish descent. She later regretted the project by acknowledging whitewashing as a widespread problem in Hollywood.[96]

In the new G.I. Joe movie Snake-Eyes, Snake-Eyes is cast with an Asian actor. Some fans are criticizing this because the character was portrayed as a Caucasian blonde when seen unmasked in the comic books.

 

In Great Britain there is controversy over casting a Black actress Jodie Turner-Smith as Queen Anne Boleyn in a three part television drama.

 

How about a 6' John Turturro cast as the 5' 5" Phil Spector in "Grace Of My Heart"?

 

Playing devil's advocate here... What good is being an actor if you can't pretend to be something you aren't? Isn't that the whole idea? Let Peter Dinklage play Paul Bunyon and show me what he's got. Let Jackie Chan play Millard Fillmore. Nothing should be off the table. Brando wasn't Italian. Should he not have played Don Vito Corleone because of it?

 

Nothing wrong with that, in itself. I think the problem is when an actor is miscast - which I would define as not being able to carry off the pretense adequately, whether because of acting ability/inability, wrong physical characteristics, or whatever.

 

Although this never came to fruition, if the Superman film directed by Tim Burton, and starring Nicholas Cage as Superman had come out, it would have been one of the most controversial casting moves of all time, and it just might have come out magnificently. I really wish that version of Superman had been completed.

 

Matt Damon in the Bourne franchise. Too young, too short, not grizzled enough, wrong, wrong, wrong across the board. Daniel Craig would have been perfect.

 

Terrific casting. Made the movie.

 

I recall there was some pushback from a few Brits when Renée Zellweger was cast as the lead in Bridget Jones Diary.

 

Casting choices like that one led to J.K. Rowling insisting on British actors for the Harry Potter series. I guess she had nightmares of Tom Cruise playing Harry Potter (he is about the right height though).

 

Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone in Nina. I've not seen the film but apparently there was quite an uproar (especially from the estate of Nina Simone) about her casting.

 

Absolutely agreed. In a remake of a movie known for it's beautiful music you shouldn't cast someone who can't sing as the lead.
The autotune they used to correct her voice makes the songs sound horrendous and fake.

 

I actually can’t believe he took the role.

 

It's not so much the casting as the way the role was scripted. Why didn't they just have Mickey play a grumpy old (Irish-American) man yelling about the noise?

 

Vanessa Redgrave, cast as Fania Fenelon in a 1980 CBS tv movie “Playing for Time”. Fenelon was critical about casting Redgrave because of her political views on Israel

Playing for Time (film) - Wikipedia

 

I would say in retrospect but it was pretty common to cast white actors to play an Asian. It was still tone deaf then (IMHO) as when I saw the film as a kid I thought he was awful.

He was laughably bad in it as well.

 

Ghost in the Shell? The character was a soul (ghost) in a machine not to nitpick. The other character played by Michael Pitt was supposed to be Japanese.

 

Was that a popular book series everyone should have read?

 

Bryan Cranston in The Upside was an eye opener for me. At first, I thought it was silly, but then I heard interviews with quadriplegic actors who said how much they wished they had a shot at the part. I'm not sure what the solution here is, but it made me think about it at least.

 

Gene Hackman in French Connection. Mainly with the cast as they did not believe he could do the part.

 

There was controversy when Vivien Leigh, a British actress, was cast in the role as Southern belle Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With the Wind.

AFAIK there wasn’t any similar reaction when she played Blanche DuBois years later in A Streetcar Named Desire.

 

Fckin Eddie Egan didn’t think he do the part. But Gene pushed himself. He’s pretty damn good.

 

Absolutely!