When someone like Scarlett Johansson is cast
as the lead in an adaptation of a Japanese
comic franchise, it’s important to understand
that the ensuing anger isn’t just about that movie.
And it’s not just about Tilda Swinton playing
a Tibetan character in Marvel’s Doctor Strange.
Or Emma Stone claiming to be part
Chinese and Hawaiian in Aloha.
“My dad was half-Chinese and half-Hawaiian,
and my mother is Swedish.”
It’s how all of these casting decisions
combined, dating back to the earliest days
of Hollywood, have made asians invisible at
best, and at worst, the butt of a cruel joke.
That’s why fans notice when the characters
from the Last Airbender cartoon become much
lighter-skinned for the live-action movie.
And when John Rico goes from being Filipino
in the novel Starship Troopers, to being played
by someone named Casper Van Dien.
"I want to try it again, but this time
we need you to do an accent."
The fact is, things aren’t getting better
fast enough for Asians in Hollywood.
In 1944, Aline MacMahon was nominated for
an Oscar for her yellowface role in Dragon Seed.
Later on, Linda Hunt would win an Oscar for
playing a Chinese man in The Year of Living Dangerously.
“Billy Kwan”
That was 1982. Almost 40 years later. Basically
everything else in the country had changed
except white people being cast as Asians.
For a solid two decades, the Chinese detective
character Charlie Chan was played by white
men in makeup.
But that was the 30s and 40s right?
Well here’s Jim Sturgess and Hugo Weaving
reincarnated as Koreans for parts of Cloud
Atlas. “Who are you?”
Everyone remembers Mickey Rooney’s infamous
1961 performance in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
as just fully unacceptable and racist right?
“Miss Golightly.”
Well 24 years later, Joel Grey delivered this
Korean caricature in Remo Williams. “I think
I can do something with him.”
And another 2 decades later, here’s Rob
Schneider in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
“Now the rings are a symbol of eternity”
Schneider is a quarter Filipino, so….progress?
Or how about Peter Sellers’ 1968 role as
a clueless Indian man at a dinner party?
“You really crushed my old Indian hand.”
A full 20 years later, Fisher Stevens was in
brownface for Short Circuit 2. “It’s not
possible. We are the type of people who…”
And another 24 years after that, Ashton Kutcher
is doing this in a Popchips commercial.
I'm  Raj. I’m a Bollywood producer. I’m looking
for the most delicious thing on the planet.”
Arguably worse than white people playing Asian
characters is white people playing real life
Asian humans, which is what happened to
Cora Lijeck in Argo
and to Jeffrey Ma, who appeared in the movie 21
as this character even though in real life
he was this guy.
“Ben Campbell was the most gifted student at MIT.”
It’s not surprising that directors want
to hire big names to attract producers and funding
But when they want to do stories about Asians
and won’t cast Asian actors, they should
know the blowback against that has been building
for the better part of a century
“Sakini by name. Interpreter by profession.”
One of the early examples of a white cast
playing Asian characters was The Good Earth
in 1937, based on the hugely popular novel
by Pearl S. Buck. There was an Asian actress
who wanted the lead part. Her name was Anna May
Wong, and she was basically the only Chinese-American
movie star at the time. One of the reasons that
MGM reportedly snubbed her was that in the
30s and 40s Hollywood was censored by a moral
code, and it prohibited things like nudity
and profanity, but also interracial romance.
So once they cast a white man to play Wang Lung,
they couldn’t cast Wong to play his wife.
The role went to a German-born actress named
Louise Rainer,
and she went on to win an Oscar for it.
