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Scarlett Johansson Says She Has the Right to Portray ‘Any Person’ She Wants
- Thread starter T'Chakku
- Start date
I actually agree with her. A good actor should be able to play and impersonate anyone and anything (if it's done good or bad is different), they shouldn't be limited by physical limitations, it's cinema, anything should be possible. But representation of minorities is a problem nowadays so I can understand the backlash.
User Banned (Permanent): Dismissing concerns of representation, account in junior phase
But she is right. Just like any actor/actress they should be cast onto the role due to their performance and not because they filled a specific social criteria. People have been outraged that Ariel is being played by a black actress or that Motoko was played by a white actress, despite characters only living in the realm of fiction.
I, for one, would prefer the casting of an actor/actress for a particular role to be done solely based on their performance for the role and not be judge constantly because of they don't have a certain feature or attribute or relatability to the source material, especially if it's from a work of fiction.
I, for one, would prefer the casting of an actor/actress for a particular role to be done solely based on their performance for the role and not be judge constantly because of they don't have a certain feature or attribute or relatability to the source material, especially if it's from a work of fiction.
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User Banned (1 Month): Inflammatory False Equivalence and Dismissive Commentary Surrounding Representation; Prior Severe Ban Related to Bigotry
All the name calling here is weird, shes not wrong, and no one seemed to have a problem with Hamilton.
She has the right to play whatever character she wants, and i have the right to not watch or support it financially.
Theres a difference between "i dont like this thing, so im not going to support it" vs "i dont like this thing, so you can't do it".
i've not kept a close eye on scarlett's career but the crux of this has come about from ghost in the shell, right? tough movie to pin a 'bu... bu... art!' defence on.
I mean it seems like it IS mostly white artists fucking up these days lmao...
That said, she hasn't been living in a conservative murica sociopolitical and cultural bubble. You'd think she'd be sensitive and have more damn perspective and common sense of wanting the best for the artform to prevent her from wanting to express something like that and inevitably/likely going all-in on getting defensive in response to the pushback. Her comment basically amounts to "how bout I play whatever fuckin' role I want" in response to her taking on roles with a whitewashing vibe lol. And then there's the phrasing and weird wording smdh. Comments like that imply a "my personal career trumps what's best for the art" mentality, which is something that any good artist knows is toxic and also an early sign of being retired to the pastures of creative irrelevancy.
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This is the most important thing the internet needs to learn.
Money talks and it's heard loud and clear by corporations.
So you condone the scarlet black face film as long as its good?
Bold take
Thank you for your words of wisdom. The internet would now knows of the influence of money thanks to you.
But thats not what she said. Where does she say shell go blackface?
I wish I was that influential. But my message wont reach to the intended recipients. I've seen people say that they dont wamt/agree with something then end up buying it and say "Why dont corporations do the right thing for once"
I mean yes, but also doesn't it get to a point where it makes sense to consider more than JUST talent and/or fame when hiring an actor? Johnny Depp is talented. I mean he's Johnny Depp. Who doesn't love the guy. But there are several native american actors who could/should have had his role in The Lone Ranger. Movies like Exodus and Gods of Egypt are stupider than they should be and while spectacular, each with a solid cast, they're devoid of any cultural value because everyone in it is whiter than the cast of Game of Thrones on a ski slope. Stuff like this is generally what's being considered regarding this topic. Like, if there's a sequel to Django (I think one might've been announced actually) I damn sure don't want him to be played by a white dude. Hell there are some black celebrities who arguably aren't black enough to play Django. You always gotta cast based on talent, but also cultural authenticity matters so you need to factor that in too sometimes.
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The main difference here is that many roles have been whitewashed by Hollywood and leading roles for PoC are far and few.
Hamilton gets a pass because there's plenty of white representation on Broadway.
People are upset with "scarjo" playing a Japanese woman because there are plenty of Asian actresses in Hollywood yet the role was given to a white woman (furthering the narrative that you need a white lead to sell a movie).
Coincidentally, many Asian actresses only get the role of "a victim" or "the girlfriend/love interest" in Hollywood.
Why does this still need to be explained in 2019?
You making the Ariel comparison misses the point of why people were upset about Ghost in the Shell.
Not to mention, do you want to argue that Scarlett was cast in Ghost because of talent and not because the studio wanted a name? Unlike the Ariel casting.
Not as many people would defend her if she wasnt part of marvel. Sadly that's what it comes down to, people really love their marvel films and actors and are willing to overlook the bad things they say or even defend them.
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Her using political correctness nonironically makes it worse
So many people are saying so much stupid shit in interviews recently.
She clearly has this pie in the sky mentality where she is abstracted from real issues in the world.
She clearly has this pie in the sky mentality where she is abstracted from real issues in the world.
I don't really disagree with you. Like I said on my previous post, it's obvious that she is tone deaf and entitled as fuck on that interview. The pattern of her past casting choices reinforces that. With that said, at the very least she seems aware that there is a need for course correction on her line of work, because it is at the end of the day a business, like she says; that doesn't justify her dismissive tone for the reasons why she got called out in the past, much less for doubling it down on this new interview. What I'm saying is that while she is obviously wrong, at least she seems kind of self aware, which I didn't get from the Vulture piece.
Do you not see the problem with "let's not cast a poc because this white actress is more popular?"
And the self fulfilling prophecy of we need to cast a white person cause the white person is popular. Chr helmsworth is cool but if he was a PoC would he still be headlining movies? Outside of the MCU, his career is Walmarts 4 for 5 dollar dvd greatest hits.
Alexander Hamilton did not come from an ethnic minority that historically struggles to find major roles in Hollywood. This is not the same situation at all.
I'm going to give a bit of a hot take here, but I don't think characters should be changed from whatever their original depiction was. I feel this way for Scarjo who shouldn't be playing Asian or other PoC characters, and if that's what she's implying she wants to do then I'll disagree with her on that. However, I really don't agree with Disney changing Ariel to a black person either. She may be a Mermaid, but she was still white nonetheless. I'd rather they just make another Disney Princess who's black like they did with Princess & the Frog. I think that'd have been a much better & less controversial option for them to do.
She's right. And Hollywood shouldn't be afraid of casting actors of different ethnicities to play traditionally white roles despite the potential outrage from racists on social media.
Why does it bother you, exactly?
Whitewashing bothers people for reasons exclusive to whitewashing, that is, roles tailored towards minorities being given to white people. Cases like Ariel usually bother people because, you know, those people are racists. But I can't think of any reason why it would bother someone in a universal sense, and the fact that you didn't even start to provide one just makes it stranger.
Why limit it to race then? Scarlett Johansson shouldn't be playing Black Widow because she's Danish and the character is Russian. I want my authenticity!!!
After all, Widow being Russian is much more integral to the character than Ariel being white.
And let's just change the ending back to the original ending from the book. That mermaid better turn into sea foam at the end after she refuses to kill the prince and bathe in his blood when he breaks her heart or else what the fuck are we even doing here?!
After all, thats a bigger change from "the original story" than the color of the mermaid's skin.
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Without question many of the people complaining are racist, but I think the majority simply remember Ariel being white when they grew up & want her to remain that way. I don't fault them for having that feeling. So long as they aren't displaying those racist stereotypes I've seen of the new Ariel with dreads, or speaking ill about black people in any way then they're entirely justified in their outrage. You have to admit it's jarring to have a beloved character so drastically changed? Why wouldn't they be outraged? I think it's silly to just expect people to be totally fine with something like that.
I think having a white person depicting a Russian isn't going to be as jarring visually as a black person depicting a white character. Ariel was pale as a ghost, that's quite different from having a white person depicting another character who's skin tone resembles theirs.
You and everyone else should know that's not gonna happen when the first people they look for for these roles are white actors like Scarlett Johansson, and do they turn them down? Rarely.
Ok but what's the reason it's bad? Because again, you're not giving what it is.
Because no, I don't expect any kind of outrage from people who aren't racist.
I can't even begin to imagine why I would be outraged that a character I once saw drawn as white is now being portrayed as black. Like, literally, not a single non-racist reason comes to mind, and I would love to be enlightened on that, if you have some.
The original still exists tho. But youre right, its silly to expect people who are used to being catered to by every movie have one of their beloved disney characters be black. How will they ever recover?
I guess I don't get "visually jarred" when I see a black person instead of a white person.
I think I'm more "visually jarred" by Black Widow's awful hair choices (chosen by Scarlett) in the last few movies than I would be by a black Ariel, honestly.
ScarJo is just mad because she's a white person who is being limited in the ways minorities have for generations and "that's not fair". Society is readjusting and trying to find a new equilibrium and if that means she can't play an Asian then FUCK EQUALITY!!!
She's acting like she was cast in Ghost in the Shell for "artistic reasons" and "she was the best actor for the job" and not as if it is almost entirely a capitalistic business decision in an inequal society that values her more than women of other colors.
It's bad to many non-racist people because it's totally changing the character that they remember in a very noticeable way. It's damn near a retcon, why shouldn't they be mad? Fans get enraged over the tiniest changes many times(WoW Classic comes to mind), so why wouldn't they get angry over a change like this? It's very noticeable, you can't really ignore it. Yes, many people who are mad about Ariel are racist, I just don' think it's a majority.
We agree that Scarjo should absolutely not be playing PoC characters. I thought she looked ridiculous in GoTS, when obviously having an Asian as the character would have made more sense. You don't, but plenty of Ariel fans understandably do get jarred seeing their pale white fish girl suddenly dark skinned. Again, plenty of racist people are among those that are pissed, I just think they're a minority & that it's reasonable to be upset over such a drastic change. It's not even like the Starfire thing where she's like orange or something. Ariel was hilariously white, literally like a ghost. As I said before fans get mad over the tiniest changes, so of course they'll get mad over a visual change that's so noticeable like this.
Again, I'll ask even more directly.
What about the change is bad? What, specifically, is making people angry. Because it being a live action adaptation instead of a cartoon is already a far bigger change, so presumably, we're discussing people who are ok with that change, but not the race change.
So, again, directly, why is a change in medium not rage inducing, but a change in race is? Besides racism, of course.
Racism is a factor agreed, but I don't think it's as much of a factor as you're implying. I keep saying this, but fans get mental over the dumbest changes all the time, why wouldn't they get mad over a change that is essentially a complete redesign visually? You go from pale as a ghost to dark. It'd be like if Ariel were blue and then they made her red, I think fans would be besides themselves over a change like that as well. It's bad because it's very noticeably different for no, in their mind, justifiable reason artistically like say cartoon to live action. You can make an argument about representation, but that's not really what I'm arguing, purely the design aspect clashing tremendously from what fans remember, when again fandoms are known to flip their shit over the tiniest changes.
What you are describing is racism. I have no idea how you have convinced yourself that it isn't, but that's like, the clearest racism.
You call it racism, and to a smaller extent it is. However, I think the majority of fans are enraged entirely in good faith based purely on the drastic redesign. It's basically like Sonic the Hedgehog live action. Fans of Sonic were so outraged over the redesign that Sega decided to change it. I liken the majority of Ariel fans mad about that change to Sonic fans mad about the live action design.
Blue Hedgehogs aren't a race. Disliking how a made up blue hedgehog looks isn't racist. Disliking how a black woman looks, solely because she is black, is very racist.
This is getting very very silly.
Mermaids aren't a race either. Disliking how a made up white mermaid is suddenly a dark mermaid isn't racist. It's the same type of rage sonic fans have over how different their little blue hedgehog looks to what he did before. I'd say the majority of Ariel fans are just fine with black women characters. However, being fine with black women characters doesn't mean you have to be ok with such a radical redesign to a beloved character.