ICTMN.com: Non-Native actress Rooney Mara, most famous for her edgy portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, has been cast as Tiger Lily in the forthcoming Pan, a live-action prequel to the story of Peter Pan told most memorably in a 1953 animated Disney film. Concerned Natives and culture-watchers of many ethnicities are decrying the choice as yet another redface travesty, much like Johnny Depp's Tonto in the 2013 film The Lone Ranger.
5 comments:
Maybe I'm just insensitive, but I'm really tired of people getting up and complaining whenever someone's piece of anything contains any reference to any culture other than white...because in today's society, "that's racist". I think at this point it's gone too far. There was a thing in my home town just earlier this week, where a local high school was putting on a production of Thoroughly Modern Milly. An entire Anti-Racism group got up and asked them to shut down the HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTION because...wait for it...they had an Asian actor play the Asian part(s). I can't stand when people do this...those people were cast because the role requires a certain ethnicity, and having or not having a matching actor makes a statement. If these people are going to be so "racially sensitive" that even mentioning the word "Chinese" gets you voted off the island, they should go live in a commune of their own. As for the rest of us, I think it's time we start delineating "racism" from "hyper-racism". A director's choice on who to cast is important for their production, and thus they should be allowed to cast who they want.
I think the beauty about film and acting and the arts is that there is room for creative license. I think that this is not a new thing for Disney to do, and recent performaces such as the new Aladdin on Broadway have done a good job at staying true to cultural and social backgrounds. In this instance, I think Tiger Lily is not just Native American, but also a strong willed character who needs a strong willed actress to play her. I see the character as a person and not just a member of a race and I think that the fact that Disney is not casting a Native American actress is an act of cultural ignorance, but an artistic and personality choice. I think if the movie was in itself more of a historical account than casting would be more of an issue.
While I agree with Ruben says above me, I'm still very uncomfortable with this casting. If the script calls for an actor of a certain race, you should cast it to the best of your ability. That being said, I think what makes the article particularly interesting is that we keep seeing Caucasian actors playing "ethnic" roles in mainstream media. This needs to stop. Honestly, I find it really insensitive. I wouldn't call it necessarily racist, but it's definitely disconcerting.
I agree with Albert, in entertainment, there is definitely room for creative license. If Disney was sticking to a more accurate version of Peter Pan the casting would be more of an issue. Even then, I feel like there would still be controversy in having a Native American actress degrade her race in portraying a character that says "how" and "ugh." The who situation seems less than ideal and personally, I'm not too concerned about the racial background of the character due to the unfortunate case of both casting choices.
There's never a good way to portray Tiger Lily. She's written into the show as an incredibly racist trope, and songs like Ugh-a-Wug just exacerbate that. I've kind of wanted to see an Indian (like, from India) Tiger Lily, because the article is right, the stage show (unlike the even more terribly racist movie) never explicitly states Tiger Lily's race.
Regardless, I do think there's an obligation, particularly when the source material is so questionable in intent to cast minority characters (or non-minority characters) with minorities. I get where people are coming from with the "creative license" and "hyper-racist" stuff, but the truth is that the entertainment industry is still incredibly white-washed, and until we can honestly say we're actually color-blind, these things need to be observed.
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