Flavorwire: There are few characters so beloved by children and Hollywood executives alike as J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. The character, who showed up in many of Barrie’s plays and novels, has been reimagined countless times in other plays, books, and films. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that we’re getting yet another take on Peter Pan, this time with yet another “origin” story, titled Pan. Directed by Joe Wright, the film will star Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard and Garrett Hedlund as Hook, although the titular character has yet to be cast. But the most controversial casting so far has been Rooney Mara as “Indian princess” Tiger Lily, which has caused outrage among critics who have accused the film of “whitewashing” one of the few Native American characters in the literary canon.
6 comments:
I think this is going to be really interesting. If they are casting Tiger Lily so white-washed it is possible that they aren't looking for race in anyone. Like the article said, the tribe on Neverland has always been the stereotypical "tribal Native Americans." I think with this new version, it is possible that they are switching up Tiger Lily's character completely. What if now, instead of a damsel that always gets saved by Peter, they put Tiger Lily as a strong female character that kicks ass. I mean, with a name like Tiger Lily, what else could she be? Of course there will be the delicate side to her which makes her compassionate to Peter, but if Peter is indeed going to be a younger actor, maybe they have re-envisioned his feelings towards Tiger Lily as more of a person he looks up to instead of a love interest, and then she dotes on him like an older sister would to a younger brother. They could do so much with this aspect of the plot now that they are taking things already pretty far past the norm.
I agree with Tyler Coates, and I very much enjoyed his article. I think the more important issue with this story is how Native Americans will be portrayed in the context of Joe Wright’s film, Pan. The casting of Rooney Mara (freaking amazing in David Fincher’s US remake* of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) is potentially problematic, but it really depends on the script. Since this is Neverland, is Tiger Lily a white girl pretending to be an Indian Princess? Maybe an actual Native American girl then shows up? I would love to see something in the movie that acknowledges the value of Indigenous knowledge systems and how those might be applied to the modern world. Too much for Hollywood? Probably. But I can dream. FYI, according to IMDB, Levi Miller, blue-eyed white kid, is cast as Peter Pan. I am not suggesting that is a problem. I am merely responding to the speculation in Coates’ article as to who might play Peter.
* Normally I despise US remakes of foreign films (like John Badham’s Point of No Return ripoff of Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita), but Fincher’s GWTDT was certainly an exception.
If they are going for a new twist on Peter Pan it makes sense that they will change things and cast characters as they wish regardless of race. Personally, I think this is a silly debate, if this actress fits the role they wanted to cast why should we fight it. We also do not know how they will portray her as a character and what that has to do with her race. Of course she is supposed to be in a Native American Indian tribe but if they can handle using a white actress playing this character without upsetting anyone, I say they did a good job.
I've heard about this before, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they would cast one of the very few Native American characters in any popular books/films as a white girl. There aren't enough roles for people of color in the first place- why would you take that away from someone? Also, you can't claim that you're creating a "multi-racial/national" world if you whitewash the main minority character. There aren't that many minority characters in the story to begin with- unless they make every other unannounced character a minority. This is the exact same issue as we talked about before with none of the cast members of "Aladdin" being actually middle-eastern- it's unfair and a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
In most respects I agree with Sarah, This is completely ridiculous. The amount of roles for people of color in general is miniscule, and more specifically for Native Americans, non-existent . It makes no sense to cast this classically Native American character as anything else.
The author of this article did however bring up a great point about the portrayal of Native Americans in Peter Pan. He is right to say that while this is one of the only representations of Native Americans, it has never been a good one. I feel like they have wasted a great opportunity here, to cast the tribe as it is supposed to be, and to portray them with the dignity and respect that should have been given in past portrayals. I truly hope that we start to see some of the "multi-racial/international... character" that this movie has promised .
A quote from this article that truly standed out to me is “The key to bringing a racial caricature forward to the modern day isn't to disregard that person’s race but to change the character so they’re not a racial caricature. Jesus Christ. It’s not that hard. There’s something to be said for 'loyalty to source material,' but early 1900s racism is not one of the things you need to keep."”. Specifically, reducing representation because being respectful to people of color is “too hard” is absurd. It truly is not so difficult to treat human beings with some more melanin with basic human respect.
To me the casting of Rooney Mara is a perfect example of the faults in colorblind casting. Colorblind casting is an optimistic, at worst misguided, form of casting. It assumes that there is a fair and even playing field for all involved. Ignoring that we have been raised to believe things with a racially insensitive lens. Just by society and its establishments and institutions. It also assumes that marginalized people can get to that audition room. Indigenous people are significantly affected by generational thievery of their resources. Statistically speaking, getting to that audition room is hard enough when you don’t have resources. Not to mention that indigenous people are heavily discriminated against. So the few roles that are allocated for them, should they not be allowed to keep? But no, this white woman just plays fierce in a way that no indigenous actress can I guess.
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