screencrush.com: Back in late 2015 when Scarlett Johansson was cast in Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks’ live-action adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s manga series The Ghost in the Shell, fans were already critical of the casting of the Danish-Polish actress in the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi, an Asian woman.
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Whitewashing has been an issue for as long as movies have been in existence. There is no excuse to use white actors in roles that are supposed to be for non-white actors. Casting Scarlett Johansen in this role just perpetuates this problem, and the way that the studio responded to the backlash is even worse. It's honestly baffling to me that Paramount pictures thought that an acceptable solution to this problem that they created for themselves was to alter the race of white actors. There does seem to be some discrepancy about which character that the effect was used on, but no matter who it was used it it's not acceptable. This brings up the issue of yellow-face, which is different but goes hand in hand with this situation. Turning white actors into Asian characters has been something that's been done for years, and people are now finally seeing how problematic this is. The only solution to both of these problems is to have no tolerance for both yellow face and whitewashing, and to support films that don't fill non-white roles with white actors.
here I am, Sunday morning ready to yell. Last year, I won speech tournaments with a speech expressing my anger and revulsion at hollywood and the entire entertainment industry for whitewashing. And to see this next level of going out of their way to maintain a white woman cast as an Asian American is disgusting. Why would they simply not take the risk in casting an Asian American actress- someone unknown since there are hardly any very famous Asian American actresses. Asian women are continually disrespected in this country, perceived as weak, and submissive, and there is a virtually vacant spot for them in Hollywood? Why? It's not because Asian women aren't perceived as beautiful. They are in fact fetishized by men all around this country. So where are they in Hollywood?
It's because casting directors want the stars in their lead roles. And are not willing to take a risk on the unknown Asian actresses, and the cycle continues. So, they cast Scarlett Johannson as fucking Major Motoko Kusanagi. And are using the most high-tech technology to replace the generations of long eyeliner and buck teeth. Why not save yourself millions and cast a real, talented Asian American actress in your movie. I hope this movie is boycotted just as Aloha (which could have had half-asian movie star Olivia Munn??) and Exodus were.
Although I went to an American school in Shanghai, I never realized how bad the whitewashing culture in hollywood/the film industry is in the U.S. until I came here. Hollywood films are screened in movie theaters world wide, including countries in Asia like Japan. My initial reaction after reading this is to look up what people in Japan think about this and so I did. After looking up articles in Japan about Scarlett Johansson and "Ghost in the Shell", to my surprise the film didn't really arouse any controversy in Japan - while a few people were skeptical towards the casting, a lot more people didn't have any issue with it and even said that Scarlett Johansson is perfect for the role in that she is both pretty AND good at english. This is surprising to me because people in Japan don't even recognize the issue of whitewashing and how the white actors are taking away the only few opportunities where stories are written for and meant for non-white actors since they've never had to deal with this issue there. I think it's very necessary for the world to increase their awareness towards whitewashing or else countries that are being taken advantage of are still the ones buying the movie tickets, further feeding into the film industry that only care about making money rather than telling a story that's actually true to the story.
It’s so bizarrely disappointing that white actors and actresses are still, today, being cast in roles as asian characters. I think it’s very telling of the deeply- ingrained racism against asian people in American society that it’s still seen as acceptable, for some reason, for white actors to portray asian characters when that idea seems ridiculous for many other races. I hate when people justify this kind of casting with needing a big name, because the only reason there are few big- name asian actors is because people refuse to cast them over white actors; maybe if we start breaking the stigma now, eventually it will be normalized. I don’t know what kind of information this news source has/ if the company’s claims are valid or not, but the possibility of digitally editing Johanson’s facial features to make her look “more asian” disgusts and doesn’t surprise me. I hope that the industry will come to accept and embrace the asian community much more readily than it has been recently. Having an asian mother and a white father has given me a lot of insight into how people treat asian people as lesser than others. People are always surprised to find out that I'm asian because they have such a narrow idea of what asian people look and sound like. As soon as we open ourselves up to a broader depth of storytelling and personal relationships with the characters we see on screen, we will be much better off as media consumers and as people.
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