The trailer of the new sci-fi movie Ghost in the Shell features the phrase ‘everything they’ve told you was a lie’ – a line that for the audience is sadly, ironically true. The production of this film is based on a lie: it pictures Major Motoko Kusanagi, the cyber-enhanced female protagonist of the original manga narrative, as Scarlett Johansson. The film provides an ideal opportunity for an Asian actress to be cast in the leading role of a major sci-fi film. Yet once again, Hollywood has instead invested in a serious case of ‘whitewashing’.
Although it is refreshing to see an increased number of leading female roles within the film industry, the casting of Scarlett Johansson in the most recent epic just evidences the power of white privilege, and unfortunately anything encouragingly feminist about this role is degraded to ‘white feminism’. The Asian female protagonist has essentially been written out and completely disregarded in favour of a portrayal by a white woman, thus corrupting a classic manga narrative and providing unreal representation.
(Photo Credit: www.dazeddigital.com) A meme generator created for the promotion of the film ‘Ghost in the Shell’ has certainly backfired…
Filmmakers tend to excuse their exclusive casting decisions by stating that white actors are just more ‘bankable’ than BAME actors – a poor excuse that (perhaps unsurprisingly) favours profit over fair and realistic representation, and wealth over humanity. Other excuses include the very distorted assumption that ‘white experience’ is somehow neutrally universal and thus the most relatable for an audience – another resounding and discriminatory untruth.
The implication that white actors consistently guarantee massive profits for a blockbuster movie, however, is a myth, and the credibility of a film is most certainly not guaranteed by giving the lead role to a white actor. Furthermore, many white (male) actors are shockingly overpaid and consequently the funding for them to star in a film could (and has done) diminish the amount of profit that a film makes anyway.
So, if the casting of a white actor does not always guarantee profit (and usually costs more anyway), the excuse that they are more bankable than BAME actors becomes void and the decision to cast white actors as black, Asian or ethnic minority characters is a deliberately racist act. The underrepresentation of people of colour within the film industry is already a massive problem and it is perpetuated and furthered by whitewashing. How does a BAME actor get the chance to become more ‘bankable’ if some of the few leading roles that do already exist are instead being handed straight to white actors, and they are thus sidelined?
(Photo Credit: www.perezhilton.com) Emma Stone stars in ‘Aloha’
The mythic excuse that a formula for a successful film is the casting of a famous white actor in the lead role needs to be dismantled. Take the film Aloha, for example: Emma Stone was cast as the lead character Captain Allison Ng (a woman of Hawaiian and Asian heritage) but the film still received awful reviews, and failed to make enough profit to breakeven. The whitewashing of a main female character did not increase the profits and did nothing to benefit the outcome of a disastrous movie; on the contrary, it just provoked criticism for ignorant casting decisions.
Recycled excuses for the casting of roles being dependent on the importance of finances and guaranteeing profit through the fame of an actor as some kind of economic strategy certainly does not mask the inherent racism present in the film industry. Whitewashing is completely unnecessary and only shows the blindness of the industry to a wonderful pool of talent that champions a diversity that is reflective of reality.