I honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Ghost in the Shell controversy when the casting choices blew up late last year. My inattention wasn’t because I have a lack of feelings about Hollywood whitewashing – that is an issue I care about deeply – but because I am completely unfamiliar with the source material. Ghost in the Shell was originally a Japanese manga comic series and cartoon series about a fictional counter-terrorism unit. The series is incredibly popular, but as I said, I am unfamiliar.
Anyway, Paramount and Dreamworks are making a live-action film based on the anime and late last year, they cast Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, the lead character and a role obviously written for an Asian (specifically Japanese) woman. Last week, Paramount released the first image of ScarJo as the character (see the header image) and it started a new round of criticism for the whitewashing of this live-action film. The criticism allegedly got to producers, so… now they might be CGI-ing the white actors to make them look “more Asian.” Allegedly. I hope this isn’t true because WTF?!?!
After the backlash surrounding Johansson’s role in the film, producers reportedly attempted to quell the controversy with an old standby Hollywood uses to fix a lot of problems: CGI. According to multiple independent sources close to the project, Paramount and DreamWorks commissioned visual effects tests that would’ve altered Scarlett Johansson in post-production to “shift her ethnicity” and make the Caucasian actress appear more Asian in the film.
It’s the latest, and most extreme, case of “beauty work,” the new trend in Hollywood to discreetly use visual effects to tweak an actor’s appearance, making them thinner, younger or stronger. The Ghost in the Shell tests were conducted by Lola VFX, the same company that aged up (and down) Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and is considered the industry leader in so-called beauty work. Though the tests were requested by the production team, once they were developed and reviewed, the idea was rejected “immediately,” says an insider.
We reached out to Paramount Pictures who acknowledged the tests, but refute the claim that Johansson was involved: “A test was done related to a specific scene for a background actor which was ultimately discarded. Absolutely no visual effects tests were conducted on Scarlett’s character and we have no future plans to do so.”
Our sources maintain Johansson’s character was specifically the focus of these tests, though they were done without her participation or knowledge.
That’s Screen Crush’s exclusive story and they’re sticking to it. I believe them too. I believe that a series of (white) producers were like, “Man, we’re getting hammered on Twitter, maybe we should see if we could make Scarlett look, I dunno, more Asian or something.” And since Hollywood is bizarro-world, they honestly thought it would be an interesting experiment to spend that kind of money just to make Scarlett Johansson look vaguely less like Scarlett. Instead of, you know, just casting the film properly and hiring a Japanese actress from the beginning. Is this Scarlett’s fault? Well, this specific moment is not her fault, as in I seriously doubt Scarlett would have been on-board with CGI-ing her face to make her look more Japanese. But I do blame Scarlett for taking the g—damn role. It’s 2016. You know better than that.
Photos courtesy of Paramount, WENN.
Nothing those tone deaf trolls did could surprise me anymore.
Same here.
I also agree with Kaiser. It was stupid of Johansson to take the part in the place. It’s just another film I won’t be supporting.
Scarlett is great at doing business and she is extremely ambitious, she never would have turned down a lead part in a movie that already has a major fan base. Especially considering her sweet experience with Marvel. She knows how big and profitable these movies can be.
She has no social media, so I doubt the Twitter opinions matter much to her. A box-office fail will matter. If it happens.
Sorry if with or without social media she has a brain right and has to know how offensive and wrong this is.
This isn’t good business this is stupidity at its finest and turning a blind eye to an issue but when she gets to old to play the sexy young thing she will want sympathy for not getting parts. Sorry but I’ll call it karma.
“Sorry if with or without social media she has a brain right and has to know how offensive and wrong this is.”
I thought she admitted that she knew it was wrong. Didn’t she apologize for it or was that Emma Stone? I agree that she should have turned down the role. And I’m assuming they’re changing the name of the character or will explain why a Caucasian woman has that name. No matter how much CGI they put into it she does not look Asian and the public knows she is not. I am not familiar with Ghost In The Shell so it won’t pain me not to see it.
She’s never apologized, to my knowledge. I don’t think she even realizes this is a problem. If you’ve seen Lucy, you would understand. It’s a huge steaming racist mess, foreshadowing her involvement in this adaptation.
Emma was the one who apologized and said she should have known better and shouldn’t have taken the role.
Scarlett on the other hand is very tone deaf, she got also in controversy some time ago over being the face of a product produced in the illegally occupied Palestinian Territories.
I know right?! It´s not like she needs the money, so why the hell take that role?
ScarJo only cares about money, as evident by her choosing to sponsor SodaStream over her “charity work” with OxFam.
OXFAM DROPPED HER AS AN AMBASSADOR OVER THIS.
Don’t forget her precious Google Alerts comments during the Dylan Allen debacle.
“Emma was the one who apologized and said she should have known better and shouldn’t have taken the role.”
Waaaaay after the movie was released and wasn’t a box-off hit. She kept quiet when casting happened with protests from the Asian-American community, she kept quiet when the film was released (with loud protests from Asian-American bloggers). It’s only when the dust had settled that she stuck her neck out to say she probably shouldn’t have taken the role. So no, she gets no points from me. Rooney Mara did the same fake apology.
Perhaps if Emma Stone stopped dieting herself to oblivion, she would be able to get some glucose to her brain and discover there are light-skinned mixed race Asian-American women who are equally capable of bleaching their hair (Yes, I know she is a “natural blonde” like 80% of Hollywood women)!
I’m out of energy for this. Why didn’t anyone in that entire process object? Not even one of the lowly VFX artists? Or maybe they did and that’s the source? Thank you to whomever it was. To the rest….I can’t with y’all anymore.
–TheRealPinky
This!!.. It Is EXHAUSTING as F*ck that these folks at no point in the process gave it a thought to what’s been happening We dont fall for this crap anymore in the 2015-2016 we just don’t we aren’t rewarding this white mediocrity/laziness of blatantly brown/blackfacing for roles when we know there are perfectly good brown and black actors
You should read the interview from the woman behind Nina if you have he strength, if it wasn’t the most whiny excuse for ignorance…after that I have a hard side-eye for all these projects now. These people can’t be bothered to care until their efforts flop.
I doubt this story is true. Not that Hollywood is beneath this sort of thing, but it makes no sense to try to make her look “more Asian”, whatever that means, not after the backlash. The sad part is that, with black wig and pale face, some people will now always accuse her of being changed even if she wasn’t.
P.S. This film was a bad idea anyway.
I understand they are keeping the character’s Japanese name which also makes no sense, so I wouldn’t put anything past them.
Scarlett’s face attached to a Japanese name is going to be dumb.
It is true if you read the statement from paramount they state that a test was done on a background character. They acknowledged the tests were done to make characters more Asian looking but not on Scarlett Johansson. So even with background characters they couldn’t even be bothered to employ Asians actors.
A background actor yes (and that is stupid), I never argued against that. But it doesn’t make sense to change the star.
Why I don’t believe they tried to make Scarlett look Asian is because I think they hired her – as white of a woman as it gets – for a reason. She is popular, she is ATM top woman for sci-fi (or similar flicks), she is known for her sex-appeal. You don’t hire a recognisable Hollywood face and pay her A LOT (an Asian actress would be much much cheaper) to change her face in the process. Especially not if you believe, like these schmuks seem to, that minorities can’t carry films or are not attractive enough for target audience. Isn’t that usually their reasoning?
@Crocuta Good point.
@Crocuta
Yes! Makes not sense.
Allegedly it was about trying it on a background character… since I guess there aren’t that many Japanese in New Zealand to do extra work on the set. Or something. Solid reasoning on their part, lol.
There’s enough Japanese people in NZ and if not, there are loads in Australia which is a short trip away. Or even still, JAPAN is like right there in the Pacific.
The question is why they’d even bother yellowfacing a background character. I read elsewhere a plausible reason – if they botched it on Scarlett and it leaked, they would not be able to come out with an excuse that didn’t sound racist as hell. Say it was done a background actor, well who cares?
Wouldn’t it have been easier for the producers and studio to put ads out in the trade papers looking for Asian actors to cast in the film? Or does that make too much sense?
or it would be easier to just move the story to take place in another country. The main character is Japanese because the story takes place in japan. if the story moves to another country then the main character doesn’t necessary have to be Japanese.
I am both Asian and a Anime fan, I have no problem with Johansson playing the main character if they just move the setting and change the character’s name. What I would have problems with is if they make the film keep the setting of japan and then have all white cast. But if the film were to take place in say USA, I wouldn’t be upset if there is a nice mix cast of White, black, Asian, hispanic, etc.
Agree, but im hearing they kept the Japanese names.
They kept the Japanese name, the movie takes place in Japan and Scarlett IS supposed to be Japanese. So yeah, they hit every branch on the way down.
Agree. There were two options: either keep the context and hire Japanese actors. Or adapt it, but they should have changed the names and the country, because otherwise is stupid (It was like Ukranian Olga Kuylenko playing a Bolivian agent with the weirdest accent in Quantum of Solace)
That’s what puzzles the crap out of me, why the studio heads and such thought it was a good idea to keep the original character origins but whitewash the cast. I mean, even if they set it in America or Europe and the Major became Jennifer Smith, there would still be fanboy/girl backlash. But the Japanese setting and Japanese names for white actors is going to confuse even causal movie goers who don’t even know the origin story. It’s jarring, to say the least. I don’t get how they think anyone would be cool with this and how this will make them money in the long run.
Agreed completely
Apparently they are referring to her character simply as “Major”, to avoid the confusion. Not that it excuses the casting.
You know the racism is too real when they’d rather cough up more money to do this cgi change than to just hire an actual Asian woman to play the character which I’m sure would be cheaper to do. This movie needs to bomb like Dragonball Z and The Last Airbender before it. This is ridiculous and disgusting. Hopefully the people saying that think having Tilda in Dr. Strange is okay see this and maybe start understanding why her role is just as problematic.
Yes to all this. What was Tildas characters original race/ethnicity?
Tibetan. But people were saying that because Marvel is trying to get the movie seen in China and because China has issues with Tibet that is the reason why they choose to let the character get played by a white woman. As if they could not have gotten a women of some other Asian descent to play the role, so that at the very least a PoC role wasn’t erased.
Unless the Tibetan Ancient One started spouting anti-Chinese propaganda at Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, I doubt the Chinese would’ve cared / censored / banned it. Good thing we’re not humoring the diverse audiences both nationally and internationally, but we’re humoring imaginary Chinese censors. Lame excuse as all the other ones before it.
Jinni said: “As if they could not have gotten a women of some other Asian descent to play the role, so that at the very least a PoC role wasn’t erased.”
There’s actually another problem there. If they hired an Asian actress of some other descent to play The Ancient One, they would get backlash for implying Asian nationalities are interchangeable. This sort of thinking is racist as well. This actually happened when Johansson was cast and somebody angerly said they should have case an Asian actress instead, f.e. Lucy Liu, and there was an uproar because Lucy is Chinese, not Japanese, and they should not be mixed up. What is worse, whitewashing or proclaiming all Asians are the same? I have no idea, all I know is that it’s both pretty bad.
So there’s no way to please everyone. The only people that actually have to be pleased is target audience.
@crocuta they need a name for this big of a movie and Lucy is a name- so while yea she is the wrong nationality is is the right race and can get buts in the seat. Which matters when making a movie so the reality is you aren’t going to get everything perfect- is this right no but it is still a business and if they feel they need a big name to make the movie work then they should have gone with Lucy and delt with that because let’s be real it’s a heck of a lot easier to say yes we know she isn’t Japanese but she is a star and we needed a star to sell the film then we’ll we just thought a white woman would work better.
@crocuta I agree, it is a problem, but not as bad as casting a white woman to play an Asian woman’s part. Like say, Jennifer Lopez playing the Mexican Selena, there was some backlash, but at least they didn’t go full stupid and cast Julia Roberts with butt pads or something (not that she would’ve accepted the part lol). I’m half Mexican, like everyone else, I have friends from many nationalities, and it freaking annoys us that different countries are seen as interchangeable. “Oh are you Vietnamese?” And they’ll be Filipino. “Hey, you look Mexican.” And they’ll be El Salvadorian. Like I said, annoying, but “in the ballpark” is mildly better. Like @K said, they could’ve casted Lucy Liu for the star power and at least we could give them credit for casting someone of Asian decent. Casting Johansson is ignorant and a direct slap in the face to Asian actors. You made a solid point.
The Ancient One in Dr Strange was also originally a man.
Just to add to the pile on, I agree with @ Crocuta. There are a lot of problems with the Ancient One in general (in Dr Strange). The character is a cartoon of Asian mysticism that would not play well in a modern movie. If they went with “traditional” casting (Asian man), they’d be lambasted for playing into a stereotype. Marvel previously side-stepped a similar issue with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 by completely rewriting the character specifically to mock the yellow-face tradition and it worked brilliantly. I’m not convinced something similar is happening here. I won’t be surprised if the Ancient One, a being who transcends time and space, isn’t seen in several different forms through the movie, and Tilda Swinton is just one of them.
They wanted star power. Its all about money to these people. And the fan base for this movie are all white male millennials (my kid). I remember this thing. They will be annoyed, but mostly because it isn’t authentic to the story. It’s hard core 90s nerd stuff.
The company ain’t shit and every actor involved ain’t shit. They know well enough what they are doing and they don’t care. May they flop like Exodus and all other whitewashed films.
Oh and I’m happy to see my dislike for ScarJo to be proven legit time and time again. She’s dumb, she’s selfish, she’s an OK talent who gets roles above her skills but does nothing with the power that this entails. Thank god Hollywood is as shallow as a puddle, she’s the perfect physical and mental embodiment of that greedy ruthless institute.
Amen to everything you just said about Scarjo. Everytime she talks I’ll never understand how/why she has fans because she just speaks like an idiot 99.9999% of the time. And now her decision making in films is correlating to her ignorance and her stupidity. I hope this movie bombs just like Gods of Egypt.
This. Somewhere along the line I started to dislike her and things like this just confirms what a selfish ruthless person she is.
I don’t know how long you’ve been on this site Eternal, but trust me, there are other good reasons to dislike her.
@Marty
I remember reading a little about the SodaStream scandal a few years ago (though I admit I might need to refresh myself on the topic) so you’re absolutely right. There’s many many reasons to dislike her.
Yes to all of this.
It’s time to blame actors as well and not just producers or whatever for taking these roles. I was already over ScarJo after what happened with oxfam.
I am not sure who the target audience is for this movie.
If they are marketing to the ones that are already fans of Ghost in the Shell, I imagine they already lost half of them due to casting.
If they are trying to expand the target outside of its fan-base, they probably chose Scarlett because her face sells, she is already recognizable. The ones that have no idea about the original story don’t know what the initial character looked like.
This movie would have sold just off the fact that it is based off of a very popular anime that has fans all over the world who accept and expect the character to be Japanese or at the very least Asian.
I just feel like they go with the ” we have to go white because they are already established” as a go to excuse and never even try. But hopefully like Ridley Scott’s Exodus, they learn that people aren’t okay with that excuse, because having all of those “established” ( read white) faces playing Egyptians didn’t help his movie out.
Or any of the other whitewashed messes either. But otherwise, people insist how studios are all about ROI. If most of them flop, how is that considered a sound investment.
Pan, Exodus, Gods of Egypt, Noah – the list goes on.
All films that received massive coverage of their whitewashing, all films that flopped, discrimination isn’t about money. If it was actually about profit the practice would have stopped years ago.
I think people truly don’t realize racism survives partly because even with all evidence to the contrary someone would still rather believe a white person can just do it better and there’s no point in trying with any other ethnic group.
They will keep making this mistake and losing money until it becomes so unprofitable they simply stop adapting Asian properties, but they’ll never truly appreciate how whitewashing doomed them.
“very popular anime”
In general audience terms, there is no such thing as this. Anime/manga does not cross over. The only exception I can think of is The Last Airbender, which is a children’s cartoon. If it’s not a children’s cartoon, there is no cross over. The most popular anime in the world is totally unknown to general audiences.
agree, its just business
See, I’m not sure they would have lost that huge a portion.
A lot of guys LOOOOVE Johansson – so I think it might pull some people in who might not have been huge fans, and only alienate a smaller portion of fans.
Yes, it’s crap that they did this, but if they’re going to whitewash it, it was at least semi-thought out enough to put someone that is loved by a lot of men, and a good deal of women.
That being said – I’m sure they could have cast someone of asian decent who could have knocked it out of the park. But hollywood is so weird about stuff like that. They constantly talk about what audiences want – without actually knowing what audiences want.
@Erinn: I agree with you.
I know Scarlett is considered traditionally ‘hot’ (and ‘very hot’) and I think ‘hotness’ will transcend race and color so she will probably manage to preserve a big part of the already established fan-base.
People are distracted from the issue of race by casting very attractive actors. Until now, this strategy worked.
Producers are not politically correct, they are opportunistic individuals that speculate human nature.
@jinni: it could have sold out with just the fan base but why not strive for more than that? – this is how money people think. They won’t settle for the fan base, not if they can get more.
However, if the entire fan base pulls the plug on them, things might change dramatically.
I agree here, just basing this off mr. Crocuta and his mates. My husband did wonder why they didn’t cast a Japanese actress, but he doesn’t care enough for this to stop him from seeing the film. And he’ll agree Scarlett in general is a good substitute for just about anybody 🙂
He dislikes the idea of a Hollywood remake more than the casting choice, but again, not enough for that to overpower his curiosity.
And that’s just it – it’s going to come down to money. It doesn’t make it right, but everything is a financial decision. Unfortunately we live in a world where getting an A list star is going to be more important to them, than a more accurate casting. She sells tickets.
The husband and a few friends were talking about it this weekend. Our friend is a major fan of anime – and he was just like “yeah it sucks that they’re whitewashing – and an asian actor would be great – but it’s not like Scarlett looks nothing like the character, and she’s been doing good in Marvel stuff, so it could be a lot worse”.
I mean, the character is a pale, purple haired girl with a similar chin/jaw shape and body shape to Scarlett – it’s not like a COMPLETELY different look. Yes, it should have been cast as an asian actress – but all things considered it’s not like they cast someone who does the kind of movies Scarlett has been doing (action wise) and not say… Selena Gomez or someone like that.
It’s like Hollywood is STILL completely surprised that this is a touchy subject though – and that’s what annoys me most. Don’t be surprised when you’re casting someone to play a character of a different race and people get mad. Karen Fukuhara is a perfect example of someone who’s a pretty fresh face, and could have done a great job, and who I think looks a lot like the anime character. She just finished filming for Suicide Squad – she’s young, and a really petite girl though – she’s only my height at 5’2″. But if she can land a role in Suicide Squad (playing a skilled fighter), I don’t see why she couldn’t have a shot at this.
True Story. The Chinese American actress, Anna May Wong, was often told she wasn’t chinese looking enough to play chinese characaters. Often Hollywood would use a white actor in yellow face and relegate Anna May Wong to supporting character. Often written as a caricature asian dragon lady.
Her story is really sad as far as her professional life was concerned because she was never allowed to play normal chinese characters and white actors were often in yellow face in the same film as her, playing roles she should have played.
The only bright spot in her life is when she moved to Berlin and started working with Marlene Dietrich. Only time she played wider variety of asian roles instead of simply playing the caricature.
And when she returned to Hollywood, it was back to square one.
Her story, and that of Fredi Washington, are two sad instances when Hollywood had major talent in front of them and squandered it because the actresses didn’t fit into their stereotypical respective boxes. So frustrating.
It is really sad that movie executives and producers can’t see beyond someone’s heritage or the color of their skin. That same happened to Rita Moreno, that’s why she retired. Even after winning an Oscar they kept just offering her stereotypical characters
Not just an Oscar–the whole EGOT. Phenomenally talented and still gorgeous at 85 (!!). TV treated her better than movies for sure.
I love Ghost in the Shell. Why, oh why did they pick Scarlett??? Why no Rinko Kikuchi, among other great japanese actress!
Another GITS fan. I don’t know what the fools involved in this movie are thinking. They probably think they need someone with name recognition to sell the movie, but they seem to have forgotten that the people who would be most interested in it would be those familiar with the source material, and those people are going to want authenticity over big names. Now, I saw someone argue on Facebook that the Major is known to use different bodies, so it’s possible she could use a body with a caucasian looking face. That’s all well and good, but I doubt the Major would use such a look for her primary form as Japan is a nation that still for the most part thrives on conformity. A body model with a Japanese look would blend in more, which is preferable in her line of work.
Rinko Kikuchi is not that great. How is her English? Do they have to dub her? An Asian American unknown actress will do.
The story doesn’t ring true. We shall see. I wasn’t much of a Scarlett fan, but we had an Avengers mini marathon over the weekend, and now I kind of like her…..with the Hulk especially!
Why is this movie even getting made? And why did Scarjo think this was a good idea? It’s going to go the way of Exodus and the like.
Scarlett wants to be the next BIG female action star.
Hate the game, not the player Kaiser 😉
But in this case (and others) the players can (and should) change the game. The “rules” aren’t set in stone.
The overwhelming evidence is that Scarlett is not very bright, so I shrug my shoulders at her.
Look even if we give the producers the benefit of the doubt that they needed a big name star in her to sell….the male lead appears to be Michael Pitt. WTF?? His name is useless at the box office so there was your opportunity to cast a young, handsome, Asian actor. Perfect opportunity. Ugh. 🙄
Well in the original, the character is suspected to be an American hacker, so that’s one at least legit, but they could’ve cast Japanese actors to play the members of her team: instead they went for a diverse cast with a Dane and a guy from New Zealand.
Oh yes, it’s the “let’s cast for diversity by hiring actors from all over the world who have Caucasian descent”. Danes, Swedes, Australians, New Zealanders (Kiwis), English, Dutch, German, etc. etc. Different accents but rather homogenous in appearance.
So sick and tired of this. Won’t be seeing it. Just as easy to avoid as Gods Of Egypt. That movie has yet to recoup its budget.
The moviegoing public is an international community. So are the consumers of fashion. Yet white faces are always the default, with a token minority here and there hired to represent the non-white ethnicities. Hollywood and the fashion industry aren’t the innovators and trailblazers they’d like you to believe them to be. Unsurprisingly, they maintain the status quo and reflect the bias of those who hold power in society.
They’re sticking close to the recipe since Gods of Egypt had a similar diverse cast: a Scot, a Dane, 3 Australians, an English woman. At this point, it’s safe to say Danes are over-represented. Lol.
Sally, Hollywood’s version of “diversity” should always be in quotes because the end result is anything but the true definition.
Whenever the lack of non-white representation in major movies comes up, POC are always told to create our own characters and stories to get more parts n Hollywood. So we do. And then we’re told we’re not even good enough for our own characters.
“Write your own roles! Make your own stories! Invent a universe! Tell a story! Create!” For what? So a white actor or actress can take our “own” roles as well. What’s the sodding point?
But according to white people, the characters look “white”, so actually it’s A-OK. I’ve heard this said countless of times. Because it doesn’t crosses their mind that when Asian people in general and Japanese in particular, look at the anime, they don’t see a white face, but a Japanese one. Not that the fact that they’re names are Japanese and they live in Tokyo, should’ve clued one as to what ethnicity the characters are. “They look white” argument has to be one of the dumbest ones out there, reiterated by trolls and serious film critics alike
Ah yes, “she looks white, therefore she is white”. Motoko certainly looks Asian to me. But then, I’m Asian and Hollywood doesn’t give a crap about my opinion.
@Bobo – realist comment on this thread tbh
I looked up this character in Google images. Why is she drawn with big round eyes instead of eyes that look like I’d expect a Japanese woman’s eyes to look? I don’t know anything about this genre. Mange? Outside of this context, I wouldn’t look at this character and think “Oh, she’s Japanese.” I’m not saying because she looks white, she is white. I’m just wondering if she’s supposed to look Japanese and be Japanese and a Japanese artist drew her, how come she looks the way she does?
@ Mrs. Odie – Because it’s a drawing style. Am I supposed to believe that the Peanuts gang are Asian because they have round faces and small eyes? Just because you perceive her as white, does not mean others do.
There are several drawing styles that have been used in drawing Motoko over the years. The original movie had her with a broad nose, hooded eyes, and full lips – all features that are common among Asians.
Also, big eyes are not exclusive to white people. It’s shocking, but Asians can have big eyes.
Beautiful answer Bobo.
This. Whenever good stories are created they’re stolen and have white faces shoved into their roles. A disgusting and persistent record.
1000 this!
The next reporter to interview someone who makes the “create your own stories, whiners” argument, needs to read them this comment word for word.
So true! Preach!
And so people create diverse roles, such as in the play Hamilton. And still white people are infuriated and demand white representation. I hate this world.
@Ms Odie Also just because to you she looks white, it’s not the same to Asian / Japanese people. To them it looks Japanese since they have no reason that a character with a Japanese name, set in Japan, from a Japanese medium, would be white. That’s the Western eye talking. Characters that are of other ethnicities are portrayed notably different to show they are not Japanese.
You know they’re going to try to justify it by arguing that the source material allows them to do so. Long story short, part of the story is that humans exist in synthetic bodies and they can switch bodies throughout their lives (as far as I remember, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it). So they’ll argue that, “Well, in theory she can be a Japanese woman in a white body, since the source material technically allows for that!” Which is a major cop-out.
Supposedly, they’re getting around the name by simply calling her “the Major” as well. So the character’s actual Japanese name won’t even be spoken.
And I must add that if this is how they handle GitS, I have very, very low hopes for the live-action Akira. I guess we have to brace for one of the Hemsworth brothers to star in that.
Because that helps the entire controversy right? I realize Scarjo is Black Widow, but there will never be any female Asian movie stars if Hollywood isn’t even willing to take a chance on them. If the story has enough of a following, they may not need an Avenger. We need more female Asians leading Hollywood projects. This was the perfect opportunity,
Well, hopefully this movie will bomb. So this could end up being a good thing. They might still be personally racist and opposed to hiring POC, but if it keeps hitting their bottom line they’ll change.
She is not even a good actress but has managed to get consistent work. She does know how to hustle and I respect that.
I’m continually disappointed with Hollywood movers and shakers not wanting to cast non white actors for roles that clearly were meant for poc.
I always cringe when I see an actor or actress that is cast to play a stereotypical role. I saw Chappie ( love it) and Dev Patel had to put on a thick Indian accent, why not just have his normal accent or have him do a South African one ( my favourite of all time)
I think Scarlett is a very good actress. I have always enjoyed her in movies.
This casting is completely unacceptable but I agree, she is a good actress. I dont think we have to pretend she isn’t because we hate this whitewashing casting.
I really want to know what goes through the these actresses/actors head when their agents call them and say hey we have a lead part for you in a movie but you’ll have to be Asian, or Middle Eastern.
Like at no point do they think you know I think this might not work as I’m as white as snow?!?!
They live in a bubble and no one ever tells them no. They abide by a lot of platitudes and are too isolated to ever think through the impact of their actions.
Hollywood cares about the bottom line, period. Twitter outrage doesn’t matter to them (all press is good press), but a low box office will get their attention. I can only hope that like Aloha, Pan, and Exodus, this tanks at the box office.
I too think that SacrJo should have turned down the role (and hopefully the kind of backlash white actors are getting for taking these parts will make them think twice), but I would hate for the female actor to take all the blame for this decision- the studio, producers, and director are the people who made the casting decision and the ones ultimately at fault.
It’s not surprising look at Dragonball: Evolution. A white guy playing Goku because reasons. Ridiculous.
I can sincerely and honestly say I hope this movie bombs in record-breaking fashion. I hope it becomes the Gods of Egypt of Scarlett Johansen’s career and she will forever have to give interviews where it all went wrong.
I have a lot of faith that little by little the backlash of all this whitewashing is turning away audiences and making what was once a tradition in Hollywood into a vicious risk with no reward. Since respect and consideration will never naturally appear from a place so content with stealing and manipulating stories merely to put white faces in prominence it has to be a financial and public burden.
I recently read an interview from the individual who brought Nina the film to life and hearing her tone-deaf ignorant defense of a story revolving entirely around a woman’s specific interaction with colorism be brushed aside for her own weak message made me turn my back on the idea there are ever any good intentions with projects like this. As someone who loved ‘Ghost in The Shell’ and knows that the original story specifically called for setting in Japan of a Japanese woman with a Japanese name (all of which remain in the film apparently) I can see that lessons still haven’t been learned. So here’s to another lovely flop.
P.s. Good job on turning off fans of the original source material you’re using Paramount. Angering them is super smart. How did that work out for ‘Jem’?
When will Hollywood ever learn? This is disgusting. The actors/actresses are just as much to blame as the producers are. They should all know better.
Scarlett is a mediocre acrtess at best, she will take roles while the offers are there, regardless of the right thing to do. The major blame however belongs to the producers and director. Hollywood has been doing this from the beginning of time. As long as they make money, they could care less about equality or ethics.
I hope this movie fails hard.
She has a great rack, but she is the WORST actress. Stop casting her for no reason, Hollyweird. The one positive thing I can think of here, at least in my case, is this debacle has sent me on a mission to see the films of the other actresses people are saying would have fit this role. It’s been awhile since I paid much attention to movies, but in the early 2000’s, I pretty much only watched action and horror movies coming out of Asia. Then they were all strangely remade, or revamped or just straight up stolen by Quentin Tarantino so he could put his name on something, and I wandered away.
This film deserves all the backlash it gets. For the filmmakers to try and profit off the very people they’re excluding is absolutely disgusting.
I was waiting for you guys to cover this.
As an anime fan, I’m not surprised, this isn’t the first time a white actor was casted for an Asian character (eg. Death Note, an incredibly popular and amazing manga/anime, was remade into a movie and an Asian actor went up for one of the main roles, but lost against Natt Wolfe, the mess that was Avatar the Last Airbender, Dragon Ball Z..) .
As a Ghost in the Shell fan, I’m just plain out disgusted. ScarJo doesn’t fit the role, the recent pictures are cringe worthy. So many great Asian actresses that could have actually FIT the role. “Make her look more Asian”, they wouldn’t have this problem if they casted an Asian actress..
Like someone above stated, most fans of Ghost in Shell have already expressed their disapproval, so they’re banking this mess on Scarlett, and I hope it bombs.
Also that Danish dude for Batou. OMG. So disrespectful. Just shows what a poor understanding they have of the material since those Batou and Togusa, along with Motoko, are rather integral to the story.
You won’t want to know about Akira then.
It’s been stuck in development hell forvdecades, but every time someone polishes it up, it’s always white actors up for the casting. The last time it was polished, Leo DiCaprio was going to play the lead.
I didn’t know Death Note was made into a movie. 🙁
My niece loves it and she and I bond over episodes. I will ignore the movie because I don’t want to ruin our fun. Sigh.
it’s currently being made* sorry, I couldn’t edit it. Nat is apparently playing Light Yagami, I’m genuinely so pissed off at this. Death Note is one of my favourites and it deserves better.
Thanks for correcting. Still, disappointing.
Then why doesn’t a Japanese Studio make a live action movie of this? I saw some of their anime/manga based live action movies, they are usually quite bad, to be honest.
I love anime and manga, and Ghost in the Shell is among my top five favorite franchises. I honestly don’t think anime and manga translate all that well to live action whether the producing studio is American or Japanese.
This whole thing reminds me of the movie The Player where original material is turned into a Hollywood version in order to open the movie.
I want to see more diversity and at least (for crying out loud!) casts that reflect the race and ethnicity of the characters. No way on earth there aren’t plenty of Japanese actresses available and willing to do this movie. New talent is created by casting appropriately in movies like this with a built in audience. How can anyone become big box office if they don’t get the chance to show they have what it takes?
Whatever Scarlett. You and Zoe should form a racial insensitivity club.
If Hollywood insists on remaking anime/manga into some bloated Hollywood film, there are tons of animes out there where the characters are clearly white (example: Fullmetal Alchemist), and they can happily cast all the white people they want.
The biggest problem with this Ghost in the Shell remake is that being Japanese is essential to the character Scarlett Johansson is now portraying. Her character is someone who can choose what body or host she wants to live in when she was on the verge of death; having a dying Japanese woman to then choose to reside within a white woman’s body just screams all kinds of wrong. The story is important to Japanese people because it portrays all the problems Japanese people had to go through post WWII, this blatant white washing is offensive on every level, especially since Asian representation in Hollywood is already at an all time low.
All in all, I am completely disgusted with this development, with everyone who is part of this project, and Scarlett Johansson as well for taking this part. My disgust is further fueled by the latest Doctor Strange trailer, where there was a distinct lack of Asian people or actors in it. Marvel’s excuse of casting Tilda Swinton as being representation because she’s a woman is completely bullshit; white woman still have advantages many POC don’t have and they are part of the problem. White women is movies is not groundbreaking, rather they are part of the status quo, and I’m sick of this lack of proper representation for all POC. Clearly, Hollywood has no problem with taking parts of Asian culture (see Tilda Swinton’s Tibet-inspired garbs in Doctor Strange), the problem just lies when they actually have to put Asian people within their films.
This entire week in movie news has just been a disappointing string of “I didn’t ask for this”.
I’m not familiar with Ghost in a shell. The fact that the character is as you describe makes this casting all the more disgusting. If they “needed” white characters, could they not have cast other leading actors around her. Wow at “having a dying Japanese woman…choose to reside within a white woman’s body.” Shocking.
Oh goodness no, please please don’t even suggest Full Metal Alchemist. Imagine who they would cast for May Chang, her heritage being important? Considering that they don’t even bother casting the main characters as Asians, they wouldn’t try with secondary characters.
It was just an example, but I totally agree with the sentiment. If Hollywood isn’t going to properly acknowledge and include the cultures Japanese anime/manga represent, then Hollywood should frankly just stay the f*ck away.
Fullmetal Alchemist has so many enjoyable characters all with different backgrounds and ethnicites…I’m just shuddering thinking about what they could do to Roy Mustang, or Ling, or even Scar.
That’s exactly what I was thinking, just LEAVE IT ALONE. I truly wonder what goes through a casting director’s mind when they come to the decision.
“Hey, I know they’re supposed to be Asian, but you know what’s better? A WHITE actor playing an Asian character.”
I mean, the folks that created the manga and the anime sold the rights to these giant Hollywood production companies, and I’m sure they knew that A-listers from Hollywood would be the stars. Couldn’t they have added a codicil with regard to casting if it were important to them that Japanese actors be cast in the leads? I don’t understand why all this falls on the actors.
I don’t think a social requirement for actors to only play characters of their own race or gender is very fair. Personally, I’d love to see a female Bond.
It’s not about “keeping it with your own.” Not at all, seriously. There are multiple animes that can be translated across nationalities and/or races. There are animes with themes that really go beyond Japan and can speak to people of any race. But part of the problem is that Ghost in the Shell is considered to be an anime with strong Japanese themes. A lot of critics have pointed out that it’s heavily influenced by Shinto ideas about transcendence and dualism, etc. It’s not something you can take out of Japan and shed the Japanese influence. That’s what is ticking people off, I think. It’s not just whitewashing a character. By making her white, it announces that the whole character of the movie will change – and that’s hard to accept.
Years ago I’d have given actors a pass but the truth is no one is ignorant to the issues of whitewashing and culture stripping In Hollywood. This problem continues because it is failed by people on every level, at least from the audience side of things backlash and poor ticket sales are happening but the problem is still not being corrected.
Now as an actor if you choose to take these roles then you are saying with all information at your diposal: “I do not care that this is feeding into a system that hurts people merely because of the color of their skin, since I am white I am benefiting and I’m fine by that.” In which case not a tear shall be shed over your mentions, Google alerts, awkward interviews, box office bomb, or feelings.
Let’s be real. Having a woman play James Bond would be breaking a barrier that would be an accomplishment for women. White men aren’t hurting for roles.
The main issue with this is that Ghost in the Shell relies heavily on Japanese influences and being Japanese is essential to the character Scarlett Johansson is portraying. There are many other animes where ethnicity truly doesn’t matter (though it’d still be nice if Hollywood would give a flying flip of care to even consider any other actors outside the margin of being white), but not when it comes to this specific one.
I agree with what Max Landis said in a Youtube video, that GITS would not have got made at all without the involvement of an international star. That’s just how the business works. You need big names to sell movies. But my question is why that big name had to be Scarlett? I actually like her a lot as an actress, but they could have cast a big name star as a supporting character and cast a Japanese actress as Kusanagi. Likewise, every role except that one BNS should be Asian. From what I can tell, GITS is a bunch of white people and one Japanese actor that looks like tokenism. Mistakes all around.
Truthfully I think if Hollywood keeps following that model their properties will continue to bomb or underperform.
Big names no longer sell movies and even the Hollywood legends can expect a bomb on boring and uninspired movies. Batman vs. Superman is underperforming and comic books were supposed to be Hollywood’s last safe area for massive profits.
If you want to make a movie then make it well, cast the right actors and sell it based on the strength of its story. If you can’t do GITS shell right then don’t bother putting out a bastardized copy because it’ll likely still fail (Scarlett’s box office record as a headliner is spotty at best) and then you’ll have also wasted money casting the big name actor who can’t put butts in seats.
The talk in LA following BvS crashing and burning was, “Can you imagine what it would have been *without* Affleck?” I think you *can* sell movies without A list stars, but in the cases where that works, it’s because the franchise is the star. Like Star Wars, or Guardians of the Galaxy. I know GITS has its fans, but it is unknown to general audiences. It will need someone to bolster its profile. You’re right that bad movies will bomb regardless of who is in them, but they bomb worse when there’s no “star.” My argument is that the GITS A-lister should come in a support spot while Asian talent gets the limelight. Look at Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic, he openly admitted he couldn’t get the movie made without a white star to boost its prospects, so the role filled by Ewan McGregor was written. He shouldn’t need to do that, but he does, so the trick to good filmmaking is figuring out how to make the system work for you while also hopefully inching toward a better, more equitable future.
See I still wouldn’t agree with that because Marvel is consistently doing it and succeeding.
Chris Pratt wasn’t a big name star before Guardians of the Galaxy, in fact his biggest role was on a TV sitcom where he was comic relief and significantly heavier. GOTG made him and that was also not a huge comic book title. Many people were expecting if any Marvel film was to bomb that would be the one because it wasn’t a well known comic with a huge following. When you follow BvsS analysis one thing that surprised critics was that you had a property that had mediocre critical reviews going in and general audience enthusiasm was pretty low. But still for a comic book film they were expecting sales to improve, instead they actually dropped 60% after the first weekend. Meaning audiences saw it and from there discouraged potential movie goers. That means that money spent on Ben Afleck (and I’m sure he didn’t come cheap) ended up hurting their profits. Sales are continuing to drop which means it’ll be a slow painful drag to breaking even.
I agree that it sucks that certain films can’t be made if you don’t put a white man somewhere in it, but I also think that’s a problem that will correct with time. Trying to force the issue does nothing but damages the willingness of studios to ever invest in these properties. Look at what happened with Avatar The Last Airbender and Jem. Two properties that had huge fan following and success that ultimately had a Hollywood whitewash and shiny repackaging and ended up flopping. Parts of the sequel to TLA were actually filmed but the critical response and sale of the film was so negative they were scrapped. Jem ended up being the biggest bomb of 2015. There’s only so many times you can pee on someone’s shoes and tell them it’s raining before it stops working. Whitewashing and repackaging is going to end up destroying the Nina Simone biopic too, making effort to sell it useless.
Marvel *is* the franchise. People just go to Marvel movies, regardless of who is in them or what they are. They sold Guardians, Ant-Man, and now Dr Strange on the Marvel name. That’s not doable for anyone but them and Star Wars, and Guardians was the movie that proved Marvel can sell anything. (They only got the greenlights for Black Panther and Captain Marvel after Guardians’ success.)
I am really not advocating for whitewashing. In the long run, it won’t pay off. But I understand how and why these decisions get made. GITS is a $150 million-plus movie that is virtually unknown to mass audiences. I understand why the money people feel like an internationally renowned star feels like a good investment, since there is no other platform on which to sell the movie. The trailers will all be Scarlett looking cool and sexy and doing action, and that will be how they sell: as a ScarJo action movie. That’s a short-hand audiences will understand.
If we’re talking about Marvel being the draw that takes films from idea to conception then I agree with that. But success doesn’t simply materialize for them just because they’re Marvel films. X-Men is a struggling property, Spiderman has been reshot to the point it’s become a joke and Antman basically only did a solid job. The films that Marvel does well at are films where they made the story the forefront. Chris Hemsworth was an unknown, Ryan Reynolds was considered a failed leading man, and Robert Downey Junior was an 80’s burnout there was no demand for. They focused on the story, cast smaller actors, built up stories slowly and started to establish a foundation of success that DC is struggling to match. BvsS with a whole Justice League set up is underperforming and Suicide Squad, with a massive ensemble cast, is doing reshoots. If Marvel makes the mistake of trying to cast big names and put out films with weak material they’ll be right back in Spiderman 3 form.
I get the idea of why BITS was sold with Scarlett as the leading lady but that, to me, is why their films keep flopping. They keep trying to play by old rules completely ignoring that audience expectations and society has changed. Whitewash films do exceedingly poorly, that’s just a fact these days. Films with controversial audience responses do poorly, another fact. Films with source material that is severely changed and fanbases are spurned do poorly. Spending several extra million to try and make the film and appease studios by whitewashing the character seem utterly pointless if the film dies in box office. It’s like desperately trying to finish a project on time only to turn in poorly executed work and get a failing grade. Who’s really winning? Then we’ll hear excuses about how studios don’t like foreign material because it doesn’t work well and this bad idea ends up screwing other potential good films.
If it were anyone other than SJ, I think it would be a bigger story. They didn’t cast some unknown white actress who could easily have been replaced by a Japanese women, they got friggin ScarJo, who has to be one of the top 3 women at the box office. Casting her turns this movie into a big budget blockbuster…. there are no big name Japanese actresses that get you anything above small indie status.
Anyone else think Scarlett sucks as an action star anyway?
Nope. Whatever you may think of her personally, she’s an excellent action star and her box-office backs that up.
All this fuss because she’s white. what about idris Elba getting cast as the Gunslinger in the DarkTower movie?
Are you actually kidding me right now? The problem is that Asian people in general are already way underrepresented in Hollywood, and the parts that are meant for us are given to white people who frankly, already have a high supply of roles that they can take. Whenever Hollywood creates a film where Asian people should be represented (such as The Last Airbender or even that god-awful Dragon Ball Z remake) we aren’t. Instead, the parts are given to more white people which is just fantastic.
Hollywood just loves taking our culture and cutting the actual people out.
And this is partially why this casting choice is problematic; if you can’t see why this is a problem, frankly there are tons of resources you can pursue to understand just why white-washing is problematic. And if you still can’t understand exactly why, then at that point, you simply don’t want to understand.
This and more. It is terrible to take the art and creativity from a culture and then shut them out when it comes time to make a movie. Shameful.
I wouldn’t doubt it. She looks really awful in that role.
I thought they were making an ADAPTATION. They could have at least changed her name if they didn’t want to cast an Asian actress. But they want it both ways: to keep the original manga “cred” appeal and to appeal to western audiences with a white actress. I’m an Asian woman and I’ve read manga series translated from Japanese into Mandarin and seen plenty of manga films. I don’t like those Japanese manga anyway. They make me feel uneasy. However deep and meaningful they might try to be (technology, modernity, blah blah), I find their visual effect to be very sexist and p#rnographic when it comes to repping women’s bodies – even the Japanese GITS movie, with its central female character. I was looking forward to an adaptation that had an American Ghost in the Shell story set in NYC or whatever.
Why is this getting attention? I mean, why now?
Chinese actors have been cast as Japanese characters forever. Isn’t that taking roles away from Japanese actors too? I don’t think ‘well at least they’re asian’ is a good enough rebuttal because there is a big difference between being Chinese and Japanese, especially considering their rocky history.
Also, where was the outrage when Dragon Ball: Evolution made almost all the cast white, apart from Gohan and Chi Chi (who were both played by Chinese rather than Japanese actors)?
I don’t know. I think it’s really wrong to take work away from actors who are the same ethnicity as the role in question, but I’m raising an eyebrow about why it’s a big deal NOW. I guess it goes over my head.
“Chinese actors have been cast as Japanese characters forever. Isn’t that taking roles away from Japanese actors too? I don’t think ‘well at least they’re asian’ is a good enough rebuttal because there is a big difference between being Chinese and Japanese, especially considering their rocky history.”
There were outrage and complaints from those communities.
“Also, where was the outrage when Dragon Ball: Evolution made almost all the cast white, apart from Gohan and Chi Chi (who were both played by Chinese rather than Japanese actors)?”
There was a lot outrage and the movie bombed.