Rooney Mara has two big new interviews this week, at the tail end of the Oscar season/campaign season. I wondered why she waited so long to talk about wage inequality in Hollywood, #OscarsSoWhite and Hollywood whitewashing, but then I read the quotes. Rooney really, really does not want to be part of any of those conversations. Which is her right, and she manages to side-step controversy for the most part. But she does come across as too cautious and pathologically unwilling to take a stand. Rooney’s Deadline interview is the least notable piece – she makes a bit of news by saying that she’s planning on playing Lisabeth Salander again, if and when they make another movie. She talks about how she’s not interested in doing any big comic book movies. She says some confusing words about wage inequality. And here’s what she said about playing the whitewashed Tiger Lily in Pan, and whether actors should be cast according to their ethnic background. The exact question was “When we start casting actors according to their ethnic background, doesn’t that start curbing creativity and art?”
“I think that there are two sides to it. Yes, I do think it curbs art and creativity, and I also think that if you’re going to go by that, you have to be able to…it has to go both ways. It can’t just be that you don’t want a white girl to play a certain part. It has to be both sides. And I do think it can curb art and creativity. That being said, is there whitewashing in Hollywood? Absolutely, and I feel really bad and embarrassed to be a part of that. In J.M. Barrie’s book, the natives were not Native American. That was something later attributed and there’s probably racism behind even that attribution. In the book, they’re called the Pickaninny tribe, which is wrought with racism. But it was never my intention to play a Native American girl. That was never an option to me. It was Joe (Wright’s) pure desire to make the natives a conglomeration of many different cultures and indigenous people. To make them people of the world. He wanted them to be natives of planet Earth. I thought that was a really beautiful intention of his. That being said, I understand the anger about whitewashing. I completely do, and I agree with it.
I find her comments here to be somewhat problematic. I don’t think casting with an eye towards diversity and representation “curbs creativity” at all. That was the argument that the Coen brothers made too, that they don’t write with an eye towards creating a diverse landscape and what are you going to do about it? And I also disagree that “it goes both ways.” No, it doesn’t.
Then, Rooney also spoke about whitewashing in her Telegraph interview. She also confirmed that she would be going to the Oscars even with the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, saying that “I don’t want to step into the conversation in that way.” Then they asked her flat-out about the whitewashing controversy:
“[It was] a tricky thing to deal with. There were two different periods; right after I was initially cast, and the reaction to that, and then the reaction again when the film came out. I really hate, hate, hate that I am on that side of the whitewashing conversation. I really do. I don’t ever want to be on that side of it again. I can understand why people were upset and frustrated. Do I think all of the four main people in the film should have been white with blonde hair and blue eyes? No. I think there should have been some diversity somewhere.”
Yeah, I’m not expecting Rooney Mara to singlehandedly solve diversity problems in Hollywood, nor do I expect her to be able to speak with any kind of authenticity and substance on these subjects. She’s JUST an actress, not a spokesperson for any cause. But she bugs, right? “I think there should have been some diversity somewhere.” I imagine her saying that with a wave of her hand, like someone else will have to solve it because she can’t be bothered. Plus, she didn’t learn jack sh-t from the whitewashing controversy considering she’s in talks to play Mary Magdalene.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I legit thought that first pic was a mime.
HAHahhahahahaahahhaahahahahah This comment brought real tears to my eyes and a cackle to my heart
Like I Came to said : Sad aloof girl… please Stop Talking while you are coming up ahead but then I read Mime and Lost it!!
LOL. That is just perfect.
All I’m getting from this interview is that most conveniently for her, she “really really REALLY doesn’t want to be part of the conversation”.
lmao +1
CURB YOUR PRIVILEGE, TIGER LILY
You were cast as a Native American because Hollywood assumes that the movie going public can’t handle an “ethnic” romantic female lead. Do not think it was only because you were the best person for the part. Her neutral stance on it is a bit pathetic.
So long as roles like that are consistently given to your phenotype- that only white women can be seen as the romantic lead to carry a movie – THAT will be the biggest “curber of creativity and art”, at least of public perception.
+1. I wonder since not casting by ethnicity is dampening creativity would she give up her role as Lisbeth Salander to an Asian actress or Latina or Black i have some new casting suggestions if thats the way she feels.
Right, she’s an idiot. Isn’t Lisbeth Salander supposed to be Swedish?
@grant
Salander’s father is russian
Swedish is not the same as Russian, completely different ethnic origin. That said, I think most Swedes would be fairly relaxed with her casting, I think most of them would be equally fine with a black actor playing Lisbeth.
+1
+10. Exactly. If she were a little brighter, she would’ve understood the “it goes both ways” part to work like this: Hollywood frequently casts white actors in roles that don’t require a white actor and even explicitly non-white roles. So the “works both ways” part means non-white actors should equally be cast in roles that don’t explicitly require a non-white actor or even ones that do–which almost never happens! That’s fair advantage. Nobody is crying because for once, somebody said a white girl shouldn’t be cast in a non-white role. The fact that non-white actors aren’t cast in any role that isn’t explicitly reserved for them is an implicit status quo.
So maybe take your “people of the world” argument and apply it to status quo casting before you start wielding it in defense of your own. Wah wah, whine.
Maybe she counts herself, a brunette, as some diversity amongst blonde-haired blue-eyed blah blah or whatever she said. Please.
She’s so right. Think of all the talent that’s escaped us and the creativity that’s been curbed by casting white faces for so long!!!! :'( a real shame
Stop talking & just concentrate on looking dead-eyed.
Is it dead-eyed or constantly vaguely terrified? I can never decide…
Someone else once posted that she always looks like she just completed the Ice Bucket Challenge and I haven’t been able to see anything else since.
LOL
So natives of planet Earth are white? What? Doesn’t this girl comes from money? Did she not get a good education? Because the whole quote just makes her sound ill-informed and trying to sound otherwise but not quite getting there. You can tell this is just not an issue she’s ever really come in contact with or has thought about. Just don’t give a lengthy answer if you don’t have enough background knowledge, it’s really not hard. Have an answer prepared. Are PR people conspiring against actors? If not, how many of them are about to quit?
ETA: “In J.M. Barrie’s book, the natives were not Native American. That was something later attributed and there’s probably racism behind even that attribution.” Oh honey, no.
Exactly, rather than offensive she comes across as she doesn’t have a clue about the situation, which is not better.
The only way I could think she could arrive at this is because the name Barrie gave the tribe, Piccaninny, was a racially offensive term that related to black people. However, the actual tribe members were always portrayed as Native American. Somehow, I think that betrays that she didn’t actually read the source material.
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if she DID read the source material but she’s desperately looking for justification for having taken the role. She KNOWS it was wrong but she’s trying to make herself feel better and look better.
I like her a little bit. I think that’s only because I find her looks unique and to me she is pretty.
But this is one of those times when an actress should have said “No Comment.”
Don’t worry @littlemissnaughty I think her & Meryl Streep both consider themselves to be African. I don’t understand if she doesn’t want to be part of the conversation ok that’s good you’re entitled to that, so stop talking about it. She’s just digging herself a bigger hole by trying to say that her Tiger Lily role was not Native American, that not all Native American are Native Americans & she doesn’t play Native Americans. Girl shut it.
Yep, her family is quite wealthy. Which makes her living proof that money can’t buy class, intelligence, etc., even if she got a great education.
And who wants to bet that her version of Mary Magdalene will be the disproven prostitute version? Because that will make for far better cinema, so obviously, they have to go with it.
I get that in Pan, they really needed to handle the tribal people with care, since their original portrayal was really, really racist. Spielberg just skipped over them in Hook because he couldn’t figure out a way to make them work. But what an opportunity lost! They could have taken the chance to introduce some really awesome native characters and actors and dropped the ball so badly. That’s what is really the injustice, I think – awesome opportunity, totally squandered. ETA: And I’ve read the original book. Even with all the racism and problematic stuff, Tiger Lilly is still sort of badass in it – she tries to kill Hook herself by sneaking onto the ship with a knife. She also rejects all of her suitors because she wants Peter. Barrie did a lot of racist portrayals, but even he could write a native character with some guts and initiative. You could have taken the positive attributes Barrie gave her and let out the racist stuff. That’s like a thing you can do – it’s called creative license.
THANK YOU.
Tiger Lily was actually for her time period and creator a very tough and independent woman, what a shame they missed the opportunity (again) to give a young just starting out Native American actress a time to shine.
So basically, she doesn’t care.
Exactly. I mean, it’s her right to not care but it would be refreshing if she just owned that instead of this whole cop-out of “not wanting to be part of the conversation” and the excuses trotted out for the whitewashing of Tiger Lily.
Because what she’s really saying is “I want to be able to play any role that looks good to me, whether I’m right for it or not” and i don’t think that would be that refreshing. She doesn’t want to talk about it because she doesn’t want to have to give up anything she wants. It was blatantly obvious from the moment she was cast as Tigerlily that it was going to be a problem, but she still did it.
“She doesn’t want to talk about it because she doesn’t want to have to give up anything she wants.”
Yep! Exactly, Bridget.
She’s been silent all this time and can’t even come up with a decent prepared response. She should stick to acting (in white roles).
I find her a bit confusing but if she’s saying roles should be cast in a color blind way in every direction then yeah I sort of get that. However, so far in Hollywood that has only worked one way and is just giving white actors opportunities to play people of color.
I also think there are some legit reasons for ethnicity in casting to be important, i.e. known historic figures because their racial identity would have shaped their access and maybe even motivations, as well as stories where race/ethnicity plays a large role in the interactions and plot. That said, there are PLENTY of roles where that could be a total non issue and the parts are given to whites. That’s got to change before we can ever get to totally color blind casting.
I kinda think she’s saying this indeed, but she isn’t an articulate person and I can’t be sure about her intention.
I thought she was saying it should work the other way too but because she’s inarticulate I think that part got missed.
I think she’d also prefer not to miss out on parts because it’s slim pickings for someone like her who is sort of well-known but not Jennifer Lawrence. Hence, the inarticulate response. It kind of sounded like she was trying to cover all sides without offending anybody.
Thats how I read it. I though she meant “should” instead of “is” as well. I didnt think her response was so awful. It seemed to me that she acknowledged there is whitewashing in Hollywood and would like to see more diversity in all roles.
Also, I can’t believe we live in a world where Viola Davis exists and not every director is trying to get her for every possible part in their films. You just have to point at the existence of Viola Davis to see the fact that this is not a meritocracy we’re talking about. So yes, ethnic casting does curb creativity and art. There’s too many great actors who are not getting the opportunities their talent should get them. Rooney unfortunately isn’t one of them, though I did enjoy her Lisbet Salander a lot, I don’t think she’s a great actress in the other parts I have seen her in.
SO true! I used to think the same of Kerry Washington too…but man watching her in Scandal has really changed my mind.
“I feel really bad and embarrass to be a part of that.”
Then pass up the role. It’s just that simple. Something else will come your way.
So many words spoken about how whitewashing is wrong, but when it really comes down to it these actors don’t feel as strongly as they say because they still accept these roles.
Exactly just like Fiennes for his Michael Jackson role.
Exactly.
All I’m hearing is the trumpet sound from Charlie Brown’s teacher because we all know it comes down to, “I don’t care if I’m feeding the mechanism that hurts actresses of other ethnicities. I only care about myself.”
Be honest boo boo, you’re a shit actress and you’ll claw and grab any role that comes your way since the hype has faded from you.
EXACTLY
Exactly. I really don’t understand that way of thinking.
I side-eye any actor/actress in Hollywood that can choose from a variety of roles and yet they choose characters they KNOW are being whitewashed. Most recently Scarlett Johansson in that live anime movie. Seriously, what in the hell?
Ugh, Scarlett Johanson in that movie makes me so mad.
Me too Eternal. So f-ing mad.
They have yet to cast a single Asian or PoC in the main cast. It is complete and utter bulls**t.
They haven’t cast ANY Asian or POC in main cast?!
God I want this movie and every single movie that whitewashes to just burn to the ground.
Ridiculous.
Rooney mumbles about curbing creativity but it’s pretty clear Hollywood is dead between the ears and can only copy already successful material and whitewash it. Idiots.
Me too. If it’s an unknown actress, I’m not going to be pleased at her taking a whitewashed role, but I’m not going to judge her as harshly as I do Mara, Johannsen, Stone, etc. There’s no excuse for it.
They’re only embarrassed when it goes public and they get negative feedback for it. Neither she nor Fiennes felt embarrassed enough to say no, I’m not the right person for this.
Funny. I rather think that casting according to Mummy or Daddy’s film connections is a tad more limiting than casting for ethnic accuracy, but perhaps that’s just me.
I don’t understand her casting in Pan. If Twilight of all movies can get the casting correct as far as race goes why couldn’t any other director get it together?
And if the Walking Dead can be the top rated tv show these days and have a cast as diverse as it does, along with TWO interracial relationships (with one being of the LEADS of the show), I have to definitely add my bewilderment to your question too!
Exactly! How to Get Away With Murder, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Orange is the New Black, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Scandal – all super successful shows with diverse casts. Guess what, Hollywood? Even white people are sick of only seeing white people on TV.
Rich white woman makes stupid comment about diversity.
That’s all I got.
Sorry, all I hear is the sound of paint drying.
Privelage white person makes predictable comment.
You don’t hate to be on the side of whitewashing or you wouldn’t be on the side of whitewashing. You hate that you were called out for being so desperate for an acting role that you signed up to play a Native American woman.
Also as for your ‘creativity’ argument how about this? How about creatively when given the chance to create a fantasy world SO MANY people choose to create an all-white utopia. Even when the source material argues against it and it makes absolutely no sense people like you and Wright and the Coen brothers help feed into the idea that the most amazing places on earth are ones where there are no POC. Get bent wallpaper.
considering that the norm is white in hollywood, I find it strange that she considers the norm – aka playing it safe and staying inside the box – creative.
Statistics show that It’s incredibly hard to get diverse projects made. THAT takes immense creativity.
In Pan, the entire tribe was made up of different ethnicities, shapes, sizes, colors, looks.
I saw the movie, has anyone else?
And she even goes on to say that tiger lily and her tribe in the book aren’t even claiming to be the stereotypical ‘plains indians’ with the head garb and smoking pipe that Disney showed in their film.
So yes it seems like whitewashing by the commercials, but then you see her whole tribe and she’s not the only white girl. They never claim to be ‘indians’, so why do we expect the casting to reflect that?
I did like that the other live-action Peter Pan used Carsen Gray and she was dressed as the Disney Tiger Lily and got to speak Iroquois, but again, Tiger Lily from the original story was not Iroquois. But nobody had a problem with her playing it because she played it and was dressed how people expected her to and wanted her to.
In fairness, the Piccaninny Tribe existed in a place other than our world. So they would not have been members of ANY tribe known in America. J.M. Barrie wrote them as Native Americans because that was what his audience would understand as “native” people. But they were clearly written as “indigenous” people. They weren’t a “multi-racial” group. They always were indigenous. That’s the problem. They don’t have to be NA. They could have been aboriginals, first nations, etc. and the intent would still be right. But the “multi racial group” thing is totally contrary to Barrie’s original intent and the spirit of the piece.
Sure, but the original intent of the thing was extreme racism. Even for the time it was incredibly stereotypical and unflattering portrayal of native characters. If you stay at all faithful to the book as to how the characters speak, act etc. it’s going to be hella racist whatever indigenous group you cast. Making it multi-racial means it then becomes clearer that it’s a completely fictional tribe in a completely fictional world, and not a mean spirited caricature of a particular ethnic group.
True Pepper, but considering the film didn’t stay faithful to the original story in anyway they weren’t at risk of being forced to stay faithful to a racist caricature. They easily could have included a more respectful portrayal of the Native Americans (since a big part of Neverland was a fantastical take on real life struggles and environment of J.M. Barrie.)
Then why didn’t any of the others have names or talk???
The Pan debacle still amazes me. How that movie was made, with such an incredible amount of money sunk into it, just bottles the mind. Not to mention, the pushback on Mara being cast was immediate. But what do you want to bet that Joe Wright will still get plenty of opportunities to make more movies?
You are so right – if a female director’s film made $35 million US on a $150 mil budget, she’d be kicked to the curb. Assuming she’d even get the opportunity to make a $150 mil film.
He made Pride & Predjudice and Atonement, both of which received multiple Oscar noms, and Hanna and Anna Karenina, which under-performed but showed range (and helped jump start quite a few young actors careers). Of course he’s going to get more chances, actors very much want to work with him and he’s showed he can make a great and successful film.
Plus Pan’s failure isn’t all on him, he didn’t go over budget and he didn’t have full creative control. Warner Bros. messed up by greenlighting the thing in the first place, by giving it such a large budget and by running it into the ground with focus groups and by committee decision making. It’s not like this was his baby, he was just a director for hire in this case.
He has lost big budget work because of Pan though. He was meant to direct Emperor, a big budget Julius Caesar biopic, but was dropped after the failure of Pan.
I kinda agree with her and disagree with her. I think she means that certain roles you can’t cast as POC. Like in LOTR, I am sorry but I seriouly can’t imagine the cats being all POC given the timeframe of the books and all. But I think she is a bit silly to think Tiger Lily was not Native American. Of course she was! The movie flopped either way.
What? LOTR is not based on any Earthly time period. It’s a Fantasy series set in an imaginary place (Middle Earth) filled with non-human creatures of madeup colors like green. White Earthly people were a minor part of the imaginary creatures.
Additionally the purpose behind the LOTR is the author dealing with his PTSD from WWI and the horrors of what he saw. As far as I know EVERY ethnic group in the world has been in war and had to deal with PTSD. LOTR is like the perfect example of a movie that SHOULD have been multi-racial or had blind casting.
Thank you for providing the most perfect response.
When all you can see is the default of white it’s easy to somehow make it logical that an elf could only be white.
Agree with this as a general argument about fantasy films but Tolkein was a linguistics expert and based all the people and languages in LOTR on European and particularly Scandinavian languages, so it sort of made sense that they were white.
Sure. Elves, Hobbits, Wizards, Dragons and sentient talking trees you can totally suspend your disbelief for; but casting a person of color in a fantasy film is just taking things too far, right?
LOTR is based off of Celtic and Europeaon mythology. Do your homework please. The Celtics were white so casting whites to play white roles is not racist.
Must be nice to “not have to step into” a conversation about race. Really it must be nice because its exhausting to me…
…unfortunately I do not get the privilege of stepping away from racism ever
I’m sure she’ll change her tune when Hollywood decides they have no interest in casting Vulcans…..
Color blind casting can only “go both ways” if everyone is on a level playing field. And since we all know that’s not the case, no, it cannot go both ways.
Two sides to the argument Rooney? There has only been one side in Hollywood’s 100 + years. That borders on saying Whites are being discriminated against. Best to say no comment or I need more education on this topic than try to speak out of both sides of your mouth.
“She’s JUST an actress, not a spokesperson for any cause. But she bugs, right?”
YES, yes she does. She has zero charisma, and her privilege is so evident.
She could have just said “reverse racism” and saved herself a lot of breath.
What a load of bullshit! Especially the stuff about curbing creativity. It’s the opposite, we are not seeing the full creativity of the human race if only certain people are given opportunities.
“I find her comments here to be somewhat problematic.”
Is that another way of saying “she does not follow the PC lockstep world view”? Once you get outside the USA, not many places are quite so obsessed with race or feel they “need” to make race a factor when doing something (like, say, casting someone for a role).
Yes of course because “outside the USA” POC people don’t exists. And of course as long as White people get the job where is the problem. Seriously what the hell is wrong with some people ?!
Um, that is ridiculous. And makes me think you’ve never left Kansas.
That’s a lot of words just to admit you’re oblivious.
Inside or outside the U.S. clueless people love to let others know how little they know.
So please, tell us about this heaven you exist in where race matters so little just so I can pull up dozens of links that prove you completely wrong.
Isn’t she the one who also said she didn’t grow up privileged because “we didn’t have a butler.”??? 😳 Clueless…smh
I am just going to say this… I NOT GOING TO WATCH THE OSCARS THIS SUNDAY NIGHT. Except for Chris Rock speech… That I’ve go to see. I am just about sick of these stupid, rich and privileged celebrities speaking period.
This is coming from a black and beautiful woman who is hurt and fed up.
Please instead watch the Flint Tribute night which will be held the same night as the Oscars and is being hosted by individuals like Ava DuVerney and Janelle Monae. You can Google for more details but it will be live streamed.
That’s what I’m personally going to do.
Translation: she doesn’t give a f*ck. That’s it right there. Shame on her.
We need to keep asking these qiestions. If for no other reason that to pop this silly Hollywood bubble. People like her (and Streep, and Jiddleston, eyc.) need to be made a whole lot more uncomfortable