Avatar: The Last Airbender Casting Controversy Continues
Online protests hoping to protest the casting of M. Night Shyamalan's live-action take on AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER are continuing.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY reported in December that Shyamalan offered the roles of Aang to karate-trained Texan Noah Ringer; Sokka to Jackson Rathbone (TWILIGHT); Katara to Nicola Peltz (DECK THE HALLS); and Zuko to Jesse McCartney, all Caucasian actors to portray Asian characters.
The casting announcement sparked a controversy, and many accused Paramount and Nickelodeon of "whitewashing" the film. Rathbone told MTV News earlier this month that, "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan. It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit."
Some of the blogosphere protest was documented on gossip site i09. And a letter-writing campaign was started on a LiveJournal Page.
Via CARTOON BREW, comic book artist Derek Kirk Kim is protesting as well: [AVATAR is] wholly and inarguably built around Asian (and Inuit) culture. Everything from to the costume designs, to the written language, to the landscapes, to martial arts, to philosophy, to spirituality, to eating utensils! -- It’s all an evocative, but thinly veiled, re-imagining of ancient Asia."
He continues, "Imagine if someone had made a “fantasy” movie in which the entire world was built around African culture. Everyone is wearing ancient African clothes, African hats, eating traditional African food, writing in an African language, living in African homes, all encompassed in an African landscape...but everyone is white. How offensive, insulting, and disrespectful would that be toward Africans and African Americans? How much more offensive would it be if only the heroes were white and all the villians [sic] and background characters were African American? (I wince in fear thinking about THE LAST AIRBENDER suffering from the latter dynamic -- which it probably will.)"
Writer Madeline Ashby also pointed out that studio casting of animes AKIRA and COWBOY BEBOP have handed the lead roles to white actors, excluding Asians. Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon Levitt are both attached to AKIRA and COWBOY BEBOP just got Keanu Reeves to star, although Reeves is of Hawaiian and Chinese descent.
The AVATAR film, titled THE LAST AIRBENDER, is set for a July 2010 release. Shyamalan is writing, directing and producing the film.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY reported in December that Shyamalan offered the roles of Aang to karate-trained Texan Noah Ringer; Sokka to Jackson Rathbone (TWILIGHT); Katara to Nicola Peltz (DECK THE HALLS); and Zuko to Jesse McCartney, all Caucasian actors to portray Asian characters.
The casting announcement sparked a controversy, and many accused Paramount and Nickelodeon of "whitewashing" the film. Rathbone told MTV News earlier this month that, "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan. It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit."
Some of the blogosphere protest was documented on gossip site i09. And a letter-writing campaign was started on a LiveJournal Page.
Via CARTOON BREW, comic book artist Derek Kirk Kim is protesting as well: [AVATAR is] wholly and inarguably built around Asian (and Inuit) culture. Everything from to the costume designs, to the written language, to the landscapes, to martial arts, to philosophy, to spirituality, to eating utensils! -- It’s all an evocative, but thinly veiled, re-imagining of ancient Asia."
He continues, "Imagine if someone had made a “fantasy” movie in which the entire world was built around African culture. Everyone is wearing ancient African clothes, African hats, eating traditional African food, writing in an African language, living in African homes, all encompassed in an African landscape...but everyone is white. How offensive, insulting, and disrespectful would that be toward Africans and African Americans? How much more offensive would it be if only the heroes were white and all the villians [sic] and background characters were African American? (I wince in fear thinking about THE LAST AIRBENDER suffering from the latter dynamic -- which it probably will.)"
Writer Madeline Ashby also pointed out that studio casting of animes AKIRA and COWBOY BEBOP have handed the lead roles to white actors, excluding Asians. Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon Levitt are both attached to AKIRA and COWBOY BEBOP just got Keanu Reeves to star, although Reeves is of Hawaiian and Chinese descent.
The AVATAR film, titled THE LAST AIRBENDER, is set for a July 2010 release. Shyamalan is writing, directing and producing the film.
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Paramount did asians so wrong with no shame or guilt.
I wish that someone from asia would make avatar in there own country, it would be so much better then the one here in the US.
avatar the last airbender is not racisss okay dat shiits stupiid dat people are protestiing lol its funny to me lol im not a protestar at alll all da pplz dat are protestiing can kiis my ass
I'm surprised that no one has addressed the fact that there is actually some significant Asian representation in the casting of the film. Unfortunately, the Asian actors are primarily found to be characters such as Zoku, Ozai, and Azula. What concerns me more than the fact that there isn't any racial diversity in the casting of the protagonists is that the film has essentially constructed a binary of white "good guys" and Asian/colored "bad guys" (I recognize that Zoku becomes a more morally ambiguous character later on). It would be one thing if the entire cast, good and bad, was white (it would still be problematic by denying Asian actors a chance for screentime). But instead, we see the innocent, righteous protagonists threatened by the exotic, nefarious forces of the Other. (You could even read a message in which the West is being threatened by a rapidly industrializing East, but that might be climbing out on a limb). In the original TV show, the ostensibly Asian protagonists (in my opinion, anyways) acted more American than the white-pigmented Firebenders (Zoku's constantly talking about honor and filial duty towards his father - very Confucian), which at least to some extent disconnects race and cultural behavior. But this film codes the "white as moral superiority" message even more rigidly, the implications of which I find more disturbing than lack of opportunities for minority actors.
lol so true!
I think I'll just boycott Paramount Pictures altogether.
To the writer of:"Orientals, it is nothing personal, it is money...you guys don't sell"\/
what the $&@% are you trying to say about Orientals. Huh... WHAT?!?!?!?! YOU IGNORANT BASTARD!!!!!!
Yeah right, have you watched Asian dramas at all? If you haven't, then you have no right to say that. I say, you have some nerve. I bet you haven't even been anywhere out of the U.S. all secluded, so you're not able to experience just how great Asians and other races are.
Orientals, it is nothing personal, it is money...you guys don't sell.
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