I know, I know. This is one of those types of blog posts. Don't worry, I'll make it short. It's just something that's been on my mind recently.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has already attracted some attention for some of the interesting casting decisions made by its creators in regards to race. Specifically, not a single one of the most visible characters in the movie are played by an actor that even remotely resembles a Persian. Jake Gyllenhaal, a white-as-they-come actor headlines as the titular prince, while he is surrounded by the British likes of Ben Kingsely, Gemma Arterton, and Alfred Molina. The most ethnic the film dares get is in some elements of the art design and certain music cues. As someone who saw the film, I can attest that the lack of ethnic flavor was a major distraction, to say the least.
This is far from an isolated incident. M. Night Shyamalan's next film is an adaptation of the award-winning cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. The animated series is predominantly Asian/Inuit in its cast and design, while the baddies all appear to be white. I'll give you one guess as to what happened when M. Night cast the movie adaptation. Yep, the good guys all got whitewashed (a Texan kid, Noah Ringer, plays the lead) while the rogue's gallery got filled by actors with darker skins (Slumdog Millionaire's lead actor, Dev Patel, plays the primary antagonist).
Movie studios and their apologists usually claim that this is the result of market trends. Trending data shows, they say, that a film with a non-white actor in the lead role does significantly less well at the box office than one with an all-American cast. America, supposedly, is not ready to accept movies starring ethnic actors. Studios say they are simply reacting to demand. And this has been going on since film was born.
(I am aware that many examples can be named of reasonably successful films that starred actors of other ethnicities than white. But these are usually not summer tentpole films - the ones that make the real big money.)
My question is - who are these people that will not watch a movie with an Asian/Arab/Indian/African lead actor? Does it really matter to anyone reading this post if the actor on a movie poster or DVD cover is not eggshell white? Does that really affect your interest in a given movie? And if so, why? Because this is a position that I simply cannot understand.
