The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Lisa Zhu | A 'last' straw for ignorance

Last Saturday, I went down to the Wachovia Center to attend the extras casting call for M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming film, The Last Airbender. Based off a popular Nickelodeon cartoon series with a cult following, the movie depicts a fantasy world divided into four regions, each dominated by a particular element: Fire, Water, Earth and Air. Creators of the show have said that the series, drawn in a style similar to Japanese anime, contain elements inspired by ancient East Asian, South Asian and Inuit civilizations.

Because of these influences, casting director Deedee Rickets advised prospective extras in Friday's Daily Pennsylvanian article "to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire. . If you're Korean, wear a kimono. If you're from Belgium, wear lederhosen." Unlike the original series, which features almost exclusively Asian cultural influences, Shyamalan's version will depict the four worlds as "ethnically and culturally" different, according to Rickets.

Alas, my Korean ancestors failed to leave me any kimonos - or saris for that matter - and my authentic Belgian lederhosen happened to be in the wash at the time. So, clad only in a mundane sweatshirt and pair of jeans, I looked around the room. There were about 50 to 60 people in this particular group (more aspiring actors were waiting in line outside), and they were all listening intently to Rickets.

"We're trying to create these four different nations so we're looking for different skin tones, and features, and bone structures," she said. As she spoke, I counted about a dozen small children - as well as two grown men - who were wearing karate outfits. Another handful of prospective extras wore traditional Nigerian outfits (most at this particular casting call were African American), but the vast majority thankfully had on boring, contemporary Western clothing.

One middle-aged black woman, clad in a denim jacket and black slacks, raised her hand. "Are you at a disadvantage if you didn't wear a costume?" she asked, evidently concerned about her "non-ethnic" outfit.

"Absolutely not!" Rickets reassured her. "It doesn't mean you're at a disadvantage if you didn't come in a big African thing. But guys, even if you came with a scarf today, put it over your head so you'll look like a Ukrainian villager or whatever."

And CUT! Or so I wish anyway.

After reading Friday's article and witnessing Saturday's casting call, I find myself disgusted and incensed by the filmmakers' blatant cultural insensitivity. Most obviously, Rickets confuses kimonos with hanboks and Belgians with Bavarians, as many online DP commentators pointed out. But even beyond that, the filmmakers' request for extras to come dressed in the "traditional costume of [their] family's ethnic background" patronizes members of all races. This type of racially charged statement is particularly damaging for Asian Americans, who are already widely dismissed as "perpetual foreigners" regardless of how long they have been in the United States.

Even worse, the culturally ignorant extras casting is but one aspect of a film that has experienced many more accusations of racial biases. Specifically, white actors have been cast in the four main roles, a decision that left many fans of the show furious. Instead, they believe that predominantly Asian actors should have been cast, given the series' obvious Asian influences. "You see things like Fu Manchu and Miss Saigon. These were originally roles for people who were Asian but were [cast] with white people in yellow face," said Wharton junior and Asian Pacific Student Coalition chairman Raymond Flores. "It's sad to see that's still happening today."

To clarify, I actually applaud Shyamalan's decision to show a greater diversity of cultures among the four countries. What I find deplorable is that the filmmakers literally said that these nations should be different "ethnically and culturally," but then proceeded to cast white protagonists to represent each of these distinct countries. Others at the casting call agreed.

"If the director himself is Indian, why would he have an all-white cast if the movie itself is supposed to be diverse?" said Simarque Kane, a Philadelphia resident and a prospective extra.

When asked about the criticism of this casting decision, Rickets merely said, "The best actors were cast, and that was it."

At this point, I'm not surprised that's the best excuse they could come up with.

Lisa Zhu is a College and Wharton senior from Cherry Hill, NJ. Zhu-ology appears on Thursdays. Her email address is zhu@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Comments (63)

The ignorance of McCartney just adds to the anger of the protesters, he doesn't seem to understand why people are against his casting in the movie, he says he is aware, but he still doesn't understand what he is doing, and how his actions is going to destroy his future career. he is going to look back upon this film as the end of his career, and forever will he have to hit himself with a broom for not reading and listening to the reasons people ahve given against the asting to this movie.

Even MTV's "journalists" are doing it WRONG. They are calling Avatar a foreign anime series when it was produced, designed, and written in the USA by Mike and Bryan for MTV's parent company Viacom! THIS PRODUCTION IS A TOTAL SHAM.

I'm glad that this issue is getting more press. I know it's not as severe as slavery or segregation, but it's still unfair racial discrimination and prejudice against Asians. People complaining that "Affirmative Action is taking away jobs from good White actors" and that "It doesn't matter since it's just a movie in a fantasy world" either don't or won't see the real issue. Asians have been continually portrayed in belittling ways by the media. Sure the cultures are revered as spiritual and exotic, but what about the people themselves? Like me, many hoped that a live-action Avatar movie would be the big step for Asian-American actors gaining more respect as something more than sidekicks and stereotypes. Instead, we're practically right back where we started. Once again, Asians are put in the background of their own culture. Once again, Caucasian is preferred for the spotlight at the expense of Asians (21, Starship Troopers, Kung Fu). Once again, we are subjected to seeing how Caucasians become "more Asian than Asian" and are our heroes (Last Samurai, Forbidden Kingdom, Tokyo Drift). So make your accusations of oversensitivity and racial double standards against whites. It won't change the disappointment that a cartoon has become a movie with a cast that doesn't reflect its own message about diversity and acceptance. Oh, and as for the Jesse-being-best thing: A few days ago,about one month after getting the role, Jesse McCartney did an interview about being cast as Zuko. You can hear it now on youtube where he talks about fighting "like, different ninjas" to prepare. From the things he says, it's clear he's not a fan and barely knows anything about Avatar. He doesn't even know it originated in the US. He thinks it's actual Japanese anime that was brought here. This can be argued as proof that the role was merely given to him because of his "big name" status, rather than him actually earning the role with a serious audition.

[QUOTE id="15280112-4226-44d8-9709-27df7ce36c43"]The Casting Director made an honest to goodness mistake. I suspect few people outside of the Korean Community actually know what traditional Korean garb is called and is composed of. Frankly, I do not think the mistake indicates neither racism or ignorance: no one can be expected to know exactly what every culture's traditional garb is called or how it looks. This is but another case of people being entirely too sensitive and jumping to conclusions that someone else is malicious for merely making an honest mistake.[/QUOTE] She's the casting director. Don't you think the casting director should KNOW that a hanbok was Korean and that lederhosen was Bavarian? Aren't they supposed to KNOW that the movie they're casting for is set in an ASIAN-BASED WORLD and therefore, things like lederhosen, Ukrainian villagers and African tribal wear were NON-EXISTENT? And therefore, it would be better (i.e truer to the source material) if the background characters were cast with people who would actually look like they belonged in the Avatarverse?

Deedee Rickets reeks of FAIL.

Beautiful article upon this suject, I too am disappointed by this not just being a fan of the show, but as a person of chinese decent, so much in avatar is predominatly of chinese culture, from the bending being based on 4 well known chinese martial arts (Northen Shaolin Fst, Tai Chi, Hung Gar and Ba Qua) and then there is the fire nation which is based upon the han and tang dynasty, then the earth kingdom with the qing dynasty influence in cloths for man and women, and even the hair style with the long braid of hair, even the emperors palance, and the great wall of ba sing se is based upon the great wall of china. the swords used by Zuko, the chinese language in writting form, the fireworks, the tea aspect of uncle roku, the swords and swords master of sokka... all these things are from my peoples culture and I am proud of it just like any other asian would be about their culture and heritage.(I know there are other aspects from different cultures like the water tribe being inuits, and the air benders being buddhist and clothing from tibet, the reincarnation circle of the avatar being from hinduism, and the medicine aspect from China, and the Kyoshi warriors armour is Japanese inspired as with the face paint, even the names of the fish and eel even the famed onsen, the subtle korean aspects of clothing and housing in the second season, the guru from india and other philosophies from taoism, shintoism, buddism and hinduism, there are many to list), but to see white people casted as the main, in asian inspired world, makes it look like another movie where the whites are the adventurers and the heros in this mystical world, which is just orieantilism. And one thing i know is how serious kids will take live movies, I remember playing power rangers with my friends, since the cast was 3 whites, 1 black and one asian, I was always forced to be the asian which was unfortunate for me was the yellow ranger (Hint of racism there), and the black guy was always the black ranger (another racist hint) and the other 3 would play as the whites, the only time we ever got to play the roles we wanted was when there was no whites when we were playing. But when We played dragon ball in the play ground, everyone could be who they wanted, because kids knowthe characters aren't real so it didn't matter who you played as, and you always had a fair chance of being goku or gohan as we would play rock paper scissors for it. I know it doesn't seem like a big issue for some, but to the ret of us we are just sick and tired of seeing movies where the white person is the hero, bedding hot ethinic girls, and then saving their country or village or whatever. its tiring. For me its the racism and the disregard for others. while for others they just don't want to see this movie destroying the good name of avatar for a quick buck. and others just don't want to see another good anime being tanished by the existence of a bad live adaptation.

[QUOTE id="f2782550-5f52-48f7-8b3c-5fb752702574"]"Hey, how about for the next Superman movie, we cast a black guy? That'd be alright with you guys, right? I'm sure Denzel Washington would be an excellent Superman. He's a great actor right? Not too old? So why not have a black Superman?"[/QUOTE] They're already going to have a black Wonder Woman...

Great article. This is the sort of thing that exposes not only the fan opinion of the issue, but the true idiocy we're fighting.

Koji's response was '...Besides what's more diverse than having a scotsman in a kilt, people in inuit clothes, japanese in kimonos, and knights in armor, and africans in tribal garb it makes it more diverse than it was before." Because there ARE NO Scotsman in kilts, knights in armor or Africans in tribal garb in the Avatar Universe. To just throw them in there is disrespectful to the original material and completely contrary to the Asian-based theme of the show. It makes NO SENSE and would be utterly pointless. And for the record, 'Valkyrie' cost (and I checked) about $100 million dollars to make... $60 million of it went into just ADVERTISING the movie. Why? Because Cruise's image has been all but entirely trashed and United Artists Studio's is in danger of going under if the film fails at the box office. It needs to do a whole lot better than 'break even'. It needs to be a blockbuster, which it is far from being. My point still stands. Big names don't always equal big bucks and 'Valkyrie just proves it. Avatar is a big name in and of itself. Something that's already big and popular doesn't need big name celebs to push it.

Hey, how about for the next Superman movie, we cast a black guy? That'd be alright with you guys, right? I'm sure Denzel Washington would be an excellent Superman. He's a great actor right? Not too old? So why not have a black Superman?

[QUOTE id="d2755abf-93b8-4fcc-bf09-9ba7495beb49"]Wow, Lisa Im sorry that were not cast in the movie and feel the need to be abusively attack this woman, Mrs. Ricketts. I think you need to keep your comments to yourself.[/QUOTE] Excuse me, but how is pointing out the horrible continuing tradition of yellowface and disrespect of Asian culture attacking Ricketts? Not only that, but it seems as if many of the powers that be are ignorant of the source material and that should be brought to light. I believe you are like many 13 year olds on the internet and cannot separate criticism from flaming.

Wow, Lisa Im sorry that were not cast in the movie and feel the need to be abusively attack this woman, Mrs. Ricketts. I think you need to keep your comments to yourself.

[QUOTE id="03851b98-bed5-4c30-a597-b143d582b859"]What gets me is, I wonder where all these people complaining were when the voice cast for the TV series was chosen? There are a few actors of Asian extraction (most notably Mako, with guest appearances by George Takei, James Hong, and others), but the vast majority of the voice actors are non-Asian. So it's all right for non-Asians to play Asians as long as you can't see their real faces? I am disgusted by the cultural insensitivity shown in the extras' casting call, but I'm less disturbed by the casting of the main characters. In the cartoon, most of the characters "sounded" American, with American inflection and accents. And apart from clothing and hairstyle, there was nothing about them that specifically LOOKED "Asian." This is a fantasy Asia, not characters required to be of a specific real-world ethnicity. I don't see why they shouldn't be played by the best actor of WHATEVER ethnicity.[/QUOTE] In regards to your first paragraph, I'm not insulted by the voice actor choices because people born and raised in the same region will generally speak in a manner similar to the people around them, regardless of race. As a result, visual appearance is much more closely linked to ethnicity than are speech patterns. Therefore, the casting director's decision to cast Caucasian actors in roles that required clearly different skin tones and ethnicities was more racist than the casting of non-Asians and non-Inuits for speaking roles in the cartoon. As to your second paragraph, I disagree. While the younger characters may have looked "Caucasian", that's ignoring things like context (clothing, props, backdrops, architecture, etc) as well as adult characters, who tended to have more facial definition than the younger characters' rounded faces and large eyes. (On that train of thought, many people tend to emphasize "other" characteristics in their minds and art, where in reality these differences are much less significant than the consistencies.) When the context is a fictional Asia, it only makes sense to cast Asians in the main roles, particularly when Asian film actors have such difficulty in finding work at all.

[QUOTE id="b8046351-ee8d-48c9-a595-e5b85766f514"]How about the actors chosen were the best actors that audition. Imagine that. I love the show. I would see it even if they cast little green men from Mars to play all the characters and a purple dinosaur to play Zuko. They cast African Americans playing white roles all the time (GI Joe, I AM Legend) and Hispanics to play Italians roles. There is no big out cry about that. If you have such a big problem with the casting don't watch the movie, talk about, or search it on the net.[/QUOTE] "best actors" "Jesse McCartney" Sorry, does not compute!

[QUOTE id="216fe44c-2435-4246-89da-5f8f06f599ee"]Derp: Big names do NOT always equal big bucks. Look to recent examples of 'Valkyrie' and 'Seven Pounds' to see what mean. Tom Cruise and Will Smith are BOTH big stars in Hollywood, but check out the returns on their latest flicks. 'Valkyrie' came out at Christmas and has already been removed from about 1/3 of U.S. theaters. Not mention how much it cost to make... more than $140 million dollars and a good chunk of that went to advertising alone! And it STILL wound up doing poorly. And 'Seven Pounds'? BOMBED. 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' DOESN'T NEED 'white pop stars' to make it 'more marketable'. It already IS. It is/was one of the highest rated shows in the U.S. The ratings for the Series Finale, 'Sozin's Comet' drew in an estimate 19 million viewers. That's impressive for a cartoon. Anyone who thinks that the live-action movie 'needs' to made 'more marketable' by casting white leads has NO IDEA what they're talking about. It's one thing when a director flubs up their own material. But to utterly destroy the work of a story that is ALREADY popular and well-loved by millions of people across the world, is inexcusable. If M. Night wants a hit, he NEEDS to stay true to the spirit of the original story; this INCLUDES having a diverse leading cast. Otherwise, we will end up with another 'Wizard of Earthsea' on our hands http://www.slate.com/id/2111107/ and it will drive away anyone who would have otherwise been a fan of 'Avatar'.[/QUOTE] NO IT DIDN'T IT had 5.5 million views when it first aired AVATAR aired 5 new episodes (each about 2 or 3 million seperately) that week and collaboration of ALL 5 episodes and finale was about 19 million, I check neilson official ratings. Spongebob get like 2 million views every show new or old if you collab all 30 ep. of spongebob of the week it would be over 30 million.Everyone knows FOP's Fairly odd Baby made 8.8 million in one showing and still is highest rated show on nick for past YEAR. Avatar finale had 5 million dude! zoey 101 finale and icarly trip to tokyo made 7 million, check the official nick ratings if you don't believe me, also 3 days after the finale aired NICK cancelled avatar from ever airing again on the Nickelodeon channel. still in syndication on nicktoons though, the 5th watched children channel. Valkary made like 100 million just about not to mention it made okay in foreign market as well and basic ratings for it was B-. oh and valkary's budget was 70 to 90 million so far (still in theaters) it made 80ish so you fail it broke even. FYI if avatar made 19 million (it didn't -.-) disney would piss themselves because HSM2 is supposed to hold record with 17 million for children tv. and i believe it still does unless camp rock beat it. Besides what's more diverse than having a scotsman in a kilt, people in inuit clothes, japanese in kimonos, and knights in armor, and africans in tribal garb it makes it more diverse than it was before.

Derp: Big names do NOT always equal big bucks. Look to recent examples of 'Valkyrie' and 'Seven Pounds' to see what mean. Tom Cruise and Will Smith are BOTH big stars in Hollywood, but check out the returns on their latest flicks. 'Valkyrie' came out at Christmas and has already been removed from about 1/3 of U.S. theaters. Not mention how much it cost to make... more than $140 million dollars and a good chunk of that went to advertising alone! And it STILL wound up doing poorly. And 'Seven Pounds'? BOMBED. 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' DOESN'T NEED 'white pop stars' to make it 'more marketable'. It already IS. It is/was one of the highest rated shows in the U.S. The ratings for the Series Finale, 'Sozin's Comet' drew in an estimate 19 million viewers. That's impressive for a cartoon. Anyone who thinks that the live-action movie 'needs' to made 'more marketable' by casting white leads has NO IDEA what they're talking about. It's one thing when a director flubs up their own material. But to utterly destroy the work of a story that is ALREADY popular and well-loved by millions of people across the world, is inexcusable. If M. Night wants a hit, he NEEDS to stay true to the spirit of the original story; this INCLUDES having a diverse leading cast. Otherwise, we will end up with another 'Wizard of Earthsea' on our hands http://www.slate.com/id/2111107/ and it will drive away anyone who would have otherwise been a fan of 'Avatar'.

I absolutely agree with this article. What is the point of making a film version of "Avatar: the Last Airbender" that completely undermines the ethnic diversity that was vital to that show?

Lighten up. It's just a movie. "Hey, Rosa Parks. Lighten up. It's just a bus ride."

How about the actors chosen were the best actors that audition. Imagine that. I love the show. I would see it even if they cast little green men from Mars to play all the characters and a purple dinosaur to play Zuko. They cast African Americans playing white roles all the time (GI Joe, I AM Legend) and Hispanics to play Italians roles. There is no big out cry about that. If you have such a big problem with the casting don't watch the movie, talk about, or search it on the net.

[QUOTE id="647c09dd-8eee-4d63-af80-2d9dcbae11a0"]Why don't we just institute another diversity week or training program, or maybe another sector requirement teaching people to be multicultural? And if we do, how will we decide the stop-point? Blacks, LGBT, sure...what about Eastern European? Or Caribbean? Maybe even Pacific Islander? Don't go see the movie. Make your own movie and cast who you want. That will mean a lot more than going to protest. Most people are tired of seeing privileged non-white Americans continue to think that they deserve some sort of head-start or supplementary treatment. If this really is that big of a deal, the movie will flop. This is the same kind of liberal politically-correct nonsense that keeps us from having honest conversations about our enemies in the War on Terror and fundamentalist Islam. Wake up.[/QUOTE] I would love to see the basis of this argument. Are you saying that we shouldn't have any kind of mutual respect and understanding of certain groups that have in the past and even NOW, suffered oppression and prejudice? That we shouldn't have any groups that are devoted to this sort of thing and that also offer support and information to the public? This is NOT, nor has this ever once been about 'privileged, non-white Americans who think they deserve some sort of head-start or supplementary treatment.' No, this is about getting a FAIR SHAKE and the SAME honors that many white people seem to take for granted and having to endure the same stereotype roles that have American culture for decades. Hollywood, believe it or not, is one of the most conservative, racist places in the United States. Asian-Americans have been severely marginalized in popular media for years and when they are represented, it's most often as a commonplace stereotype or 'sidekick'. Go ahead, find me 5 movies in the last decade that star Asians as the lead and aren't cast into a stereotypical role. And no, matial arts movies don't count.

This is based on an animated show. If Shyamalan wants to cast white pop stars like Jesse McCartney and the kid from Twilight to make the movie more marketable so be it--he needs a hit at this point. Things change when they get adapted from another medium--male characters become female, Benjamin Button went from a comical farce to an epic tale. As for the casting director mistakenly using the word kimono, he or she is a casting director and probably isn't an expert on Asian culture as much as seeing what people will look interesting on camera. Moreso, the use of the word "costume" is appropriate because that's what people wear in movies. If you wear a pair of pants on set, those pants are now a costume. It's not them being insensitive. Finally, people should be thanking Shyamalan for making all of his crappy movies in Philly. I'm sure it'd be much cheaper for him to film in LA/sound stages and shoot exteriors around PA, but he does so because he loves the area. If people start protesting over casting decisions because they thought a cartoon race was more white than Asian, he might never come back.

Glad to see the interest shown. What about the asshole in the Bookstore talking about "stuff white people like." Apparently, Asian girls are considered a popular accessory for upper class caucasians. Sooner or later, you are going to be tired of being someone's fetish.

Why don't we just institute another diversity week or training program, or maybe another sector requirement teaching people to be multicultural? And if we do, how will we decide the stop-point? Blacks, LGBT, sure...what about Eastern European? Or Caribbean? Maybe even Pacific Islander? Don't go see the movie. Make your own movie and cast who you want. That will mean a lot more than going to protest. Most people are tired of seeing privileged non-white Americans continue to think that they deserve some sort of head-start or supplementary treatment. If this really is that big of a deal, the movie will flop. This is the same kind of liberal politically-correct nonsense that keeps us from having honest conversations about our enemies in the War on Terror and fundamentalist Islam. Wake up.