GRSJ224/Whitewashing In Hollywood

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The top row shows the original version of Avatar: The Airbender. The row below shows Hollywood's adaptation of the cartoon show.

Whitewashing is a common practice in Hollywood where white actors are casted to play a character of color. This is a casting practice that dates back to the beginnings of Hollywood and is often attributed to the producers of Hollywood and the film directors. It is still ongoing today but in the past few years there have been some groundbreaking films attempting to make a change.

Types of Whitewashing

Through the years, there have been four main types of whitewashing.

Ben Affleck plays the role of a Latino CIA officer, Tony Mendez, in the film Argo.

The first type of whitewashing is when white actors are casted in non-white roles in films based upon historical events.

One example of this is the film Argo which was based on the 1981 Iranian hostage crisis. A white male, Ben Affleck, was chosen to play the role of the Latino CIA officer who was in charge of the operation.

Another type of whitewashing occurs in films in which the historical events are retold from the perspective of a white character. An example of this is Dances with Wolves, a film based in the period where the United States government colonized the Native people. The perspective of this movie is shifted from the tragedies of the Native people to the experiences of a white male.

The third type of whitewashing can be seen in films which cast a majority of black and brown actors but all the major roles are played by the white actors. This can also be seen in the example Dances with Wolves.

Lastly, whitewashing can be evident over the span of many films which follow a pattern of featuring mainly white characters, told from the perspective of a white character, or have the major roles occupied by white actors. This type of whitewashing is seen over a span of many films as opposed to a film-by-film basis.

Timeline

Early 1900s

Whitewashing is a casting practice that has been entrenched in Hollywood since its earliest days. The first film which displayed aspects of this was D.W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation which focuses on the events during the Civil War and the Reconstruction era thereafter. This film was created back in 1915 and it casted mainly white actors with black make-up. It also depicted the ideologies of the Klu Klux Klan and showcased their perspective throughout the movie. Another example from the early 1900s is The Thief of Bagdad, directed in 1924 by Raoul Walsh. In this film, Douglas Fairbanks, a white actor, was casted to play the protagonist – a thief in Bagdad.

During this time, the casting decisions of Hollywood were met with appreciative comments and praises from audiences and critics alike. Many were grateful to see people of color being represented in major Hollywood films. 

Mid 1900s

British actor, Laurence Olivier, wearing blackface to play Othello in Hollywood's adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

The whitewashing casting practice continued in the mid-1900. For example, when Shakespeare’s famous play “Othello” was made into a film adaptation, Laurence Olivier, a British Actor, was selected play Othello, a character that was portrayed as a black man in Shakespeare’s writings. Olivier wore blackface in this film in order to play the role of Othello. Another example of this is the movie Cleopatra, which recounted the story of the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Elizabeth Taylor, a white actress, was selected to play the role of Cleopatra in 1963 when the movie was filmed.

Around this time, criticisms started to arise with the practice of whitewashing. Films began to have less actors wearing blackface but there were still evidence of this in some movies, as seen in the movie adaptation of Othello. 

Early 2000s

Whitewashing is still present in Hollywood to this day. In some movies, directors and screenwriters change the name of the protagonist in order to avoid criticism from viewers. As an example, in the movie “Edge of Tomorrow” which was based on the Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill,” the protagonist’s name was changed from Keiji Kiriya to William Cage. Tom Cruise, a white actor, was then cast to play the role of William Cage. Additionally, in the movie “Ghost in the Shell,” the protagonist is only referred to as Major throughout the movie, not by her full name Major Motoko Kusanagi. A white female actor, Scarlett Johansson, was casted to play the protagonist in this film which was based on a Japanese manga.

With the rise in influence of media and social media, many more individuals have started to voice their frustrations over the casting decisions of Hollywood, especially those of Asian descent. However, as of right now, there is not much backlash to Hollywood’s whitewashing practices. 

Reasons

The number of Asians cast in Hollywood productions.

Whitewashing in Hollywood is largely attributed to the directors, who cast the actors to play in the films, and the executives, who are in charge of deciding what films are to be produced and the budgets. According to Insight, in 2015, only 14% of films in Hollywood featured a non-white lead or actor; 9% of the directors were Black or Asian; and 94% of Hollywood executives were white. Anamik Sana, a lecturer in media and communications, says that directors and executives of Hollywood may not be racist at all. However, because they all belong to the same group of people with the same mindset and perspectives, these ideas are then projected into Hollywood films and everyone makes the same decisions. According to BBC, directors and executives usually defend their controversial casting decisions on two main reasons: fame of the actors and profits for the movie.

Fame

Andrew Weaver, an assistant professor at Indiana University who studies representation of minority characters in Hollywood, states that “Hollywood's sort of given up on the idea that you can have crossover success with a minority cast. You get this discrimination in the casting of roles, where they're going to cast whites if at all possible to maximize the audience." In other words, many directors feel that minority actors are not as well-qualified as most white actors. In the movie the Avatar: The Last Airbender, the director, M. Knight Shyamalan, is quoted saying “we didn’t take race into consideration—we just cast the best person for the role.”

Jeffrey Mio, author of Multicultural Psychology: Understanding our Diverse Communities, hypothesizes that directors “cast people that they feel comfortable with and so if someone has a similar background you feel more comfortable with them.” When looking back on Hollywood’s blockbuster films, many of the actors they casted were originally from modest reputations. As an example, Robert Downey Jr had not achieved a significant level of fame until he had been cast by Hollywood in the Iron Man series and later Avengers.

Money

The profit reasoning for whitewashing is one that is closely tied together to fame. From the perspective of Hollywood directors and executives, white actors have more pull so they will be able to draw out a larger audience in screenings, leading to a higher box office number. Ridley Scott, director of Exodus: Gods and Kings, said in an interview that “most of the bankable actors are white! It sucks, but filmmaking is a business, and I have to do what makes financial sense.” This was very similar to the thoughts of producer of 21 Dana Brunetti who said “I would have LOVED to cast Asians in the lead roles, but the truth is, we didn’t have access to any bankable Asian-American actors that we wanted… If I had known how upset the Asian-American community would be about this, I would have picked a different story to film.”

David White, National Executive Director of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, finds the comments from directors’ to be flawed. He comments that this is a myth that would be “laughable if its perpetuation weren’t so damaging.” There have been many renowned non-white actors such as Will Smith and Denzel Washington who are more than capable of attracting large audiences with just their name alone.

Changes in 21^st Century

The main cast of the film Crazy Rich Asians

In the past few years, there have been some films that have been trying to make a change to the whitewashing practice in Hollywood. There are two in particular which have found the most success.

Crazy Rich Asians, released in theatres in August 2018, was the first Hollywood film in 25 years that featured an all-Asian cast. It had a $30 million production budget and has grossed nearly $240 million worldwide. It was a film that not only casted non-white actors in lead roles, but also broke the stereotypes of Asians usually seen in Hollywood films.

Black Panther, released in theatres in Jan 2018, was another film that deviated from the usual whitewashing practices of Hollywood. This was the first Marvel film in 10 years, and one of the very few ever by Hollywood, to be directed by an African American – Ryan Coogler. The majority of the cast was also composed of black actors. It has grossed over $700 million worldwide since its release, with $210 million coming from its opening weekend alone. Entertainment lawyer Darrel Miller praises the importance of this film because it addresses the “need to challenge the misperception of Hollywood that says major studio films featuring people of color won’t be successful at the level necessary to make a profit and attract wide audiences.”