The 10 Most Uncomfortable Performances By Actors Playing A Different Race

Agony is skin deep.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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From the era of a less racially inclusive Hollywood to the present day, there have been many instances of one race filling in a role that is meant to represent another. Sometimes the result is flawless, like Sir Ben Kingsley's Oscar-winning portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi, but most times the performance is a squirm-inducing, head-scratcher.

The Wachowski siblings' epic Cloud Atlas is currently impacting theaters, and the film features regular Wachowski player Hugo Weaving doing his best Asian portrayal for a portion. It's the perfect reflect on some performances that were less successful in bridging the racial divide. Read on for The 10 Most Uncomfortable Performances by Actors Playing a Different Race.

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Written by Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

10. Katharine Hepburn as Jade in Dragon Seed (1944)

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9. Godfrey Cambridge as Jeff Gerber in The Watermelon Man (1970)

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8. Sir Ben Kingsley as Guru Tugginmypudha in The Love Guru (2008)

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7. Justin Chatwin as Goku in Dragonball Evolution (2009)

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6. Richard Dreyfuss as James Krippendorf, Natasha Lyonne as Shelly Krippendorf, Gregory Smith as Michael "Mickey" Krippendorf, and Carl Michael Lindner as Edmund Krippendorf in Krippendorf's Tribe (1998)

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5. Laurence Olivier as Othello in Othello (1965)

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4. Rob Schneider as Salim in You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2008)

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3. Peter Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi in The Party (1968)

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2. Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

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1. C. Thomas Howell as Mark Watson in Soul Man (1986)

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