Image via Complex Original
When Ghost in the Shell was announced as a feature film with Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, fans were rightly outraged. How could the lead character, a Japanese woman named Motoko Kusanagi, be so blatantly substituted by a blonde, white woman? It was whitewashing at its very worst. But producer Steven Paul implored skeptical fans to keep an open mind: "They’re going to be very, very happy with it when they see what we’ve actually done with it, and I don’t think anybody’s going to be disappointed."
Now that we’ve had a chance to look at the first official trailer though, we’re still at a loss as to why this casting decision was made. Don’t get us wrong, it appears that the Ghost filmmakers nailed the signature blend of traditional Japanese iconography and futuristic cyberpunk. But that fact only amplifies the egregiousness of casting Johansson (and frankly, a slew of other white actors). The appropriation is so blatant, it's as jarring as it is offensive. And the question remains: Could all of this have been accomplished with a Japanese woman in the lead role? Of course it could have, and it should have been.
Hopefully, sometime within the future, this will be a quaint relic of a bygone time. But as long as Hollywood producers continue to do this, it is our responsibility to call them over the carpet for it. Because this has been going on for decades, way before Scarlett Johansson was even born. Take a look: here’s a brief history of non-Asian actors playing Asian roles.
Madam Butterfly
Asian Role: Cho-Cho-San
Non-Asian Performer: Mary Pickford
Release Date: 1915
The early, silent film era of Hollywood was a simpler time. Film language was a new concept, and many directors shot existing stageworks. This 1915 production of Madame Butterfly was an adaptation of the opera, and it presented a stereotype that would typecast many Asian actresses for decades to come: the submissive Asian woman who pines for the love of a white man.
The lead, Mary Pickford, actually butted heads with director Sidney Olford during the film’s production. Olford thought that Pickford, a white Canadian, was too brash and forward to play a proper Japanese woman.
The Charlie Chan Films
Asian Role: Charlie Chan
Non-Asian Performer(s): Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, Roland Winters, Peter Ustinov
Release Date: 1931-1981
Charlie Chan has a mixed legacy. On one hand, he wasn’t an “evil Asian.” He was actually the good guy, and the smartest guy in the room. On the other hand, he was entirely desexualized and filled with fortune cookie aphorisms. Chan is an example of why positive stereotypes can be damaging. By being “one of the good ones,” the Charlie Chan character passively reinforced “the bad ones” narrative as well.
There were earlier Charlie Chan films starring Asian men, but they were not financially successful. It was only when Swedish American actor Warner Oland took over the role and taped back his eyelids that the franchise became a hit. But these days, the character has become the Asian equivalent of Uncle Tom.
The Mask of Fu Manchu
Asian Role: Dr. Fu Manchu
Non-Asian Performer: Boris Karloff
Release Date: 1932
Well, at least Charlie Chan is a better character than this guy. Seriously, just look at this deliberate attempt at making Asians look subhuman by use of prosthetics.
Fu Manchu was the Asian man as a monster, and silent film horror legend Boris Karloff performed one of the worst renditions of the character in The Mask of Fu Manchu. The plot was as follows: Fu Manchu wants Genghis Khan’s sword, which he will use to convince Asians that he is the reincarnation of Khan. It leads to this bold proclamation: “Conquer and breed! Kill the white man! And take his women.”
Yikes. It’s only upwards from here, everyone. Karloff firmly established the rock bottom.
The Good Earth
Asian Role(s): Wang Lung, O-Lan
Non-Asian Performer(s): Paul Muni, Luise Rainer
Release Date: 1937
Lest you think that all Asian roles pre-1960 were wretched stereotypes, that’s simply not true. There were many positive roles, and they would have benefited from an Asian actor’s insight.
Take, for example, 1937’s The Good Earth. Luise Ranier won an Academy Award for her performance as O-Lan, a Chinese farmer. You’ll notice that her children were played by Asian kids—a common occurrence. Asians were used in supporting roles in films, but they would not be trusted to enact the feelings and more complex motivations of a lead.
Dragon Seed
Asian Role: Jade
Non-Asian Performer: Katharine Hepburn
Release Date: 1944
These days, a deliberate caricature of another race is controversial; we have made some progress since the mid-1940s. But back in the day, the most famous actors engaged in yellowface—even legends like Katharine Hepburn. In Dragon Seed, Hepburn played Jade, a Chinese woman who resisted the takeover of her village by the Japanese.
Similar to The Good Earth, Hepburn’s fellow villagers were performed by ethnic Asians, even though the leads were performed by white actors. In a way, this sort of erasure hurts more than Fu Manchu. There were lots of Asian roles with depth out there. It’s just that Asian actors never had a chance of claiming them.
The Conqueror
Asian Role: Genghis Khan
Non-Asian Performer: John Wayne
Release Date: 1956
Well… maybe there’s one movie that no one, white or Asian, would want to star in. The Conqueror, featuring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. John Wayne doesn’t really act—in every one of his films, he plays a swaggering version of himself. So that’s really awkward when he’s playing an 11th century Mongolian warrior.
The King and I
Asian Role: King Mongkut
Non-Asian Performer: Yul Brynner
Release Date: 1956
Yul Brynner made a career out of playing people of color, despite his Swiss background. He played Rameses in The Ten Commandments, and most famously, King Mongkut, the King of Siam (now modern day Thailand), in The King and I. Brynner originated the role on Broadway, where he won a Tony for his stage performance. He later won an Academy Award for his acting performance.
I remember watching this movie with my parents, and my dad told me, in excited tones, about seeing Brynner perform the role on Broadway. For Asian Americans from an older generation, Brynner got a pass. That’s how good of an actor he was, and that’s also how much Asian Americans wanted to see themselves on screen. If they could not have an actual Asian, an excellent facsimile would have to do.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Asian Role: Mr. Yunioshi
Non-Asian Performer: Mickey Rooney
Release Date: 1961
This was an appalling, racist indignity in an otherwise lovely film—even by the standards of 1961. Mickey Rooney was a holdover from the vaudevillian days—when this sort of broad stereotyping was more acceptable—and when he brought his Japanese character to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, he nearly ruined the film. The character wasn’t limited to a single scene at the beginning either—he kept popping up intermittently, and every time he did, he took the audience right out of the movie.
At the time the film was released, the New York Times wrote, “Mickey Rooney's bucktoothed, myopic Japanese is broadly exotic.” As the years have worn on, nearly everyone, from the producers to the director, have apologized for it. The only person who seems to have a difficult time apologizing is Mickey Rooney. He does concede, however, that if he knew he would cause so much pain, he would have never taken the role.
Kung Fu
Asian Role: Kwai Chang Kaine
Non-Asian Performer: David Carradine
Release Date: 1972
Here’s another example of an actor who, like Yul Brynner, has largely been given a pass. David Carradine played Kwai Chang Kaine for two Kung Fu television series and two Kung Fu movies. And although there were grumblings that yet again, a white man was playing a role that could have gone to an Asian man, Carradine carried himself in a way that was dignified and flattering to Asians; he was not a broad, insulting stereotype.
Still, it’s agonizing to imagine what could have been. Bruce Lee, for example, was in the running for the role. Furthermore, in her memoirs, Bruce Lee's widow, Linda Lee Caldwell, claimed that Bruce had conceived of the idea himself, and it was stolen by Warner Bros. Ed Spielman, the creator of the series, vehemently denies this.
Short Circuit 2
Asian Role: Benjamin Jahrvi
Non-Asian Performer: Fisher Stevens
Release Date: 1988
East Asians aren’t the only Asians who aren’t allowed to play themselves: Indians and Southeast Asians have the exact same problems. In fact, in a recent article in the New York Times, writer and comedian Aziz Ansari remembered the first time he saw an Indian man in the lead role of a film. It was the character Benjamin Jhavari in Short Circuit 2.
There was one crucial problem, however. The guy who played Benjamin Jhavari was not actually Indian. He was a white guy from Chicago named Fisher Stevens, who put on brown makeup every morning to play his role. In the same New York Times article, Stevens reflected back on the role, noting that he was young and still struggling at the time. If he was given a similar opportunity today, he noted, he wouldn’t do it.
21
Asian Role: Jeff Ma
Non-Asian Performer: Jim Sturgess
Release Date: 2008
The problem of casting non-Asians in Asian roles has persisted to today; it just happens in more subtle ways. There is no more overt yellow face, but instead, roles that that were intended for Asian actors are simply recast. A name change here, a creative liberty there, and Asians don’t have to worry about being parodied; they only have to worry about being represented.
Take the movie 21 for example, which told the “true story” of an MIT blackjack team and their takedown of Las Vegas casinos. In real life, the majority of the team members were Asian in descent but somehow, in the transition from page to screen, Jeff Ma became Ben Campbell, who was played by white English actor Jim Sturgess. Ma defended the casting choice (he also served as a consultant for the film) but suffice to say, many Asian Americans were not pleased.
Dragonball Evolution
Asian Role: Goku
Non-Asian Performer: Justin Chatwin
Release Date: 2009
The Dragon Ball Goku character is based on the Monkey King from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. So you can imagine that Asians were upset when Justin Chatwin was cast in the role for Dragonball Evolution. It was another massive platform and another wasted opportunity to give a deserving Asian actor some exposure. If it’s any comfort, the movie was a massive critical flop. The screenwriter, Ben Ramsey, issued a formal apology for his role in the movie, though it’s unlikely that a few casting choices were going to fix what was fundamentally broken to begin with.
The Last Airbender
Asian Role: Aang
Non-Asian Performer: Noah Ringer
Release Date: 2010
Here’s another critical disaster that can be chalked up to karma. The Last Airbender was awarded the Razzie for being the Worst Movie of 2010, and M. Night Shyamalan was awarded the same prize for Worst Director.
Because the world of the film was inspired by East Asian and Inuit culture, there was a massive controversy over casting, which included casting Noah Ringer as Aang. And although Shyamalan dismissed criticism by pointing out that anime could be racially flexible and indistinct, the public opinion was largely against him. Film critic Roger Ebert said it best: "The original series Avatar: The Last Airbender was highly regarded and popular for three seasons on Nickelodeon. Its fans take it for granted that its heroes are Asian. Why would Paramount and Shyamalan go out of their way to offend these fans? There are many young Asian actors capable of playing the parts."
Star Trek Into Darkness
Asian Role: Khan Noonien Singh
Non-Asian Performer: Benedict Cumberbatch
Release Date: 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness, despite being one of the most commercially and critically successful Trek films of all time, is widely disliked by the hardcore fanbase. There are many reasons for this—most fans see the film as a blatant remake of The Wrath of Khan)—one of which is the casting choice of Khan, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. The Khan character is of Indian descent, and the man who played him in the original Wrath of Khan, Richard Montalban, is of Mexican descent. But for Into Darkness, the character was given to a white, English actor, despite existing in the same timeline and universe as the original films.
Star Trek is about a time in the not so distant future, when non-representation is a thing of the past. So why can’t the producers find an Indian actor to play Khan?
Edge of Tomorrow
Asian Role: Keiji Kiriya
Non-Asian Performer: Tom Cruise
Release Date: 2014
As more and more mangas are adapted into full length features, this is going to continue being a problem. The recent Edge of Tomorrow was based on the manga All You Need Is Kill. The protagonist in that story is a character named Keiji Kiriya, but instead of having an Asian man portray him in the movie, they changed his name to Bill Cage (Cage? Keiji?) and cast Tom Cruise in the lead.
There are so many action Asian heroes who would have jumped at the chance to perform this role. But Tom Cruise had the name recognition, not to mention the complexion.
Aloha
Asian Role: Allison Ng
Non-Asian Performer: Emma Stone
Release Date: 2015
In Aloha, Emma Stone played a half-Asian Hawaiian woman named Allison Ng. Hawaii is the only U.S. state that has a majority Asian population, and by casting a blonde, blue eyed woman, the producers sent a discouraging message to mixed-race actors, who struggle to find mainstream work. Both Cameron Crowe and Emma Stone apologized for this misstep, discussing the need to be more thoughtful in their casting and acting choices. That's nice and all, but talk is cheap.
The Martian
Asian Role: Mindy Park
Non-Asian Performer: Mackenzie Davis
Release Date: 2015
The joke amongst Asian Americans is that we will only qualify for the brainy side character roles; we can be scientists, or a tech nerds, or a math professors. But sometimes, not even that is true. In Ridley Scott’s The Martian, the role of NASA Engineer Mindy Park, a Korean character, was performed by Mackenzie Davis. Guy Aoki, the founding president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, said in an interview with NBC News, "This is a feel-good movie. It would have been great to see Asian Americans being part of the solution. It would have been great for actors to get a career boost. It's really a lost opportunity."
Doctor Strange
Asian Role: The Ancient One
Non-Asian Performer: Tilda Swinton
Release Date: 2016
The people involved in Doctor Strange have been defensive about their latest casting choice. Swinton acknowledges the problem: “Until people see this film, I completely understand why they might misunderstand the reinterpretation of an older Asian man to be played by me as being problematic.” Writer/director Scott Derrickson defends the choice as well. "My first decision was to make it a woman," he says. "I thought that was going to be an interesting way to avoid the stereotype and also the cliché of the wise old mentor teaching the young white hero. I initially thought I'd make it an Asian woman but every time I was working on the script, I kept feeling like I was writing a Dragon Lady.”
To which I would say: If you’re concerned about writing a stereotype, then why not consult Asian writers instead of throwing up your hands? There are many ways to reinvent a role without throwing it out entirely and starting from scratch.
Ghost in the Shell
Asian Role: Motoko Kusanagi
Non-Asian Performer: Scarlett Johansson
Release Date: 2017
This has been a mess from the start. The complaint was the same as every other example on this list: a white actress, Scarlett Johansson, was selected to play a prominent Asian role. But Ghost in the Shell became even more controversial when it was revealed that Paramount did tests to see if CGI could make white actors appear more Asian. Paramount denies this was for Scarlett’s character, although Screen Crush’s anonymous source says otherwise. Ultimately, Paramount scrapped the CGI. Which is good (I guess?), because even if they used it convincingly, it would have amounted to high tech yellowface.
Alita: Battle Angel
Asian Role: Alita
Non-Asian Performer: Rosa Salazar
Release Date: 2018
And finally, here’s your final reminder that this is a current, ongoing problem. Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming adaptation of the Alita: Battle Angel manga won’t be released for two years, but already, there is a distinct lack of Asian representation. The lead character, Alita, is being played by Rosa Salazar, a Latina woman.
It’s mindful to point out that none of these modern erasures are overtly racist or done with malicious intent. A lot of times, it comes down to dollars and cents—of casting the most bankable star in the biggest role. But Asian actors and actresses will not gain the experience or prominence necessary to become bankable with that attitude. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle that needs to end, and Hollywood should let us tell our own narratives instead of erasing us as the storytellers.