Star Wars actor defends race-swapping characters to be more 'inclusive' from people who get 'butthurt'
Star Wars actor defends race-swapping characters to be more 'inclusive' from people who get 'butthurt'
Pascal called for opening roles so that they can be cast by actors of different racial or gender identities than how the character was originally portrayed.
Pascal called for opening roles so that they can be cast by actors of different racial or gender identities than how the character was originally portrayed.
Having literally just black and beige white people isn't really diversity, and having white characters in stories and universes concieved of by white people seems to me like missing the point.
When I was growing up, there were lots of original stories with black people in them. There were cartoons, movies, variety shows, dramas, comedies, all about black neighborhoods and black families. There were superstar black actors who played black characters with regularity.
Compare today where instead of taking chances on letting people tell their own stories, the only way you can "include" minorities is to dip a white character in different strengths of tea and coffee.
I don't like it. I'm curious about the world, I want to hear music from all eras from around the world. I want to hear stories from all eras and all around the world. I want to understand how all different kinds of people think and see their values and understand how they push up against those values in the real world. Instead, we get a monoculture. Southern California and everything else is verboten.
Sure, race swapping characters isn't how we get the diverse stories we want but at the same time, there's also just diversity in appearance. I've got no problem with a black professor X, Luke Skywalker,, Picard, Batman or whomever else. Let black, asian or whomever else have a classic hero they can see themselves as. Does it change my previous or current experience? Nope. I can't imagine being so fragile as to whine or care "but the imaginary space captain I grew up with was white so if they make him black, the franchise is broken!"
Tl;dr: Yes, we need more diversity in storytelling/experience but diversity in appearance, especially in our remake/reboot obsessed culture does zero harm and possibly some good.
Seems to be just another defence from the void of creativity that is today's Hollywood. Why not just tell good NEW stories from all cultures on earth? That is interesting. Not converting old and beloved stories to fit their false pandering - this is just another weird guilt trip to sell their lack of creative ideas.
Is it Hollywood's lack of creativity or is the audience's? There's a reason all but 2 of the top 10 grossing films last year were remakes/sequels/reboots. Hollywood isn't forcing anyone to see those movies, but those are the movies audiences consistently seem to choose.
While I love new stories and take time off work to see them every year at ViFF, in a culture where reboots reign supreme, we either change the moviegoing audience's demands/tastes dramatically OR just as we allow new actors to take on some of those iconic roles to which we flock (like say, Batman, Captain Picard etc) we don't restrict those actors to being the same ethnicity as the first actor was. One seems much more practical than the other.
Demanding that diversity only comes in new stories relegates diversity to the cultural scrap heap. While I wish we sought out new stories, for whatever reason, we want Marvel movie 732432 instead.
Generally it doesn't matter in most cases, how often are religious characters from the Middle East depicted as white? In other cases, it does. I wouldn't want to see a movie about Harriet Tubman depicted as a white woman for example as her race is critical to her story.