The second decade of the 21st century has been an interesting one. We’re living in an era where a meme can save lives and the design of a scientist’s shirt can be regarded as sexist and offensive. Truth to be told, Hollywood hasn’t been so lucky as to hide itself from the avalanche of controversies that seem to be a routine-thing these days. Some are important and need to be spoken, but some… let’s just say they were used as a toy for a tribe of people to declare war, particularly on the net. One of latest topic that has strongly gained my interest, is “White-washing in Hollywood” and how it has affected minorities.
As a non-white person that has lived in two countries and has a wide variety of hobbies that are made by different races and continents, it always interested me, in both positive and negative ways, how people react to this issue and direct them toward the creators, more than anywhere else.
In early 2015, it was confirmed that Scarlett Johansson would star as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the Hollywood adaptation of Japanese masterpiece, Ghost in The Shell. On paper, this is a gigantic leap of credibility for both the studio and how Hollywood is starting to take Japanese adaptations seriously. Less than a decade ago, a travesty known as Dragon Ball: Evolution was released as the first anticipated adaptation of the east’s phenomenal hero, Goku, and his quest. Not only was the final product a catastrophic mess, made by a lazy and dispassionate team, in a strange way the movie mocked the very existence of its universe and most importantly, Japanese culture. Having a multi-million-dollar actor such Johansson can only spice things up for the fans and prove that this product is no joke. Paramount pictures are taking this adaptation very cautiously and this may be the last attempt at finding success in Japanese sources. Boy, was all of this ONLY on paper…
This casting caused a massive and unexpected backlash against the film, the team behind it and Johansson itself. Marvel’s Black Widow was now cast as a Japanese character - a role that presumably should’ve gone to… well… a Japanese actress! What should’ve been a celebration and a milestone for Anime and Manga fans of the west turned into an all-out war, and brought out the good ol’ topic of whitewashing in Hollywood. Perhaps more than ever.
If you delve deep enough into the history of Hollywood, the absurd and dare I say, embarrassing examples of white-washing and casting choices will validate this issue even further. But what fascinated me about the backlash of this specific casting choice, are the sides of each argument and how it seems some have minimal regard for the nature of today’s film market. Studios are becoming less ambitious with their choices and whilst the result is safe and consistent, the aura of taking risks with their casting choices is slowly fading into a more marketable and star-power route. This only elevates even further when you realize that there are less than a handful of actresses in Hollywood who are known for their huge box office success, unfortunately. One would argue that this was in fact, a perfect opportunity for an unknown Asian-American talent to rise and become a breakthrough star. But a Ghost in The Shell movie would not exist if there wasn’t somewhat of guarantee of box office success. In my recent memory, there is only ONE successful blockbuster franchise that takes the risk and goes above and beyond to cast an unknown talent: Star Wars. What seems to be a systemic issue and the question of “Why we do not have an Asian A-List actor?” has diverted into this obscure cycle of shouting to the void about how movie producers and the likes of Johansson itself are deemed as racist. Now don’t get me wrong. I do want to see diverse roles being occupied by diverse artist. But this systemic issue exists due to movie studios operating out of extreme safe decisions and not taking any risks to get their money back. In short, a Ghost In The Shell project would not exist in the first place if it wasn’t because of Johansson being cast as the Major. But we’ll get to that in a second.
Remember when I said both sides of the argument are fascinating? Turns out there are a group of people who are completely fine with casting of a white actress as a Japanese character. Who? The Japanese! Yep. In an interview with YouTube channel “That Japanese Man Yuta”, it turns out the average Japanese population do not have any high expectations on how they are represented in Hollywood movies. Heck, most of them praised Johansson’s similarity to Major Kusanagi from the Anime. In an interview with IGN, Mamoru Oshii (the director of original Ghost In The Shell movie) recently showed his interest in the project and Johansson as the Major. “What issue could there possibly be with casting her? The Major is a cyborg and her physical form is an entirely assumed one. The name ‘Motoko Kusanagi’ and her current body are not her original name and body, so there is no basis for saying that an Asian actress must portray her.”
All of this raises the question of whether this backlash has been yet another example of Western civilization playing devil’s advocate and blindly ignoring the 1+1 of Hollywood and letting political correctness overshadow a problem without providing as solution? As I said, a Ghost In The Shell movie will never see the light of day if it wasn’t because of Johansson.
This project may or may not have gotten the green light during the 90s, but in the current era of maximum profitability, you are simply in the wrong lane if you divert this issue of casting into the team behind this film. Yes, we do need Asian and other diverse talents on big movies. The new Power Rangers movie cast a black and asian actor as two of the rangers that were played by white actors in the past TV series. And they turned out to be some of the better ones out of the group! But it’s our job as the audience to support the smaller roles being played by diverse artists to build them up to a marketable level and status. And to be honest, that seems to be the ONLY solution to expand the diversity in Hollywood.
Ghost In The Shell was released and personally, I enjoyed the film! The visuals are outstanding, the performances are solid and it has been one of the better, if not the best anime and manga adaptation. However, the cloud of controversy didn’t leave this movie even at release and it may never be gone. The broken system is as vivid as ever. But at the same time, the backlash seemed to be diverted toward the wrong group of people.
What should’ve been an important moment of realization for us as the audience turned into a chaotic, aimless shout into the void for certain groups of people that provided no solution. Maybe it is time for us as the audience to give less to another Transformers sequel and support those indie movies that are getting limited-releases with more diverse and unknown teams of talent. After all, we as the audience are in charge of the market.
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