Racial Miscasting

[Kire]

If Hollywood is a window on the world, the world must be filled with a lot of white people pretending they're Mexican. And Swedes pretending they're Chinese. And WASPs pretending they're Jewish.

Acting, like fiction, is really about lying. Orson Wells isn't really Charles Foster Kane just as there isn't really a Death Star. They're lies. The better you are at lying about who you are, the better an actor you are. (Unless you're not an actor, in which case you're a freak who would make a scary roommate.) Still, lies can only go so far, as anybody who has ever been grounded can tell you. Witness ...

http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/14/racial_miscasting.html

[paul_fromatlanta]

1. There is also a problem with saying a certain role can only be played by

one race... That's a kind of racism too.

[Burning Water]

2. Acting has

always been about representing someone that you are not. I see nothing wrong with this. How about the black kid that plays George Washington in the local elementary school play? Is that offensive.

I think America will be a much better place when any actor can play any ethnic part without the PC crowd going ballistic and crying racism. To me this kind of behavior trivializes real racial problems.

[documaker]

5. I see something wrong with this.

Italians shouldn't be portraying American Indians. Gringos should not be portraying Latinos. Films by directors of color get this. See "Devil with a Blue Dress" with it's casting of an African American actress who is "passing", who is really an African American and really can "pass" (and does, for most of the movie).

Authentic ethnicity makes for better art.

[Karenina]

3. "Acting, like fiction, is really about lying"

J'ein. It's more about empathy; being able to walk in anothers' shoes so comfortably as to "be" him for a time.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Anthony Quinn - Zorba the Greek

Was Mexican; part Tarahumara indian, part Irish.

I think it goes both ways, fortunately . ;-)

[Proud_Democratt]

6. Not all Jews look alike...

There are many Jews that aren't of a Eastern European descent. In fact, some of the purest Jews are found in Africa.