Matt said:

Fucking hell.

100% ethnic Persians are WHITE. They only started having darker skin after Arabs invaded the country and intermarriage started occurring. There are still populations of people in Iran that have porcelain skin and blue eyes.

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Dead said:

Meh. All 3 are the same. Dull and terribly long, dumb, loud and with annoying main characters.

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harSon said:

People are being overly accepting of the casting, even if Disney was aware of Persia's Indo-European/Aryan/Caucasian background (And the traditional meaning of the latter two terms are radically different from what people consider them to be today), they still went into the casting with ethnicity heavily on their minds.

If you hadn't noticed, pretty much all of the main characters are white (Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley, who is of european and gujarati indian descent) and once you deviate from them to the numerous side and "background" characters, you'll realize that nearly every single one of them are not white. I doubt this was by accident :lol

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Fularu said:

Middle easterners have different physical traits from Caucasian whites. The Prince of Persia actor shares none of those traits, he's clearly a white caucasian and that's at odds with the setting of the movie.

Also, I'm syrian, I'm white, my father has blue eyes and my family has been in Syria for over a thousand years. Yet I have no trouble recognizing a lebanese, an iraki or an iranian, because guess what? they all share borders with us and share a lot of our ethnical traits.

This is what's annoying. There are middle eastern actors, they could have used them.

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btrboyev said:

seriously?? PoP bitching? Jake G is a dead ringer for the prince from the video games, that's all that needs to be said.

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harSon said:

There's a larger issue at hand.

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MiriamV said:

Them someone suggest this fellow:

Hey, that's more like it! He has the physique, the rogueish good looks, and arguably the right ethnic background. And, he's hot!
But... he's an unknown.
"A summer blockbuster popcorn movie with Hrithik Roshan" does not have the same ring to it as a "summer blockbuster popcorn movie with Jake Gyllenhaal".

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Dark Octave said:

Did he spacifically say that he wanted Indian actors, because every last one of his films that I know of has always had a white lead.

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WrikaWrek said:

There really isn't it.

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harSon said:

There is, your refusal to acknowledge or accept it doesn't change the fact that there is most certainly an issue that needs tending too.

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WrikaWrek said:

In Prince of Persia's case, it's Hollywood romanticizing like it has done so many numerous times. It's a tale of fantasy, with magic. To add to it, it's a videogame adaptation, which by itself was already a visual representation of the world it creates. Nullifying your argument, and this is nullifying period, the characters in the movie are pretty much identical to those of the game, even the accents.

So what we have is a good adaptation. And there really is no misrepresentation going on here. In this case, them casting persian actors, or indian, whatever floats your boat, and probably you would even want them to no speak english lets go all the way here, that would be the studio going of their way misrepresenting the videogame just to put a smile on your face.

You are advocating for misrepresentation, recurring to a false sense of racism, which i've happen to notice seems to be a never dying sentiment in the U.S even when you have a black president.

Avatar is the one case here where you guys can talk about the movie misrepresenting the cartoon from a race standpoint, even if as clearly seen the differences are laughable when i look at the screens but i understand in this case there really is a bigger subject at hand.

There's no case for Prince of Persia. Your case is also inflexible, in that you give no chance for argument, as you are very one sided, and very close minded i'm afraid. Your reasoning for him being (POP) having to not be white, is because of the title, and everything else doesn't matter for you. And given that you have already recurred to insulting other people's character, in this specific case, my character, then i'll just remove myself from the discussion because clearly you aren't here to discuss anything, you are here to yell at clouds.

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Linkzg said:

Name the Persian/Iranian actor you think could carry this type of movie.

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harSon said:

Feel free to take your ball and go home. Despite what you think, I'm more than willing to reconsider my position should a valid counter argument to my own views arise. But that hasn't happened. The economics behind the casting is one of many reasons why minorities are underrepresented within media, but it's not a justification. Like I said, your argument can basically be boiled down to "Stop overreacting!" or "Who gives a shit?", and while you're certainly in your right to hold that position, I don't consider it a reasonable or moral counter to the issue at hand. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using Prince of Persia or The Last Airbender as a jumping board towards an issue that deserves some attention, the release of these two films are a perfect opportunity for society to open up a much needed narrative, and to state otherwise is laughable at best.

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WrikaWrek said:

In Prince of Persia's case, it's Hollywood romanticizing like it has done so many numerous times. It's a tale of fantasy, with magic. To add to it, it's a videogame adaptation, which by itself was already a visual representation of the world it creates. Nullifying your argument, and this is nullifying period, the characters in the movie are pretty much identical to those of the game, even the accents.

So what we have is a good adaptation. And there really is no misrepresentation going on here. In this case, them casting persian actors, or indian, whatever floats your boat, and probably you would even want them to no speak english lets go all the way here, that would be the studio going of their way misrepresenting the videogame just to put a smile on your face.

You are advocating for misrepresentation, recurring to a false sense of racism, which i've happen to notice seems to be a never dying sentiment in the U.S even when you have a black president.

Avatar is the one case here where you guys can talk about the movie misrepresenting the cartoon from a race standpoint, even if as clearly seen the differences are laughable when i look at the screens but i understand in this case there really is a bigger subject at hand.

There's no case for Prince of Persia. Your case is also inflexible, in that you give no chance for argument, as you are very one sided, and very close minded i'm afraid. Your reasoning for him being (POP) having to not be white, is because of the title, and everything else doesn't matter for you. And given that you have already recurred to insulting other people's character, in this specific case, my character, then i'll just remove myself from the discussion because clearly you aren't here to discuss anything, you are here to yell at clouds.

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harSon said:

Feel free to take your ball and go home. Despite what you think, I'm more than willing to reconsider my position should a valid counter argument to my own views arise. But that hasn't happened. The economics behind the casting is one of many reasons why minorities are underrepresented within media, but it's not a justification. Like I said, your argument can basically be boiled down to "Stop overreacting!" or "Who gives a shit?", and while you're certainly in your right to hold that position, I don't consider it a reasonable or moral counter to the issue at hand. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using Prince of Persia or The Last Airbender as a jumping board towards an issue that deserves some attention, the release of these two films are a perfect opportunity for society to open up a much needed narrative, and to state otherwise is laughable at best.

Having said all that, I can't say that your opinions will be missed. Conveniently ignoring the most profound points in this thread, and only latching onto those you can actually respond too, isn't exactly what I'd call the most legitimate form of debate. If you do decide to come back, try to respond to some of the more substantive posts (in their entirety) and maybe you'll find that people will take your positions a hell of a lot more seriously.

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Wikipedia said:

Controversy arose over the decision to make the majority of the characters white, even though the main players in the book Bringing Down the House, upon which the film 21 is based, were mainly Asian-Americans.

Jane Willis, the person that the character "Jill Taylor" is based on, said in an interview that it was obvious early on that the studio wasn’t interested in staying true to Ben Mezrich’s book. Although race and gender were key to the dynamic of the MIT group, and Ma recruited her to "give the team, which was mostly Asian and male, a little diversity," the studios originally wanted her character left out. They wanted an all white male cast with one Asian girl as a love interest and in another interview, this was also confirmed by Mezrich. Nick Rogers of The Enterprise wrote "The real-life students mostly were Asian-Americans, but 21 whitewashes its cast and disappointingly lumps its only major Asian actors (Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira) into one-note designations as the team's kleptomaniac and a slot-playing "loser."

Supporters of the decision to cast Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell claim that producers simply sought the best actor for the job, regardless of race. Ultimately, this meant passing over many Asian-American talents in favor of London-born Jim Sturgess, who required a dialect coach to speak with an American accent.

Jeff Ma, who was the real-life inspiration for the character Ben Campbell and served as a consultant on the film, was accused of being a "race traitor" on several blogs for not insisting that his character be Asian American. In response, Ma said, "I'm not sure they understand how little control I had in the movie-making process; I didn't get to cast it." Ma said that the controversy was "overblown" and that the important aspect is that a talented actor would portray him. Chinese American Jeff Ma, inflamed Asian Americans when he told USA Today, "I would have been a lot more insulted if they had chosen someone who was Japanese or Korean, just to have an Asian playing me." Boycott21 and other anti-21 websites quickly sprang up.

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) reported on their web site: "After the ‘white-washing’ issue was raised on Entertainment Weekly’s web site, producer Dana Brunetti wrote: "Believe me, I would have LOVED to cast Asians in the lead roles, but the truth is, we didn’t have access to any bankable Asian-American actors that we wanted."

Guy Aoki, MANAA’s Founding President, had spoken to Brunetti about the film in October 2005. Back then, Brunetti said he did not care about realistic ethnic casting and was merely looking for "the best actor for the role". Says Aoki, "Asian American actors are 40 years behind African Americans in being allowed to play themselves in their own stories. 21, unfortunately, continues that discriminatory tradition."

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Veidt said:

blame shyamlandingdong.
He wanted indian actors in there, no doubt about that.But the actual show features no actual indian characters ( aside from that awesome guru dude on top of the mountain). So he chose to fuck it all up and cast the fire nation as indians. While they clearly posses fairer skin than the typical indian. They're also meant to act more russian/japanese, from what we can gather from their culture of discipline and authoritarianism.

So what are you gonna do now? You need to put some white people in there, but you already fucked up the closest nation to whites and made it indian.

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"Oh I know, I'll cast the water nation as whites!"
-Who are clearly meant to be brown skinned, a.k.a the perfect opportunity to cast INDIANS if you wanted it THAT bad, Shymaladingdongthehappeningsucked

I don't mind the casting for kitara, she sounds and acts very much like the character of kitara. The same for Aang.

So yeah, blame M.Night-mylastfilmsucked.

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Fularu said:

Middle easterners have different physical traits from Caucasian whites. The Prince of Persia actor shares none of those traits, he's clearly a white caucasian and that's at odds with the setting of the movie.

Also, I'm syrian, I'm white, my father has blue eyes and my family has been in Syria for over a thousand years. Yet I have no trouble recognizing a lebanese, an iraki or an iranian, because guess what? they all share borders with us and share a lot of our ethnical traits.

This is what's annoying. There are middle eastern actors, they could have used them.

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Korey said:

In my opinion, some of those people who keep saying "stop overreacting" or "who gives a shit" in threads like these are racists who don't know they are racist. I know people like this in real life.

Also, I think the movie 21 (2008) should really be brought into the debate with Airbender and PoP as it's a much clearer picture into the problem than Prince of Persia (although that is a totally legitimate example as well).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_(2008_film)#Casting_controversy


It's quite sad that Jeff Ma, the Asian guy the main character of 21 is based on, had to defend the whitewashing using the "more talented actor" line, and that he even went further to state that he'd rather have a white guy play him than another minority.

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Korey said:

In my opinion, some of those people who keep saying "stop overreacting" or "who gives a shit" in threads like these are racists who don't know they are racist. I know people like this in real life.

Also, I think the movie 21 (2008) should really be brought into the debate with Airbender and PoP as it's a much clearer picture into the problem than Prince of Persia (although that is a totally legitimate example as well).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_(2008_film)#Casting_controversy


It's quite sad that Jeff Ma, the Asian guy the main character of 21 is based on, had to defend the whitewashing using the "more talented actor" line, and that he even went further to state that he'd rather have a white guy play him than another minority.

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kame-sennin said:

Wow, that article used every idiotic argument in the playbook. '21' is a great example because you really have to use a lot of self-deception to believe any of those nonsense arguments. Saying there are no bankable Asian stars is ridiculous since the lead ended up being a no-name Caucasian, the movie's a fucking true story, so you can't argue that the character's race is ambiguous, and saying you chose the best actor for a role and it just happened to be a white guy (again) is akin to saying that Asian actors just aren't talented (unless you want to lie and claim that there aren't thousands of Asians trying to break in).

Btw, the financial argument, aside from having no moral weight, is a weak one anyway. Before Smith or Denzel or Poitier, Hollywood would argue that black actors weren't bankable. Essentially, minorities aren't financially viable until they are. The x factor here is not intolerant audiences (who are tolerant enough to elect the first black president but are so flagrantly racist that they wouldn't spend ten dollars to see a Hispanic headline a two-hour movie). The x factor is studios being unwilling to give minorities a chance. Sam Worthington was a nobody and they put in the lead role of a billion dollar film. Hollywood would risk a fraction of that budget on a Asian lead in a non-martial arts film.

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Korey said:

It's quite sad that Jeff Ma, the Asian guy the main character of 21 is based on, had to defend the whitewashing using the "more talented actor" line, and that he even went further to state that he'd rather have a white guy play him than another minority.

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kame-sennin said:

The x factor is studios being unwilling to give minorities a chance. Sam Worthington was a nobody and they put him in the lead role of a billion dollar film. Hollywood wouldn't risk a fraction of that budget on a Asian lead in a non-martial arts film.

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kame-sennin said:

Wow, that article used every idiotic argument in the playbook. '21' is a great example because you really have to use a lot of self-deception to believe any of those nonsense arguments. Saying there are no bankable Asian stars is ridiculous since the lead ended up being a no-name Caucasian, the movie's a fucking true story, so you can't argue that the character's race is ambiguous, and saying you chose the best actor for a role and it just happened to be a white guy (again) is akin to saying that Asian actors just aren't talented (unless you want to lie and claim that there aren't thousands of Asians trying to break in).

Btw, the financial argument, aside from having no moral weight, is a weak one anyway. Before Smith or Denzel or Poitier, Hollywood would argue that black actors weren't bankable. Essentially, minorities aren't financially viable until they are. The x factor here is not intolerant audiences (who are apparently tolerant enough to elect the first black president but are so flagrantly racist that they wouldn't spend ten dollars to see a Hispanic headline a two-hour movie). The x factor is studios being unwilling to give minorities a chance. Sam Worthington was a nobody and they put him in the lead role of a billion dollar film. Hollywood wouldn't risk a fraction of that budget on a Asian lead in a non-martial arts film.

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harSon said:

People are being overly accepting of the casting, even if Disney was aware of Persia's Indo-European/Aryan/Caucasian background (And the traditional meaning of the latter two terms are radically different from what people consider them to be today), they still went into the casting with ethnicity heavily on their minds.

If you hadn't noticed, pretty much all of the main characters are white (Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley, who is of european and gujarati indian descent) and once you deviate from them to the numerous side and "background" characters, you'll realize that nearly every single one of them are not white. I doubt this was by accident :lol

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KnightM7 said:

Cause all minorities are interchangeable right?

Theres nothing racist about $$$$
Movie wouldnt have done aswell if they got something like Leonardo Nam or Sung Kang...

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Trojita said:

Can I reiterate again that The Prince, the character that Jake Gyllenhaal is playing, is from a foreign land in the lore. If he is anything he will not be Persian. I can understand being pissed off that some of the other characters aren't Persian but being pissed off that the Prince isn't is just ignorance.

THE PRINCE IS NOT PERSIAN IN THE GAMES

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Korey said:

The debate here is the marginalization of minorities in film, not necessarily "racial inaccuracies". Any effort to derail the debate in that direction is misdirection or trolling.

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KnightM7 said:

And its up to hollywood to lead this social change.. why?
Do you expect Chinese studios to suddenly have a rainbow of actors in their movies?

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YoungHav said:

I personally want a Shaka Zulu remake with Guy Pearce as Shaka Zulu.

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Vinci said:

Do Chinese studios only cast Han people in their films to a ratio that exceeds the ratio of Han population to that of other races in mainland China?

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KnightM7 said:

So you admit. Theres a specific reason they cast certain races, and that reason is directly tied to the viewing population.

So when they talk about getting 'bankable' actors then why are you complaining? its for the exact same reason. Its what the population will go to see.

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Trojita said:

Can I reiterate again that The Prince, the character that Jake Gyllenhaal is playing, is from a foreign land in the lore. If he is anything he will not be Persian. I can understand being pissed off that some of the other characters aren't Persian but being pissed off that the Prince isn't is just ignorance.

THE PRINCE IS NOT PERSIAN IN THE GAMES

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Lebron said:

I want a Shaft remake staring George Clooney as Shaft, or RDJ as Shaft. Either one will work.

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harSon said:

I agree to a certain extent, society has proven that it's more than willing to accept minority actors in a lead role. Unfortunately, on a completely different note, I do believe there are certain stories that much of society will not watch if it's from an ethnic point of view.

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Trojita said:

Can I reiterate again that The Prince, the character that Jake Gyllenhaal is playing, is from a foreign land in the lore. If he is anything he will not be Persian. I can understand being pissed off that some of the other characters aren't Persian but being pissed off that the Prince isn't is just ignorance.

THE PRINCE IS NOT PERSIAN IN THE GAMES

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MiriamV said:

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Vinci said:

How about Oded Fehr? I like that guy. He's all right. He could look the part with long, scraggly hair.

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WrikaWrek said:

You are advocating for misrepresentation, recurring to a false sense of racism, which i've happen to notice seems to be a never dying sentiment in the U.S even when you have a black president.

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YoungHav said:

:lol

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Korey said:

In my opinion, some of those people who keep saying "stop overreacting" or "who gives a shit" in threads like these are racists who don't know they are racist. I know people like this in real life.

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WrikaWrek said:

You are advocating for misrepresentation, recurring to a false sense of racism, which i've happen to notice seems to be a never dying sentiment in the U.S even when you have a black president.

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Matt said:

100% ethnic Persians are WHITE.

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