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Scarlett Johannson in Ghost in the Shell. Idris Elba in The Dark Tower. You can't be mad about one without being mad about the other.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
Or, rather, you can't *not* be mad about one without *not* being mad about the other.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
I do think it's really dumb to hire a white actress and then try to use special effects to make her look Asian, though.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
It'd be like if they tried to use special effects to make Idris Elba look white in The Dark Tower.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
Anyway, point is, it seems the people who are mad about SJ in GitS were fine with Elba in TDT. And vice versa. And that seems weird to me.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
Why is it okay to hire a black actor to play a white character, but not okay to hire a white actor to play an Asian character?
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
As for me, I'm fine with both casting decisions, EXCEPT that I think it's really hinky to try to make Scarlett Johannson look Asian.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
Either hire her for her and be done with it, or hire an Asian actor, if what you really want is an "Asian-looking" character.
— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) April 17, 2016
(Yes, I realize I misspelled Scarlett Johansson's name in those tweets.)
Just for reference.
I don't think Scarlett Johansson will "ruin" Ghost in the Shell any more than Idris Elba will "ruin" The Dark Tower.
Here's the thing, though. The real reason why I think both of these are issues. People are angry about Idris Elba being cast as Roland Deschain because they are stupid racist assholes. People are angry about Scarlett Johansson being cast as Motoko Kusanagi because it is a reaction to other similar stupid racist asshole bullshit in a long, long line of stupid racist asshole bullshit, like the old practice of hiring white guys and then slapping makeup on their faces to make them look black. Digitally altering Scarlett Johansson to look Asian is pretty much the same damn thing. And even ignoring that aspect of it, whitewashing is indeed a thing, regardless of whether or not they apply digital "yellowface" to Scarlett Johansson or whatever.
So, yeah, there is nuance there. I can see the difference between the two scenarios, even if the above tweets were more either/or. Which is more than I can say for many others who are protesting this new thing, but were fine with the other thing. Or, worse, the other way around, because, in my opinion, if you are part of the group that is super-buttangry about Idris Elba as Roland Deschain but are okay with Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi, then you are the fucking problem. Full stop. End of line. On the other hand, the group that is fine with Elba but upset over Johansson, I have less of a problem with them, because I can see where they're coming from. Shit like this doesn't happen in a fucking vacuum, devoid of context from any other similar scenario, after all.
Ultimately, even though I'm okay with both casting decisions as is, in a perfect world, they probably would have been better off hiring Asian actors for Ghost in the Shell. That said, I'm still perfectly okay with Elba as Roland, though, even if Roland is "supposed to be" a white dude (in the same sense that Motoko Kusanagi is "supposed to be" a Japanese [partial-cyborg] woman), or, at least, was described as such in the source material. (Roland was described in different places as looking a bit like Clint Eastwood, a white dude, or as looking like Stephen King himself, also a white dude.)
And I don't agree with Max Landis that there simply aren't any Asian stars "big" enough to carry this movie, and that it could only possibly be made with Scarlett Johansson as the star, and that that is the "real problem." Why does a star have to be so "big" before they can head a movie? No, the real problem is stupid racist assholes, and has been for a very long time. I do agree with him that the system as a whole is broken as shit, though (in part because of stupid racist asshole bullshit, on the part of studios that make movies as well as consumers who pay to see said movies). He is right to say that the problem is cultural... but the fucking film industry is a direct part of that culture. It reflects, but also shapes. (EDIT) And by that, no, I'm not saying durr hurr movies cause racism derpity herpity, in the same sense that morons try to claim that violent video games directly cause people to be violent, because that's fucking asinine. Racist movies and racist movie casting decisions do not cause viewers to be racist. All I'm saying is that after over a hundred years of institutionalized sexism and racism in the movie industry alone, you can't just say, no, don't blame the movie industry at all, it's not their fault, it's a cultural problem, instead. Because, again, movies are themselves a part of that culture that is the problem. You can't just wash your hands of the problem and not try to fix the issues in the movie industry, or even acknowledge those issues in the first place, by blowing it off with a "well that's just how the movie industry works, dawg, don't get mad at the wrong people." (/EDIT) So, no, I don't give the movie industry a free pass in this case, any more than I give the video game industry a free pass regarding all that other shit.
