Why Is a White Actor Playing 'Prince of Persia' Title Role?
- Thread starter Dusty Ayres
- Start date
If an Arab were cast, Iranians would probably be even more incensed.
Arpy said:
Oh, I did forget to mention this--the British accent. Why is the British accent always a placeholder for "foreign" (and also "pre-modern")?He's not going to be speaking Farsi, Kurd, or Azeri, so what's the difference?
Back in the glory days of historical epics, it was standard for the good guys (Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, etcetera) to speak with American accents while the bad guys typically had British accents . . . .
The funniest recent example was the JOAN OF ARC television miniseries, in which the evil British were played by suitably English actors--but the noble French were all played by Americans!
(Which, granted, is probably the only way you could get an American tv audience to root for the French!)
No kidding. Sayid's an Arab character and he was always a favorite of Lost viewers (who I doubt realize or care that the guy playing him wasn't of Arab ethnicity, or was "too dark" and had the wrong accent, and spoke his Arabic lines atrociously.)
They should be more offended that the movie is crap. But then again, Americans are very used to most movies about Americans being crap. If Iranians are offended by Prince of Persia, why shouldn't I be offended by Sex in the City 2?
It can't be racist! It's all white people!
It's one of many American-made, anti-English revisionist history movies.
Then how can it be racist, if all the people involved are the same race? There's probably another word for it.
"Nationalistic" would be closer. "Gibsonistic" would be even more accurate. America does not take responsibility for whatever Mel Gibson gets up to.
Yeah, that's distractingly dopey. Tom Cruise in Valkyrie had the right idea: use your normal accent. To do otherwise just calls attention to the fact that everyone in the movie is speaking the wrong language. It drags the audience right out of the movie.
That's because the bad guys were played by British actors, who were more likely to choose a part because it's a good, meaty role (villains are often wonderful roles) and didn't have their agents screaming at them that it would ruin their image and their bankability.
I just imdb'ed that, holy crap, what a cast!
Powers Booth, Neil Patrick Harris, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Maury Chaykin, Peter O'Toole and Maximilian Schell!!!
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But then you get all the short-sighted tunnel-vision folk crying, "Why isn't Cruise speaking with a German accent?" While completely ignoring that Branagh, Nighy, Stamp, Wilkinson, Izzard, etc., aren't speaking with German accents either.
Besides, everyone knows Naveen Andrews needs to play Khan in a new STAR TREK movie.
oh my god thatd be awesome. the little fan boy inside me just let out a squee. And maybe a little sex wee too lol
Ok, this list will include villains too, but here are all the ones I can think of...
Christian Bale - Batman/Bruce Wayne
Liam Neeson - Ra's al Ghul
Cillian Murphy - Scarecrow
Alfred Molina - Dr Octopus
Patrick Stewart - Professor Charles Xavier
Sir Ian McKellan - Magneto
Vinnie Jones - Juggernaut
Ioan Gruffudd - Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic
Ray Stevenson - The Punisher
Colin Farrell - Bullseye
Dominic Monaghan - Chris Bradley/Bolt
The correct response to those questions, and all others like them, is "Who gives a fuck?".
But the operative terms are "American Superhero" and "Brit actor" So the supervillians are out. Non American characters are out (Like Ras al Ghul and Magneto) As are Irish actors Cillian Murphy and Collin Farrell. So that leaves
Christian Bale - Batman/Bruce Wayne
Patrick Stewart - Professor Charles Xavier
Ioan Gruffudd - Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic
I've never even heard of Bolt (must be a C lister), but lets toss him in too.
Dominic Monaghan - Chris Bradley/Bolt
As opposed to:
Robert Downey jr Tony Stark/Iron Man
Don Cheedle- Jim Rhodes/War Machine
Brandon Routh-Clark Kent/Superman
James Marsdan-Scott Summers/Cyclops
Kelsey Grammar-Hank McCoy/The Beast
Halle Berry-Oro Munroe/Storm (I think she's half Amerian)
Ben Foster-Warren Worthington III/The Angel
Chris Evans-Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (and Steve Rogers/Captain America)
Jessica Alba-Sue Storm/Invisible Woman
Michael Chiklis-Ben Grimm/The Thing
Tobey Maguire-Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Ed Norton-Bruce Banner/The Hulk
Ben Affleck-Matt Murdock/Daredevil
Nic Cage-Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider
Billy Crudup-Jon Osterman/Dr Manhattan
Jackie Earle Haley -Walter Kovacs /Rorschach
Patrick Wilson-Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl
Jeffrey Dean Morgan-Edward Blake /The Comedian
And thats not counting NonBrits (like our Canadian cousins) playing American superheroes
Me neither, just want to see how many I could find.
Why do people assume that non-Europeans are necessarily something other than "white"?
Why does every historical royal figure in movies have to have an RP British accent?
Not that it stopped him from playing an Arab.
Then again - John Wayne as Ghengis Khan...
It seems that there are two types of weird casting for non-European roles:
1) "everyone is white" (white actors of European descent play every role)
2) "all non-Europeans are interchangeable. You can throw Mediterraneans there as well." (You want someone to play an Arab? Here we have this great Indian-British actor... You need a Native American? Here we have this Hispanic guy... What, he is not Hispanic, you say? He is Spanish? Isn't that the same thing?)
Why does every historical royal figure in movies have to have an RP British accent?
Yes. And too obviously South Asian.
Not that it stopped him from playing an Arab.
Then again - John Wayne as Ghengis Khan...
It seems that there are two types of weird casting for non-European roles:
1) "everyone is white" (white actors of European descent play every role)
2) "all non-Europeans are interchangeable. You can throw Mediterraneans there as well." (You want someone to play an Arab? Here we have this great Indian-British actor... You need a Native American? Here we have this Hispanic guy... What, he is not Hispanic, you say? He is Spanish? Isn't that the same thing?)
This is why I won't see this movie in theaters.
Some actors can have characteristics and qualities of a certain race and pull it off nicely. However, most of the time: this is not the case.
Then again, your looking at the guy who didn't like Braveheart because he thought Mel Gibson looked too clean and pretty while fighting in battle.
Sometimes I can look at a movie and suspend belief. Other times I cannot. It depends on the tone set for the movie and the genre of course.
Some actors can have characteristics and qualities of a certain race and pull it off nicely. However, most of the time: this is not the case.
Then again, your looking at the guy who didn't like Braveheart because he thought Mel Gibson looked too clean and pretty while fighting in battle.
Sometimes I can look at a movie and suspend belief. Other times I cannot. It depends on the tone set for the movie and the genre of course.
No it is not. I had no idea who either of these characters were and wouldn't have minded in the least their being played by white actors.
I don't mind them being played by black actors (well not too much) because it can be fun casting of some the countless predominantly white characters in art as not white.
The drawback is that long-time fans don't get what they've known and loved, and I agree, but that doesn't make the whole thing bullshit.