Japanese nationals have plenty of opportunities to act in Japanese movies. And the audience can easily see Japanese actors in a large variety of roles, whenever they want. If they aren’t affected by Hollywood whitewashing, why would they care? Asian-Americans actors and audiences...can’t quiet say the same.
Yes, very much from this side. Not saying Hollywood doesn't have a problem, but if the Japanese don't have issue with it, I'm curious as to why Americans care more?
The dearth of Asian-Americans in starring roles is a very real concern. I was involved in theater and continue to be an occasional dabbler in indy film and web productions and on more than one occasion I've crossed an amazingly talented actor (men and women) who simply didn't believe there was a future for them professionally in the field because the roles just aren't there. Given what I see on my own screen most nights, I can't disagree. White is the default and until we have more casting directors, writers and producers out there willing to open their minds or even (heaven forbid) write roles specifically for people of Asian descent it will continue to be. As far as the Rose character is concerned, I have no problem with any sort of "activist casting" involved if that was indeed the case (and if you do, yes you've got racial hangups). I care that she wasn't a very good character and was primarily involved in the worst storyline of the film. Tran seems more than capable of carrying a meatier role and I hope she gets it in the next film.
I was trying to think of an major American movie with an Asian lead that wasn't a martial arts movie, and all I can come up with is the Harold and Kumar movies.
Hollywood needs to learn from its own history https://psmag.com/news/when-hollywood-gets-things-right-asian-lead-actors-edition http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-hawaii-five-0-asian-actors-20170708-story.html
Whatever. He went on record with his support. This may have something to do with the fact that he made a movie where she looked white. In this day and age? Shocking.
Which tells you a lot in itself. Martial arts or stoner comedy. That said, The Big Sick is getting a lot attention right now.
The problem I have with that line of thought, activist casting, is when it comes to something like comic book movies etc. It means Asian characters must be played by Asians, whites by whites etc. We head into segregation because we cast by the race of the actor. That's not to say there isn't an imbalance with white actors taking the roles that could be played better by someone of a different background. At the cost of offending americans, they have a louder opinion than the japanese do. Also, Japan is a country that is still very homogeneous. There is not an obvious race divide in Japan. But unfortunately that does lead to things like this.... http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42561815
I think of "activist casting" in this sense as the simple act of bothering to ask themselves questions like "Can this character be Asian/Black/Latin/etc?" "IS there someone out there who can portray this character who isn't my immediate knee-jerk assumption that it will be a white male?" "AM I representing my audience well with this film?" etc. It doesn't mean passing over the super talented white guy perfect for the role who walks into the casting office for a lesser talent purely to put some color on screen. In this case, it sounds like they wrote the character specifically with an Asian woman in mind. That actually raises some alarm bells for me, but the problems with the character in the end were clearly not the fault of Tran.
I thought Tran did fine, thought Rose was a good character, liked Paige well enough. Spoiler: Just in case If I'm sad that she died after 5 minutes in the film then something worked well.
Rian Johnson on casting Rose: http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...ast-jedi-rian-johnson-20171217-story,amp.html