Published 12:23 31 Aug 2017 GMT

Marvel star slates Hollywood over casting-related racism

Back in 2008, a comic book movie hit cinema screens that changed the genre forever. Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, was a huge success both critically and commercially, and since then, we've seen the likes of Captain America, Ant Man and Thor hit the silver screen. As good as Marvel Studious has been for the health of comic book movies and as strong as the films have been on the whole, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come in for some criticism that is symptomatic of the entire film landscape over the past few years. Some people believe there is a lack of diversity in the MCU; especially when it comes to casting. While Black Panther and Captain Marvel will both come out next year in 2018, some of Marvel's offerings have been criticised for pandering to the white male audience. Despite being around for nearly 10 years, Captain Marvel will be the first female-headed movie from the MCU, while last year's Doctor Strange featured a character played by Tilda Swinton that was an Asian male in the comics. Now, one of the stars of the Marvel television show Agents of Shield has spoken out against Hollywood casting practices, describing them as "racist". Whitewashing is an issue that's been particularly prominent over the last few days, with the upcoming Hellboy reboot the latest to come under fire. Actor Ed Skrein was initially signed on to appear in the film, but after he found out the character he was going to play was originally of Asian heritage, he pulled out so that "the role can be cast appropriately". [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/edskrein/status/902244967296491520]] Chloe Wang stars in Marvel's Agents of Shield, and while she praised Skrein on Instagram for his noble decision to step down from Hellboy, she relayed her own experiences of racism in the acting world. Chloe Bennet is half-Chinese, and she said that she's had to change her last name from Wang to Bennet in order to get work in Hollywood. An Instagram follower enquired about Wang's name change, and the 25-year-old set the record straight, saying: "Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable". "Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese... It means I had to pay my rent. I'm doing everything I can, with the platform I have, to make sure no one has to change their name again, just so they can get work." [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BYXlLkNDq7W/?hl=en&taken-by=chloebennet]] Wang has previously spoken about having to get her name changed, and it's a similar stance to now; speaking to the Daily Beast, Wang told us how changing from Wang to Bennet led to an instant change in fortunes. "Oh, the first audition I went on after I changed my name, I got booked. So that’s a pretty clear little snippet of how Hollywood works. I want to be clear because some of my Asian-American fans seem to think I did that [changed last names] because I didn’t want to known as Chinese, but it’s so the opposite. I just wanted to be known as me and let my personality define who I was, rather than my ethnicity." You can catch Chloe Wang on Marvel's Agents of Shield, whose fifth season debuts later on this year. In the meantime, let's hope Ed Skrein's brave decision to step down from the Hellboy remake is the catalyst we need for improved diversity in the Hollywood casting landscape. But recently it seems that whitewashing has gone beyond casting and become an issue of identity. One activist has recently gone so far as to declare herself a members of an entirely different race from that of her birth.

uncategorised3 min(s) read

Published 15:42 29 Aug 2017 GMT

Ed Skrein leaves 'Hellboy' role after realizing his character was originally Asian

Tom Wood

It's no secret that Asian people often get sidelined in Hollywood. Any time a white actor can be cast instead of an Asian, that's usually what the studio does. I mean, Tom freaking Cruise played the Last Samurai. And in the 2015 movie Aloha, white actress Emma Stone played Allison Ng, a tri-racial Asian pilot. Asian people often end up drawing the short straw in the whole identity politics debate. For all intents and purposes, they get considered white, and in college admissions, they have to over-perform dramatically to have an equal chance of admission with white students. The live-action (and widely-panned) Death Note film, of course, was moved to America, with Light Yagami becoming Light Turner. And who can forget Scarlett Johansson playing a Japanese cyborg in the Ghost in the Shell movie? For that matter, why does Hollywood think a white Western version of animated fiction is a good idea? I just pray they don't come for Cowboy Bebop, or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Could you imagine the cringe? So, latest person to be involved in the controversy of white and Asian film roles is Ed Skrein. The white actor played the villain Ajax in Deadpool, as well as Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones. Cast in the latest Hellboy film, he took the role of Ben Daimio, which is a Japanese name based on a Japanese character from the Hellboy comics. Skrein posted a note on Twitter announcing his resignation from the film, after finding out that he was cast to play a Japanese character: [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/edskrein/status/902244967296491520]] "I accepted the role unaware that the character in the original comics was of mixed Asian heritage. There has been intense conversation and understandable upset since that announcement, and I must do what I feel is right." Skrein characterized his choice as a moral decision, to open the role to a Japanese actor. Of course, Asians lose film roles to white actors all the time. But Hollywood white-washing has a lot of other reasons behind it. Hollywood is a corporate complex, and corporations aren't really the closest friend of diversity. Generally, audiences respond to the films that feature characters who look like them. Deeper than racism, it's simply the human brain relating more to people who resemble those the person grew up with and currently lives around. For a film being marketed to a majority-white American audience, Hollywood, trying to make money, puts up majority-white actors. Yet, this logic is suspect, as the Chinese market is the biggest one in film today. The Chinese box office is where blockbusters are made - the US total is usually dwarfed by international profits for gigantic Blockbusters. However, the Hellboy series in particular seems to appeal to the United States more than any other country. Perhaps that led to the casting choice? Skrein continued: "It is my hope that one day these discussions will become less necessary and that we can help make equal representation in the Arts a reality. I am sad to leave Hellboy but if this decision brings us closer to that day, it is worth it. I hope it makes a difference." What do you think? Is Skrein right for abandoning the role? Do you think it will now go to a Japanese actor who could use a big break?

film & tv1 min(s) read

Published 11:05 09 May 2019 GMT

'Avengers' directors confirm one of the current Marvel characters is actually gay

Tom Wood

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a monumental success at the box office, and has a substantial fanbase beyond the comic book fans who were there for Iron Man on opening day back in 2008, but there have been some criticisms made over the years.

Given the unprecedented frequency of their release schedule, many wondered why exactly it took them a decade (and 19 films) before they introduced their first person of colour lead with Black Panther last year, with this year bringing their first female lead to the big screen in Captain Marvel. However, the glacial pace of these inclusions is building, if the people at the studio are to be believed.

Check out this 'highly illegal' video Chris Pratt shared from the set of Avengers: Endgame:

[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/otiIoedi-sKUnNGKf.mp4||otiIoedi]]

In Avengers: Endgame, we got the first MCU movie to include an openly gay character, played by Joe Russo - one half of the brother duo that directed the film.

His cameo came near the beginning of the film, where an unnamed character opened up about his troubles dating at a support group following the death of his male partner - something which received a wide range of responses from fans.

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"It was important to us as we did four of these films, we wanted a gay character somewhere in them," the director said in an interview with Deadline. "We felt it was important that one of us play him, to ensure the integrity and show it is so important to the filmmakers that one of us is representing that."

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly recently, Joe was asked to clarify whether this was the first gay character in the franchise, and he emphasised that it was the first "openly gay" character.

[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Zo_HvxMG8]]

"There’ve been insinuations about other characters’ sexuality, but this is the first openly gay character," he said. The interviewer then went on to ask the director who else is gay, to which the directors chose not to go much further, with Joe saying "we're gonna find out" and his brother Anthony adding "that's a story for another day".

“There is a gay character coming up in one of their films, and I think Kevin will make that announcement, I’m sure pretty soon,” Joe said.

This topic has come up in the past, when Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was interviewed by The Playlist. When asked whether there were plans to include an LGBTQ+ character into the series, Feige said that were plans for "both ones you've seen and ones you haven't seen," implying that someone previously introduced could be revealed to be gay at a later date.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/1126252655595012097]]

Tessa Thompson has said that she played her character of Valkyrie as bisexual in Thor: Ragnarok, though no mention of it made it to screen. Many are assuming the character we've already met may be Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, seeing as she had no explicit relationship in any of her appearances, except for a close friendship with Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch).

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/1126244657933893632]]

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Check out this video of Brie Larson training for Endgame (and wait for the hilarious twist ending):

[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/Suhmw7RL-sKUnNGKf.mp4||Suhmw7RL]]

This is also backed up by recent comments Brie Larson has made about queer representation in these movies. "I don’t understand how you could think that a certain type of person isn’t allowed to be a superhero," the actress said in an interview with Variety. "So to me it’s like, we gotta move faster. But I’m always wanting to move faster with this stuff."

In terms of new characters, there's always room for more in one of the many new Marvel movies on the horizon that Disney recently announced as part of their future line-up. Either way, it looks like the studio has found a way to keep the hype machine going even beyond the conclusion that Endgame offered.

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celebrity3 min(s) read

Published 17:07 12 Jan 2023 GMT

Marvel star looks unrecognizable as he transforms for latest movie role

James Kay

A Marvel star has undergone such an enormous transformation for his new role that he looks completely unrecognizable... Can you tell who it is yet?

The joy of makeup and prosthetics is that it allows actors to embody a completely different type of role than they would normally be cast in - just look at Colin Farrell playing the Penguin in the latest Batman movie!

Sometimes there is pushback on the use of prosthetics in films, with some claiming that actors who already look like the character should be cast instead, as happened recently with Brendan Fraser, who was criticized for using a fat suit for his starring role in The Whale.

But the job that makeup artists do cannot be underestimated, they are true magicians when it comes to transforming actors into somebody completely different.

So when they achieve making one of the world's most famous men completely unrecognizable, we should probably tip our hats to them and give them credit for their incredible art form.

Have you figured out who we're talking about yet or do you need a few more minutes to stare at the image before making a final guess?

As already given away, it's an incredibly famous Marvel star and a further clue is that he was the one who finally defeated Thanos... Of course, it's none other than Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr. - we couldn't believe it either!

The Hollywood icon looks worlds apart from the clean-cut, well-dressed, and dare we say, handsome, characters we've come to know and love him for.

Downey Jr, 57, has transformed for his latest role - or roles - in HBO's The Sympathizer where he plays many parts all representing different parts of the American establishment.

Robert Downey Jr. as we're used to seeing him. Credit: PictureLux / Alamy

His new hairline ages him quite considerably and that's mixed in with it being utterly bizarre that his usual dark head of hair is now red. Gone are the days of a clean-cut suit - he is now donning a bright pink shirt mixed with a burgundy jacket and blue pants and even people who aren't fashion-conscious might raise their eyebrows at these color clashes.

The star recently sat down with Deadline where he revealed more about this upcoming project: "The next thing I’m doing is a series with my Mrs. and the director Park Chan-Wook, based on a Pulitzer book called The Sympathizer.

"It’s already a transformative, literally playing five different roles, experience for me. So, I would just say, before we cast aspersions on each other — undergo your own renaissance and see if it doesn’t change your mind a little bit.

"Reinvent yourself before you decide that somebody else doesn’t know what they’re doing or that something is keeping you from doing your best, or that something is better than something else."

We still can't believe that it's him, and neither can people on social media! One person said: "Robert Downey Jr. looking like James Caan on the set of The Sympathizer."

We can't wait to see how Downey Jr. performs in this upcoming project, and kudos again to the makeup team!

Featured image credit: 360b / Alamy

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celebrity2 min(s) read

Published 00:15 20 Mar 2019 GMT

Gemma Chan responds to backlash over playing white historical figure in Mary Queen of Scots

Tom Wood

Hollywood has a long, ugly history of 'whitewashing,' in which white actors donned grotesque makeup to play characters of different races and ethnicities. These portrayals were often mired in offensive racial stereotypes, plus snatched jobs away from qualified actors of color. As the entertainment industry strives to embrace diversity in the 21st century, actors have come under renewed scrutiny. Is it okay for a cisgender woman to play a transgender man? How about an able-bodied actor portraying a disabled person? Or a Chinese woman playing a white historical figure?

On Tuesday, Gemma Chan, who acted in Crazy Rich Asians and Captain Marvel, has responded to a backlash over her role in the 2018 film Mary Queen of Scots. Chan, who is of Chinese ancestry, played Bess of Hardwick, a notable white countess in Elizabethan English society. "I'm all for inclusive casting, but Gemma Chan as Bess of Hardwick is probably pushing the limits of my suspension of disbelief," wrote one critic on Twitter.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/AndrewPaulWood/status/1018059482364985346]]

In an interview with Allure, Chan said her heritage is fully Chinese but her racial identity is "compound. I feel British, and European, and English, and Chinese, and Asian." When asked about the controversy over her portrayal of Bess of Hardwick, she replied, "Why are actors of color, who have fewer opportunities anyway, only allowed to play their own race? And sometimes they’re not even allowed to play their own race."

"In the past, the role would be given to a white actor who would tape up their eyes and do the role in yellowface," she continued. "John Wayne played Genghis Khan. If John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, I can play Bess of Hardwick." Chan added, "I feel like [the Broadway play] Hamilton opened minds a lot. We have a black man playing George Washington. They describe it as ‘America then, told by America now.’ And I think our art should reflect life now."

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Chan goes on to describe an example of whitewashing history, which she discovered while working on a documentary about the Chinese Labour Corps. "I studied the First World War three times at school," she recounted. "And I never heard that there were 140,000 Chinese in the Allied effort. We would not have won the war without them."

A massive mural was built to commemorate that war, but the section dedicated to the Chinese was reportedly painted over after American military forces joined the conflict. "They left one kneeling Chinese figure, which you can still see," Chan recalled. "If people understood that, my parents [might not] have been told, ‘Go home, go back to where you came from’ multiple times. If we portray a pure white past, people start to believe that’s how it was, and that’s not how it was."

To Chan, playing a white historical figure in Mary Queen Scots is a victory for visibility regarding Asian-American actors in cinema.

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film & tv1 min(s) read

Published 16:05 01 Oct 2020 GMT

Marvel's first Muslim superhero has been cast

Tom Wood

After Avengers: Endgame wrapped up plenty of story arcs with a stunning conclusion, and Disney then teased with more to come with Spider-Man: Far From Home, everyone's been left waiting for phase four to start, as a result of COVID-19 delaying production.

However, if you're a Marvel fan, then I do have some good news for you: the cinematic universe is about to get a little bigger, all thanks to its newest addition.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/TIFF_NET/status/1311386518737563649]]

That's because 18-year-old actress Iman Vellani has just been cast as the character of Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, becoming the first Muslim superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is one heck of a milestone.

Per a recent report by Deadline, Vellani is due to star as the costumed superheroine in her very own TV series, which will air on Disney+ at an unspecified date.

"I just saw they cast Ms. Marvel and legit got teary eyed. Congratulations Iman Vellani! Your work is going to mean so much to so many people, myself included. I can’t wait." Tweeted Kumail Nanjiani, who is set to star in upcoming Marvel movie The Eternals.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/1311383916117258240]]

Furthermore, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige states that in addition to appearing on the small screen, the character will also be appearing in mainstream Marvel movies.

And social media users have reacted enthusiastically on Twitter to the news of the casting:

A Twitter comment.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Twitter]]

Marvel's official foray into television drama is due to kick off with the mind-screwy series 'WandaVision', starring Elizabeth Olson as the Scarlett Witch and Paul Bettany as The Vision, with a She-Hulk, Loki, and Nick Fury series also in development.

WandaVision was originally supposed to follow The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a spin-off focusing on Captain America's two best friends. However, lockdown delays have shifted Marvel's schedule, and now six-episode-long Wandavision is now expected to air on Disney+ in December 2020.

Take a look at the mind-bending trailer for 'WandaVision' right here:

[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/rNsSQwzX-Q0L14jDU.mp4||rNsSQwzX]]

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