Zoe Saldana Talks Hollywood Whitewashing

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If “ethnic casting” is a problem for some movie fans, Zoe Saldana is reminding everyone that Hollywood has an old habit of whitewashing characters of color.

Many comic fans were highly upset when Michael B. Jordan was cast as the Human Torch in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. He’s Black, but the character has always been White in cannon. And, of course, a firestorm of criticism erupted.

Michael has responded to the backlash by writing a thought-provoking article for Entertainment Weekly about why he decided to race-bend the role. In short, his rationale boils down to the question of “why not?” He didn’t even mention the fact that White actors have been playing ethnic roles for years.

Zoe had no problem bringing it up when she posted his piece to her Facebook page, rattling off a list of whitewashed roles.

Bravo!!! Inspired by Michael’s essay. Thank you for speaking up. If we question why Michael has been cast to play the Human Torch in ‘Fantastic Four’ then we must also question why Elizabeth Taylor played ‘Cleopatra,’ why Angelina Jolie played Mariane Pearl in ‘A Mighty Heart,’ why Laurence Olivier played Othello, Burt Lancaster in Apache, and the list goes on….and on…. And on… Let’s not throw rocks when we all live in glass houses.

We’d also like to add Johnny Depp as Tonto to that list.

Her own highly- questionable casting in Nina Simone’s biopic aside, Zoe’s spot-on with this one.

Zoe Saldana Questions Hollywood’s Tradition Of Whitewashing Ethnic Characters was originally published on hellobeautiful.com