I've talked about white-washing before and how much it bothers me. The Marvel Cinematic Universe recently revealed casting choices for the second Marvel movie coming out this year, Dr. Strange. The Ancient One in the comics is the stereotypical role of the ancient Asian tutor/wiseman (more Karate Kid than 3 Ninjas). While this is a trope and could (and I assume as been) argued for a racial stereotype that needs to be re-examined, Marvel decided that it wasn't something that it wanted to tackle. They decided to cast Tilda Swinton in the role for her ability to come off as androgynous in her roles. The creative director stated that "this was the perfect opportunity to play with gender"
I wholeheartedly agree.
I really like the idea of having a gender-fluid Ancient One. We're talking about a mystical being, a near immortal wizard that deals with beings and dealings far beyond our ken. Gender and sex would be something completely different to this person than it is to us. The comic books at this time have a done a lot with inclusivity of multiple sexual identities and that was a large part to the story of Vol. 2 of Young Avengers and has been a theme with most comics targeted to younger audiences who might actually be struggling with their own sexual identity. This idea of playing with gender, totally awesome. And Tilda Swinton is a phenominal actress as it is! Plus she's 55, which is also really F****** amazing for women in general. I know it's difficult for a lot of older women to find roles and the ones they do find tend to follow stereotypical roles, mostly the caretaker (Aunt May).
So Gender Fluidity, Older female actress, awesome things to be sure. Having it played by a white woman....maybe not the best.
I know Hollywood can be a huge mess when it comes to casting since it's run by various guilds and that can really ruin a production. Guild issues were one of the driving issues behind the constantly delayed Hobbit Trilogy and that ultimately bite us in the @$$. There's also the risk of working with untested talent. Tilda Swinton has made herself into one of the best actresses in Hollywood and now actually joins the ranks of actors that have switched between Marvel and DC properties, since she played the genderless angel in Constantine, a DC property. This isn't a bash against her, I think she'll fill out the part fantastically well and we'll all be stunned. But I do think that the casting director and acting guilds at large missed an opportunity to go something, namely add more color to the current Marvel Universe, which has War Machine, Falcon (both play second fiddle to a white guy and one was beaten by one *cough Ant-Man cough*), Heimdall (who has been sort of useless in the Thor movies, but that's another bag), and Nick Fury (who has gone AWOL) has their leading characters of color at this point. Luke Cage will be getting his show (as he should) this year and the actor there has already shown that he's up to snuff (Watch Jessica Jones if you haven't already). Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D has had a great and fairly inclusive cast of characters and that is something that needs to keep happening, but the movies, they could use a little more diversity.
I've said before that the world is a smaller place than it once was and finding international actors is fairly easy. I made a short and mostly uniformed list of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese actors/actresses that I think could have done a good job. Some I've seen in movies before, others, I simply looked at their profile and thought, with the right make-up artist, they could swing either way.
Top Pick: Zhao Wei:
I first saw this actress in Shaolin Soccer playing "the ugly girl turns pretty" role. She can act in that comedy movie and be believable. Then I saw her in Red Cliff, which takes place in the Three Kingdom's era of China where she played the (arguably feminist) character Sun Shang Xiang, where she dresses in drag to spy on enemy troops. She'll be turning 40 this year, which would also be a boon for casting older women (although Tilda is 55, so a good 15 years her senior)
Second Pick: Rinko Kikuchi:
I like Pacific Rim and I loved her role in it. Although the movie didn't pass the Bechdel Test, her character was such that it inspired a new type of feminist movie test, The Mako Mori test. She also played a powerful witch in the lost-potential movie 47 Ronin. So she's already got mystical powers.
Honorable and completely uninformed mentions.
Jang Geun Suk
Kim Nam Joo
Haruma Miura
Faye Wong
What do you think of the casting? I think Tilda Swinton was
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