History Main / BrownFace

White actors pretending to be members of brown-skinned ethnicities such as UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans (sometimes called "redface" in this case), [[LatinoIsBrown Latin Americans]], Polynesians, South and Southeast Asians, Middle Easterners, or North Africans. This is often done with makeup or tanning, and sometimes hair dye.

Brownface is seen more often than {{yellowface}} and {{blackface}} in modern productions. Lately, Hollywood prefers casting actors who ''look'' enough like Native Americans without using makeup when actual Native American actors aren't used. This is even more common with Latino characters, who have a greater latitude due to the fact that there are Indigenous, Black, White, and Asian Latinos.

# The Ethnic getup. A white actor uses his or her normal features onscreen, but wears Ethnic garb. [[note]]This used to be also a common way for Westerners to blend in in Real Life in many places during the Age of Colonialism.[[/note]] This often sees works portraying people wearing stereotypical clothes and dresses, which may be from the wrong region, worn rarely, worn out of season, or worn in inappropriate locations, or times.

A mixture of the three can be employed as well. No 1 is generally considered offensive these days, while No 2 and 3 are controversial; particularly with the latter due to the fact South Asian/Arab/Native/Latino/Brown actors in general are rarely given roles that aren't stereotypical.

# The classic "Brown Face". A white actor is plastered with layers of makeup to make them look darker skinned. Universally lousy.

Brownface is seen more often than {{yellowface}} and {{blackface}} in modern productions. Lately, Hollywood prefers casting actors who ''look'' enough like Native Americans without using makeup when actual Native American actors aren't used. This is even more common with Latino characters, who have a greater latitude due to the fact that there are Indigenous, Black, White, and even Asian Latinos.

White actors pretending to be members of brown-skinned ethnicities such as UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans (sometimes called "redface" in this case), [[LatinoIsBrown Latin Americans]], Polynesians, South Asians, Middle Easterners, or North Africans. This is often done with makeup or tanning, and sometimes hair dye.

* Iron Eyes Cody, famous as "The Crying Indian", was an Italian-American who passed himself off as Native American in real life for decades.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E6TheAztecs]], every character bar the Doctor and his companions is an Aztec, played by a white actor with darkened skin.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade]] features several Arab characters, including the famous Saladin and his brother, played by white actors in brownface.

** In Recap/DoctorWhoS1E6TheAztecs, every character bar the Doctor and his companions is an Aztec, played by a white actor with darkened skin.
** Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade features several Arab characters, including the famous Saladin and his brother, played by white actors in brownface.

* Leela in ''Series/DoctorWho'' was heavily browned up in her early promo-shots to go with her NubileSavage theme (and possibly to make her look [[InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace futuristically mixed-race]]). The makeup she eventually wore on the show was darker than her natural colouring and included brown eye contacts, but was a lot more subtle than in early pictures (which bordered on blackface).

-->-- ''MasterOfNone'', "Indians on TV"

* In ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', the fair-skinned Ukrainian actress Creator/OlgaKurylenko has much darker skin as her Bolivian character, Camille.

* Vasquez from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' is played by a white Jewish actress. She is considerably darker-skinned in that role than she is in real life.

# The "lets ignore it" bit: the character's ethnicity is only an InformedAttribute, s/he wears no makeup or hair-dye, and sports no national "dress".

* ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'': Creator/AlecGuinness, an English actor, plays Prince Feisal, an Arab. Memorably, Guinness looked enough like Faisal that many people who had known Feisal, were taken aback at the resemblance.

* Biblical movies often run into controversy for this, as they tend to cast very white actors as Israelites/Jews, who at that time period would have all been Middle Eastern (so Ashkenazi Jews are out of the question).

* ''Film/TheLastAirbender'' uses the "ethnic getup" variety for the Water Tribe characters, loosely based on real-world Inuit cultures.

* ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' features most of its cast tanning to portray Egyptian people. Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver were the most obvious cases of it.

* In ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', the fair-skinned Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko has much darker skin as her Bolivian character, Camille.
* Gemma Arterton, a fair-skinned Englishwoman, looks considerably tanner while playing the Persian princess Tamina in ''Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime''. Curiously enough, Gemma Arterton's actual skin tone would be unremarkable in Iran itself, but rather her ''very'' European facial features and mannerisms would make her stand out.

* In ''Film/AMightyHeart'', Angelina Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, a real-life journalist with a Dutch Jewish father and an Cuban-born Afro-Chinese mother. Jolie's skin is made slightly darker and her hair is made curly to resemble Pearl more. The casting caused a minor outcry in spite of the fact that Pearl had personally approved the casting.

* The 1961 film adaptation of ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' cast the Russian-American Creator/NatalieWood as Maria, who's from Puerto Rico. Her brother Bernardo was played by Greek-American George Chakiris. Creator/RitaMoreno, who played Anita, was the only actual Puerto Rican in the main cast... and even she was made to wear dark makeup.

* Another in-universe example in Hans Christian Anderson's ''The Wild Swans''. The WickedStepmother covers Elisa's face in walnut juice - which is known for staining the skin brown - to make sure her father doesn't recognise her.

# The Ethnic getup. A white actor uses his or her normal features onscreen, but wears Ethnic garb. [[note]]This used to be also a common way for Westerners to blend in in Real Life in many places during the Age of Colonialism[[/note]]. This often sees works portraying people wearing stereotypical clothes and dresses, which may be from the wrong region, worn rarely, worn out of season, or worn in inappropriate locations, or times.

* The 1961 film adaptation of ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' cast the Russian-American Creator/NatalieWood as Maria, who's from Puerto Rico. Her brother Bernardo was played by Greek-American George Chakiris.

Brownface is seen more often than {{yellowface}} and {{blackface}} in modern productions. Lately, Hollywood prefers casting actors who ''look'' enough like Native Americans without using makeup when actual Native American actors aren't used. This is even more common with Latino characters, who have a greater latitude due to the fact that there are Indigenous, Black, Asian, and even White Latinos.

* In ''Film/ABeautifulMind'', Jennifer Connelly (whose MixedAncestry includes family from Russia, Poland, Ireland, and Norway) plays Alicia Nash, a woman from El Salvador.

* In the ''Series/CimarronStrip'' episode ''The Battle of Bloody Stones'', all the main Native American characters in the episode are played by white men, despite having Native American extras.

** Patrick Troughton in "Enemy of the World" when playing the Mexican-born Salamander, both as Salamander and the Doctor impersonating him. While it isn't very noticeable in black-and-white, a slightly-dark tinge is visible. It is worth pointing out that the story shows a scene of the Doctor literally applying dark makeup to appear like Salamander...

* White Englishman Music/PeterGabriel wrote the story of Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway with a New York Puerto Rican named Rael as the protagonist. When {{Music/Genesis}} took it on the road in 1974–75, Gabriel performed the role of Rael heavily made up in brownface.

* Gemma Arterton, a fair-skinned Englishwoman, looks considerably tanner while playing the Persian princess Tamina in ''Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime''. Curiously enough, Gemma Artertons actual skin tone would be unremarkable in Iran itself but rather her ''very'' European facial features and mannerisms ''would''
** In the same film, Creator/JakeGyllenhall plays the titular Persian prince. Gyllenhall himself is of mixed European descent.

*

* Creator/JohnnyDepp plays Tonto in the ''Film/TheLoneRanger''. This is especially jarring since Tonto had always been played by Native American actors prior to the film. When critized for this, Depp responded that he had some native blood from his great grand-parents but specified which tribe they came from and he never dicussed ''anything'' about this before the film.

* Gemma Arterton, a fair-skinned Englishwoman, looks considerably tanner while playing the Persian princess Tamina in ''Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime''. Curiously enough, Gemma Artertons actual skin tone would be unremarkable in Iran itself but rather her ''very'' European facial features and mannerisms ''would''.

A mixture of the three can be employed as well. No 1 is generally considered offensive these days, while No 2 and 3 are controversial; particularly with the latter due to the fact South Asian/Arab/Native/Latino actors are rarely given roles that aren't stereotypical.

A mixture of the three can be employed as well. No 1 is generally considered offensive these days, while No 2 and 3 are controversial; ironically while many Westerners tend to be offended at 3 and label it "White Washing", people of the region portrayed generally find that the best result, especially if the actor's phenotype is within range of the types found.

* Ashton Kutcher once darkened his face to play a stereotypical Indian man in a Pop Chips commercial, in an example of No 1 and 2. Ironically, if he had retained his actual skintone, he would have still been within the range of Indian Phenotypes and not come across as a jerk.

* In ''Film/TheOutrage'', Creator/PaulNewman plays Juan Carrasco, the {{Expy}} of Tajomaru from ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'', a {{Bandito}}. There is TruthInTelevision that a number of Mexicans are fair-skinned and fair-haired.