Harry potter British preference=discrimination?

First I want to clarify that I am not affirming this is the case. it's more like a question.

But I do find weird that a book series that is strongly against racism had a British exclusivity regarding the movies and the lack of non British characters on the books for that matter.

Could that be considered as discrimination or a necessity to give the films their distinctive style?

edited 7th Dec '11 10:34:58 PM by FallenLegend

The requirement seemed a tad excessive to me. But some British people may be able to tell a "fake" accent... Like how Boston or Southern people can.

... But if the women of the Beauxbaton Academy were not played by French women, I'd have to agree that it was some form of discrimination...

It might me because it's set in Britain and every character in it is British.

Not every character was British... What with the aforementioned Beauxbaton Academy, and Durmstrang...

If those actors/actresses were all British without even looking at other nationalities, then that would be discrimination...

Fleur Delacour was played by a French actress, the only identified Bulgarian by a Bulgarian and the nationality-unspecified Eastern European by a Serb.

It seems a little over-pedantic to worry about the fidelity of the actor's national background when they couldn't give a shit to cast someone who actually fucking looks like Harry is described.

^ Karkaroff isn't a Serbian name. The -off suffix is Bulgarian or Russian, but I see no reason not to assume Krum and Karkaroff are countrymen. The producers fucked up. Motherfucking racists.

edited 7th Dec '11 10:55:00 PM by kashchei

Except the non-British characters weren't played by British actors. So what "discrimination" is meant to have taken place?

edited 7th Dec '11 10:59:47 PM by Marlfox

Well, given that the series was set in Britain, it is not unusual to see British people making up the majority of the cast. If the series was set in the Bahamas, it would be unusual for the characters to be British, but that was not the case.

The roles are barred to people based on their nationality. If America did that, the world would race to point out what racist, megalomaniacal pieces of shit we are. UK does it, it's fine, they're just being faithful to the book. Nevermind that what acting is about is playing people who are not you.

edited 7th Dec '11 11:00:26 PM by kashchei

Name one instance where that was the case. I cannot recall a single instance were a source material listed that character was X nationality, but the studio was forced to change it in order to be more diverse. It kinda seems like you are jumping at shadows here. And generally doing a shoddy Irish accent is seen as being more offensive as casting a whole movie with Irish people. (Just as an example)

edited 7th Dec '11 11:02:06 PM by YeahBro

Where what was the case? Your scenario has nothing to do with any of what I'm saying.

You were specifically talking about 'Murican studios being forced to put characters of different nationalities in a work, regardless of source material, in order to avoid appearing racist. I was asking for an example of such. Is that such a hard train of logic to follow?

That's not what I'm saying. If English is not your first language, I'll restate, but otherwise just reread the post since it really can't be more lucid.

You were saying that America is forced to allow actors of any ethnicity to try for parts of characters of different ethnicities. I was asking for an example of that. I really don't see where I went wrong.

No... He said this:

If Gone with the Wind were remade, and the producers said "everyone in Gone with the Wind is American, so anyone who doesn't have a US passport need not apply, because we won't take you due to your lack of citizenship" people from other countries would freak the frak out about how racist/discriminatory Americans are...

edited 7th Dec '11 11:10:01 PM by Swish

A) Ethnicity and nationality aren't synonymous, and

B) Barring an actor from a role based on nationality isn't the same as picking an actor based on ethnicity (that word I never mentioned) to satisfy the "LOOK, WE'RE NOT RACIST" quota.

^ Exactly.

edited 7th Dec '11 11:10:42 PM by kashchei

Isn't that what I said? All I am saying is that I would like an example of such an occurrence, because it kinda seems like unfounded jumping at shadows and the desire to feel persecuted.

Was this all just an argument about semantics in order to avoid having to back up your claims?

edited 7th Dec '11 11:12:16 PM by YeahBro

No.

Care to elaborate on the differences?

My claim was hypothetical from the very beginning, as you can note from the usage of "if America.." as opposed to "when America..."; there is plenty of flack received in similar situations, when a character's ethnicity is changed. Examples are legion, as you may see from the Race Lift page, but here's one off the top of my head: Fox from Wanted.

^ The difference is that there is a difference in casting someone to appear less racist and not casting someone because you're being racist. Is that clear enough?

edited 7th Dec '11 11:17:32 PM by kashchei

One is forcing ethnicity, the other is forcing nationality.

And considering one actress(Vivien Leigh playing Scarlett O'Hara) of the original Gone with the Wind was not American, I would think that you have your example...

edited 7th Dec '11 11:18:04 PM by Swish

Isn't race lift the polar opposite of them doing accurate casting based on Nationality? And if you were talking about a hypothetical scenario, why would you even assume that casting based on the source material would be the source of negative attention from other countries?

Isn't that just semantics really?

edited 7th Dec '11 11:19:37 PM by YeahBro

Race Lift has examples of nationality changes as well, since people (and you can obviously relate to this) use them interchangeably.

But all that shows are examples where they have deviated from the source material, and what you are trying to argue are cases where they catch flak for not deviating from the source material.

I suppose that depends on how you feel about a white actor/actress getting plastic surgery to play an "black" role...

edited 7th Dec '11 11:24:41 PM by Swish