Diversity and Representation in Media

I don't mind Hollywood remakes or adaptations of anime/manga if they're on the level of "Edge of Tomorrow". Because that was fricking awesome, had one of the best female characters in an action movie since Ripley in the first two Alien films - and not just because she carried a big fuck off sword made out of the propellor of a downed dropship, but because she (Rita Vrataski) was basically the hero that Tom Cruise chased around the battlefield rather than the other way around, as is all too common in his work. And had a much better ending.

But remaking Akira and setting it in New York? With a white cast? That's just wrong. Not as wrong as the abomination that was Cardcaptors, but wrong nonetheless.

They funny thing about today's Tom Cruise is that he seems to have little problem with his female co-stars upstaging him. Not just Emily Blunt, but Rebecca Ferguson stole the show in the last Mission Impossible film (and she's talked about how Tom was fully onboard with her character being portrayed as Ethan Hunt's equal and saving his backside repeatedly). And I wouldn't be surprised if he spends most of The Mummy getting beaten down by Sofia Boutella either.

As much as I heavily dislike Tom Cruise thanks to his Scientology ties, I'll give him credit for not being an ass about female characters in his films. Johnny Depp should learn from that.

His weird personal life aside, most of the people that I've heard who've worked with him, including Ferguson, have said that he's one of the best co-stars that they've ever worked with.

Momentarily going back to Depp, is it possible this thing was due to Disney wanting to avoid controversy of him physically fighting a woman given his reveal as a domestic abuser?

Anything's possible.

So I went looking for some specifics on the abuse. Seems to be based on some jealousy on Depp's part. The incident most people have heard about seems to have been when Depp threw his phone at her after an argument, but there was some public scuffling in public and allegations of Depp brandishing a bottle of wine and several bottles getting broken after an altercation. There's also an odd incident where Depp seems to have had the tip of his finger cut off accidentally, accused Heard of an affair with Billy Bob Thornton, and then dipped the stump in blue paint and written 'Billy Bob' and 'Easy Amber' on a mirror. So it sounds pretty fucked up, on his part.

I've heard something to the effect of that elsewhere, (possible Whatculture,) so "Jack Sparrow fighting a female Big Bad while Johnny Depp is accused of beating his ex-wife" certainly has bad optics right off the bat.

Generally speaking, I've typically always rolled my eyes about Depp either out of Hype Aversion and/or how pretentious I thought of him as for essentially talking like he's still indy/a hipster while still living the jet-set life right down to owning tropical islands which makes for delicious schadenfreude to learn how in debt Depp is (trying saying that five times fast) for spending so damn much, so combine that with the bullshit whitewashing he did in playing Tonto (because he vaguely thinks he might have Native ancestry and played a NA in an indy flick before he got mega-famous) and he's really Not So Different than other fauxgressive celebs.

Back to Ni'ihau, Huffpo did an article that cuts deeper on the issue with the gist being that not only the usual erasure for bullshit reasons, but then the incident was used as political fodder to push for Japanese internment and now the movie could be used as propaganda given the tension with North Korea along with general heightened xenophobia where you just replace "Asian" with "Arab/Mexican."

edited 22nd May '17 12:51:20 PM by K2Misfit

Adric: on the other Half, is treatment Katie Holmes is pretty damn bad, Tom was aparently a mayor control freak on her life which is....well, pretty bad

I thought this article was relevant. After a female critic criticizes a film for being misogynistic, the film's director tries to ruin her reputation by emailing his colleagues and urging them unfollow her for her "dishonest" review. Here's some snippets:

edited 22nd May '17 2:00:05 PM by chasemaddigan

It's amazing how large firestorms and threats get swept up over reviews that the threateners haven't actually read. Ever since 2014.

I doubt it. Judging by the timing, the movie was well into filming or post-production by the time his abuse was made known.

Which movie was it? Only thing I know of that sounds close is Dead Man, where his co-star Gary Farmer is Indigenous, not him.

In other news, #Black Twitter caused a Tumblr post and tweet train to go viral last month, and now it's going to become an All-Star Cast and crew movie!

I'd watch it, and the tweet is a great way to convey an elevator pitch.

edited 22nd May '17 2:38:18 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

I spy a movie that will be better received than Ni'ihau.

Hawaiian cinema is frequently overlooked, but indie artists there have created films of stunning photography and authenticity.

Kamehameha is a pretty interesting figure IRL, and I hope all the DBZ fans will perk up for that reason.

James Wan just signed on as producer to the Resident Evil film reboot.

@Tuckerscreator I don't remember the movie's name (because it was mentioned in one of those E! bio shows,) but he was playing a full/part-NA essentially committing a Heroic Sacrifice by being in a snuff film whose profits will help his family.

@Alley Oop I also imagine how funny it'd be if a fictionalized/Adam West-style King Kamehameha actually does the Kamehameha Wave simply by doing the gestures and shouting, "MEEEEEE!!!" ala Geronimo in "Hot Shots! Part Deux"

WONDER WOMAN Outpacing SPIDER-MAN, PIRATES, More As Fandango's Most Anticipated Summer Blockbuster

http://www.newsarama.com/34592-wonder-woman-outpacing-spider-man-pirates-more-as-fandango-s-most-anticipated-summer-blockbuster.html

Shame he's only producing and can't be the actual director, I think he would've been able to make it work.

I dont know if this is the right place to put it, but whats the opinion on white voice actors voicing black characters in animation?

It's....complicated. I don't really think there's anything wrong with it by itself, but it's more likely that white voice actors will voice non-white characters in animated shows than non-white VAs, just from stuff I've seen.

edited 23rd May '17 1:58:18 PM by higherbrainpattern

Animation is more of a grey area since the end character on the screen isn't the same as the person doing voice work, but the VA industry is as white-dominated as most others. For big studios with resources, it's cool to see them go the extra mile and make the production inclusive by getting voice actors of the same ethnicity, especially if it's a minority character.

However when it comes to productions with less resources (such as dubbing anime practically anywhere) I'm inclined to be a bit more lenient since they won't necessarily be able to find someone as easily, or maybe there just aren't that many people of the ethnicity present there either.

edited 23rd May '17 2:09:35 PM by Draghinazzo

Fundamentally and on a role-to-role basis, not an issue, and no better or worse than black guys voicing Japanese guys or Chinese guys or Japanese guys voicing white guys. On-screen diversity has more representational impact than voice acting. Although sometimes it benefits to have race accurate castings for authenticity's sake such as for roles that require accents, speaking other languages, or general familiarity with cultural vernacular.

In aggregate it does illustrate a potential issue however. The voice acting industry has issues with being disproportionately dominated by or favoring white voice actors, which leads to asymmetrical distribution of roles. White voice actors for prominently featured black characters is therefore a symptom of a bigger problem rather than a source of them. So race-accurate castings are useful for proactive visibility purposes to remedy that.

In some cases it may have to do less with discriminatory hiring and more with accessibility issues. Although places like Youtube are helping to break down those kinds of barriers too. For example I'm seeing a lot more diversity in the newer names among of the anime and Japanese games dub industry, a lot of young folks who got big off of doing fandubs and indie games and the like.

edited 23rd May '17 2:13:29 PM by AlleyOop

I have wondered about the potential issues of white actors voicing black characters and similar situations. I personally don't have a problem with it as long as the character isn't an offensive stereotype and the voice acting can pass. Like if a black character was clearly voiced by a miscast white person? That would just be Narm.

But it's telling that the only African-American VA for anime I can think of off the top of my head is Beau Billingslea, who is great, but what if other black actors are being turned away from dubbing? It's a troubling issue.

I think Steven Universe has one of, if not the most, racially diverse voice casts in an animated show and most of the characters on the show are anthropomorphic talking rocks.

edited 23rd May '17 7:27:16 PM by higherbrainpattern

I think it's about five voice actors on there who are of Asian descent, and four of them are women.

Out of all the gems I think the only ones voiced by white women are Rose and Smoky Quartz (last I checked anyways - I haven't been keeping up with the show so that might not be accurate any more).