"Prince of Persia" hit theaters a few days ago. I'm certain it'll make a desert filled with money, however it shouldn't. Actually, all of us must have boycotted it.
Why?
Because the film is known as "Prince of Persia" and the producers couldn't even look for a Persian actor to experience the part.
If Hollywood constitutes a movie about, say, Robin Hood, they are not gonna cast Wesley Snipes as Robin Hood. (Though, apparently, they'll cast an Aussie like a Brit. Least he's still white. ) You aren't gonna see Don Cheadle playing King Arthur.
Those parts are for white people, so white people play them.
Hollywood whitewashing an ethnic character is certainly not new. Long ago in early many years of Hollywood, white actors would perform the blackface thing to experience black characters.
Hell, within the heyday of the studio period, Bette davis played Cleopatra, the African Queen. The African Queen who ruled Egypt prior to the Romans came over and crossbred the blackness from Northern Africa.
Even more recently, a lot of Italians played Cubans in "Scarface. " Perhaps we'll allow that to one slide, because the Cubans as portrayed within the film weren't exactly poster children for that Cuban community.
The closest we've reached a turnaround of this trend was Cuban Andy Garcia playing not one but two Italian characters in "The Untouchables" and "The Godfather, Part Three. "
The first movie portrayed a good Italian-American, a component any Italian-American could have been proud to experience. Why did they're going with Garcia?
Probably exactly the same reason Swedish-by-way-of-Los-Angeles Jake Gyllenhaal is playing the Prince of Persia. Hollywood doesn't worry about matching the actor with the ethnicity of the role. They're more about locating the name to attract box office.
"Put just a little dirt on his face! He'll look Persian! " Yeah. Put just a little blackface on him. That'll get it done.
I'd even forgive Hollywood if Gyllenhaal's character would be a side thing, or perhaps the villain like British Ben Kingsley playing a Persian. (Kingsley also famously literally Indian icon Gandhi. That's as insulting as, say, casting Al Pacino as Martin Luther King Jr. )
But Gyllenhaal plays the friggin' PRINCE of PERSIA. Hollywood has got the opportunity to produce a Persian character that isn't a terrorist or perhaps a thug. A job model, if you will.
It's nothing like they can needed Gyllenhaal for that role. Everyone would begin to see the big popcorn movie for that effects and the action. Any pretty Persian face having a flat 6-pack of abs might take the role. A brand new star comes into the world.
Don't trust me? Consider the first "Spider-Man" movie. Who the hell knew who Tobey Maguire was if this arrived on the scene? Nobody. And what movie broke box office records that weekend?
'Nuff said?
Instead, Hollywood scraps the chance for positivity as well as for what? Some fast cash? Probably. And we're dumb enough to pay out the money to warrant their wrong doing.
Or, you are able to pull a Spike Lee, perform the right thing, and boycott "Prince of Persia. "
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