Top 20 Most Notorious Whitewashed Roles in Movies
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most egregious instances of whitewashing in movies.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most egregious instances
00:08of casting a white actor to play a non-white character in film, or simply changing the
00:13non-white character into a white one.
00:15Some spoilers to come.
00:22Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time.
00:32This was a mixed bag by all accounts.
00:34On the one hand, this film was considered one of the better-adapted video game adaptations
00:38upon release.
00:40On the other, it stars Los Angeles native Jake Gyllenhaal as a street urchin-turned
00:44Persian prince.
00:50It would have been potentially trailblazing to see a Middle Eastern actor in the lead
00:54role, as well as a Middle Eastern cast, but Hollywood must Hollywood, and thus we must
00:59watch Gyllenhaal mug it up with a fake British accent.
01:02The results were not that inspiring, hence Prince of Persia's disappointing box office
01:06returns.
01:20This is more the case of a light skin-washing than white-washing.
01:23When Zoe Saldana was first cast to play singer and activist Nina Simone in a biopic, the
01:28news caused immediate controversy.
01:31For one thing, the real-life Nina Simone was darker-skinned than Saldana, from a poor family
01:41in North Carolina.
01:42Saldana is Afro-Latina, with Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry, chiefly raised in Queens,
01:48New York.
01:49While Saldana always identified as Afro-Latina, she later regretted taking the role, feeling
01:53she should have advocated for an African-American actress to play Simone.
01:57A misguided choice, all in all.
02:09Because of course, the first thing you think of regarding the Great Wall of China is Matt
02:13Damon.
02:14Seeing the lead of an epic film set in China, an Irish mercenary, sparked immediate controversy,
02:20with critics accusing the film of falling into white saviour tropes.
02:26Granted, Matt Damon was not playing an original Chinese character, and is just one heroic
02:33character among many.
02:35But for a film financed by Chinese investors, and eager to capture the Chinese market, the
02:39decision to make its lead Irish is a head-scratching decision at best.
02:44Our take?
02:45Go big or go home.
02:46Otherwise, it'll flop at the box office, as the Great Wall ultimately did.
02:58This is a disappointing choice.
03:00For a film about the US occupation of Okinawa and interracial marriage, you would think
03:04it would have one of the most lauded actors in Hollywood history play an equally meaty
03:09role.
03:10Instead, Marlon Brando was cast as local native Sakini, who acts as interpreter.
03:16Brando has as great a range as ever, but this yellow face should have never happened.
03:21Brando was himself a strong civil rights activist, bitterly disillusioned with Hollywood whitewashing.
03:26He even famously refused to accept his Oscar for The Godfather, with Sashin Littlefeather
03:31speaking on Native American rights.
03:33No doubt he would have regretted his mischance of having an Asian actor play Sakini.
03:38Angelina Jolie as Marianne Pearl, a mighty heart
03:44This one is a little complicated.
03:46Angelina Jolie, it turns out, was personally chosen by the real-life Marianne Pearl to
03:51represent her in the film adaptation of the latter's memoir.
03:54But for all the fervour that ensued in the wake of this film, Jolie should have just
03:58simply declined.
04:01Pearl was mixed race, with a Dutch-Jewish father and an Afro-Chinese-Cuban mother, whereas
04:06Jolie is of German and Slovak descent.
04:09Jolie's performance as the wife of a kidnapped journalist was praised by critics for its
04:13restraint and pathos.
04:15It would have been nice, though, to have seen a mixed-race actress tackle that same role.
04:26Natalie Portman as Lena and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr Ventress, annihilation
04:33Based on Jeff Vandermeer's successful novel, this sci-fi horror film's all-female expedition
04:38into an alien-occupied zone should have been no problem.
04:41But in the novel, Natalie Portman's character is of Asian descent, whereas Dr Ventress is
04:46half Native American and half white.
04:51Director Alex Garland claimed he didn't know the characters had specific ethnicities,
04:55going loosely by the first book and not the trilogy as a whole.
04:58The novel doesn't even give names to the women, who are described only by their job
05:02titles.
05:03The film performed very well regardless, but it is certainly a missed opportunity.
05:17Speaking of missed opportunities, in the original 2010 novel by Isaac Marion, Zombie R finds
05:23new life and burgeoning romance with the still-human Julie, referencing Shakespeare's Romeo and
05:28Juliet.
05:29Julie's supportive friend, Nora, is specified to be half Ethiopian.
05:33When the novel was adapted as a film, the filmmakers cast Californian Leo Tipton, formerly
05:37Anna Leigh Tipton, for the role.
05:48It was no great detriment, as the film went on to modest success and solid critical reviews.
05:53But, casting more non-white actors would have developed the zombie-apocalyptic world-building
05:58much better, as well as allowing some young talent to get the acting credits they need,
06:02even in minor roles.
06:17This acclaimed film noir directed by Orson Welles has at least one major misstep.
06:22While Welles does a compelling turn as the villainous Quinlan, Charlton Heston's casting
06:27as Ramon Miguel Vargas wouldn't fly today.
06:30As Heston could have played a light-skinned Mexican, the brown face was frankly unnecessary
06:34– if par de course in the fifties.
06:44While Heston eschews the stereotypical tics and mannerisms common in Mexican roles in
06:48his performance, a believable Mexican he ain't.
06:51It would have been something to have had an actor of Mexican or Latino heritage play
06:55the role.
07:08Hollywood's streak of conveniently forgetting Egypt is still an African country is still
07:12unbroken.
07:13Prince of Persia-style casting shenanigans continue, with the even bigger failure, Gods
07:17of Egypt.
07:18Most of the cast of Egyptian gods was of Northern European descent, but the most egregious casting
07:23must be Gerard Butler as the main Egyptian god, Set.
07:30Though the characters in question are indeed otherworldly gods, you would think that gods
07:34of a specific culture would be played by the descendants of that culture.
07:38Gods of Egypt received a fierce backlash, and a disappointing box office performance.
07:47Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, Doctor Strange.
07:55This casting is a little hilarious in retrospect.
07:58The Ancient One was originally a male Tibetan in the Doctor Strange comics, but the creators
08:02of the film adaptation felt it would lean too much into Kung Fu martial arts stereotypes.
08:07Similar attempts to cast an Asian woman, the creators felt, would have also fallen into
08:12Hence, the character was changed into a Celtic mystic, with Tilda Swinton playing the character
08:27as androgynous, with she-her pronouns.
08:30Attempts to distance the character from his Asian roots failed, with many decrying the
08:34movie as whitewashing and disloyal to the comics.
08:37Either way, Asian actors missed out on a fine role for no good reason.
08:57This epic historical drama has no shortage of stellar performances.
09:00For a movie called Lawrence of Arabia, though, you'd think that there would be more Arab
09:04actors in key roles.
09:15To his credit, Alec Guinness by no means gives a bad performance.
09:18He clearly did his homework on Prince Faisal, and maintains a strong screen presence.
09:23And the same can be said about Anthony Quinn.
09:26As committed as these two acting giants are, though, wouldn't their roles have felt infinitely
09:30more authentic with people of Arab descent?
09:43Inspired by actual events, a majority of the characters in Ben Mesrich's best-selling
09:47novel were Asian-American.
09:49While this film adaptation isn't without a few actors of Asian descent, the main players
09:53are all white.
10:00The casting choice that infuriated people the most was Jim Sturgis as Ben Campbell,
10:04who was based on a Chinese-American named Jeff Mart.
10:07Producer Dana Brunetti claimed that he would have, quote, loved to cast Asians in the lead
10:12roles, but the filmmakers reportedly had no bankable Asian-American stars at their disposal.
10:17While that might be true, you have to wonder how hard they looked.
10:30There is simply no excuse for this one.
10:32Truman Capote's novella by the same name only briefly mentioned Holly Golightly's
10:36Asian photographer neighbour living on the top floor.
10:39For the Blake Edwards film adaptation, however, Mr. Unioshi appears as Holly's landlord,
10:44turned into a garish comic relief character played by Mickey Rooney, of all actors.
10:49The result is one of the most offensive, garish portrayals in cinema history, with prosthetic
10:53teeth and unfunny cartoonish slapstick.
10:56You would think a photographer would have more grace.
10:58Forget Asian representation, this represents no human in this world.
11:02Needless to say, this role is one of the most infamous examples of yellowface.
11:12To be fair, this isn't the first time a white actor has been cast as Ramesses.
11:22Yul Brynner previously portrayed the Pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire in the Ten Commandments.
11:27Of course, that biblical epic was released in 1956, whereas Exodus, Gods and Kings came
11:32out in today's supposed-to-be PC world.
11:36Naturally, casting another white actor as Ramesses felt like one of the biggest steps
11:42backwards that Hollywood could take.
11:44It didn't help that most of the other actors were Caucasian as well, but Edgerton in particular
11:48seemed grossly miscast.
11:50Where Brynner at least looked a part of a Pharaoh, Edgerton feels more like somebody
11:53playing dress-up at a costume party.
12:01Dating back to the early 17th century, this film's source material is a William Shakespeare
12:05tragedy revolving around a Moorish general.
12:08Though the titular character's exact race has never been confirmed, the term Moor did
12:12mean people with dark skin, most likely from Africa back then.
12:16So why in the Bard's name did we get British actor Laurence Olivier in blackface for the
12:21role?
12:22Sure, by the mid-60s Olivier had made a name for himself in multiple Shakespeare adaptations,
12:26but the actor also had to create an accent and a distinct walk, as well as deepen his
12:30voice for a performance that, while Oscar-nominated, was unfavourably likened to Al Jolson's
12:36infamous blackface character Jack Robin in The Jazz Singer.
12:49This seminal sci-fi animes live-action film adaptation came with major baggage.
12:54The casting of Scarlett Johansson as Major, a cyber-terrorist survivor turned operative
12:58with cybernetic enhancements, especially attractive backlash.
13:02Set in the Hong Kong-inspired Newport City, based on a Japanese manga, many fans expected
13:07the cast, or at least its lead, would be of Asian descent.
13:11The film's twist that Major was originally a Japanese girl only worsened matters.
13:18Ironically, Ghost in the Shell creator Mamoru Oshi had no problem with the casting, claiming
13:26Major's cyborg body was an assumed one, and Japanese fans were likewise unbothered.
13:31Still, it missed out on a crucial opportunity for an Asian actress to lead the film adaptation
13:35of this seminal work.
13:47Anybody who's familiar with the story of Peter Pan knows that Tiger Lily is Native
13:51American.
13:52The folks behind this reimagining apparently didn't get the memo, though, as they cast
13:55a light-skinned Rooney Mara in the role.
13:57The filmmakers tried to compensate for this by having Tiger Lily's tribe be made up
14:01of various different races and nationalities.
14:07While that's a noble gesture, I guess, there's still no reason why Tiger Lily couldn't
14:11have remained Native American.
14:13Mara is an immensely talented actress, but she simply looks uncomfortable in this whitewashed
14:18role.
14:19As far as missteps go, it may not be what made the Red Man Red bad, but it's not that
14:23good either.
14:40Now here's a casting choice that made the internet erupt like a volcano.
14:44Although roughly 70% of Hawaii's residents aren't white, this box office bomb enlisted
14:49Caucasian actors across the board.
14:51To make matters worse, Emma Stone was cast as a character who's supposed to be one
14:55quarter Chinese and one quarter Native Hawaiian.
15:04As much as we love Stone, even she felt this was a misguided decision in retrospect.
15:09Director Cameron Crowe additionally wrote an apology on his blog.
15:13If there is a silver lining to this controversy, it's that more people started to realise
15:17just how common whitewashing is, which will hopefully influence change in Hollywood.
15:37Inspired by Eastern philosophies and Japanese anime, the characters in Avatar The Last Airbender
15:41were largely depicted as Asian and Inuit.
15:44In this despised live-action interpretation, however, our heroes are all white, and any
15:49Asian actors are restricted to minor roles.
15:57You could argue that the cast isn't completely whitewashed, seeing how M. Night Shyamalan
16:01populated the Fire Nation with actors of Indian and Middle Eastern descent.
16:06Since the Fire Nation is primarily depicted as villainous, though, this ultimately sends
16:09out a negative message, fanning the flames.
16:12Failing to accurately represent a single character, it's easy to see why The Last Airbender
16:17helped coin the term, race-bending.
16:40John Wayne as Temujin-slash-Genghis Khan, the Conqueror.
16:47John Wayne will forever be remembered as a screen legend.
16:51With that said, it was hard to imagine the actor playing anybody other than a cowboy
16:54or a cavalryman.
16:56Given his narrow range, it was especially hard to accept the Duke as Genghis Khan.
17:01No, seriously, we are not making this up.
17:10John Wayne, the most American actor who ever lived, plays the founder of the Mongol Empire.
17:15We know, that sounds like the set-up to a joke, and The Conqueror is admittedly pretty
17:19hilarious at times.
17:20Of course, none of those laughs were intentional.
17:22On that basis, this was undoubtedly one of the most ill-advised casting choices ever.
17:33So which other instances of whitewashed casting had you slack-jawed in disbelief?
17:38Let us know in the comments.