10 Ethnically-Challenged Casting Choices of Hollywood

• Tony LaRocca
  May 5th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

  They left off one of my favorites - the Dr. Who episode “The Talons of Weng-Chiang,” which co-starred British actor John Bennett as a Chinese villain, complete with bad makeup, bad (ls instead of rs) accent, opium smoking, and a secret lair (where else) in a Chinese laundromat. The ironic thing is that it’s such a spectacular story!

• Geekazoid
  May 5th, 2008 at 5:57 pm

  It’s fitting that Breakfast of Tiffany’s is number one, that is the ultimate example. Another example is Henry Silva playing a North Korean in the classic “Manchurian Candidate,” a total laugher.

  Recently, I question the choice of Angelina Jolie as Marianne in “A Mighty Heart.”

• Ali S.
  May 5th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

  I guess it maybe because there aren’t many ethnic casting choices out there. That and the ones that are available either cater to a stereotypical role or to one that obviously isn’t a strong role (i.e. background character).

• Cutie Cutes
  May 5th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

  What about Jennifer Lopez playing an Italian in The Wedding Planner complete with thick Boricua/Bronx accent?

• Viola
  May 5th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

  Italians can’t be from the Bronx?

  In a related story, who’s Jennifer Lopez?

  The Usual Suspects is one of my favorite movies, but Pete Postlethwaite did confuse the heck out of me. Can’t lie.

• GQ
  May 6th, 2008 at 6:37 am

  What about any American actor attempting to play Irish? (Actual Irish, that is. You know, someone *from* Ireland?)

• Miss Cellania
  May 6th, 2008 at 6:47 am

  John Wayne as an Asian was the most bizarre ever.

  Ben Kingsley can play anyone convincingly. Now THERE’s an actor!

• bean
  May 6th, 2008 at 9:48 am

  Has anyone ever heard of a movie called White Girls, the plot of which is centered around two African-Americans spending the entire movie in whiteface?

• Viola
  May 6th, 2008 at 10:00 am

  I’ve never heard of it, but now I’m going to look into it.

• whoa
  May 6th, 2008 at 10:07 am

  in the movie “21″, most of the characters should have been Asian.

  And in the movie “A mighty heart” Angelina Jolie played Daniel Pearl’s widow, who is a black woman

• Cassie
  May 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

  Mickey Rooney always makes me cringe whenever I watch BaT. Good choice for number one.

  I thought Angelina Jolie was amazing as Marianne Pearl. What made it so much more meaningful, to me, was that Marianne is good friends with Angelina and Brad and specifically asked Angie to play her and Brad to direct.

  Damn, that movie was good.

• Barbwire
  May 6th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

  I used to wonder about this when I was a kid (’40s and ’50s). Sabu was real, wasn’t he?

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