Hollywood’s biggest Asian American actresses call out the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie.
Asian-American actresses call Scarlett Johansson’s Ghost in the Shell role a form of modern day “blackface”. Recently several Asian-American actresses have spoken out calling Ghost in the Shell Hollywood whitewashing.
Related: ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Boycott Petition Goes Viral
According to The Hollywood Reporter, on Saturday, Agents of SHIELD‘s Ming-Na Wen andFresh Off the Boat‘s Constance Wu commented on the first image of Scarlett Johansson as Ghost in the Shell leading lady, Major Motoko Kusanagi.
“It was particularly heinous because they ran CGI tests to make her look more Asian,” said Wu.
“Some people call it ‘yellowface,’ but I say ‘the practice of blackface employed on Asians’ because that’s more evocative.”
Wu explained that the problem with the reported tests is that “it reduces our race and ethnicity to mere physical appearance, when our race and culture are so much deeper than how we look.”
This news comes as reports surfaced that producers experimented with changing Scarlet Johansson’s ethnicity using CGI. And the recent Oscars joke which poked fun at Asian American children calling them ‘Minions’. Wen then called out Hollywood’s history of degrading Asian actors. “We’re easy targets,” Wen asserted. “It’s not in our nature to speak up and voice our concerns. That needs to change. We need to emulate the African-American community, whether through fear, being loud, or humor.”
Related: ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Producers Used CGI To Make Scarlett Johansson Asian?
However, one panelist gave one of the biggest pieces of advice to other aspiring Asian-American actors. Joan Chen, the screen legend behind Netflix’s Marco Polo and several other Hollywood feature films said “The best way to repudiate their one-dimensional story is by telling 1,001 of our own. It’s easier to protest than to create a show.”
Via: THR
