Comments on: APA Coalition Meets with Paramount

By: Paramount Pictures – Diversity in the 21st Century? :: The Last Airbender Movie Casting | Activism at Racebending.com

Mon, 24 May 2010 19:55:24 +0000

[...] Pictures President Adam Goodman met with Asian American advocacy groups in November 2009 and affirmed Paramount’s commitment to diversity. But does Paramount’s new slate of upcoming films from 2010 onward live up to this [...]

By: mike

mike — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:21:16 +0000

Yes, we are planning on having a protest, but details are still forming. We’ll update on the site as the film gets closer. Stay tuned!

By: mike

mike — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:20:35 +0000

Hi Zainab,

Thanks for writing in.

The point of our protest is not to belittle M. Night or any individual member of the production. We only wish to point out that the Airbender casting follows the long tradition of Hollywood bias against performers of color – limiting them to background, villainous, or sidekick roles. This is a glass ceiling that has persisted for a hundred years and won’t stop unless we, as consumers, take a stand against discrimination in media.

More diverse casting in the background, or in future sequels, cannot make up for the whitewashing of the three principal roles – or the decision to use dark-toned performers for the Fire Nation (except for Fire Nation incarnations of the Avatar, who are still cast white).

I hope you are able to keep an open mind and not jump to conclusions as you read other pieces on our site:
http://www.racebending.com/v3/background/history-of-yellowface/

By: Zainab

Zainab — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:14:57 +0000

and also dont forget that the actor playing zuko was originally white, so technically there intention wasnt to make asians look like the bad guys.

By: Zainab

Zainab — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:13:02 +0000

I dont want to belittle your view, and I understand where you’re coming from, but understand that there could be MANY reasons why asians werent cast and you need to think long and hard about all of them. including the fact that the asians that auditioned may not have been that good, or not many showed up in the first place. Also M. Night had nothing to do with the casting call sheet and he picked the characters. He had no idea how the casting sheet was organized. and also ur forgeting azula and toph. theyre not gonna be in the first movie but theyre gonna be in the second and third, and the fire nation and earth kingdom are asian and middle eastern, so thats what toph and azula are going to be. toph is a good guy so shes going to be a colored hero. you guys dont think about these things, and jump to conclusions.

By: bajam

bajam — Thu, 06 May 2010 05:27:55 +0000

IS there going to be a gathered protest at a specific location on the opening day of the movie? It may be a double edged sword because media always has a way of supporting it’s sponsors instead of the actual facts of events. IF there is one though, I would love to attend and support the cause.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:30:53 +0000

Theactor playing Aang looks the most like his character in the comparison shot. If anything, I’d be much more angry with the actors chosen for Katara and Sokka. Aang is at least racially ambigious while Katara and Sokka are clearly not.

By: The Last Airbender Timeline :: The Last Airbender Movie Casting | Activism at Racebending.com

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:21:47 +0000

[...] At a meeting with Paramount Pictures regarding the depictions of Asian Americans in The Goods, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans brings up the casting controversy over The Last Airbender. The President of Paramount Pictures, Adam Goodman, is made fully aware of the public’s problems with the casting. [...]

By: aznman

aznman — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:17:04 +0000

Paramount is trying to make nice now so that everyone will say ok we’ll go see your film now, just don’t ever do it again. The film is cast. Let us not forget they deliberately ignored our protests. The studio must pay for their racist act. I for one will NOT pay to see this film under any circumstances short of a complete and proper recast with East Asians in the lead roles.

By: cnp

cnp — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:40:00 +0000

Although this is not APA related it has something to do with racism in general, (which Paramount is sooooooooooo guilty of…)I was browsing and stumbled upon a case of Paramounts difficulty dealing with important things, like racism.
It would appear Paramount has quite a bit of history with this topic.
White Dog was a film about racism by Samuel Fuller that Paramount felt the need to “suppress”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Dog