Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption

To be fair, it’s not as if racebending is completely limited to whites playing originally non-white characters. Perhaps the most famous example of a black man playing a white character is the casting of Morgan Freeman as the Irishman “Red” in the movie version of Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.”

Othello

Othello

The 1965 version of Shakespeare’s classic is proof Lawrence Olivier wasn’t going to let anything stand in his way of playing every single one of the Bard’s leads. And sure, it was a different time.

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender

Until 2008, it was called white-washing or race-lifting. Then Hollywood’s most prominent ethnically-Indian director took a popular ethnically-diverse cartoon and cast a whole bunch of white people.

Conqueror

The Conqueror

No one said no to John Wayne at the top of his game, not even Howard Hughes. That is why Wayne ended up completely miscast in the worst movie of his career, and one of the worst movies of all time according to various polls.

Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart

Before The Last Airbender, the biggest racebending controversy of the decade was probably over Angelia Jolie playing the character of mixed-race French journalist Mariane Pearl, who was five months pregnant when her husband Daniel was abducted by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.

Gender Turns

Asians have had it particularly rough over the last few years, especially when it’s come to Marvel. Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin, an Asian villain in the comics, was really an actor named Trevor Slattery in “Iron Man 3,” and “Doctor Strange’s” The Ancient One changed nationality and gender with Tilda Swinton’s portrayal in the 2016 film and subsequent appearances in other Marvel movies.

Note: In fairness, in the comics, The Ancient One was criticized for being an older, wise Asian stereotype.

The surprise twist in “Iron Man 3,” though, where it was revealed Kingsley was not portraying Mandarin at all but a boozy performer playing the character, shortchanged fans who were expecting an honest portrayal of the comic book icon.

The studio had it both ways. They technically did not need to find an Asian performer for the part.

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