A Beautiful Mind

Beautiful Mind

Interracial marriage has been legal in the US for 45 years, but that doesn’t mean people are exactly comfortable with the idea yet. And in many countries abroad, countries that contribute a lot to a movie’s overall profits, interracial relationships are even more frowned upon.

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown

After the runaway success of Pulp Fiction everyone was wondering what Quentin Tarentino would do next. What he did was take a novel called Rum Punch, change the race of most of the characters and some of the plot, and turn it into a homage to Blaxploitation films.

counted cards

21

Perhaps by wanting to avoid stereotyping Asian-Americans as really good at math, the producers of 21 just got rid of them all together.

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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