I actually have real issues with "insert Asian ethnicity X here" actors playing "insert Asian ethnicity Y here" characters. I think I talked about it a bit when Memoirs of a Geisha came out last year, particularly the predominance of Chinese actors playing Japanese characters. There are so many amazing Japanese actors out there, why should Chinese actors get those roles? I am aware that Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi playing those two roles added a certain (famous, well-known) element to what was supposed to be a Hollywood movie. But at the same time, the issues that I have raise other issues.
For example, Eva Green is a French actress, and she played an Englishwoman in Casino Royale. But that didn't upset me anywhere near as much as the previously mentioned Memoirs of a Geisha. I will be honest, I have never examined this discrepancy in my own responses very closely. I think it's partly because Eva played such a delightful Englishwoman, I liked her very much; and I think it's partly because I dislike so much (personally) being catagorised as 'Asian;' I'm Chinese, and sort of Malaysian, if we must go there, and I'm Australian. But being catagorised as Asian makes me part of a mass that shouldn't really be combined together, and hmm.
I am not sure if I have made sense. In answer to your question re: Sandra Oh's comment, I think my answer must be: I wish she wouldn't. But at the same time, if any actor can successfully portray a Chinese character, or a Japanese character, or a Polish character or whatever, and not be of that ethnicity, then that's kind of cool, too.
I am going to stop here before I trip over my words, and before I start to make even less sense.
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I actually have real issues with "insert Asian ethnicity X here" actors playing "insert Asian ethnicity Y here" characters. I think I talked about it a bit when Memoirs of a Geisha came out last year, particularly the predominance of Chinese actors playing Japanese characters. There are so many amazing Japanese actors out there, why should Chinese actors get those roles? I am aware that Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi playing those two roles added a certain (famous, well-known) element to what was supposed to be a Hollywood movie. But at the same time, the issues that I have raise other issues.
For example, Eva Green is a French actress, and she played an Englishwoman in Casino Royale. But that didn't upset me anywhere near as much as the previously mentioned Memoirs of a Geisha. I will be honest, I have never examined this discrepancy in my own responses very closely. I think it's partly because Eva played such a delightful Englishwoman, I liked her very much; and I think it's partly because I dislike so much (personally) being catagorised as 'Asian;' I'm Chinese, and sort of Malaysian, if we must go there, and I'm Australian. But being catagorised as Asian makes me part of a mass that shouldn't really be combined together, and hmm.
I am not sure if I have made sense. In answer to your question re: Sandra Oh's comment, I think my answer must be: I wish she wouldn't. But at the same time, if any actor can successfully portray a Chinese character, or a Japanese character, or a Polish character or whatever, and not be of that ethnicity, then that's kind of cool, too.
I am going to stop here before I trip over my words, and before I start to make even less sense.