Scarlett Johansson’s First ‘Ghost In The Shell’ Look Revealed — But Fans Aren’t Thrilled
“Gosh, where could we possibly find a Japanese actress who kicks ass?”
04/15/2016 12:56 am
Dominique Mosbergen
Senior Writer, The Huffington Post
Paramount and Dreamworks Pictures released the first look image of Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming film “Ghost in the Shell” on Thursday.
The actress will star as Major Motoko Kusanagi, a special ops human-cyborg hybrid, in the live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese anime series. In the broody shot, she sports a dark-hued angled bob, her gaze fixed at an unseen point in the distance.
Some fans expressed excitement at the reveal, but many more announced their displeasure. The primary question on people’s lips: Again,
why is a white woman playing the protagonist in an adaption of a Japanese series?
Since the news last year
of Johansson’s casting as Motoko Kusanagi, fans have been calling for the film’s producers to hire someone else for the role.
A Care2 petition entitled “
DreamWorks: Stop whitewashing Asian characters” has garnered more than 65,000 signatures to date.
“What concerns me is the fact that minority actors are so rarely given opportunities in big-budget leading roles,” petition author Julie Rodriguez said in a press release last year. “It’s a self-defeating cycle: Hollywood insists viewers won’t be drawn unknown minority actors, but they’re never given the chance to break out of a narrow set of background roles to prove themselves. ‘Ghost in the Shell’
could have been a perfect opportunity to buck this trend, but instead promising actresses are being passed over.”
Several actresses have been pinpointed as possible replacements for Johansson, including Chiaki Kuriyama, the Japanese actress and model who starred in “Kill Bill: Volume 1;” and Rinko Kikuchi, the Japanese actress who was nominated for an Oscar for her work in the 2006 film “Babel.”
The so-called white-washing of Asian characters in Hollywood is hardly a new phenomenon.
Emma Stone was infamously cast to play a half-Hawaiian/Chinese character in Cameron Crowe’s film “Aloha”; and in the upcoming Marvel movie “Doctor Strange,” Tilda Swinton will play “The Ancient One” — who, in the comic book, is an old Tibetan man.
@ the comments>>>>>
John Gorn
"The actress will star as Major Motoko Kusanagi, a special ops human-cyborg hybrid"
It's an absolute outrage that they could not find a qualified cyborg actress for this role.
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Daryl Sawitto ·
Marcellin College Randwick
And yes. I also agree they should've had an asian actor for the role.. else every issue at the Oscars and what Chris Rock says is all true. Which they already are.
And if they really want an American cast. Ron Perlman would suit well as her partner. Badass.. and stereotype of a big american.
But yah... well who knows. It may turn out good. Im not going to criticize something before seeing the end result. But i wonder if they will do a tribute of Origa having her music play in the background as an easter egg in some parts.
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Allan Matthews ·
Harvard University
I expect the live action Ghost in the Shell to go over about as well as the live action Neon Genesis Evangelion... er... Pacific Rim did.
At least Rinko did a decent job as Rei Ayanami.
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Elsa Steele III ·
University of Waterloo
No offense but virtually all manga/anime characters are drawn as white characters so it seems only logical to cast a white actor. Time for asians to finally stop with the self-hate and actually draw asian characters (e.g. see Akira).
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Stu D Milner ·
Anderson Collegiate And Vocational Institute
Thank-god, how many ethnic japanese have natural red eyes and purple hair
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Alicia Sapinski
Beat me to it. I noticed a large number of European looking characters when I first got into anime. I never fully understood the reason, but now I'm just used to it.
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Candice Alström ·
Director of Events and Promotions BeerAdvocate.com at
BeerAdvocate
They should have tried for asian actresses. There are plenty who could have been so much better for the role. In remakes and other incantations of this, sure Scarlett can try it. But after they tried with asian actresses first. At least try.
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In last year’s Ridley Scott film “The Martian,”
white actress MacKenzie Davis starred as Mindy Park, who’s identified as a Korean-American scientist in the book the movie was based on.
