Black Thor Actor Talks About Racist Comic Book Fans

Hiken no Ace

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When ever I see any move, I base my opinion on the actors off of how well they perform their roles, how well they convince me they are who they portray. It doesn't matter if they are white, black, asian or what have you. Now that being said, some actors fit their roles a lot better than others. Case in point, Justin Chatwin playing Goku in Dragonball Evolution. Now I'm pretty sure the movie would have sucked no matter what, since they let Akira Toriyama go. However, Goku should have obviously been played by an Asian. Just like Roshi and Chi Chi where. Not a canadian. I have yet to see the movie Thor. This actor may do a great job as Heimdall, I dunno yet. But, Asgardians are supposed to be based off of Vikings. And This character was white in the comics. Those are points I would give to the opposing party, but like i said I judge by performance. I'll make my decision on his performance when I see the movie. I hope people can see that this has nothing to do with racisim.
 

Bernzz

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At the end of the day, who the fuck cares?

Well, let me explain better. I understand the comic book fans annoyed at the change in canon, however slight.

But the racists? Fuck 'em. They haven't mentally evolved with the rest of society enough, so let them stay as degenerates. For fuck's sake, they're aliens anyway! Who cares if one is black?!

Also, the man is an amazing actor. He did his character very well.
 

drunken_munki

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I never really understood why people feel the need to change source material, other than plot holes or mistakes/goofs. I find it to be pointless busy work, probably by people who feel the need to show that they have done something.

Change something enough and it isn't really anything like it used to be? How far deep into a forest do you go before you start leaving the forest? This leads to the obvious backlash. Why wouldn't there be backlash? Pointless changes are pointless.

edit:

Imagine if they now made a Blade move with a white bloke. Or white women. Or fuckit, an albino half vampire dog. I would be fucking LIVID, because it would be fucking stupid. Stop defending this pointless shit. Seeing some sort of 'racism' where there is none is ridiculous as well as propogating racism in itself.

If you really give a shit, write in a new original character / ip of your favourite colour and make them awesome. Problem solved.
 

BoogieManFL

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I am completely non racist and I can see both sides of the argument as having some validity. A tricky situation to say the least. It's a hard one to call without actually have first hand knowledge such as if one person pulled off the role better than the other in the audition. If someone who didn't look like the character as much as another but really nailed the character good I'd probably say let's hire him - he's good. If they were comparable? Maybe picking the one with the closest look makes sense.

But for some characters changing the race might look odd..

If I were expecting to see a Norse warrior, I'd picture a white dude, probably blonde haired, who has a beard.

If I were expecting to see a Karate Master, I'd picture a old Japanese guy.

If I were expecting to see a tribal warlord I'd picture either an African or Native American Indian.

That's just the way it is, and it does make sense since that's the reality of those situations. You might be able to say it'd not be much different than an armored medieval knight whipping out a samurai sword or a scimitar. It'd look out of place.

Personally I don't care what the actor/actress looks like if they can really do the character well. A bad actor can ruin a movie, someone not having the right skin color probably won't.
 

LHZA

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Vrach said:
I don't really give a shit about a black person acting in a movie, not against it racially at all, but I gotta say, I hate to see source material altered just so they could say "hey, look, our cast has a token black guy!". If they're casting an actor because of his skin color, then that IS the definition of racism, whether he's black or white.

Why do you assume he was cast souly because he was black? That seems prejudicial. He could have been, actually most likely was cast because he's an awesome actor (Have you seen the Wire?). Kenneth Branaugh has cast black actors in traditionally white roles before ( Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing) because he has wanted to work with them due to respect for their talent. Yes he could have cast a white actor but is it really that big of a deal that he didn't? Especially since Elba apparently did such an great job with his protrayal ( don't know, haven't seen it yet, just going with what has been writen on this forum).

On the flip side, Patrick Stewart once did a white Othello in an otherwise black cast. It got rave reviews and no didn't cause much controversy and maybe that was because people recognized how awesome it is to have Patrick Stewart in anything. He can act the shit out of any role!
 

Nate Corran

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Its not a question about plot, its a question of overall source material the comics played off. The Norse people would not have worshipped a black man. He would have been Aryan, just like all of them were. Same reason why you won't ever see a ginger portrayed as God, a white man as Buddha, etc. Its not rascist, its logic.

OT: I am not one of the haters, but i do understand the point people are trying to make with this (Originally). Not to say he won't do a fantastic job in the role.
 

Sodoff

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In my opninion, they are depictions of gods.. What man can decide what a god looks like?

Besides that gay was so awesome as Heimdal!
 

Kenko

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Why do people get so upset aboout this. It's a shitty movie based on a shitty comic wich is LOOSELY based on norse mythology. *Facepalms*
 

LazyAza

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I Thought Heimdall was effing awesome, Mr Elba did a phenominal job portraying him. I don't think theirs any justification for the fans to complain about his role as the character but eh I'm no fan of Thor comics so whatever. As for the genuine racists well they're just doing what they do, ignorant and paranoid asshats as usual.
 

Ukomba

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A general call of racism is a bit harsh for some of the backlash. In the run up to every comic book movie you get comic book geeks complaining about all sorts of continuity problems, right down to the color and style of the costume, this just seems like another one of those for the most part. You'd see the same complains from the same people if they cast an Irish guy as Apache chief or something. *My comic book knowledge is limited to old Saturday morning cartoons*

The comments about "White Culture" and Judaism are, of course, stupid and clearly racist. It's important to separate the complains though. You can have good and bad arguments against anything and the stupid hateful arguments shouldn't be used to bludgeon the more reasoned ones. Objecting doesn't make some one racist, it's why they object.
 

Mcupobob

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This almost reminds me of that movie thank you for smoking, where at the end they have cigarettes removed form older pictures and movies and they called it "Improved history". Kind of how I feel, as we have to impose our modern political correct morals on to everything. Whatever though I wouldn't have gone to see this movie anyways even if it was to true heart of the comics as I just have no interest in Thor the comic as the comic itself is just a remaking of the mythology anyways. I wonder if casting Thor was just a peremptory strike on anyone complaining of whitewashing if thats the case this is a extremely retarded tactic where whitewashing wouldn't be a issue. Fans just want to see the source material come alive before their eyes the way they imagined it and was imagined by the comics and thats not racists I love it when hollywood manages to pull off the very heart of the source material and bring the book alive. Which sadly hasn't happen yet, I'm guessing the closes I could get is lord of the rings but I saw the movies before reading the books and still haven't got around to reading them.
 

Siberian Relic

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I find it ironic how it's ok for a man of color to play a Norse God, yet it's massively taboo for a white guy to play a prince of Persia. But then, judging by the accents throughout the trailers and clips for 'Thor', none of the "Norse" characters bear Scandinavian accents, so it's all level on the playing field, methinks.
 

eels05

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How many people here who said they dont care cause the Norse Gods depicted here are aliens would be ok with a black or asian Thor?
Just curious.Though just for the record I dont care about their choice for a support character,but if they'd done it for the main character I'd probably not bother seeing it.It would just be to weird.
 

bombadilillo

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Siberian Relic said:
I find it ironic how it's ok for a man of color to play a Norse God, yet it's massively taboo for a white guy to play a prince of Persia. But then, judging by the accents throughout the trailers and clips for 'Thor', none of the "Norse" characters bear Scandinavian accents, so it's all level on the playing field, methinks.
I thought that was wrong. And a black Norse God is wrong too. There is a defined race by who the character is. Im sure all the arguements have been made before but I'm not reading 500 posts.

POP was messed up by white hero and casting the villian as obviously middle eastern. Kinda messed.

Norse Gods were Norse. Who knew? Change Nick fury, change fucking Batman to black, who cares. But some things are predefined by character.

Turok the movie starring Jackie Chan. Sorry dudes Native American.
 

Siberian Relic

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bombadilillo said:
Siberian Relic said:
I find it ironic how it's ok for a man of color to play a Norse God, yet it's massively taboo for a white guy to play a prince of Persia. But then, judging by the accents throughout the trailers and clips for 'Thor', none of the "Norse" characters bear Scandinavian accents, so it's all level on the playing field, methinks.
I thought that was wrong. And a black Norse God is wrong too. There is a defined race by who the character is. Im sure all the arguements have been made before but I'm not reading 500 posts.

POP was messed up by white hero and casting the villian as obviously middle eastern. Kinda messed.
Well, on the level of annoying technicalities, Gyllenhaal is part Jewish (from what I understand), and that region was part of the Persian Empire when that movie took place.

Still, I'm on the side of things that the right actor should be chosen before the right face is chosen, even if that face happens to be darker or lighter. But Prince of Persia had bigger problems than its lead actor, imo.
 

Technicka

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Themsen said:
So its okay to be racist towards white people because people white people were racist several generations ago? I hate this argument, i havent done a racist act all my life, and still people act as if though i should feel severely guilty and never have an oppinion in a race related issue ever. If that isnt double standard, i dont know what is. I am not really sure i agree that white people have an advantage either, this isnt Madmen times where being black bars you from jobs or anything.

Also, white people in my high school had to take s**t from pakistani immigrants regularily (they called us "potato", it doesnt make much sense i know, but trust me, its pretty hurtfull in norway, completly disrespectfull), and we couldnt say anything back. If we called them pakkis or something to atleast pretend we werent just gonna lay down and be verbally abused, we were racist. Isnt that a disservice? Double. Freeking. Standard.

So yes, i will in fact demand that it has to go both ways, i take not a lick of responsibility for actions commited by stupid people hundreds of years ago, and i will make the statement that in my experience, minorities are way more racist than the white majority.
(As a preface, I'm mostly going by an American viewpoint, so if you're from another country, I can't really talk about how things are there)

You're allowed to have an opinion on issues of race. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. Catch is, as a white person (and thus, a person of privilege) you're stuck with the difficult task of having to be careful of your wording. Like it, or not, you've benefited a lot from the mistreatment of ethnic people. Of course, you didn't personally do it, but you still get the rewards. Just because the days of Jim Crow laws are over doesn't mean racism is dead.

Never said it was okay, though. In many (western) societies racism against non-white people is still a fairly recent thing; there are still people alive that have had some of the worst shit heaped on them because of a "mistake" of being born the wrong colour. SO you'll have a fairly hard time convincing those people to be sympathetic because people are calling you a bizarre name. I can tell you this, a lot of ethnic people grow up with a lot of anger towards white people because of how the worldview is still heavily in their favor. Naturally, a white person doesn't take notice of it - but when you're not what's considered "good people" you notice just how hard it can be in the world.

And it's not a matter of you having to feel guilty because you're white. Of course you never owned slaves, lynched a person, and so on. Again, never said that. But you do have to be aware that a lot of the unspoken luxuries of life are a lot easier for you to achieve than for an ethnic person. Many of the perks of the modern life (i.e. jobs, healthcare, education) were initially set up to bar out anyone not white. So most minorities are starting at a sever disadvantage in life. And you can't fix that by pretending the past doesn't happen and everyone's starting at the same point.

For example: a lot of people in this thread have been doing the "Well, if the cast a black man as Heimdall, people can't complain if Malcolm X is a white dude." That's false equivalence. There have been plenty of occasions where a white actor was cast in the role of a minority character. Black/Red/Yellowface existed long before Samuel L Fury. Even historical figures have been conveniently cast white: Genghis Khan, Jesus, and Cleopatra as the more notable cases. So if you want to argue that point, once again, white people have been at it for almost a century in film, so you're seen by many as crying because now you're getting your just desserts, in many peoples minds. Is it fair? Depends on your POV. But that's how the world currently is.





You can't look at racism in a void where an insult to the commonly maligned groups are on equal footing with one to the dominant/favored race. Racism isn't like saying something stupid out loud in a fit of rage. It guides people's way of thinking, and moving along in the world, and as such, it's an insidious way of thinking that creeps along in society. And it isn't always as blatant as a skin-head vandalizing a synagogue. And that's where you get situations of white the whitewashing of Airbender is seen as a bigger offense than Elba cast as an alien god. Because the history behind one practice (whitewashing) is a long standing one born of hatred, whereas Heimdall's casting was one of Branagh having a massive man crush on an actor.
 

moviedork

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The point of making a movie adaptation is not to listen to the fans but to make the best movie possible. Edras Alba was obviously the best one auditioning for the role, so they cast him as Heimdall. It's not a best deal.

This debate kind of reminds me of casting casting Donald Glover as Spider-man (huge support). People just get too up in arms that the character is white to ignore what could be a great performance.
 

Trasken

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Look i don't give a crap about race, but the nords aren't exactly know for the excessively dark pigmentation in their skin, hence why all their gods are white as snow.
Casting of that particular actor was IMO a stupid move. But since we all know Hollywood is a big fan of stupid and of wiping their ass with facts it's to be expected.
I don't care about nick fury being black, hell i loved him in iron man 2.
But a fucking Norse god? The ONLY african american (is it racist to say black?) looking god in a pantheon know for its whiteness? Mayyyyyyybe this time it might've been better to go with a white actor
 

Conn1496

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Face it: if an actor is good they get the part. The bit I find racist is that people are complaining. If they didn't give him the part because he was black. THAT would be worse. Good on him.