Critic Accuses Prince of Persia of "Whitewashing"

[HaloHappy]

Should we really care? Just because the title has "Persian" in it, doesn't necessarily mean that we need a Persian to play the character. Jake looks as close to the game character as you can get, and I have no doubt that the movie will be awesome, so why should I care about whitewashing anyways? It doesn't offend me at all. What does offend me, is people who point this stuff out, just stfu and enjoy the movie.

 

[Hyper-space]

I don't think the BIG and EVIL Hollywood executives deliberately tried to be racist. They are out to make money and Jake Gyllenhaal is a big name and will probably rein in a few bucks.

 

[Shycte]

Isn't the Prince white in the games?

Looks so to me atleast....

Really, we don't have bigger worries then this?

That's great news!

 

[GonzoGamer]

What bugs me the most (for some reason) are the fake English accents.
Why not fake Persian accents?
You expect them to totally screw up the casting but if you're going to make everyone fake the wrong accent, just work without the accents(everyone's natural accent).

 

[Kristian Linck]

The guy in the games in not even close to Persian >.>

 

[BritishWeather]

Who funded the movie? Who came up with Prince of Persia?

well if they remade the war of worlds set in America/Britain/etc etc with just persian actors I'd be annoyed.

 

[bojac6]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but you think the comments might be motivated by the fact that Gyllenhaal is Jewish? I mean modern day Persians (who are now Iranians, as far as I can tell) are not exactly known for getting along with the Jews.
I guess what I'm asking is if Jehanzeb Dar, a person I admittedly know nothing about, is himself racially motivated in bringing this up.
Or is this opening a whole can of racist worms that should have stayed closed?

 

[Eldarion]

Persians ARE Caucasian

I LOLed sooooo hard at this XD

 

[Morty815]

persians are white dumbass

 

[Morty815]

Isn't the Prince white in the games?

persians are white dumbass

 

[Morty815]

Persians ARE Caucasian

I LOLed sooooo hard at this XD

Why?

 

[Eldarion]

Persians ARE Caucasian

I LOLed sooooo hard at this XD

Why?

Because it makes the entire complaint redundant. I find that funny.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

People pull the race card for the stupidest reasons. Like the fact that I didn't vote for Obama *clearly* proves that I'm racist and bigoted against African-Americans.

I can't think of a Persian/Middle Eastern actor off the top of my head. I do, however, know and recognize Jake Gyllenhal. He's a good actor. I like his movies. I'm more likely to go see PoP with him starring than some unknown actor I've never heard of.

It's all about name power, and what a name can do to box office sales. That's it. No one cares about race.

 

[Cheesebob]

Isn't the Prince white in the games?

persians are white dumbass

Your point being?

 

[HyenaThePirate]

The only problem I might have with Prince of Persia using Gyllenhall is I want to know if the casting directors even BOTHERED asking Naveen Andrews.

For those of you who do not know who that is, he is Sayid Jarrah from The television show LOST.
He has the look, the voice, the build, and athleticism... he is a highly recognizable actor now thanks to the massive success of Lost, especially in America... and you know what else?

HE IS PERSIAN.

To me, Gyllenhall is a step above a B list actor... Jarhead wasn't the best best movie and damn sure wasn't the best performance, Donnie Darko is a cult favorite, but if we elevated actors based on the awesomeness of cult films, Bruce Campbell would be the most highly sought after actor in Hollywood. Other than that, Brokeback Mountain is a movie I never saw and never will, so I start wondering WHY Jake Gyllenhall was cast as the prince.. He's not even English I don't think? So it feels like even his accent is fake.

My other problem is, Jake's "Prince" seems to be the embodiment of the WRONG type of prince, the one NOT from the Sands of Time (when the series was good) but the dumbass second and third games in that series where he became some sort of refugee from a WWE Monday Night Raw game.

I guess sometimes though, White people do somewhat forget that there ARE other people in the world capable of.. well.. Playing themselves. I don't think anyone would feel comfortable if they cast a white male to play... well.. I was going to use a black main video character, but I can't actually THINK of any other than Cole Train from Gears of War lol. Or perhaps, I'm not sure white people would appreciate if someone made a Drake's Fortune movie starring Wesley Snipes or Don Cheadle as Nathan Drake. Or a New Tomb Raider movie starring Beyonce.

I think the problem these days is that on one hand, we as a society are too obsessed with race and there are those that see racism everywhere, when the majority of people I think just want everything to be colorblind.
But on the OTHER hand, people also want to have a personal identity... and to have pride in their race.. other than um.. white people, who apparently aren't allowed to be proud of their heritage since its so chock full of enslaving, conquering, genocidal campaigns blah blah blah.. We have become far too thin skinned these days.

Still, not using Naveen for this role was just plain criminal.

 

[bjj hero]

I think it's more an issue that there are no Middle-eastern stars that can carry a hollywood blockbuster.

It's hard to become a star when the only rolls they will give you are "Turkish street seller no:2" and "Terrorist with RPG"...

 

[Samurai Goomba]

[HEADING=2][font color=black]Read BEFORE you post.[/font][/HEADING]​

My gods, this thread had become a trainwreck of stupidity before it hit the fourth or fifth page. Everything anyone has said from about pg.4 on, has already been covered. Each concurrent page just looks like a copy-paste of the previous. Used to be a time when Escapists were a better class of forum-goer. Where people read the posts others wrote before adding their two cents. When a thread would grow from page to page, forming a long debate that continued in a definite direction.

This... This is not Escapist grade posting. This is a bunch of third-graders yelling their opinions on a subject while they plug their ears to what others are saying. This, people, is why the "celebrity" members rarely post anymore, why nobody bothers to present a well-worded beefy post. Put simply, if you can't be bothered to read what others have said before you, piss off, don't post. If you won't give them the time of day, why would they care what you have to say on the matter?

/rant

Thank you.

But sadly, the posts in this thread are in every way completely typical of more recent Escapist posting habits (in general). I mean, based on what I've observed personally.

But on a different note, perhaps I've not read this thread very carefully (I'll admit I gave up on about page 5 after the parrotfest started up), but I've yet to see anyone mention how HORRIBLY WRONG the casting for the evil vizier is. I mean, isn't that the Jewish guy from Lucky # Sleven? He's about the whitest old guy actor around.

 

[wildcard9]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I like to call Starship Troopers syndrome: where producers change a minority character (usually a lead) white in an adaptation on the assumption that the audience will either identify better with a white character or won't identify unless said character is white.

The syndrome is named infamously after Starship Troopers, in that in text Juan "Johnny" Rico was Philippino but was changed into a white guy for the travesty that was the film adaptation.

As a minority (Mexican-American for the curious), I am insulted that producers think that a minority character isn't suitable enough to appeal to a large demographic without being reduced into a stereotype (Jive-talking comic relief Black characters or violent gansta-speaking Latinos notwithstanding). It just cheapens not only the story but insults the intelligence of those who know and those who don't. And with rising racial tensions in this great nation between Whites and Mexicans like myself, it only deepens the tensions subtly in implying that only a White person is competent enough for the main role despite the original was a minority.

As long as the studio execs want to ring out as much money as they can out of their IP's, they'll continue to insult our intelligence and appeal to the lowest common denominator...

Moviebob, tear this abomination of a film a new one.