Critic Accuses Prince of Persia of "Whitewashing"

[Eldritch Warlord]

I'm rather disappointed that no one seems to recall that the Prince of Persia games are based on the Achaemenid Empire, which existed over two thousand years ago.

Modern Persians are literally nothing like Achaemenid Persians. They had migrated to the Middle East from Europe and looked basically like any other European ethnicity. It's only after centuries of cross breeding and being conquered and settled by three or four distinct ethnic groups that they start to look basically like Arabs.

In short, Gyllenhaal looks like the Prince of Persia should.

Let me just say that again: over two thousand years of residing in the most culturally contested region of the world separates ancient Persians from modern ones. Their ethnic image has not been a static one.

 

[Bat Vader]

If you make a movie called the Prince of Persia than at least hire a Persian actor to play the prince. In fact, they should just destroy the movie now before it hits theaters because as well all know video game movies are horrible.

 

[dalek sec]

As long as the movie is good and does a fair amount of respect to the series on which it's based i don't really give a fuck what actor plays him..except for Gyllenhaal I just plain don't like him

Pretty much this as well. My only real concern is that the movie is good and like Snooty said it pay's a fair amount of respect to the series, these are my only two real worries about this movie. As for Gyllenhaal... well I can't say much about the guy cause I don't even know who he is.

 

[LightspeedJack]

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

 

[Kuchinawa212]

WAH WAH WAH! Look, a good actor can act the part, it helps if he looks it too, but the main goal is that he has to act it. If they thought he was the best actor for the role, then so be it. Besides we would be way more enraged if he showed up in black face.

 

[dehawaiiansupaman]

Its odd that I actually don't really care about this. I was annoyed when they cast 21 with a bunch of white actors and actresses when the actually crew the movie was based on was mostly Asian. For this, I guess it doesn't really matter for me since at least Jake Gyllenhaal is into the part and looks like the Prince in the games. Its a non-issue; they found a bankable actor who's into the part and looks like the character.

This isn't really racism (Though people can go ahead and argue it if they want) just the executives and producers felt he was a better choice than anyone else.

Hell its better than what Hollywood has done in the past with having John Wayne as Genghis Khan and Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

 

[SavingPrincess]

I'm pretty sure Yuri Lowenthal and Nolan North weren't Persian either... could be wrong though... been wrong before.

 

[Psychemaster]

I suppose one of the reasons they didn't cast a Persian for the role is that they couldn't find one that fitted... dunno about you guys but I don't know many good Persian actors.

 

[atalanta]

Yeah, and sometimes they get Brits to play Americans and Americans to play Australians and Australians to play South Africans.

That's why it's called acting. If this whole thing is going on skin tone, there's not an overly compelling argument; if you search for Persian guys on Google then there's not much difference. Admittedly facial features move away from "general Caucasian" but this guy's argument is limited at best.

The reason people are upset or annoyed about this is because whitewashing happens all the damn time. Sure, in this particular case the Prince already looked Caucasian and the visual difference between white guys and Persian guys isn't as marked as between, say, white guys and Asian guys. However, it's part of a larger trend that makes it difficult for Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latino actors to get recognition and jobs.

For instance, the Avatar cast has been turned into white kids for the movie; a white guy is being cast as Genghis Khan in an upcoming biopic; the movie 21 (came out a few years ago, was apparently pretty bad) was reasonably close to reality except the kids it was based on were all Asian (and who also used racism to pull their scam off, which makes whitewashing the movie doubly funny/sad). There's a lot of examples here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowface].

 

[Quaidis]

The first thing I thought when reading this was about the Airbender movie. Then it was brought up. Good stuff. I don't know about Prince of Persia, but man did I have a rage about Aang from Airbender being caste by a Caucasian. The entire cartoon made a pretty strong statement about the different nationalities and races of everyone.

Oh well, I can always wait for the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" Bollywood movie, in solid Mandarin. All Asian actors, with Jackie Chan in there somewhere (maybe as Iroh or something ballsy like that) to gain reputation.

 

[Abcxyq]

I guess their plan is to combine the plot of Sands of Time with the style of the newest game.

 

[Jaebird]

This part really needed to go to someone who's Persian. It's not only insulting to Persians, it's also insulting to white people. It's saying white people can't enjoy movies unless the protagonist is white.

Does anyone care, really? If you can look past something as petty as race, then that means you're enjoying the experience. Be glad the film is out-right insulting the people they're trying to portray. I mean, it's not like the Blackface era.

 

[DazZ.]

The Prince has been white since around 1989, I see no problem with him being white in the film 20 years later.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

No one ever complains about Blackwashing.. Like when Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury?

That fury and most of the newer film cannon is based off the ultimate story line where they redid EVERYTHING....................

 

[gmacarthur81]

No one ever complains about Blackwashing.. Like when Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury?

Or Halle Berry as Catwoman?