Age of the Geek

White as a ghost
     This week Paramount released the first image of Scarlet Johansson as “The Major” in their upcoming adaptation of “Ghost In The Shell,” and people were shocked to discover that Johansson was, in fact, white.
     Outrage ensued.
     Let’s back up a bit. “Ghost In The Shell” is a popular Japanese franchise about Major Motoko Kusanagi, a woman in a cyberpunk future who has her consciousness transferred into a full-body prosthetic after an accident.
     In other words, she puts her brain in a robot body.
     Kusanagi is, obviously, a Japanese name for a Japanese character.
     Scarlet Johansson is not Japanese. Or Asian at all.
     And while racebending traditionally white characters into minorities is all the rage these days, the reaction is very different when it happens the other way around. While that seems hypocritical at first glance, it really isn’t. The whole point of racebending a character is to correct a discrepancy between the demographics of the real world and the demographics of our fiction.
     Sometimes the efforts even counter themselves. Are we supposed to applaud Marvel Studios for casting Tilde Swinton as The Ancient One in “Doctor Strange,” thus increasing the number of women in major roles? Or do we get upset that a character that’s supposed to be Asian is being played by a white actor?
     This is an issue that has come up a few times already in recent months. “Aloha” took heat for casting Emma Stone as character that was supposed to be half-Asian. The incredibly pale Rooney Mara inspired a 96,000-person petition when she was cast as Princess Tiger Lily in “Pan.”
     And then there’s “Gods of Egypt,” a movie that generated an immense amount of controversy for casting mostly white actors for a story set in ancient Egypt. Of course, then minority actors saw the film and promptly said, “Ehhh, that’s OK. Maybe it was better we were passed for that one.”
     But is “Ghost in the Shell” really the hill to die on for this issue? Is this an argument worth having?
     I can see it both ways.
     Moving away from the identity politics for a moment, one must ask if this is an acceptable change from a purely storytelling standpoint. Will this be a faithful adaptation? Above all else, that’s supposed to be what matters.
     So let’s assume for a moment that the “Ghost In The Shell” movie won’t be anglicizing itself for a Western audience. For example, you might remember the Tom Cruise movie, “Edge of Tomorrow,” but probably didn’t know it was based on a Japanese novel because the name of Cruise’s character was William Cage, not Keiji Kiriya.
     The difference between adapting, localizing and whitewashing is a whole other can of worms, so let’s just assume that Scarlet Johansson is playing Motoko Kusanagi, not Maria Kremlin. Should we be OK with this?
     In this particular case, I’m willing to give it a pass. After all, Johansson isn’t technically playing an Asian person, she’s playing a purple-haired humanoid robot with an Asian person’s brain inside.
     Considering a real life Hong Kong engineer is actually building a lifelike robot that looks like Johansson, you could say she is uniquely qualified for the part. If things continue along that line, odds are better than average that when full-body prosthetics become a reality, they’re going to look like Scarlet Johansson anyway.
     So yes, as a fan of the franchise, I can get behind Johansson in the role.
     However, that’s probably of little comfort to the Asian actors already struggling to find roles in Hollywood. The opportunities out there are limited, particularly for Asian-Americans who have to compete with the Hong Kong superstars we occasionally import.
     It seems like a terrible waste when a role comes up that’s literally made for an underrepresented demographic and it goes to a white person. It seems like a no-brainer. If Hollywood were really interested in improving representation of minorities, how could they pass up such an obvious opportunity?
     Unfortunately, it’s a catch-22 situation.
     A movie like this needs star power to get off the ground and there is literally no Asian actor in Hollywood with enough star power to do the job. Now you and I know that there are probably plenty of lower profile or even unknown actors out there perfect for the role, but the guys financing these movies aren’t willing to risk their millions of dollars hoping the quality of the movie will speak for itself. They want a big name guaranteed to put butts in seats.
     The fact of the matter is that without Scarlet Johansson behind it, this movie likely wouldn’t be made at all. Which means the half dozen Asian actors cast in supporting roles suddenly don’t have a movie to be in either. Which means they lose a rare opportunity to make an impression on audiences and generate the star power they’ll need to start changing things in the future.
     I understand the frustration in feeling like the world is taking too long to do something that obviously should be done. Is it fair? Probably not, but sometimes you should maybe just take the win where you can get it.
 
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and is happy that at least they didn’t cast Tom Cruise.