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Felicia Day blogs about the problem with Rooney Mara's casting as Tiger Lily for the one of three Peter Pan "re-boots": Tiger Lily Doesn't Equal Human Torch that probably really doesn't need to happen.
Day hits the nail on the head with her brief but pointed discussion of the inequity in Hollywood casting. There are other arguments revolving around the idea of Tiger Lily, but casting a First Nations actress would be appropriate given the limited number of roles that POC (of any stripe) are cast in. Considering that the creators have claimed that they are "re-imagining" Tiger Lily to detach her from the dated and racist stereotype given traction in the 1953 Disney animated film (my knowledge of which is sadly very dim because I haven't seen that movie in over 20 years), it would have been appropriate to cast a Native actress to participate in the reclaiming of the character. The problem, however, is so decidedly Hollywood. In another article, (Peter Pan remake sparks stereotype debate, the following quote is included:
The systematic exclusion of certain demographics as evidenced by the quote above implies that Native American actors, indeed actors of any "color," are not bankable. It's a frustrating constant. As if white is the default that all cultures can identify with, and the human perspective must always be filtered through a white perspective. It's stupid and wrong.
As Felicia Day says in her blog post: "We have to make an effort to change the pattern of only seeing stories through white characters’ points of view, so that in the future, diverse protagonists are just a given. So that we can have heroes and villains and judges and love interests of all backgrounds, and not have to point it out as “look how special this is!” Evolving stories and lore is a GOOD THING FOR OUR WORLD."
Well said, Ms. Day. Well said.
Day hits the nail on the head with her brief but pointed discussion of the inequity in Hollywood casting. There are other arguments revolving around the idea of Tiger Lily, but casting a First Nations actress would be appropriate given the limited number of roles that POC (of any stripe) are cast in. Considering that the creators have claimed that they are "re-imagining" Tiger Lily to detach her from the dated and racist stereotype given traction in the 1953 Disney animated film (my knowledge of which is sadly very dim because I haven't seen that movie in over 20 years), it would have been appropriate to cast a Native actress to participate in the reclaiming of the character. The problem, however, is so decidedly Hollywood. In another article, (Peter Pan remake sparks stereotype debate, the following quote is included:
"Native American actors don’t get as many roles as they should be getting,” said Jason Ryle, executive director of Toronto’s imagineNATIVE film festival. “This is done in the structure of Hollywood. They want bankable stories, bankable actors."
The systematic exclusion of certain demographics as evidenced by the quote above implies that Native American actors, indeed actors of any "color," are not bankable. It's a frustrating constant. As if white is the default that all cultures can identify with, and the human perspective must always be filtered through a white perspective. It's stupid and wrong.
As Felicia Day says in her blog post: "We have to make an effort to change the pattern of only seeing stories through white characters’ points of view, so that in the future, diverse protagonists are just a given. So that we can have heroes and villains and judges and love interests of all backgrounds, and not have to point it out as “look how special this is!” Evolving stories and lore is a GOOD THING FOR OUR WORLD."
Well said, Ms. Day. Well said.
