However, this does go a long way towards explaining exactly what the maker of Cloud Atlas were doing. Obviously, there isn’t a cultural history of “white face” that carries the same weight of institutional racism behind it. This isn’t an attempt to suggest that somehow the two acts are equivalent – that one cancels the other.

She also pops up as a Mexican character in the 1973 section. Doona Bae plays the white American Tilda Ewing during the earliest story, set in 1849. Halle Berry, for example, spends the 1932 section of the film playing a white British woman named Jocasta Ayrs. The film also features the exact opposite scenario, which is seldom mentioned. It’s interesting that the decision to put various white actors in roles of various ethnicities is brought up so frequently. I’m naturally sceptical of a lot of Hollywood’s conduct in matters like this, but I think Cloud Atlas is actually quite clever and also quite sensitive in matters of race. However, I don’t think it’s fair to accuse the cast and crew of Cloud Atlas of engaging in racist behaviour or of being culturally insensitive. So I can understand why people are sceptical of Cloud Atlas and the decision to make actors like Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, James D’Arcy and Jim Sturges look Asian. There are more diverse leading actors than ever before, but there’s still a very strong conservative bias in film production, to the point where the studios recently baulked at a meagre $5m price-tag for Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic – deeming it “too gay.” It is very telling that Forbes’ top 11 highest-paid actors are predominantly white or white-passing. It is something that is incredibly frustrating, and something that tends to lock non-white actors out of Hollywood. You can see the same sort of casting issues with films like The Impossible, where the Spanish family from the true story are changed to be a British family on holiday. Indeed, I’m the first to complain about Hollywood’s tendency to re-write history to marginalise Asian characters.įor example, the decision to change the ethnicity of the characters in 21 from Asian to Caucasian feels like a cynical and calculated marketing ploy, as was the decision to cast Avatar: The Last Airbender without any major Asian actors… save the villain. Hollywood tends to prefer Caucasian leading actors, and it is very tough for an Asian actor to establish themselves. There aren’t enough Asian roles to go around. Indeed, on a few levels, the reaction to Cloud Atlas‘ decision to make up actors like Hugh D’Arcy and Jim Struges to look Korean makes sense. It is one of the reasons I don’t hold The Talons of Weng-Chiang in the same high regard as many of my fellow Doctor Who fans. However, while casting Bennett as Chang might be an affectionate nod to that historical figure, there’s no context given in the episode, and the whole thing feels strange and uncomfortable. Indeed, the character appears in The Prestige. Robinson spent his career playing the stage magician Chung Ling Soo in yellow face. There are any number of justifications that might be offered for the decision.įor example, Chang may have been inspired by the historical figure Chung Ling Soo, born William Robinson. The six-part adventure features Bennett playing the only major Chinese character in make-up designed to make him look Chinese. Bennett is a fine dramatic actor, but he is not Asian.

Placing white actors in make-up in order to disguise them as members of another ethnicity has all manner of uncomfortable racial undercurrents, regardless of any justification that might be offered.įor example, the 1977 episode of Doctor Who, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, is quite difficult to watch because the adventure chose to cast John Bennett as Chang. Particularly in America, where so-called “black-face” evokes a long history of institutionalised racism stretching back to the 1830s, only really disappearing in 1950s. Placing actors in make-up to change their ethnic features is, generally speaking, a very risky thing to do. On a broad level, I’m sympathetic to the controversy. Of course, by the time that Cloud Atlas was released in the UK and Ireland, the storm in a teacup had passed, but I still think it’s worth commenting upon. That just seems like common sense, even if Spike Lee clearly doesn’t agree. Damn you, international release schedule! I really wanted to to weigh in on the whole Cloud Atlas “yellow face” controversy that was raging at the end of 2012, but thought it best to wait until I had actually seen the film to offer comment.

Storm in a teacup movie synopsis