Here are some photos of Rooney Mara at the Pan premiere a few nights ago. She wore Giambattista Valli to the New York premiere and I absolutely hate it! While I’m not a big Valli fan, I usually think his designs at least look expensive and interesting. This looks like a really cheap lace dress with a cheap, ugly black mullet thrown around it. Fug as hell.
Rooney’s casting in Pan has not been without controversy of course. Rooney plays Tiger Lily, a character that was traditionally Native American. Rooney got a ton of sh-t for taking the part and director Joe Wright got a ton of sh-t for not only Rooney’s casting, but the “origin story” of Peter Pan coming to Neverland to “save the natives.” How can Peter Pan be the white savior if everyone else is white?! Anyway, Rooney spoke to People Magazine about the backlash she got for taking the role:
Rooney Mara is speaking out about the controversy surrounding her casting as Tiger Lily in Joe Wright’s Pan.
“It wasn’t great, I felt really bad about it,” Mara told PEOPLE at the NYC premiere of Pan on Sunday when asked how she coped with the criticism.
After it was announced in March that the Caucasian actress would be playing the Native American princess, the Internet went wild – and not in a good way. “The whitewashing accusations started to fly,” wrote Entertainment Weekly at the time.
“It was something that I thought about before I met with Joe,” Mara, 30, told PEOPLE at the film premiere. “When I met with Joe and heard what his plans for it were, it was something I really wanted to be a part of,” she added of her decision to star in Wright’s retelling of J.M. Barrie’s beloved classic Peter Pan, out Oct. 9.
“But I totally sympathize with why people were upset and feel really bad about it,” she added.
Mara also told PEOPLE that she relates to her character because, “I think we’re both very independent women who can hold their own. We don’t need a man to save us.”
Yeah, I still don’t get why she took the part? And I’m sorry but “I feel bad about it” isn’t a good enough explanation. This wasn’t Rooney’s call, obviously, so save the biggest side-eyes for Joe Wright and the producers, but let’s also admit: Rooney could have said no. She could have said, “You know what, this character is supposed to be Native American, so no, I think I’ll pass.”
Of course, Rooney has her own career problems… sort of. While many people feel like Rooney is probably going to get her second Oscar nomination for Carol, the sequels to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are dead in the water. Rooney admitted as much to E! News. When asked about the sequel, she said: “I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m sad never to do it again, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards.” Good. While I didn’t hate her Lisbeth, Noomi Rapace is my Lisbeth.
I’m including some additional pics of Rooney with Charlie McDowell, her longtime boyfriend.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
So she felt bad about the whitewashing or she felt bad about the fact that there is controversy surrounding her? Because those are two different things, and I feel like if she actually felt bad about the former, then she wouldn’t have taken the part.
ETA: hahahahah. This movie has 40% on Rotten Tomatoes so far ^_^
I think actors need to take more heat & responsibility for their choice of roles, Emma Stone literally made the same choice for Aloha but I didn’t see ANY side-eye about her choosing to take on a role she could have said no to… the director did of course, but when an actor reads they will be playing an asian character, when they themselves are NOT asian.. how does one have the mental process.. “oh, that’s okay!”
Completely baffles me…
I’m surprised they don’t have management representatives that look at it and anticipate the backlash. You are totally correct about Emma Stone not really getting the heat for her “Asian” character. On the one hand, I think Rooney’s career is not nearly at the same level as Emma’s so from that standpoint, I think Emma should probably have gotten MORE heat for it. She can afford to be more selective in her roles at this point. As for Rooney – why does she always look so miserable?
I wonder if the people who complain about the whitewashing of Aloha have actually seen the movie? While the movie takes place in Hawaii, it is a military movie. The white main characters are stationed there, how many people get stationed to their home state? I thought you go wherever they post you… The majority of active duty personal are white. (http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-demographics-2014-8?op=1) While it would be nice to see more PoC represented, i don’t think the casting decisions by Crowe were racist.
And Emma Stone’s character, Allison Ng, makes it a point to introduce herself and her heritage to everyone she meets. Probably because she does not look Hawaiian or Asian in any way. This was not a big deal to me, it was part of her character.
@sarah Emma stone didn’t get ANY side eye? Are you serious? She got a ton of heat. Just google Emma Stone Whitewashing, you get 316,000+ articles ! There was so much outrage, more than this Rooney Mara casting
I think she slipped in a quiet ‘my bad’ after the film tanked.
Anon
The majority of Army forces might be 70% White but they are not ALL in Hawaii. LOL. They are spread out. Whenever I run into a group of military people they are usually a mixed race group. The exemption being officers which are almost always White as the website also confirms.
Also mixed race Asians (White/Asian) are amongst the highest rising mixture in the country. You see many, many in Hawaii. And I’m sure some of them study acting. So they are not mystical creatures that cannot be found and have to be played by White actresses. This is why minorities in acting never get up to the big leagues. They are never given a chance to even start or get their leg in and work on their craft. Then when it comes to casting for a big film the excuse of “well there are no famous minority actress or no qualified one for this role that’s why we cast someone white.
Well in that case let’s go back to the time when female roles were played by male characters and see if White women will be OK with it and that blame the actors that take those jobs away from them. My guess: you would be screaming bloody murder and boycotting actor X, Y.Z.
I think the real person that was the inspiration for Emma Stone’s character always emphasized her ethnic background to people because she didn’t look Hawaian. The character in the movie did the same thing. The casting seemed consistent with that. I think people just didn’t realize it was based on a real situation and that genes mix in mysterious ways- even being 1/2 Asian doesn’t guarantee you will look it if your appearance comes from the European parent’s contribution. That happens for European/African mixes as well. Two kids in the same family can look entirely different as a result – one looks “white” and the other looks “black”. This is always true for any progeny even if the parents fall within the same ethnic group, it just becomes more obvious when the gene pools of the parents are more different. Many kids will look like a mix of both parents, but some look like just one of them.
@ anon
My question is — yes, that’s her character’s story. But why did the director/writer choose to tell THAT story? They were in Hawaii, and they story they found most interesting was of a white-passing woman? How convenient for them.
Ugh. I’m tired of the actresses bearing the brunt of that in all honesty. It’s true they bear some level of responsibility. But if she hadn’t done it, someone else would have taken the part. Girl needs to work and this is part of working. Blame the director, blame the casting person, blame the HIGHER UPS in hollywoo. I’m tired of blaming the actress solely for choosing to take the part as if the movie wouldn’t have gotten made without her. She’s pretty low on that totem poll of who gets what say as both a woman and the job she’s required to do.
Are you saying another NON asian actress would have taken the part? Because that is literally the WHOLE point of my argument..
Are you serious? Actors almost never get blamed when these things happen, and Aloha would’ ve been made with or without Emma Stone. Except they would’ ve chosen another non asian actress for it. I agree with sarah, I said the same in the post about Emma Stone and Aloha: how can you read a script where your character needs to be of an ethnicity different from yours and think that it’ s fine for you to play the part? Even if the character isn’ t supposed to look non-caucasian, how about hiring someone who is not caucasian and looks the part? Either you are too dumb to understand the problem, or you don’ t give a damn and you apologize afterwards because, shockingly, people get pissed about it and you try to save your face.
Rooney Mara is doing the same: she didn’ t realize this was going to be controversial because as a white person she has never been through that (which in Hollywoood means the problem doesn’ t exist), or she knew and didn’ t care enough to turn down the part because her career was more important!
I just want to add: did we really need another Peter Pan adaptation?
So why did she take the part, if she was not comfortable with it? Many actors pass on roles they felt uncomfortable with. Did she sign a contract and couldn’t back out?
She probably knew some other forgettable actress in her peer group would get it (one of the Emmas or emilys) so she took it, ‘feeling bad,’ all the while.
Oh and that excuse the filmmaker is giving…’oh it’s just a dream or a fantasy of a white person so these aren’t real Indians anyway,’ is lame and insulting.
It’s one of either 2 things: 1.) she truly had no clue about the Tiger Lilly character and was shocked to discover that she’s indigenous in the source material – however, that makes me wonder about her as an actress. Don’t most actors do even a slight amount of research into the characters they play? 5 minutes of Google would reveal that Tiger Lilly is a Native girl (she’s the daughter of the chief, for crying out loud). How did she not get that? Is Tiger Lilly’s backstory completely changed in this film or is she playing a Native American character? It’s not totally clear. Or it’s 2.) she knew damn well and just wanted to take the part and is now trying to save face but doesn’t actually feel bad.
Because she actually doesn’t give a fuck and is only saying she feels bad to protect her Oscar campaign.
Because the Oscars care so deeply about the representation of minorities in film?
@Josefa
That’s not the point I was making…
Oscar. Tee-hee. If she thinks so, she should think again.
@bns
And the point I was making is Oscar voters probably don’t give a fuck about this issue either.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like she’s saying she had already thought about the whitewashing issue before she “met with Joe,” but it was a project she really wanted to be a part of so she took the role anyway? But she still feels really bad about it?
I could be misreading… But she comes of as slightly inarticulate. So that’s kind of on her, not me. She’s either a little dim, or she really cared more about getting the part than she did about the whitewashing issue, in which case she’s sort of an a$$hole. I don’t know. I really don’t.
I read that to mean that she found the role too tempting to turn down, though she felt guilty about it. So, yes, she cared more about getting the part than the whitewashing.
Then that makes me question does she really feel bad or is that just something she saying because of the backlash.
She’s saying, she took the role but that she felt bad about taking the role so we shouldn’t have a problem with it. Seems logical, right?
Her apology feels more like an “I’m sorry this got noticed and now I’m taking heat” than an “I’m sorry I made a choice I understood I was making and I feel bad about it”
^^ Yes. It’s also a version of “I’m sorry if people were offended by this”.
Sounds like the “Emma Stone defence” for the Aloha flop.
Here’s the thing – anybody who has a passing knowledge of the Peter Pan story knows that Tiger Lilly is a Native American or indigenous character. Did she not do 5 minutes of Google when she landed the part? Allegedly actors do “research” for roles. Did she genuinely not know anything about this character beforehand? She seems like she really genuinely is pleading ignorance of the character.
And here’s the thing – it’s not like other characters where the race is kind of ambiguous and a white person could fit the role. Tiger Lilly is clearly indigenous – the source material describes her as such. She has a definite racial background. That’s the part I don’t get. To cast a white woman is a direct violation of the character, so I’m surprised that she didn’t anticipate any backlash.
Weird to admit but as someone who fell in love with J.M. Barrie as a historical figure at a young age I was really in love with Tiger Lily and her depiction in the books. All the girls had a surprising amount of depth to Peter’s clueless, once reason I always thought the use of ‘Peter Pan Complex’ to describe men who refuse to grow up was because of the degree of his obliviousness in the books compared to the girls.
I wonder what the hell everyone was thinking when this part was cast with a white girl. I also think it’s weird that Rooney decided to do a big budget film like this in the first place. She clearly doesn’t care for the spotlight as she basically drops out of sight unless she has a film out, and most of her other films are high end indies.
The director said he thought it was OK to cast Mara even though she is not the same race as the character because the character is being shown this time as a strong woman. Apparently Native American actresses are not capable of playing strong female roles even though they come from long generations of strong women. Yep.
That’s even worse.
Girl with the dragon tattoo was a big budget film. She does them often.
Which apparently is dead in the water, wonder what happened there? I thought it was considered a success.
It was an okay success, but not the runaway that it needed to be.
@The Eternal Side Eye
It did well for a dramatic movie (it wasn’t a flop, it made money back), but not enough to launch a franchise. I don’t think a franchise like that would work, tbh. Franchises are generally aimed towards younger people because they are a very loyal market. The fact TGWTDT did well was no warrant a second part would be equally succesful.
Thanks for answering me Josefa! I didn’t rally follow the series but I did know they were attempting to launch the franchise and when the film did well I assumed it was all set up.
Yeah, “I feel really bad” is hardly a good enough justification for taking the role. I think she knows it is a shitty situation and there’s no way to argue out of it, so she might as well take the hit and give some sort of vague penitential reply like “I feel really bad.” She can’t really do or say much at this point to remedy the situation without throwing her director, scriptwriter, herself, etc under the bus.
She can’t have felt that bad or she never would have taken the role.
This was a chance for them to hire a native American actress but instead they chose to change the character from the Native American princess we know, to a white “warrior princess” who’s ethnicity doesn’t matter because–of course, she’s white, so not necessary! That’s privilege, that’s white privilege, to be able to whitewash a character by changing it and claiming that “in the original books tiger lily was not native American” but they knew that we all know tiger lily as native from the peter pan movies.
They would never, I repeat, never make Wendy native American or non white, not a chance.
They are SO protective of their white characters but think nothing of whitewashing their movies, even historical movies which is crazy! I am sure she felt Oh so bad but what she really should feel bad about is the ridiculous costume they made her wear….I don’t think a lot of white people understand how ridiculous it looks. As much as I love Elizabeth Taylor, she looked ridiculous in the cleopatra costume, she looked like someone dressing up for halloween at their office party.
A lot of people lack self awareness unfortunately…Anyway, hope it bombs like exodus and last airbender.
Cleopatra got some wiggle room because the actual Cleopatra was of primarily white Greek and Macedonian ancestry. She was not ethnically Egyptian. She was likely darker than Taylor, given her Mediterranean ancestry, but she was not black or Middle Eastern, as some people allege. She was actually white (primarily; there’s some argument she might have had partial Egyptian ancestry, but that’s unknown). The costumes were garish, but not because of a racial issue.
And in the original play, it’s true that the tribe Tiger Lilly is a part of is never really specified. However, the play makes clear that her tribe is not “civilized” like Wendy and her family are. They speak in a stilted, guttural language and have customs that are pretty clearly drawn from Native Americans. Even if there is an argument that they are not NAs, they are clearly not white, which is part of the issue.
Cleopatra’s mother is said to be Ethiopian which is black and there are still doubts if her father had macedonian heritage, in any case I doubt she had ivory skin and violet eyes. How many white people today have violet eyes? And what’s even more interesting that these “finds” keep changing to suit agendas, now people are trying to say nefertiti is white as well. It’s exhausting to keep getting historical figures whitewashed. They do it with black celebrites even today! Vanessa Williams with her light skin and blue eyes took a dna test and she had NO white ancestry. Iman has spoken about this, about how white people want to claim her because she is beautiful to them so they want to take credit for her beauty, it’s ridiculous but that’s what many do, as pathetic as it seems to us, it’s something that happens all too frequently.
Btw, I thought the costumes were fine, they just looked ridiculous on her and they would look equally ridiculous on Angelina J or any white actress of european ancestry. That’s my opinion and I am not trying to convince or argue with anyone about it.
No reputable historian believes that Cleopatra’s mother was Ethiopian. The most favored candidate for her mother is Cleopatra V Tryphanea, who was a relation (cousin and/or sister) of Ptolemy XII, who was of confirmed Greek and Macedonian descent. The Ethiopian allegations are generally understood to be myth. One of my cousins is an Egyptologist and he loves pointing out that that is a myth. All the best evidence indicates that Cleopatra and the rest of the Ptolemic line were of majority (if not total) Caucasian descent.
That’s not what I’ve read or heard and I actually read that the whole cousin/sister relation is myth and that her line would never have survived by inbreeding that long and she would have been severely handicapped in some way.
hmph, really? I have never heard any historian say that Cleopatra’s lineage is not accurate. The only thing that has been deputed has been her mother but the Ethiopian mother is just a myth the way I herd it too. Her mother has been speculated to have been a sister/cousin based on who the other mothers of the monarchs have been but no real evidence at all who her mother was. And also to consider is that the Makedonians back in her time were much whiter and had lighter hair than the people currently living in the area. Violet eyes are of course unlikely, but based on the requirement Taylor could not have played any real people.
Yes, really. I don’t know why this is so offensive to some people…None of us were there, and I really dislike the arrogance of thinking one knows everything when no one has yet to accurately find out her mothers ancestry but it seems to matter to a lot of people which is why I now regret even mentioning it. I expect the same thing to happen with nefertiti any day now, even though she actually was Ethiopian.
I also find it strange how people are quick to yell “myth” when no one has actually verified if it is true or not, the whole cousin/sister thing is a theory, not fact.
And about the macedonians, I heard the opposite, that they were actually much darker back then. Sigh, people will always side with what they feel suits their agenda.
I have no dog in this fight and really could not care less about Cleo but she was part of a much bigger point I was making about whitewashing that no one bothered to reply to and all the focus became Cleopatra, sigh. Just proves my point even further.
I didn’t respond to any other point because there wasn’t much point to be had. You’re just pointing out whitewashing, something that almost everybody else here noticed just as quick.
I was pointing out that the Cleopatra movie was technically NOT an example of whitewashing because all the best historical evidence is that Cleopatra the woman was in fact, Caucasian. So Taylor playing her might not be your cup of tea, but it wasn’t whitewashing. A better example would be the Passion of the Christ or almost any other film that depicts Jesus – he’s almost always played by a white man, when in fact he was Middle Eastern/Arab. That’s whitewashing, but since that’s a man, it must have skipped your mind.
The question is not if Macedonians/Greeks were darker years ago. Most evidence indicates that Europeans as whole were darker centuries ago. But they were certainly Caucasians. Dark skin doesn’t make one a person of color – origin does.
(Also, just fyi: There’s no good evidence Nefertiti was Ethiopian either. The name appears so often and constantly in the literature that it’s often speculated that it was held by multiple people. In reality, very, very little is actually known about any of them.)
And you know exactly what Jesus Christ looked like, do you? By your logic he very well could’ve been a white man, arabs are after all recognized today as ‘white’ even though that label has been fluid to suit politics. The irish, italians, jews etc were not always ‘white’ after all.
Again, Cleopatra’s mother’s race and ethnic background has not been verified. Your theory about incest, is just that, a theory. Until it has been proven as fact, you and your “Egyptologist cousin” know nothing more than the rest of us.
Dark skin doesn’t make one NOT caucasian you say, ever thought about the opposite or does that only go one way? Lighter skin does not necessarily mean caucasian either.
Nefertiti is by all accounts Ethiopian and plenty of reputable historians have said as much.
“In reality, very, very little is actually known about any of them.” Yet you seem so sure of all of them. Interesting.
You. Said. EVERYTHING.
*throws flowers at you*
That dress is the worst. It cuts her in thirds and makes her look 4 feet tall with a giant head.
ButI love the street outfit.
The movie is apparently crap anyway so I doubt this conversation will last long. At least if I did some yoga I could stretch far enough to see the reason Emma Stone took her role. But this? How out of touch would you have to be not to see this coming?
Don’t you remember the Sony leaks? Amy Pascal was dodging her……..she kept emailing her, asking Amy about the Dragon Tattoo sequels, because she said people kept asking her if it was on/off, and she didn’t know what to say. Amy was shoveling BS to her.
I guess it’s progress that someone actually admitted to playing a white washed character, instead of ignoring it…….??? But she sounds like the clueless rich white girl that she is. I think her need for a HIT went over her feelings. But let’s also be real……it’s not the actor’s/actresses fault that they’re offered these parts. More than likely it would’ve gone to some other white actress, if Rooney had said no. It’s the studios/producers faults. This is why we can never let go of pushing for more diversity. If a Native American person can’t even get hired for what is STILL a stereotypical role i.e. “Indian Princess”…….then wtf are we supposed to do?
Yeah, I like that she acknowledges the problem instead of going the Christian Bale route saying it’s all irrelevant. And I don’t blame her for taking the role, anyway. As you said, if she had refused it would’ve most likely gone to another white woman.
“More than likely it would’ve gone to some other white actress, if Rooney had said no. It’s the studios/producers faults”
That’s true it’s the producers fault for allowing the casting to go through, but the problem is Rooney and Emma Stone have turned down plenty of other parts in the past. No one held a gun to their heads telling them to take roles meant for Asian and Native American actresses. They have choices of other film roles probably making the same money or with directors of equal talent so I don’t think they are blameless either. Contributing to whitewashing makes you an accomplice.
This used to be OK remember to have White actors dress in Black face. Rooney and Emma would never have agreed to take roles meant for Black actresses because they know the Black AND White community will drag them to hell. The took roles meant for Asian and Native American characters because they KNOW the voices for those communities are still not strong enough to endanger their career in Hollywood. That is the part that really rubs me the wrong way. They don’t care about the protests of groups they consider as having even less visibility than AA and Hispanics.
“No one held a gun to their heads telling them to take roles meant for Asian and Native American actresses. They have choices of other film roles probably making the same money or with directors of equal talent so I don’t think they are blameless either.”
This is a good point. But I do think they end up bearing the brunt of the blame by everyone when it shouldn’t be that way at all. They’re not blameless, but I wish people crapped on the studio a lot more for this kind of crap.
Acknowledging that it’s offensive doesn’t absolve her, though.
Tiger Lily was the construct of a 19th century Scotsman who never met a Native American in his life and any NA actress worthy of the name would have tossed the script in the circular file – the character is a minor one and bears no resemblance to any NA woman who ever lived. Meanwhile, if a black actor can play Hamlet, a medieval Danish prince who was as likely to be black as I am to marry Prince Harry, and a black actress can play Ophelia, as one is doing now at the Barbican opposite Cumberbatch, also as likely to be black as I am to marry Prince Harry, or a historical and verifiably white king of England (e.g., Henry V, as Adrian Lester did), or the historical and white Duke of York, the highest ranking Englishman to die at the battle of Agincourt (Patterson Joseph), I fail to see what the fuss was about casting Mara as a ridiculously inauthentic, minor character in a film that by the sound of it has massacred the soul of this enchanting work, with its poignant themes of the cost of maturity: losing the Zen sense of unself-consciousness and authenticity that Pan embodied, and treating it as a cheap adventure story and using words like “badass” and “empowering” to describe Tiger Lily.
Speak for yourself! I’m partial NA and I’d LOVE to see a Native actress take the Tiger Lilly character and play her as a strong, competent woman with care taken to show Native Americans accurately. You do know that the movie does not need to stay 100% true to the source material, right? Like, that’s a thing you can do now?
Seriously! There’s got to be some middle ground between red-feathered, racist caricatures and THIS, where they’ve sprinkled in just enough cliches to indicate that she’s meant to be some type of indigenous person. http://i2.wp.com/popinsomniacs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pan-tiger-lily.jpg?resize=800%2C445 Hence the day-glo feathers, the Micheal’s craft’s explosion headdress and the double-bladed tomahawk http://www.hdwallpapers.in/walls/rooney_mara_tiger_lily_pan-wide.jpg And she’s clearly not a minor character in this version either. Which doubles the pain, and makes this just another typical Exodus-esque film with a multi-racial cast in general and ALL white lead actors. (Actually, that middle ground is in the movie Hook, where Spielberg completely ignored the issue, kinda’ combined the Natives with the Lost Boys and cast a United Colors of Benetton ad to play them.) If Wright was so concerned about it, he could’ve started by consulting with people whose expertise is the depiction of NA in the media. Cast NA actors and just ask them how they’d like to be depicted in a way that’s applicable to the Pan setting. It’s not rocket science! It’s not an impossible task. It is a huge opportunity lost though.
OMG, have you read the original book?! It is TOTALLY a red-feathered caricature of a NA! And I say this as someone who still cries when she looks back into the book. It is so totally of its time and place . . . and that said, no one, anywhere, every does justice to the soul of this book – they just turn it into another adventure story and totally miss the irony, charm, and poignancy that made it the classic it is in the first place. If I could, I’d put a moratorium on anyone ever again trying to film it. Even Walt Disney said he’d missed the “heart and soul” of the book when his cartoon version was done in the 1950s.
The Pan setting is early Edwardian Britain. Pan gets to Neverland by falling out of his pram in Kensington Gardens because his starchy nurse (read: upper class English boy) starts gossiping with the other nursies and doesn’t see him fall out. The fairies who haunt the Gardens take him to Neverland – that’s why the Peter Pan statue is in Kensington Gardens.
It is so utterly of its time and place, and this was so not worth the uproar. If Elba can be considered for Bond and Adrian Lester play a historical white King of England and a black actress play Ophelia, I really see the fracas over Tiger Lily as way out of proportion.
I say leave Peter Pan the eff alone – all these directors and writers do is rape the original material, anyway. There is no way to portray NAs in a way applicable to Peter Pan because he is totally and completely a product of the imagination of a man born in the Victorian era and writing this in the early Edwardian one. It’s not as if the Darling family, who have a bloody Newfoundland dog in a frilled white cap named Nana as their nurse, are in the realm of reality, either!
In that case, I fail to see why any black actor should play Henry V. Why is historical accuracy so light a matter for Henry V but not for an idiotic role like Tiger Lily or a character like 007, who was clearly the alter ego of the man who created him, and who actually was a British spy?!
Would it have been so difficult to hire NA writers?
Except how often are Native Americans showcased whether positively or negatively? It’s not like this movie was going to be a word for word depiction, it’s already off the rails of the origin story. They could have kept the character as she was and also made her a ‘strong’ woman. Two examples hardly make any kind of trend.
Furthermore regardless of whether he met one or not Tiger Lily and the Indians were written quite favorably in the original book. This was not a character who sat around grunting and drooling.
A Native American actress did want the part; Kawennahere Devery Jacobs wanted the part and was turned down because they decided to white wash the part. Since they were willing to go through the trouble of white washing Tiger Lily they certainly could have been troubled enough to create a more 2015 depiction of Natives; but they didn’t want to, they just decided again to pander to the white demographic as Hollywood always does.
I can’t believe there are so few NA actresses. Heck, they managed to get an actual woman of Native descent for the Night at the Museum series (I believe she is mixed of several racial backgrounds, but she is Native). I’m not saying they needed to stick to “pure Native” (since at this point, a majority of Native American people have mixed racial ancestry), but the fact that they simply decided to make Tiger Lilly white is just so tone deaf. Even a person of mixed ancestry would have carried it better.
I prefer ‘Hook’ anyway, that one was magical and the awful early 2000s Peter Pan movie could not compare and I doubt this one will either.
I thought Hook was awful. I just wish Hollywood would leave certain classics alone – some things just don’t translate well to the screen, and this is particularly true of that set of children’s classics that emerged in Britain between 1850-1910. No one has ever done Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “A Little Princess” or “The Secret Garden” justice, either. They do better with Stevenson’s stuff, like “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped” but they tend to fail utterly with Pan, Nesbit’s work, Burnett’s work, and I don’t think anyone has attempted MacDonald’s stuff, thankfully . . . I don’t know why. Something unique to the time and place just escapes.
You all know, right, that Barrie left the royalties for “Peter Pan” (it’s called the “Peter Pan Bequest”) bequest to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital?
For me, the question is, ‘can the character ever be respectfully reinvented, or is it so inherently racist that dropping the character altogether is necessary?’ On the one hand, the presence of Native Americans in the various Peter Pan iterations has most often, and from the very start, been inherently racist, right down to the name of the ‘tribe’, “Piccaninny,” which is a racist epithet for black children. If you read that 2014 article in The Guardian, you’ll see the various ways more recent productions have dealt with that. Spielberg, for instance, simply dropped the characters from Hook. Wright chose a middle ground between the two options. By reinventing the ‘tribe’ and Tiger Lily the way Wright did (i.e. ‘any community of diverse people stranded in Neverland might eventually form their own distinct culture’), he reduces the racist undertones of the story, but he also disappears the Native American visibility.
Well, yeah, but couldn’t they simply solve that by turning the tribe into a more respectful depiction of NAs? They already turned the characters white, so it’s not like they HAVE to depict the characters like they were in the book.
Well speaking for myself only, I feel that no matter how accurate to ‘real life’ a depiction of a First Nations group may be in a Peter Pan movie — using an actual language and traditional clothing/etc. that is specific to one nation, for instance — ultimately the place of this fictionalized tribe alongside ticking alligators and flying children and fairies and pirates reinforces the idea that Indigenous people are make-believe, or at the very least existed only in the past. Now I’m not saying that everyone has to agree with me, and I’m not saying that we need to hold out for Accurate Depictions of First Nations first, before we can feature them in fantasy films, but I personally would rather support APTN’s programming — news, docs, and drama, or a show like Arctic Air or Blackstone, for instance, rather than campaign for accuracy in a Peter Pan film.
I feel bad that she and her sister bought their way into Hollywood. They are so bland and they can’t act.
Yup. Their family is very wealthy (Rooney & Mara of football fame). I really don’t care for her and her sister. They also don’t know how to smile.
Well I’m glad the Dragon Tattoo movies is DOA. I mean there’s a perfectly good swedish one. Why the remake? Maybe now she can lose the black and pale get up.
She was perfect for GWTDT,she`s so damn miserable all the time.
Why is she always making Olsen-twin face? When I first heard of her during the Facebook movie, she knew how to smile, her hair was pretty and curly and it looked like she washed it. Ever since Girl with the Dragon Tattoo promotion and press tour, she seems dead set on looking gaunt and miserable. NAGL.
Because she was hoping to film the sequels that’s why. She kept this ugly look for years for a sequel that will never come.
Because she thinks she IS Lisbeth.I also think she`s still obsessed with Fincher which is why she doesn`t want to let go of the role.
Have to admit I was stunned when I saw pics of her before the whole Dragon Tattoo movie and was surprised by how normal she looked. I appreciate an actress staying on theme but it’s a bit ridiculous how she’s suddenly trying to live in this nouveau cool space for a personality that wasn’t hers to begin with.
Wonder if she regrets the nipple piecing?
Charlie McDowell? as in the son of Malcom McDowell and Mary Steenburgen? I did not know he is Rooney’s longtime BF. I feel like I learned something today.
AND I HAD NO IDEA MARY STEENBURGEN WAS MARRIED TO MALCOLM MCDOWELL. I guess we all learned something today!
yep. And he looks a lot like his dad. I’m old enough to remember when MM and MS hooked up. They did a favorite movie of mine–Time After Time. They’re still friendly.
It is so disappointing to see actors making choices that add to a problem not taking responsibility for it. Obviously in their world this isn’t a big deal unless they aren’t white of course.
@sofia, Yes! Thank you! All these little choices contribute to the overall culture…Hollywood is just gross and out of touch, i think we can all keep voting with out pockets and ignore these films until produces, directors and actors move into the 21st century. and the holier than thou political posturing which to me is as bad as politicians–they’re all just protecting their privilege and selling us crap.
just why? why do we need another Peter Pan flick telling the same story, same justifications for white actors, etc etc. We need new narratives, highlight new actors and ways of telling stories. This is really more industrial than art. Same with the Meryl Streep Brit Pankhurst movie…real history had so many more exciting people and movements and possibilities…we get sold the same schlock year after year…over it.
It’s like the problem of young actresses playing roles of older characters. It’s not a problem for them until they get into a certain age and others start “stealing” their roles. I understand that someone who is starting isn’t really in a position to be picky but the ones who can chose shouldn’t well… chose? Maybe we are being unfair bc our perception of the power of some actors may be wrong. But really what did Aloha added to Emma Stone’s career?
And saying that the whitewashing crossed your mind and doing it anyway… That’s just ignoring the issue, feel sorry you got “caught” and doing what’s convenient.
Abolute Truth.
This. That white Privelage rolled with a touch of millionaire is making many actresses choose money over morals. They’ll never know how it is to suffer so they don’t worry about it at night.
Meanwhile the many Native American actors and actresses are struggling to find work. Respectful work and not simply being an extra in an Adam Sandler garbage film.
Someone should make film about an actress from a minority group trying to get ahead in Hollywood. Maybe this is stupid, but seeing someone’s drama from their point of view with all the challenges they face. And add the age factor on top of it. This will never happen though.
@sofia
That sounds like an awesome idea for a script. Maybe we should get Emma Roberts to play the lead character!
Eh, I don’t really think it’s her fault. It’s the responsibility of the people doing the casting to make that choice. She COULD have said no, but would her saying no have solved the problem? Whether or not we would have done the same, I don’t really feel I can fault the woman for accepting a job she was offered. And maybe by casting a white person in this role they are avoiding the whole “white savior” scenario. Is that better or worse? I honestly don’t know.
You may not be part of the solution but you can chose to not be part of the problem.
Furthermore if 2-3 major white actresses turned down the role with their reasons for doing so well know. perhaps that would actually persuade the studios to reconsider their choices.
^THIS^
@tealily: I agree with you. It’s easy to write on web sites like this, how about if we write to the actual movie studios, producers, call the news team and really complain … Only way I see it changing, and if we don’t, can we really judge an actress because she got an acting gig??
I wonder if the race of Tiger Lilly was originally changed to avoid the white-saviour troupe, and then it backfired spectacularly. Hollywood should really know better by now, and it is not that hard to make a character that does not fall in to the noble savage troupe if that is what they were worried. Hollywood most likely did this because there is not hight-profile Native American actresses, but there reason why there is not any is because they do not get any roles like this one.
Granted I know they’re not following the books but save for one scene Tiger Lily (for a minor character) did a lot of fighting on her own. She went into a battle alongside her men and fought them with all her strength, she wasn’t the damsel so it’s not as if they didn’t have a small foundation to work with.
She looks like Loki.
Well theyre not seeing a penny of my money, good luck on their whitewashed character. Since her last film is DOA and her current film is full of controversy she’ll soon find herself with no callbacks if she doesn’t start making smarter choices.
Emma Stone’s career was already in trouble then she did that idiotic film and now she has a ‘stink’ about her. 2015 minority groups speak up and if you think you’ll avoid the discussion by sticking to the same bland vanilla questions the media always asks you’ll watch your film’s entire narrative be mocked relentlessly and that dialogue be changed online.
I do wonder if she’s not getting very many callbacks already and thus felt pressured to take the part.
They do speak up and the pissiness that is returned is a marvel to behold.
Ugh… Neither her nor her sister would be allowed anywhere near a camera if it weren’t for the extreme wealth they were born into. Can we stop with all the unappealing, unwatchable products of nepotism/wealth and hire people with talent? Of all ethnicities please.
I hope this movie sinks at the box office. She felt “bad” but not bad enough to turn it down or speak out. For the record a Native American actress, Kawennahere Devery Jacobs, DID want the part and was turned down because they had decided the character wouldn’t be Native American but instead white washed.
Damn I really like Fincher’s first. I still watch it every winter. I can’t comment on the Swedish versions but the Fincher films were just really beautiful. I felt it did the book justice.
Charlie McDowell used to have a funny website? Twitter? About his neighbors upstairs, does it still exist?
Is she honestly so dumb that she didn’t think people wouldn’t notice or care? Wow. Glad that she’s getting slammed, as she rightfully should be.
“But I totally sympathize with why people were upset and feel really bad about it,” she added.” But do you really? Because it doesn’t sound like you do, chickie. Also, a very, very long time ago, after I’d been hacked, I changed my password to “tigerlily”.
Yeah, that’s all I’ve got to say about this acktrese and her newest role.
She is an actress, this was a job … and what are the odds the powers that be would have hired a Native American to play the part? Are we the public really that naïve to think that if she had not taken the part we would have seen a Native American play it? The trailer looks cool, so I think she saw it as a great opportunity to get exposure, again, it’s a job.
The white/Asian mix race is almost exclusively insecure white men that like little itty bitty submissive Asian women. Don’t believe me? Visit California. White old crusty dude and pretty (for awhile at least) Asian omen of many varieties. So funny to go walking through a national park and see a family of Asians with one lone tall white dude that married one of the women. SO TRANSPARENT.
The director specifically barred Native actors from auditioning, so that was a huge, conscious problem.
While I think it would have been better if the role went to a native American I don’t blame Rooney. She isn’t in acting to fight for the rights of of minorities or make sure a film is ethnically correct she’s in acting to make a living, She was offered a good role and took it.
The chances are that if she’d have turned it down another white actress would have taken it.
I’d like to ask though how can people be so outraged about this casting of a white woman as a native American Princess when just the other day probably a lot of the same people on here were calling for a black man (or a woman) to be cast as a white Scottish spy in the next James Bond film?
P.S Why do people always have to bring Cleopatra into these white washing arguments. Despite this happening every time it takes very little effort to find out that she was almost certainly of Greek Macedonian caucasian decent.
Most likely they were just looking for someone with a certain level of name recognition. It’s a Catch-22 for people in the excluded group, since you have to get roles in order to develop name recognition. But one solution would be independent films written by people in the same category and casting them. Then name recognition develops and it’s more likely that casting directors think of them for other roles not necessarily written for that particular ethnic group. That would be better than waiting around for equality to happen. Things don’t really change spontaneously.
The director in this case would probably have been in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Nobody would be satisfied with the way the part was written. It’s not that deep a script.