Why are Indian actors being cast in Aladdin?

[Anonymous]

http://www.justjaredjr.com/2017/07/14/avan-jogia-could-actually-play-aladdin-in-disneys-live-action-movie/

Aladdin is obviously Middle Eastern. The fictional city is set in Agrabah which is inspired by Iraq according to Disney.

Why then are Indian actors being considered? The casting call also requested "Indian or Middle Eastern" people. Come on people, it is not the same thing!

[Anonymous]

My half-Bangladeshi-half white cousin is routinely cast as Arab and Hispanic characters. Its not unique to this movie. (Not defending the practice, just saying it's common.)

[Anonymous]

Close enough. It would be like interchanging actors from southern Spain and southern Italy. The general public wouldn't know nor care.

[Anonymous]

South Asians, Persians and Arabs are distinctly different people with different cultures religions and physical features.

Indians do NOT look Arab. Arabs would be very insulted by that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My half-Bangladeshi-half white cousin is routinely cast as Arab and Hispanic characters. Its not unique to this movie. (Not defending the practice, just saying it's common.)

+1. You see it with East Asians a ton (Chinese actors cast as Japanese characters, Koreans cast as Chinese, etc). And people of color that are a) not Hispanic and b) not Black and c) not East Asian often get lumped into one big pool and cast for roles that have nothing to do with their ethnicity, the casting folks are just looking for someone brown.

One exception seems to be that roles that are about people of Indian descent get played by people of Indian descent with more frequency.

[Anonymous]

The internet is clapping back on this so it'll be interesting to see what happens. White people keep getting cast for historically Asian characters. Hollywood, liberal as it sometimes seems, ain't woke.

[Anonymous]

Because they look alike. Why is this even a question OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South Asians, Persians and Arabs are distinctly different people with different cultures religions and physical features.

Indians do NOT look Arab. Arabs would be very insulted by that.

Unfortunately, to the average white person in America, they do look alike and that's all that casting directors care about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they look alike. Why is this even a question OP?

They don't really. Fine if you aren't aware of this, but don't question it when somebody tells you it's wrong.

[Anonymous]

Hey, it's better than the alternative of a white person being cast.

-brown person

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they look alike. Why is this even a question OP?

They don't really. Fine if you aren't aware of this, but don't question it when somebody tells you it's wrong.

Not to you maybe but for the people who pay money to watch the movie, there's no difference. It's not like casting white dude to play Asian character.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Agreed. It should be middle eastern men

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South Asians, Persians and Arabs are distinctly different people with different cultures religions and physical features.

Indians do NOT look Arab. Arabs would be very insulted by that.

Arabs do NOT look Indian. Indians would be insulted by that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey, it's better than the alternative of a white person being cast.

-brown person

+1 was thinking the same thing.

Plus, some of the ME countries are on the travel ban. If they are filming in the US, they couldn't do it.