Reply to Why are Indian actors being cast in Aladdin?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is it. I am done.

Aladdin is a famous tale from the Middle East. Casting an Indian kid in the biggest Western backed retelling of this classic Muslim tale is a slap in the face of the thousands of Muslims worldwide. It was such a pivotal moment in pop culture history, to have this movie be made now with the geopolitical context of today. An Arab-American actor in the lead was not bring authenticity and understanding to this classic tale of a poor muslim boy who encounters a Jinn but also send a powerful message in cultural diplomacy by having a positive image of a Muslim in pop-culture.

I am appalled and deeply saddened. We are not even allowed to tell our own tales![/quote]

Apparently they had a really hard time finding a middle eastern actor to fill the role, so maybe you should be blaming your people for not stepping up to the plate.[/quote]
Nope. You can't blame ME actors "not stepping up" for Hollywood's trend of whitewashed casting.

You can't blame Asian actors "not stepped by up" for Scarlett Johansson being cast in Ghost in the Shell, or the whole cast in Avatar: the Last Airbender.

You can't blame Latin actors "not showing up" for Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Winona Ryder in The House of the Spirits.

Efforts need to be made. [/quote]

But Aladin is a very specific style of Broadway musical theater.  The singing is not pop and not middle eastern. It is big, showstopping show tunes.

I was involved in musical theater growing up and have a teen who is very involved in musical theater. It just doesn't seem like musical theater is a style of acting and singing that middle easter males pursue.

Is is possible that the talent pool is just not there at this caliber in musical theater style acting and singing?

And besides OP, the dude is Egyptian. Is a coptic Christian from Egyptian ancestry not middle eastern enough? Sounds like religious bias and discrimination from you.[/quote]
PP. I'm a theatre person too. One who's been involved in the conversations about whitewashing and representations in theatre productions. It's a cop-out to say that there aren't actors of [fill in the race] out there. It is. They found an Egyptian actor to play Aladdin--awesome! Surely, he wasn't the only possibility out there.

Brown skin isn't all the same. This is an issue of representation: if a major and well-respected studio casts Indian actors as Middle Eastern characters, it's showing America, and the greater world of viewing audience, that "they're" all the same. And that, in fact, maybe "they" couldn't or shouldn't be on screen. That's not ok. [/quote]

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