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Whitewashing Controversies in Modern Cinema

Whitewashing Controversies in Modern Cinema

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Courtesy of United Artists

Marlon Brando: "Viva Zapata!" (1952)

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Burt Lancaster: "Apache" (1954)

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Marlon Brando: "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1956)

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Yul Brynner: "The King and I" (1956)

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Ricardo Montalban: "Sayonara" (1957)

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Charlton Heston: "Touch of Evil" (1958)

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Curd Jürgens (Curt Jurgens): "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" (1958)

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Natalie Wood: "West Side Story" (1961)

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Mickey Rooney: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961)

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Joseph Wiseman: "Dr. No" (1962)

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José Ferrer: "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

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Alec Guinness: "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

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Anthony Quinn: "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

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Elizabeth Taylor: "Cleopatra" (1963)

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Laurence Olivier: "Othello" (1965)

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Elvis Presley: "Stay Away, Joe" (1968)

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Peter Sellers: "The Party" (1968)

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Jack Palance: "Che" (1969)

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John Gielgud: "Lost Horizon" (1973)

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Max von Sydow: "Flash Gordon" (1980)

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Joel Grey: "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" (1985)

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Alfred Molina: "Not Without My Daughter" (1991)

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Winona Ryder: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)

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Jeremy Irons: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)

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Glenn Close: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)

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Meryl Streep: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)

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Al Pacino: "Carlito's Way" (1993)

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Madonna: "Evita" (1996)

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Anthony Hopkins: "The Mask of Zorro" (1998)

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Jake Gyllenhaal: "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010)

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Antonio Banderas: "Black Gold" (2011)

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Johnny Depp: "The Lone Ranger" (2013)

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Rooney Mara: "Pan" (2015)

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Emma Stone: "Aloha" (2015)

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Marlon Brando: "Viva Zapata!" (1952)
Burt Lancaster: "Apache" (1954)
Marlon Brando: "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1956)
Yul Brynner: "The King and I" (1956)
Ricardo Montalban: "Sayonara" (1957)
Charlton Heston: "Touch of Evil" (1958)
Curd Jürgens (Curt Jurgens): "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" (1958)
Natalie Wood: "West Side Story" (1961)
Mickey Rooney: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961)
Joseph Wiseman: "Dr. No" (1962)
José Ferrer: "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)
Alec Guinness: "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)
Anthony Quinn: "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)
Elizabeth Taylor: "Cleopatra" (1963)
Laurence Olivier: "Othello" (1965)
Elvis Presley: "Stay Away, Joe" (1968)
Peter Sellers: "The Party" (1968)
Jack Palance: "Che" (1969)
John Gielgud: "Lost Horizon" (1973)
Max von Sydow: "Flash Gordon" (1980)
Joel Grey: "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" (1985)
Alfred Molina: "Not Without My Daughter" (1991)
Winona Ryder: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)
Jeremy Irons: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)
Glenn Close: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)
Meryl Streep: "The House of the Spirits" (1993)
Al Pacino: "Carlito's Way" (1993)
Madonna: "Evita" (1996)
Anthony Hopkins: "The Mask of Zorro" (1998)
Jake Gyllenhaal: "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010)
Mark Strong: "Black Gold" (2011)
Antonio Banderas: "Black Gold" (2011)
Johnny Depp: "The Lone Ranger" (2013)
Rooney Mara: "Pan" (2015)
Emma Stone: "Aloha" (2015)

The film industry began more than 100 years ago, during a time when restrictions on who could be hired in starring roles were limited. Although racial discrimination still exists today, it was rampant in the early 20th century, and as a way to accommodate certain films that called for the leads to be persons of color, studios employed other methods and techniques that were inappropriate by today's standards but were indicative of the time.

While there were certain roles open to persons of color, the first movie starring a black man in the lead was the 1914 film, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the MGM musical, "Hallelujah" featured an all-black cast, but overall, it wasn't a widely accepted, or frequently used, practice. This is where whitewashing came in, a method where characters who were one race in the source material (usually a novel) were converted into those who could be played by white actors (also known as "racebending") and, perhaps even more offensive, the casting of white performers as Black, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, or other characters of color.

Whitewashing has many different scenarios of which the most common, and most prevalent, was Blackface which eventually gave way to yellowface. While the use of this method is thankfully on the decline, in Hollywood the practice of casting white actors in non-white roles is still fairly common. Some of the more recent examples can be found in the 2017 film "Ghost in the Shell," where Scarlett Johanssen plays the Japanese protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi, and the 2016 film, "Doctor Strange," which saw Tilda Swinton play a Tibetan man.

Other great examples of whitewashing can be seen in the movie, "21" (2008), a true story about Asian-Americans who used card counting to win at Black Jack in Las Vegas casinos. It was recast to make the card counters white, and again in "Hud" (1963), where Patricia Neal was cast as a white ranch housekeeper named Alma, rather than keeping the Black housekeeper named Halmea from the novel on which the film was based. Both practices, whether whitewashing or racebending, stem from the perception on the part of directors and studio executives that audiences wouldn't be interested in films starring non-white people that aren't known.

This is a practice that countless films have employed, and dates back to the silent film era when American actor Lon Chaney played a Chinese elder in 1927's "Mr. Wu." At the same time, the career of American actor Espera Oscar de Corti, who was of Italian descent, reinvented himself as a Native American named Iron Eyes Cody, launching a 60-year career playing movie and TV Indians, of which his most notable role was as Chief Iron Eyes in Bob Hope's "The Paleface".

To assemble a list of famous instances of whitewashing in contemporary cinema, 24/7 Tempo consulted numerous articles on the subject in publications including The Huffington Post, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, and other sites, as well as using editorial knowledge of film casting through the years. This list is only comprised of films in the latter part of the 21st century and doesn't showcase movies made before 1950 that used this practice, although there are probably hundreds, if not more, of examples of whitewashing throughout movie history. (These are character roles that have garnered the most Oscar nominations.)

Here are famous instances of whitewashing in contemporary cinema:

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