Star Wars actor defends race-swapping characters to be more 'inclusive' from people who get 'butthurt'
Star Wars actor defends race-swapping characters to be more 'inclusive' from people who get 'butthurt'
Pascal called for opening roles so that they can be cast by actors of different racial or gender identities than how the character was originally portrayed.
Pascal called for opening roles so that they can be cast by actors of different racial or gender identities than how the character was originally portrayed.
Having literally just black and beige white people isn't really diversity, and having white characters in stories and universes concieved of by white people seems to me like missing the point.
When I was growing up, there were lots of original stories with black people in them. There were cartoons, movies, variety shows, dramas, comedies, all about black neighborhoods and black families. There were superstar black actors who played black characters with regularity.
Compare today where instead of taking chances on letting people tell their own stories, the only way you can "include" minorities is to dip a white character in different strengths of tea and coffee.
I don't like it. I'm curious about the world, I want to hear music from all eras from around the world. I want to hear stories from all eras and all around the world. I want to understand how all different kinds of people think and see their values and understand how they push up against those values in the real world. Instead, we get a monoculture. Southern California and everything else is verboten.
Sure, race swapping characters isn't how we get the diverse stories we want but at the same time, there's also just diversity in appearance. I've got no problem with a black professor X, Luke Skywalker,, Picard, Batman or whomever else. Let black, asian or whomever else have a classic hero they can see themselves as. Does it change my previous or current experience? Nope. I can't imagine being so fragile as to whine or care "but the imaginary space captain I grew up with was white so if they make him black, the franchise is broken!"
Tl;dr: Yes, we need more diversity in storytelling/experience but diversity in appearance, especially in our remake/reboot obsessed culture does zero harm and possibly some good.
There should be new heroes, I have a problem just changing existing ones the same way I’d have an issue if Blade, Storm or Falcon were suddenly race swapped. Someone like Miles Morales is a perfect example on an original character that is still Spider-Man. Ironheart is another good example.
It just feels creatively lazy and frankly pandering to keep changing characters for no other reason than to make even more diversity. It makes it seems like new heroes can’t be invented when audiences know this isn’t the case.