You may recall my consternation and slight outrage at Disney for casting some random white boy from their stable of Disney tweeny boppers as Tommy Zhou, originally Chinese American, for their live action movie adaptation of the comic The Weapon. Having read the comic, one of the major themes that is central to Tommy Zhou’s character his struggle to reconcile his Chinese heritage and his American upbringing. He’s a character I can personally relate to which makes it all more irritating to see him get white washed for a movie because Disney doesn’t believe an Asian lead can sell. Angry Zen Minion Nathan Yuen writes to let me know that there’s a letter-writing campaign to attempt to save this movie. Our target, Randy Greenberg, Executive Director of Platinum Studios. Here’s the letter that Racebending sent to Mr. Greenberg:

Platinum Studios, Inc.
11400 West Olympic Blvd, 14th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 807-8100

September 21st, 2009

Dear Mr. Greenberg;

We are a coalition of fans dedicated to monitoring culturally insensitive casting in Hollywood. I am writing to protest the culturally insensitive casting of your film adaptation, “The Weapon.” It is our hope that Platinum Studios reconsiders the casting of David Henrie to portray Tommy Zhou.

We would gladly publicize and support a film that both accurately depicts the character of Tommy Zhou and brings new minority talent to the forefront. If your studio is interested in making a film with Mr. Henrie, Platinum Studios can still do so—without using discriminatory casting practices that will draw public scrutiny. Cast him in a role that does not require him to participate in the modern-day equivalent of “yellowface.”

But if the intent is to create a live-action film adaptation of The Weapon, we are respectfully asking that your studio please have the decency to cast an Asian American actor to portray Tommy Zhou’s story. We are prepared to protest the casting of this film alongside other advocacy groups if your studio decides to move forward with this casting decision, though we hope you will reconsider.

One of Platinum Studios’s core value is social responsibility, yet your film has taken an Asian American lead character and cast him as white. Denying actors of color the role of a lead character of color in this film - even going so far as to downplay the significance and change the ethnicity of a clearly Asian American character - is not socially responsible. You are sending the message that a white actors are more entitled and qualified to portray an Asian American hero, than Asian American actors are.

Employing this kind of discriminatory casting will negatively impact your studio’s reputation, when The Weapon should be a film that popularizes Platinum Studios and brings new fans to your properties. Casting an Asian American to depict Tommy Zhou is more conducive to The Weapon’s long-term economic prospects and legacy, as films with culturally insensitive casting are falling out of public favor. The casting of actor David Henrie to play Asian American character Tommy Zhou is discriminatory against Asian American actors, and offensive to viewers of all ethnicities.

I look forward to continuing a dialogue with you on this matter and am confident that we can find common ground, especially given Platinum Studios’s dedication to social responsibility.

Sincerely,

Marissa Lee
Coordinator
mlee@racebending.com
www.racebending.com

I will be drafting a letter of my own and sending it through the snail mail. If you are angered over this issue and wish to voice your opinion, you can send a letter to the posted address or fill Mr. Greenberg’s email inbox at the following addy’s:

Randy.Greenberg@platinumstudios.com
info@platinumstudios.com
investors@platinumstudios.com

I don’t know how effective these letter-writing campaigns are. They didn’t seem to change anyone’s mind regarding Airbender. But if the Greenbergs of the world never hear about how much this disappoints us, they’ll never know. Write if you care. Let’s see if we can fix this.

Source: Angry Asian Man

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under Movies, Chop Socky, Comic Book Flicks, Action, Dumb Ass, Diversity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.