Air Bender!

[DWx]

TBH though, how different is this from English actors playing American characters or vice-versa? Or any other actor, black, white, Asian, whatever playing a character that is from somewhere different to their own culture?Plenty of them do it.

My annoyance and distraction is more about my own perception. They didn't look nor sound Japanese to me, even when speaking English with a Japanese accent, or at least trying to. Then again, maybe I was fooled by my own expectations, knowing that they were Chinese. I don't remember particularly liking the movie, but I don't think the casting was a big part of that.

And you're right. Many actors play characters from other cultures, and if they do it well, it's fine. I think Hugh Laurie on House plays an American very well, but haven't we all heard actors do bad Southern accents, or Brooklyn, or whatever. If Sir Anthony Hopkins were cast as Scarface, Tony Montana, it would take some serious acting and makeup to make it believable.

Back on topic, assuming the lead characters in Air Bender were supposed to be from an Asian culture, I think using Asian actors would make it feel more real. Then again, it's a fantasy world! People can look however the creator wants. Well, when it comes to a movie, maybe the creator isn't the one in control.

In any case, the movie was made the way someone wanted it to be. If they're right, and it makes more money this way, that's fine. If they're wrong, and it would've been better with Asian actors, I hope they learn this. I don't agree that people need to protest this movie, but if enough others do, their voices should be heard.

Oh I totally agree that the actor has to be able to pull it off well first and foremost. Hugh Laurie's normal accent is about as English as you can get, if you've ever watched Jeeves and Wooster or any of his over stuff with Stephen Fry its pretty impressive how he manages such a convincing American accent. On the other side Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond is one that really annoys me; his South African accent is awful and really spoilt that film for me.

Maybe its because I'm not tuned in that much to the differences in the Japanese and Chinese accents that it didn't bother me all that much. Or that I watch far more Chinese films that Japanese films/shows so the Chinese accent is something I'm more used to on films.

In any case I think that that is a reason for specifically casting actors who aren't necessarily from the same culture as the character they are portraying. If you cast primarily on where the person is from or where they grew up you've limited your pool of talented actors to use. Ok so there may be some awesome Japanese actors out there but you can't deny that Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi are talented and IMO played the characters well.

The main difference is opportunity. I don't care about general Hollywood movies. If they want John Cho to play general Asian guy number 4 in the next Fast and the Furious movie, so be it. It's when they waste golden opportunities to actually do something relevant culturally that I get annoyed. Letters from Iwo Jima was a great movie, and I think if it had been done in English with a mix of generally East Asian actors it would have detracted from the film. I think Memoirs of a Geisha would have been better than it was, if it was done in Japanese. US studios have the pool of actors available to them to pull it off. This isn't the 60s, and we don't need any more Mickey Rooney "Breakfast at Tiffany's" moments. That's why Harold and Kumar was actually a culturally significant, and in a way, groundbreaking movie.

Isn't this a general Hollywood movie though? at least based on how much they've spent making it and how well they expect it to do at the Box office.

And I agree Memoirs of a Geisha would have been better in Japanese throughout. First time I watched it I was pretty surprised when it swapped to English 10 mins in.

I don't know but maybe for Avatar they thought that having the different actors and a whole host of different cultures would make it appeal to more people because they can relate to it. I think if they'd had a whole Asian cast it might have been more of niche film that only fans of the series or fans of Asian cinema would be interested in seeing. As it is most people I know aren't all that interested in foreign culturally rich films (they're also , they want big explosions and Hollywood action. Maybe I'm completely wrong about the reasons why but I think that this cast will make it more accessible to your average movie-goer and ultimately bring in more money.