To start, I want to be clear I have zero issues with the characters Aaron Pierre has played. He’s a talented actor and from the interviews I’ve seen a wonderful person.
Aaron Pierre, per Wikipedia, was born in London. His mother is from Jamaica, and he has Curaçaoan and Sierra Leonean heritage on his father’s side.
His acting history includes playing Malcolm X and in the case of Lanterns John Stewart who’s character history and in the show Lanterns deals with being a black American. Aaron Pierre is not a black American, should a black American have played those roles? A black American and a black Briton are both black and both minorities, but they’re not interchangeable.
To extend further, can someone who is Chinese play a Japanese character, or a Korean character because they’re all Asian?
To bring everything full circle, Hank Azaria was born in Queens, NYC. Per Wikipedia, “his paternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews from Salonika and Smyrna. His paternal grandfather… came from Salonika which was then in the Ottoman Empire, today the Greek city of Thessaloniki in Greek Macedonia. His paternal grandmother… was born in Bergama, modern-day Turkey (Izmir Province).”
Hank Azaria previously voiced Apu, Carl, Lou, Bumblebee Man, & Doctor Nick. Hank Azaria continues to voice Italian characters Luigi, Legs and Johnny Tightlips. Hank Azaria is not Italian. Should he continue to voice those characters?
Voice actors and traditional actors can and do play a wide variety of roles. I think expanding who has access to roles is a positive thing. At the same time I think we should give actors the freedom to act, even if they don’t “fit” the role.
It’s not difficult at all to find a happy middle ground from Euro style racism that hates different people even amongst “white” people: If you don’t have to put prosthetics and/or loads of makeup on them just to match the (presumably normal human) character, then it’s fine to cast them.
I’m just trying to look at it as a complex issue. I don’t think there are simple lines to be drawn. I’m also not asking you for a definitive answer, so I apologize if that’s how it feels, that’s not my intention. I’m asking questions that I think are worth considering, and I could reasonably argue both for and against.
And I think voice acting is extra interesting. You don’t have to put prosthetics or makeup to change your voice. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. On Bob’s Burgers Tina Belcher is voiced by a man. The late great James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader. The titular character of Samurai Jack, a Japanese samurai, is voiced by Phil LaMarr a black American.
Yea, I think whatever is totally fine in voice acting, so long as they are not being weird and just hiring a bunch of big names to get them on the poster board. I know I know, it happens a lot, and it’s not exactly something you could write a law over (without collateral damage anyways). It’s just super lame when they do it, IMO.
Would still definitely prefer native people of certain ethnicities to represent the character, like Apu, but that’s because I’d rather they get paid for the representation on screen, and I’d rather media contain accurate things and not go back to shitty fake accents.
If it’s a situation like Tina and the mom, I’d say that’s more of a creative choice than a representation thing. I’d rather IRL minorities get a job for a normal character than some big name person that doesn’t need the job.
To start, I want to be clear I have zero issues with the characters Aaron Pierre has played. He’s a talented actor and from the interviews I’ve seen a wonderful person.
Aaron Pierre, per Wikipedia, was born in London. His mother is from Jamaica, and he has Curaçaoan and Sierra Leonean heritage on his father’s side.
His acting history includes playing Malcolm X and in the case of Lanterns John Stewart who’s character history and in the show Lanterns deals with being a black American. Aaron Pierre is not a black American, should a black American have played those roles? A black American and a black Briton are both black and both minorities, but they’re not interchangeable.
To extend further, can someone who is Chinese play a Japanese character, or a Korean character because they’re all Asian?
To bring everything full circle, Hank Azaria was born in Queens, NYC. Per Wikipedia, “his paternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews from Salonika and Smyrna. His paternal grandfather… came from Salonika which was then in the Ottoman Empire, today the Greek city of Thessaloniki in Greek Macedonia. His paternal grandmother… was born in Bergama, modern-day Turkey (Izmir Province).”
Hank Azaria previously voiced Apu, Carl, Lou, Bumblebee Man, & Doctor Nick. Hank Azaria continues to voice Italian characters Luigi, Legs and Johnny Tightlips. Hank Azaria is not Italian. Should he continue to voice those characters?
Voice actors and traditional actors can and do play a wide variety of roles. I think expanding who has access to roles is a positive thing. At the same time I think we should give actors the freedom to act, even if they don’t “fit” the role.
You are really trying to hate on this idea…
It’s not difficult at all to find a happy middle ground from Euro style racism that hates different people even amongst “white” people: If you don’t have to put prosthetics and/or loads of makeup on them just to match the (presumably normal human) character, then it’s fine to cast them.
I’m really not trying to hate.
I’m just trying to look at it as a complex issue. I don’t think there are simple lines to be drawn. I’m also not asking you for a definitive answer, so I apologize if that’s how it feels, that’s not my intention. I’m asking questions that I think are worth considering, and I could reasonably argue both for and against.
And I think voice acting is extra interesting. You don’t have to put prosthetics or makeup to change your voice. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. On Bob’s Burgers Tina Belcher is voiced by a man. The late great James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader. The titular character of Samurai Jack, a Japanese samurai, is voiced by Phil LaMarr a black American.
Yea, I think whatever is totally fine in voice acting, so long as they are not being weird and just hiring a bunch of big names to get them on the poster board. I know I know, it happens a lot, and it’s not exactly something you could write a law over (without collateral damage anyways). It’s just super lame when they do it, IMO.
Would still definitely prefer native people of certain ethnicities to represent the character, like Apu, but that’s because I’d rather they get paid for the representation on screen, and I’d rather media contain accurate things and not go back to shitty fake accents.
If it’s a situation like Tina and the mom, I’d say that’s more of a creative choice than a representation thing. I’d rather IRL minorities get a job for a normal character than some big name person that doesn’t need the job.