Here is some eyebrow-raising news about the casting for the upcoming '21′ blackjack movie, due out March 28th. This is the movie based off the best-selling book 'Bringing Down the House', about the real-life team of mostly Asian Americans who won big in Las Vegas. The two main characters in the book, 'Kevin Lewis' and 'Steve Fisher', were Jeff Ma and Mike Aponte, two Asian American males.
The Hollywood version stars Jim Sturgess, and according to the book author, the Hollywood casting directors initially wanted to completely exclude any Asian male characters from the film...
["Mezrich mentioned the stereotypical Hollywood casting process ― though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film's actors would be White, with perhaps an Asian female. Even as Asian actors are entering more mainstream films, such as "Better Luck Tomorrow' and the upcoming "Memoirs of a Geisha', these stereotypes still exist, said Mezrich".]
This is pretty outrageous, and just as questionable as having Brian Dennehy play Kublai Khan in HBO's recent 'Marco Polo' movie.
While there have not been too many complaints in mainstream media over these developments, one cannot help but wonder what the backlash would have been like if, for example, Hollywood had made the movie 'Coach Carter', with a Caucasian actor replacing Sam Jackon's role, which was based on a real-life story. In terms of marketing or box office numbers, it is also puzzling why they would cast Sturgess (a relative unknown) as the lead student instead of Aaron Yoo (also in the film as a minor role), when the movie already had cast such big-name stars as Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne.
Bestweekever.tv and racialicious also commented on this casting controversy.
Posted by Alvin at March 19, 2008 8:00 AM
14 Comments
Sorry, but I haven't read the book so I'm a little confused by this post.
Are 'Kevin Lewis' and 'Steve Fisher' characters in the book, or are Jeff Ma and Mike Aponte characters in the book and the other names are just aliases?
If Jeff Ma and Mike Aponte are never mentioned in the book, and the 'Kevin Lewis' and 'Steve Fisher' characters in the book are white, and the movie is based on the book, then it seems perfectly reasonable to cast white actors in those roles.
OK the book definitely made it a point to say that the players were Asian:
According to the author, Ben Mezrich:
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[The MIT team thrived by choosing BPs who fit the casino mold of the young, foolish, and wealthy. Primarily nonwhite, either Asian or Middle Eastern, these were the kids the casinos were accustomed to seeing bet a thousand bucks a hand. Like many on the team, Kevin Lewis was part Asian, and could pass as the child of a rich Chinese or Japanese executive. “When you’re recruiting, you don’t recruit white kids. They look conspicuous. Asian kids, Greek kids, dark skin fits in better with lots of money in the casinos. White 20-year-olds with $2 million bankrolls stand out,” explains Andrew Tay, one of Lewis’ teammates. “A geeky Asian kid with $100,000 in his wallet didn’t raise any eyebrows.”]
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There were also white people as part of the team like David Irvine.
Mike Aponte and a lot of the other "Big Players" were, indeed Asian. Some of the players were female.
This is about using the lowbrow, stereotypical thinking of the average Las Vegas pit boss against them. These casino workers are not the best educated bunch in the world and tend to think things like "No BROAD could be smart enough to count cards" etc., etc.,
- Jeff
Jason:
Jeff Ma and Mike Aponte are the real life people. In the book their names are changed to Kevin Lewis and Steve Fisher, even though the authors makes it known they are Asian, as is most of the team, and that their ethnicity is central to the story. In the movie Kevin Lewis is changed to Ben Campbell, and Steve Fisher is also played by a White guy.
Jeff and Alvin: thanks for the clarification and the info about the ethnicity of the players being an important part of the strategy.
I can understand why the book's author changed the names of Jeff Ma and Mike Aponte for the book, to protect their identities. But I wonder why he changed their names to the caucasian-sounding 'Kevin Lewis' and 'Steve Fisher'? Why didn't he just make up new asian-sounding names for them?
It's hard to imagine that this issue will get any play in the major media. It's just too confusing for someone who hasn't read the book. I can imagine the average person saying, "You mean to tell me the book has an asian character named Steve Fisher? That doesn't make any sense! It's better that they cast a white actor to play a guy with that name in the movie."
*facepalms at Jason*
You can not be serious!
Asians can't have "caucasian-sounding" names? WTF.
*facepalms at Jason*
You can not be serious!
Asians can't have "caucasian-sounding" names? WTF.
________________
Dude I've seen them. Asians with "caucasian-sounding" names. They're not even half or adopted. They scare me. LOL.
Maybe there's a story behind it that I'm missing...but how's Cassidy for an Asian last name?
Depends Betz. Though I do know that some* Filipinos(?) have Spanish or English, either exact or derived, surnames (or even full names) due to Spanish colonial rule from what I've been told.
*some Filipinos = those that I have met.
Is it possible that some of the casting decisions were based on wanting to avoid cinematic stereotypes? Along the lines of "We have a team of math whizzes, it will look racist if too many of them are Asian?"
Just throwing it out there. I tried to read the book but never finished it. Does anyone know anything about the character Josh Gad plays in the film?
i highly doubt that the casting decision would take that into consideration. i mean, look at some of the other movies out there. robert downey jr. in black face? wtf? if anything, they'd want to have that stereotype because it's what people are comfortable with. but of course, it would never sell because the stars would be asian americans.
Juan, give me a break. Of course Asians can have "caucasian-sounding" names -- that wasn't my point. If someone told you that he knew two dudes named 'Kevin Lewis' and 'Steve Fisher' you would probably assume they were white. Of course they could be asian or African-American, but most likely they would be caucasian. It's just a numbers thing. And those 2 surnames are a lot different from a name like Morales, which could easily be the last name for someone from Spain, Mexico, Philippines etc... Okay, maybe I should have said "Anglo-Saxon sounding" instead, but you should have gotten my point anyway.
And that point being what, exactly?
Help me out here.
Okay, Juan, if you don't want to scroll up and read what I said, then you should probably just skip to the next topic...
Oh well, gave you the benefit of 'enlightening' me given my interpretation.
All I've seen is that we should make it easier for white people. That a white sounding name for a person/character should mean that person/character must be white in spite of reality that the actual person/character is not white. Doing otherwise would just confuse those poor white people.
i've pretty much decided that i'm not going to be seeing this movie. has anyone actually seen it? heard that the reviews were pretty bad.