Weekly News Edited

Weekly News

In recent production Aladin Disney has faced much scrutiny for the alleged 'browning up' white actors for multiple roles for latest production of Aladin. Disney has been accused of using white actors to play roles in the predominately Asian film and many extras were supposedly forced to make themselves appear darker for the roles, Disney is now facing huge black lash for the incident which has caused many racial issues as to why Disney have not used actors from the correct heritage to fulfil the roles in a film they claim to have the most diversity ever. 

 

 
In A statement Disney argued “This is the most diverse cast ever assembled for a Disney live action production. More than 400 of the 500 background performers were Indian, Middle Eastern, African, Mediterranean and Asian.” However, one extra on the show claimed he saw 20 “very fair-skinned” actors waiting to have their skin tone changed. 
I personal feel this is out rages as the talent defiantly exists and there is no way they were not assessable for this movie. there are thousands of Asian actors and actresses that would be willing to fulfil these roles and are currently trying to pursue a future in a job like this however due to discrimination are unavailable to do so. In my opinion I feel Asian extras could defiantly been used to fit the roles required.  
 
 
 
 
 

It is claimed 'the company resorted to darkening white people for roles requiring skills not readily available in the Asian community' which was stated in an article raising the issue in the Sunday Times. despite the claims that there were not enough people from the correct ethnicity to fill the roles the film is being filmed at Longcross Studios, Surrey, a 50-minute drive from London where 1.1 million people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Arab heritage live.  

 

 

 

This is not the first time Disney have fallen victim to similar issues as they previously came under fire for creating a whole new role for a white actor in aladdin. Billy Magnussen has been cast as a character called Prince Anders who did not appear in the original animated movie.  

 

The article I am referring to and who manufactured the claim against Disney was from the Independent, which is a tabloid newspaper who claim they are, "free from party political bias, free from proprietorial influence" which would suggest they are a fair and reliable source of information.  

 

However, this is not the first time a film has come under scrutiny for alleged 'blackfacing' as this would have been very popular many years ago in the 19th and early 20th century and would be common for white actors to embody black characters for roles however we might find it shocking it is still present in modern media which claims to be excepting and diverse. For example, in 2008 film tropic thunder Actor Robert Downey Jr who portrays an Australian actor named Kirk Lazarus who is playing a black army sergeant in a war movie being filmed in the jungle. this shows how this is still an issue in many modern-day productions despite us maybe thinking it is an outdated issue.  

 

In today's society where we claim to be diverse and excepting there are still underlying racial issues present in many industries, especially in the film industry recent statistics carried out by researchers at the university of southern California show that of the top 100 films of 2014, nearly three-quarters of all characters were white, the study showed only 17 of the top movies that year featured non-white lead or co-lead actors which is shocking.  

 The article by the independent raises awareness of the underlying racial issues which still exist in huge industries.  

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/disney-aladdin-brown-up-cast-will-smith-extra-long-a8146361.html