It’s one thing to have a star like Jake Gyllenhaal play a Middle Easterner in Prince of Persia – one could argue that the movie needs his name recognition (although I don’t suspect that he brings all that much to the property, but whatever. One could argue it) – but what about when you cast a totally unknown white guy in an Arabic role?
That’s the case with Arabian Nights, the new 3D film from Chuck Russell – director of The Mask and The Blob remake – which sees Liam Hemsworth cast in the lead role. The only way anybody really knows Hemsworth is that he’s the brother of the mostly unknown guy who is playing Thor in the new Marvel Studios movie.
Hemsworth will be working in brown face to play a young commander who teams up with Aladdin and Sinbad to rescue Queen Scheherezade; I look forward to the casting of the rest of this generation’s Frank Stallones in the other roles. I hope Russell does keep up with the Hollywood tradition of only casting ethnic looking actors in the bad guy roles.
How is it that this is still happening in the year 2010? Hollywood quietly moved past casting white guys in Asian roles decades ago, and it needs to do the same with Arab roles.