Last Friday my boyfriend and I went to the theater to watch The Social Network, a movie that tells the story of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of the ubiquitous social media site. The film itself was fantastic – cleverly told, with fast-paced, witty dialogue and a group of young, talented actors. To nobody’s surprise, it garnered excellent reviews and made a respectful first-place opening at the box-office. But one detail did bother me – and many others that I spoke with – the fact that the only major minority character in the film, Indian-American Divya Narendra, was played by Italian-American Max Minghella. For all this talk of desis representing in American television today, film roles for brown folks playing actual brown characters seem to be few and far between. Or is just my imagination? Need another recent example? Guess who’s playing Parsi, Indian-born Farrokh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury in the new biopic about Queen? English actor Sacha Baron Cohen. Okay, so a white guy can play a brown guy — but when’s the last time you saw a brown guy playing John Lennon?
Sure, when it comes to casting, you can’t always get it right. (For instance, take a look at the actual Narendra who is wayyyy cuter than his screen twin.) And I’m sure Mr. Minghella and Mr. Cohen are fine, fine actors who will do justice to their brown counterparts. No doubt Hollywood directors feel with a big-budget film like the Queen biopic, it makes sense to go with a tried-and-true actor like Cohen over a relatively unknown desi actor. But what about minor roles like Narendra’s. There are plenty of unemployed brown actors with a similar pedigree who could do justice to Narendra’s role as well.
It may be time for a good old letter writing campaign. It worked for television, didn’t it?
According to Karen Narasaki, who heads the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, the rise in primetime Asians is also the result of advocacy. Her organization and its partners have been working with the networks to develop diversity initiatives for the past decade, ever since 1999’s infamously “whitewashed” primetime season, in which not a single freshman show had a leading minority character.
What did you folks think? Did the casting in The Social Network bother you? Why or why not?
Photo Credit: Guest of a Guest
Also, do you guys realize that MVP runner-up Rahul is hideen behind the iron curtain while HMF is exposed? Is there no justice in this world?
I have nothing constructive to add to the discussion about the actors, but want to send a shout out to Quizman for linking the Melodrama video. Those guys are awesome. Too cool that they’re Indian. I always wondered whether there were any Indian metal bands 🙂
Anandi,
Sorry for the digression, but yes, there are tons of metal bands in the subcon. Youtube has loads of videos. Check out Orion from scross the border, Pakistan. Also, from Lahore, is this band comprising of 15 year olds called Borstal Escape. Obviously, India has many cult underground bands. Follow this link. There used to be a rock competition in the late 1960s and early 1970s in India called Simla Beat. It was sponsored by the Indian (formerly Imperial) Tobacco Company which wanted to promote its products amongst young folks. The original recordings of the bands can be found here. Read the article on this competition at Garage Hangover.
So sorry, that was Aaron, not Alan, put it down to hearing loss.
i mentioned to a friend who is a big fan of the social network that there was a controversy on this blog about the brown guy being played by a non-brown actor. my friend, who is white*, but works in the tech sector at a firm with a lot of brown folk, was surprised, as he’d assumed that minghella was brown. part of it has to do with framing probably, as he saw what the film wanted him to see. but i thought i’d pass that on.
This is no surprise, the last film adaptation to a Ben Mezrich book was a complete slaughtering of that book, I’m talking about Bringing Down the House –> 21, turning the lead character into a white, Harvard student from an Asian MIT, EE student.
ironically enough, the studio that profited from that film, MGM studios, the casino’s the MIT blackjack team hit the most: MGM grand.
Just seeing this post now, but immediately the discussion reminded me of last week’s episode of 30 Rock, entitled “Let’s Stay Together”: (from Wikipedia) “Jack must appear before Congress to discuss NBC’s merger with KableTown. He hopes that he will charm celebrity members, but one Congresswoman (Queen Latifah) demands more diversity in its programming lineup. Jack quickly enlists Tracy to come up with some new development ideas…”
The whole episode was about the lack of African-Americans on NBC, and the show took several opportunities to poke its own network in the eye for the recent cancellation of “Law & Order” (the Mothership), but there was a brief desi moment when the Congresswoman (Queen Latifah) showed up at the TV studio unexpectedly and Alec Baldwin’s character had his assistant (the always hilarious Maulik Pancholy’s) Jonathan speaking in a high-pitched bad imitation of an Indian accent while protesting to his boss “But, sir, I was born in Palo Alto!” If memory serves, it was only during last season (the show’s fourth) that any reference to Jonathan’s Indian heritage was made at all.
This won’t be the first or the last time that Hollywood will cast a caucasian for a non caucasian role.
Also, like the commenter Sophia mentioned, I don’t think Minghella is hot enough to play Narendra. It’s not a question of whether Minghella is brown enough for the role.
Since LA/Hollywood and southern California in general has a huge population of minority people like Asians and South Asians and Hispanic/Latinos, maybe the people responsible for the casting in this movie wanted to give a white guy a chance – like a reverse affirmative action or something. ( In some pockets of southern California and a few parts of the Bay Area, the minorities are starting to becoming the majority.) Either that, or no brown actor applied for the role. Another possibility is the casting crew are unaware of brown actors or didn’t think the few famous brown actors looked like Narendra. Although that is highly unlikely, it’s not out of the realm of possibilty.
This won’t be the first or the last time that Hollywood will cast a caucasian for a non caucasian role.
why do people still use the word “caucasian”? it’s from the same era as “negroid” and “mongoloid.” let’s start calling blacks negroids and east asians mongoloids! that’ll make us sound so sophisticated. the term caucasian was famously invented by blumebach as he considered the people of the caucasus region the archetypes of the west eurasian and north african physical type, which was re-termed by later anthropologists as “caucasoid,” and which included all the peoples of the europe, north africa, the middle east, and most of of south asia. but today linguistic sophisticates have started to use it as a synonym for white european, so i read moronic articles in glossie magazines about how “jesus was not really a caucasian.” obviously “white” or “european” seemed too obvious, so they had to insert in that anachronistic and ostentatious definition in there, the irony being the archetypical caucasians are closer to middle eastern people genetically than they are to europeans.
i generally rant about this with my smart PC white liberal friends and family, but naturally american brown people of a certain class and education are exactly the same, so i’ll tell you what i tell them: if you use the word caucasian for white europeans, why don’t you start referring to all south asians as hindoos? (yeah, make sure it has two o’s) it would be analogous. i do understand that most people are not offended because they lack any perspective as to the background of these terms, and i won’t belabor the point more than once every six months.
Since LA/Hollywood and southern California in general has a huge population of minority people like Asians and South Asians and Hispanic/Latinos, maybe the people responsible for the casting in this movie wanted to give a white guy a chance
i didn’t bring this up earlier, but minghella keeps getting incorrectly classified. above eurasian sensation stated: but the likes of Keanu Reeves, Kristin Kreuk, Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Alba have all played roles in which their ethnicity was not a factor.
keanu reeves is 1/4 non-white, just like minghella. why is reeves allowed to be eurasian, while mingella is white? jessica alba is genetically 15% indigenous. she’s been genetically tested. her mother is a european american, while her father is a mexican american. since most mexicans are of mixed ancestry, that would mean he’s 30% indigenous. not super shocking. but the fact is that jessica alba is more european in ancestry than anthony minghella, but since she’s latino (or her father is) she is non-white, while minghella has a latinate name, but is not latino, but italian by surname, so white.
this is all pedantic crap obviously, but so are the people who are defining what is, and isn’t, brown, down to the picayune fractions of quanta or cultural affiliation.
( In some pockets of southern California and a few parts of the Bay Area, the minorities are starting to becoming the majority.)
you should get out more. california is a majority minority state. that’s not a pedantic fact, but has been widely reported in the US media.
i apologize to responding to the anon commenter to the mods/posters…but they’re just a stand-in for a lot of comments which have come by and i let stand by.
Since the c word is offensive, I seriously think it should just be banned or eliminated from like the n – word.
Nowhere in my post do I state we should refer to browns as “Hindoos”, use outdated terms,or other crap like that. I agree the c* word has to go, knowing about the history of the word. There was no intention to cause people to get upset or hurt. So I extend apologies to all who were offended.
Some of my Vietnamese -American friends still keep using the c word. A couple of them mentioned their sister or cousins are marrying c*****’s, and some mentioned they are looking for c****’s to date, etc. Or maybe they are making a phallic pun on the c word. Who knows. My friends have too much influence on my speech and word choices. They will be corrected next time they mention the word and I will them know it is a non p.c. word. They are good friends who can take a little constructive criticism.
Even though Wikipedia is not an unbiased or always accurate site, I looked up the term on that site. According to the entry for c***, it said “Nevertheless, there are journals (e.g. the Journal of Gastroentorology and Hepatology and Kidney International) that continue to use racial categories such as C.” Is the c word still acceptable among medical professionals? Or is this just outdated information that Wikipedia sometimes provides? I noticed the term is still being used in recent entries in Pub Med. Maybe it has the status of the p or the v* words- it is just not polite or proper to use those terms outside a medical setting.
Also, what if someone has ancestors from the Cau*** mountain range?
Now back to the topic. Only the directors/casting crew can enlighten us about their choice of Minghella. Maybe he has the right connections, or was in the right place at the right time or he gives the best Divya Narendra imitation of all who auditioned.
“majority minority state”
the main qualification here is that last i checked ~40% of california latinos identify as white. though that might irrelevant, since in american “discourse” something with a spanish surname is colored until proven otherwise (e.g., born in spain itself), no matter how blue their eyes.
Random question – was Harold and Kumar preferable, with Asian people playing Asian characters, but written and directed by White people?
You say that Shyamalan’s films have not performed at the box office? Well, let’s break down his record, shall we?
These numbers only include box office takings (both US and international because that is the true indication of the movie’s revenue). The numbers do not include DVD sales, merchandising etc so even these are understated. But any movie studio would be happy to see numbers like these from one of its directors.
Sixth Sense – budget 40MM, Gross revenue 673MM Signs – budget 72MM, Gross revenue 408MM Unbreakable – budget 75MM, Gross revenue 250 MM The Village – budget 60MM, Gross revenue 257MM The Happening – budget 48MM, gross revenue 163MM The lady in the water – Ok, I’ll give you that one, but actually it still basically broke even.
The Last Airbender is up to 312M USD now and, as I said, still going strong. I think the numbers speak for themselves. And, in case it hasn’t been mentioned before, the movie business is still a business and at the end of the day, if Shyamalan wasn’t bankable, he wouldn’t keep getting the jobs.
It is a nonsense argument to make that Shyamalan is not a successful director. You may not like him, for whatever reason, but you can’t argue with the numbers.
Myth D you obviously don’t understand the movie business…
studios get HALF the gross revenues of a film, the other half is goes to the house.
marketing is usually DOUBLE a film’s budget which is also not stated.
Night has been losing post Signs, his agents are the best in the business.
Now redo your math…and get your shinebox :):)
Forget Hollywood! Let’s talk about fame on the interwebs. Like didn’t you totally know cigar guywas desi! Panache and humor.
I’m using Firefox so no way for me to sign in, kids.
Sorry for the lame linkage, here ya go: http://theweek.com/article/index/208058/cigar-guy-the-internets-newest-phenom
kidpoker 666,
Well why don’t you give me the names of some directors that you do consider to be successful?
@Razib Khan – I get you’re playing devil’s advocate to a certain extent, but surely “Caucasian” doesn’t bother you? Words change meaning over time, and in 2010 America, “Caucasian” is the generic term to describe white folks, just as African-American is for black folks. Hey, you can say “negroid” if you want, hope you don’t mind getting your ass kicked 😛
I’m Pakistani/Afghan. When I fill out a survey or government form, I check off “South Asian” if it’s there. I’ve also checked off “Asian” or “Other” in the past (depending on the options). I’ve never considered checking “caucasian”, because it’s currently synonymous with white.
Based on interviews, I feel like Alba tries to play up her latina side for “exotic factor”, I don’t know. Since hispanics aren’t a race, it doesn’t matter what percent of her is indigenous – hispanics can be black, white, native amerindian, whatever.
Also worth pointing out that in the minds of the average Joe, looks play a HUGE factor in how race is defined. If Minghella looked less mediterranean and more Chinese, you can bet fewer people would consider him “white” at all. Biracial actors who look more ambiguous get broader range in terms of characters they can play. That’s how Kristin Kreuk can get away with playing a white, asian, or pakistani girl.
“Random question – was Harold and Kumar preferable, with Asian people playing Asian characters, but written and directed by White people?”
I dunno…I heard they used a Bong to write it.
I’ve never used the word Caucasian to describe someone and have never heard it used by anyone.
Ha ha, very funny. 😛
The medical community seems to use the c***** word a lot. If you go the website Pubmed.gov and enter the c**** word in the search engine, you will get a ton of recent works cited with the offending term.
Is the C* word only to be used in a medical setting and research and inappropriate outside of it? So many medical researchers still use that term. Does the c word have the status of the words v**a and p****s? (Or are many medical researchers insensitive to whites? Which is highly doubtful.)
@Dr. Anonymous: It’s still the “official” term on the US census bureau, legal and govt forms, surveys, etc… Don’t see what’s offensive about it.
I’m not offended by it. I just don’t think it’s used in popular discussion at all. I’ve never, ever heard someone say ‘He’s that Caucasian dude that’s in our science class.’ or ‘Why is there a Caucasian person playing the desi guy in that movie?’ It’s just a question of social reality to me.
So it’s used for a purpose, in any context (where it’s the pseudoscience of Census methods of ‘describing’ or whether it’s for any other reason). If someone uses it to illustrate that all of these labels originate from the racist system of categorization that Razib alluded to above, I can deal with that. If someone uses it to express disdain towards White people, I don’t think that would be okay, because I think it’s just an inappropriate way of speaking about race – and it’s hard enough as it is for us as nonWhite people without confusing matters further!
Re – Caucasian. Indians were classified as Caucasians and then were declassified. Anyway, the case is a good study of how the term came to be used.
“why do people still use the word “caucasian”? it’s from the same era as “negroid” and “mongoloid.” let’s start calling blacks negroids and east asians mongoloids! “
Technically, the equivalent for negroid and mongoloid is caucasoid. While your complaint against caucasian usage is legit, negroid and mongoloid weren’t used in the past as simple identification, they were used disparagingly, and hence that’s why they aren’t used now currently. Caucasian has no such negative component to it.
Secondly, I wonder if you throw a hissy-fit every time the word “anti-Semitic” is used to describe anti-jewish thinking, as we all know, Semitic is a language stock, referring to a language class inclusive of Arabic, among others, of course the word itself derives from the Biblical city of “Shem” This is a clear misuse of the word then, if we use it to refer to anti-Jewish thinking, any self-professed historical, anthropological language maven like yourself would surely ascend to the highest soapbox and throw a hoot-n-nanny every time such drivel was uttered.
What about Freida Pinto? I just heard she’s got a movie coming out called Miral and the character is Palestinian! Some people are pissed that a South Asian actress got the part. Next year Freida also is the female lead in a movie called the Immortals and her character isa Greek woman! I think it is great that Freida is almost A list she’s working with some high profile white men in Hollywood and it seems as though she’s got a good agent. I think it is great that Freida is not being segregted in South Asian film roles she’s getting parts because she’s a good actress and on her way to the A list.
@Phillygrrl Brown People are NOT in Hollywood Because of Media Advocacy
I think it’s you’re imagination and you’re overlooking how much progress South Asians have made in Hollywood, especially in comparison to other groups. The past 5 years have been great for us and we’re seeing more brown faces on the big screen and primetime than ever. I have worked with a Southern California based Asian-American Film/Media Foundation as a staff and board member for the past 9 years. I was President of the Asian Student organization at my university and your blog reminds me of how reactive I was and how my org used to get all “Ra-Ra-Sis-Boom-Ba” anytime the media misrepresented Asians. Sometimes our reactions would get flat out ridiculous. Koreans would bicker about Parry Chen, a Chinese-American actor playing a Korean, etc… and I would even read blog rants about White guy playing a Brown guy etc… 😉
I also severed as the only South Asian board member for two city-wide non-profits that focused on the advancement of Asian-American affairs, so I feel I’m qualified to make this next opinion. It might come across brash and jaded, but Karen Narasaki claiming that the efforts of organization’s like hers and MANAA reminds me of the crime rate story from Freakanomics. Where Giuliani and other politicians claimed their efforts dropped crime, when abortion was the ugly truth. There are so many hidden factors to why South Asian’s are rising in Hollywood and from an Asian-American activist’s point-of-view I don’t think, “the rise in primetime Asians is also the result of advocacy.” In fact, I’ve learned that all the advocacy our yellow brothers and sisters do is counter productive and makes networks overly sensitive and feel like they have to walk on egg shells to cast Asians. Why? Because XYZ Casting Director/Writer remembers the “last time” they created an “Asian” role for that one “show,” and made him do that one “thing” the writer’s thought would be “funny,” but instead it got a bunch of angry Asian people holding up signs in the parking lot and spreading hate messages and complaints on the web.
I might come across too bold in this next claim, but my theory is the rise of South Asians in Hollywood is primarily the result of 2 factors: South Asian-American apathy and South Asian’s prevalence/relevance in modern America. Our lack of involvement in media empowerment and South Asian viewers passively consuming content without making a fuss has allowed South Asian actors to take on years of stereotypical roles in stride (we paid our dues). Without having a bunch angry brown faces criticizing their work (Outsourced) & rallying up every time a hindu cow joke is cracked has made us a less riskier and annoying group to work with. Of course, I’m not discounting other factors like a domino effect (one project’s success leads to another) and sociological factors like the position and mysticism of India in the minds of the west (Vijay Prashad – Karma of Brown Folk).
For the 2nd factor, I completely agree with Nina Shen’s point in the Slate article, “More Indians in the fabric of American life means we’re more likely to be a source of inspiration for non-Indian writers, like the two Jewish guys from suburban New Jersey who wrote Harold and Kumar—” South Asians have become more prevalent in modern America and have in some way shape or form have had interactions and influenced people who make Hollywood go round. We were either in their writing classes, dorm roomies at Columbia, Harvard etc… hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs, supervisors, network administrators, etc… And for whatever historical, socio-political, cultural & immigration reasons that made the cosmos align, we have penetrated White America more than any other minority group. My organization hosted a discussion panel with the writers of Harold and Kumar, and their idea came simply from having two stoner room mates like Harold and Kumar.
@Phillygrrl Brown People are NOT in Hollywood Because of Media Advocacy
I think it’s you’re imagination and you’re overlooking how much progress South Asians have made in Hollywood, especially in comparison to other groups. The past 5 years have been great for us and we’re seeing more brown faces on the big screen and primetime than ever. I have worked with a Southern California based Asian-American Film/Media Foundation as a staff and board member for the past 9 years. I was President of the Asian Student organization at my university and your blog reminds me of how reactive I was and how my org used to get all “Ra-Ra-Sis-Boom-Ba” anytime the media misrepresented Asians. Sometimes our reactions would get flat out ridiculous. Koreans would bicker about Parry Chen, a Chinese-American actor playing a Korean, etc… and I would even read blog rants about White guy playing a Brown guy etc… 😉
I also severed as the only South Asian board member for two city-wide non-profits that focused on the advancement of Asian-American affairs, so I feel I’m qualified to make this next opinion. It might come across brash and jaded, but Karen Narasaki claiming that the efforts of organization’s like hers and MANAA reminds me of the crime rate story from Freakanomics. Where Giuliani and other politicians claimed their efforts dropped crime, when abortion was the ugly truth. There are so many hidden factors to why South Asian’s are rising in Hollywood and from an Asian-American activist’s point-of-view I don’t think, “the rise in primetime Asians is also the result of advocacy.” In fact, I’ve learned that all the advocacy our yellow brothers and sisters do is counter productive and makes networks overly sensitive and feel like they have to walk on egg shells to cast Asians. Why? Because XYZ Casting Director/Writer remembers the “last time” they created an “Asian” role for that one “show,” and made him do that one “thing” the writer’s thought would be “funny,” but instead it got a bunch of angry Asian people holding up signs in the parking lot and spreading hate messages and complaints on the web.
I might come across too bold in this next claim, but my theory is the rise of South Asians in Hollywood is primarily the result of 2 factors: South Asian-American apathy and South Asian’s prevalence/relevance in modern America. Our lack of involvement in media empowerment and South Asian viewers passively consuming content without making a fuss has allowed South Asian actors to take on years of stereotypical roles in stride (we paid our dues). Without having a bunch angry brown faces criticizing their work (Outsourced) & rallying up every time a hindu cow joke is cracked has made us a less riskier and annoying group to work with. Of course, I’m not discounting other factors like a domino effect (one project’s success leads to another) and sociological factors like the position and mysticism of India in the minds of the west (Vijay Prashad – Karma of Brown Folk).
For the 2nd factor, I completely agree with Nina Shen’s point in the Slate article, “More Indians in the fabric of American life means we’re more likely to be a source of inspiration for non-Indian writers, like the two Jewish guys from suburban New Jersey who wrote Harold and Kumar—” South Asians have become more prevalent in modern America and have in some way shape or form have had interactions and influenced people who make Hollywood go round. We were either in their writing classes, dorm roomies at Columbia, Harvard etc… hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs, supervisors, network administrators, etc… And for whatever historical, socio-political, cultural & immigration reasons that made the cosmos align, we have penetrated White America more than any other minority group. My organization hosted a discussion panel with the writers of Harold and Kumar, and their idea came simply from having two stoner room mates like Harold and Kumar.
Just wanted to congratulate all the Mutineers for Sunil in In Treatment, this will surely be interesting!