Film

The Latest Actor Accused Of Whitewashing Has Responded By… Doing The Right Thing?

Good choice.

by Tom Clift  29 August 2017
Ed Skrein Whitewashing

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Ed Skrein, the actor at the centre of Hollywood’s latest whitewashing controversy has given up the role.

Skrein, who you probably know as the original Daario from Game of Thrones, was recently cast in the role of Major Ben Daimio in the upcoming Hellboy reboot. The casting choice was immediately criticised by fans due to the fact that the Daimio character is Japanese American in the comic books, while Skrein is of English and Austrian-Jewish descent.

On Monday, Skrein acknowledged the criticism and announced he had decided to step down from the role.

“It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people and to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the Arts,” he wrote on Twitter. “I feel it is important to honor and respect that. Therefore I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately.”

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Skrein says that he was unaware that the character was of Asian heritage when he accepted the role in the first place.

“Representation of ethnic diversity is important, especially to me as I have a mixed heritage family,” he wrote. “It is our responsibility to make moral decisions in difficult times and to give voice to inclusivity.”

The film’s producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin, and distributors Lionsgate and Millennium, have since issued a joint statement saying they accepted Skrein’s decision.

“Ed came to us and felt very strongly about this,” they said. “We fully support his unselfish decision. It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material.”

FYI Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Marvel Studios: this is the correct way to respond to a whitewashing scandal. Don’t tell people that it makes sense in context, or that you “don’t see race”. Just own up to the fact that you did a shit thing, and make it right. Or, even better, maybe just don’t do the shit thing in the first place.