Actor who
changed surname from Wang says she would not have been cast with name that made
people ‘uncomfortable’
The row over
whitewashing in Hollywood has taken a new turn after the actor Chloe Bennet
said she had changed her name from Chloe Wang because Hollywood is “racist” and
would not cast her in roles because of her surname.
Bennet, who
stars in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, said her original surname made Hollywood
“uncomfortable”.
Earlier this
week the British actor Ed Skrein pulled out of his role in a forthcoming film
reboot of Hellboy because the character he was playing has an Asian heritage.
Bennet made
her comments on Instagram in response to a follower asking why she had changed
her name.
“Changing my
last name doesn’t change the fact that my blood is half-Chinese, that I lived
in China, speak Mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese,”
she wrote.
“It means I
had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn’t cast me with a last
name that made them uncomfortable. I’m doing everything I can with the platform
I have to make sure no one has to change their name again just so they can get
work.”
Bennet
praised Skrein for pulling out of Hellboy and “standing up against Hollywood’s
continuous insensitivity and flippant behaviour towards the Asian American
community”.
She added:
“There is no way this decision came lightly on your part, so thank you for your
bravery and genuinely impactful step forward. I hope this inspires other
actors/film-makers to do the same.”
Skrein has
said he was unaware his character, Maj Ben Daimio, had originally been drawn in
comics as Asian, and he pulled out of the role after claims that it was another
example of Hollywood whitewashing.
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“There has
been intense conversation and understandable upset since that announcement and
I must do what I feel is right,” he said in a statement.
“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. I
feel it is important to honour and respect that.”
The
producers of the film, Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin, subsequently made a joint
statement with backers Lionsgate and Millennium to add their support to his
decision. They have committed to recasting the role “with an actor more
consistent with the character in the source material”.
Other recent
castings that sparked accusations of whitewashing in Hollywood were the choice
of Tilda Swinton to play a Tibetan mentor, the Ancient One, in Doctor Strange,
and Scarlett Johansson starring in Ghost in the Shell, which was based on a
Japanese animated film.
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