đź“˝ In the movie Short Circuit, Ben Jabituya, an Indian scientist, is portrayed by Fisher Stevens: very much a white man.
đź“˝ Jake Gyllenhaal, a white actor, was cast by Disney (!!!) to portray the lead Persian prince in the action film Prince of Persia by slapping a spray tan on him.
đź“˝ Actress Scarlett Johansson played the clearly Japanese character Motoko Kusanagi in Hollywood’s Ghost in the Shell remake. The movie LOST money at the box office because fans of the series were upset by the whitewashing.
đź“˝ In the film based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy play Othello, white actor Laurence Olivier plays in blackface the character Othello, who is of Moorish descent.
đź“˝ Casting legendary Hollywood actor Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunoshi in Breakfast at Tiffanys is probably the most racist portrayal in this list. GOOGLE HIS CHARACTER
There are dozens of examples that I haven’t even listed. Sadly, white skin (sells) better in the entertainment industry and it’s not going to stop until people call out this subliminal racism and colourism. Don’t kid yourself, whitewashing is a modernized version of Blackface.
All of the above actors are white actors in roles of people of colour.
An excerpt about Joel Edgerton and Christian Bale as Ramesses II and Moses in @exodusmovie (2014)
In a classic moment of digging a deeper hole for himself, director @ridleyscottfree rushed to the defense of his casting decisions for his biblical epic (based in Egypt, which people forget is in Africa) by saying ““I can’t mount a film of this budget … and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed.” Which might suffice as an excuse for Bale, but as @iamjohnoliver pointed out, it hardly accounts for why you’d cast a less-than-marquee-name Australian as Ramesses II, slather him with a fake tan and hope for the best.
The ultimate takeaway is that if you can’t finance a $140 million epic about ancient Egypt with racially appropriate actors, maybe you shouldn’t make a $140 million epic about ancient Egypt
