one of the pitfalls of loving the kind of music I do leaves me utterly and perpetually unschooled in anything not written by a dead german dude or dead harlem junkie.

They didn’t have any problem not turning Benedict Wong into a walking stereotype.

Apropos of nothing, I would have loved to have seen Zhang Ziyi in the role.

I don’t think this is just pearl clutching. When it comes down to it, the arguments against whitewashing are ultimately about people being allowed to work and I think that’s something worth fighting for.

As far as I’m concerned, the wise old Asian mystic is less a “stereotype” than it is a “trope”. It’s something you see all over Asian film, arts, and literature. Hell, I don’t remember it really being used in Hollywood before the Kung Fu TV series which Bruce Lee developed. After Kung Fu, sure, it would pop up but it…

“He spent years talking about how much he wanted to make Black Widow and Captain Marvel movies before actually doing it,”

“It would have been such an easy choice to just shift the location to Ireland and base it more on Celtic mysticisim or something like that.”

100%, but then the angry nerd mob would have had two reasons to be upset instead of one.

What I always struggled with the casting decision was to still have the Ancient One still be in Tibet once they cast Swinton to the role. It would have been such an easy choice to just shift the location to Ireland and base it more on Celtic mysticisim or something like that.

Here’s the baffling thought process:

As great as Tilda Swinton is in everything, they should’ve hired an Asian actor, like Emma Stone or Scarlett Johansson.

Same recollection. I remember the issue not just as “white washing” but also “we don’t want to upset the Chinese market by casting a Tibetan actor to play a high profile and powerful Tibetan character.” By that logic, white washing was the only option left, besides growing a pair actually using a Tibetan actor to play…

Yeah, I don’t think it’s entirely cynical to say that there’s absolutely no way we’d have seen an actual Tibetan in the role.

Grease is CAMP and none of the actors look like teenagers - it’s consistent.

I’m fond of Grease, but the whole film is an obvious pastiche of the ‘50s rather than an attempt at reality. And that’s fine with me because Stockard Channing kills in that film even if she looks 40, but it’s definitely not something a realistic drama should emulate. 

You should probably check out the original 90210. Just for kicks. 

I think the problem is they actually tried to make him look like a teenager and failed. Somehow I think it would be better if Ben Platt just looked like Ben Platt. I was a teenager between 2000s and 2010s, almost all teen movies (and The CW teen dramas) had older actors back then, nobody tried to hide it and somehow…

Evan Hansen’s plot is a lot less problematic than Carousel, which we performed at my high school despite it repeatedly waving off and even romanticizing domestic violence.

Stupid kid does a stupid thing, digs himself ever deeper, is pretty standard dramatic fare. Mother and daughter bonding over the fact that a slap…

Grease sucks, having something in common with Grease is not a good thing. Especially if you’re telling a story that’s supposed to be taken seriously.

gen z is going to be even more embarrassed for millennials ever thinking this was good story.