The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predicta

Someone call Hollywood . . . we got an idea here!

 

British Actors play Americans all the time, and Americans fake other accents as well. It’s not the big deal you think it is. Hell you might not even realize some of the TV actors you see are Brits or Aussies in real life. Some of them hide their accent that well while acting.

Even in an iconic franchise I’d argue it isn’t really a big deal. Supposedly a number of Americans were considered for Bond over the years (including seemingly odd choices like Burt Reynolds’s back in the day), it just didn’t happen. Hypothetically if Tom Cruise had been cast as Bond back in the 90’s instead of doing mission impossible would that have bombed because he was American? Most likely it would have done much better box office than those mediocre to shitty movies with Pierce Brosnan. Of course one would assume anyone playing Bond would have to at least try and fake a British accent. You might as well employ a British actor, but it doesn’t have to be.

 

People are arguing for the authenticity of a mermaid . . .

 

In terms of an American actor playing Dr. Who, I have to go with the British on this one. As a rule (there are always exceptions, of course), British actors can nail the American accent, but not vice versa. In almost every case that immediately pops to mind, the American’s accent is distractingly bad.

 

I feel like in this case "Disapproval of unnatural storytelling" is code for something. I mean, it always go back race, right? 20 years ago she was shown as a white cartoon girl, now she is played by a black actress. But the thing is, her race has nothing to do with storytelling. It's a stand alone film where the actresses' race is irrelevant and has absolutely no bearing at all on the plot or storytelling... so where exactly does the "unnatural storytelling" happen? Have there been any 8 year olds saying, "I couldn't follow the plot because the mermaid was black"?

I can at least understand the pushback against DEI when people claim highly qualified white people are being passed up for mediocre non-white candidates... but I don't think you are going to see that when this much is on the line. See, the criticism here isn't that she sucked at the part, or was unqualified and handed the part because she's black. She, by all accounts I've read, was awesome, and the children who are the target of this film loved it. So the criticism always goes back to race ... and it's always being pushed by adults for some reason.

 

Roy Wood on finding out the truth about Stringer Bell

 

The financial failure of Hamilton shows that you cant mess with the racial casting of historical figures. Of course, the time of Hamilton feels like such a different time.

Not sure what would happen if released now, and that is one of the great pieces of American art of the last 20 years. But it planted its seeds in the soil of a different America.

 

Some of the more notable ones are Rick from Walking Dead (British) and Jax from Sons of Anarchy (Australian).

 

In terms of accents, I can't get over Rose Byrne continually lapsing into her native Aussie accent in Platonic on Apple+. Finally in the second or third episode, it was noted in passing that her character, a suburban American mom, was originally from Australia. That relaxed me a bit, but they still have not gotten into the back story of how her character got her. Maybe tonight

 

This says more about the decline of American art if true, the triumph of the middle brow

 

Yeah, lots of examples of great performances in that direction (Daniel Day Lewis as Bill the Butcher, Lincoln et al); now try to go the other way. It’s a lot harder.

 

Disagree

 

Brad Pitt in Snatch, and that other movie where he played an IRA bomber with a terrible accent

 

Not just Rick. It seemed like half the cast of Walking Dead was British.

 

And Succession. Sarah Snook’s English accent would peak out from time to time, but that’s easily explainable as both of her parents had accents.

 

Not sure if you're guessing that her accent peaking out was intentional based upon her character, but Snook is actually Australian. I assumed she was American until I read otherwise somewhere and only then started to catch it once in awhile.

 

Morgan is a Brit.

Mel Gibson as William Wallace.

 

It really boggles the mind, doesn't it?

 

What’s weird about this one, I always thought Mel Gibson was Australian! I guess because Mad Max was an Australian production I just assumed he came out of Oz.

Skully (Gillian Anderson) as Margaret Thatcher in the Crown.