With the recent controversy following Emma Stone's casting in "Aloha" and this year's very white Oscars, it's undeniable that the film industry has a serious race problem. But a new video from BuzzFeed shines a light on a type of offensive racial stereotyping still going on today.
In the BuzzFeed video, a handful of East Asian people react to yellowface, or when a non-Asian actor wears makeup to appear Asian, in classic and recent films. The participants watch clips from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the film that famously cast white actor Mickey Rooney as a cranky Japanese landlord, and "The Teahouse of the August Moon," which showed Marlon Brando as a Japanese interpreter. "Watching this feels really dehumanizing," one person says of Brando's performance in the BuzzFeed video.
But yellowface isn't just a thing from the days of classic Hollywood; it's also popped up in recent movies and TV shows. "How I Met Your Mother" fans will remember the episode where Alyson Hannigan played a stereotypical Asian woman for a kung fu movie tribute (which received well-deserved backlash)."It's not homage anymore when you start playing someone else's race," one man tells BuzzFeed. Another example is when white English actor James D'Arcy portrayed an East Asian character in the Wachowskis' "Cloud Atlas," which one viewer said was "really racist." Uh, yeah. How about casting some East Asian actors, Hollywood?
For more, head to BuzzFeed.
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