Sensitive casting decisions are never guaranteed in Hollywood. And in a world where Aladdin extras are still done up in brownface, the end of whitewashing controversies isn't in sight. Here are 11 castings that famously raised protests:
1. Scarlett Johansson – Ghost in the Shell
There are two projects that incur the anti-whitewashing ire of fans like no others, and both happen to be live-action manga/anime adaptations – Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Hollywood seems to think the only option it has is to take these Japanese classics and cast a load of white actors in them.
While we're still keeping our fingers crossed for no Akira ever, Scarlett Johansson's best Motoko Kusanagi impression wasn't enough to assuage the controversy over Ghost In the Shell. And it's not just the fans who were protesting – Agents of SHIELD's Ming-Na Wen isn't impressed either.
2. Mickey Rooney – Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Truman Capote film is an undisputed classic, but the contempt for Mickey Rooney's horrible Japanese caricature IY Yunioshi has only grown over the years.
Producer Richard Shepherd has claimed that he wanted to cast a Japanese actor in the role, and has even gone so far as to say, "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie," with director Blake Edwards adding that he "would give anything to be able to recast it".
3. Johnny Depp – The Lone Ranger
Some of these castings can be put down to out-dated ideas about race, but by 2013 people were asking whether Johnny Depp was really the wisest casting for Tonto.
Despite the actor's vague claims to Native American ancestry, audiences were apparently not convinced – one among many reasons The Lone Ranger flopped.
4. Matt Damon – The Great Wall
It may be helmed by celebrated director Zhang Yimou and the rest of the cast may be mostly filled out by Asian actors, but that didn't stop Matt Damon from playing the hero who defends all of China from dragons.
While it isn't the most egregious example of the 'White Saviour' trope, it got more than a few backs up.
5. Fisher Stevens – Short Circuit
The much-loved '80s sci-fi comedies Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2 became somewhat less loved when audiences noticed that Indian-American engineer Ben Jabituya (Ben Jahveri in the sequel) was played by "thin, white Jewish kid from Chicago" Fisher Stevens.
Years later, Parks and Recreation's Aziz Ansari spoke to Stevens about how the casting made him feel as a young man of Indian descent. Not great, it turns out.
6. Laurence Olivier – Othello
The decision to black up legendary stage actor Laurence Olivier as Shakespeare's jealous general in 1966 was deemed pretty insensitive at the height of America's Civil Rights Movement – and that's even before taking into account his made-up accent and weird limp. None of which stopped him bagging an Oscar nomination for the role, of course.
Olivier had some pretty ripe things to say about his "transformation", which you can find here if you insist on subjecting yourself to them.
7. Jake Gyllenhaal – Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
More like Prince of Southern California.
Fortunately, Gyllenhaal had Gemma Arterton there alongside him to add all the exotic mystery of Gravesend to the "insulting", orientalist proceedings.
8. John Wayne – The Conqueror
They may say that 1 in 200 men are descended from Genghis Khan, but we're not sure that Western icon John Wayne was one of them.
The Howard Hughes production – which featured a complete lack of Asian actors even beyond Wayne's Mongol emperor – is considered one of the worst films of all time, and that's even before you factor in the rumours that a nearby nuclear-testing site gave The Conqueror's cast and crew cancer.
9. Rober Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder
Controversial perhaps because of how not-that-controversial it was at the time for Downey Jr to don blackface to play method actor Kirk Lazarus in Ben Stiller's Hollywood in-joke laden comedy.
The actor even received a Oscar nomination for the role. Of course it's satire – Downey Jr isn't playing a black actor, he's playing an ignorant and arrogant white actor who has his skin darkened for a role. Funny? Problematic? You decide.
10. Pretty much everyone in Exodus: Gods and Kings
People were less than pleased – see the #boycottexodusmovie hashtag for details – when the Biblical Israelites vs Egyptians tale cast was filled out with English, Australian and white American actors in its lead roles.
Matters weren't helped by director Ridley Scott piping up to say that he wouldn't have got the film funded if the "lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such". If only Sir Ridley were more influential and better established...
