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Comment by TheCoreh | Hacker News Reader

> Hollywood doesn't really like asians to be their main characters

Sort of an odd statement considering Jackie Chan just won an honorary Oscar today.

Think of it this way: Ghost in the Shell is an anime adaption. Do you see the anime studios in Japan going out of their way to hire american voice actors whenever a character is american? If they don't, then why should US movie studios?

This notion that for whatever reason an actor can't play someone of a different ethnicity is a very recent sensitivity. Besides her obvious acting talent, they most likely picked Scarlet Johanson in the hopes that she'll bring a larger audience considering how popular she is among their intended audience.

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If ever there was a character where it wouldn't matter, it'd be the one of Major Motoko Kusanagi. Her lack of a human body makes it entirely irrelevant what race she is portrayed as.

The fact that the movie is largely about "what's on the inside" makes it a really poor target for anger about the actors' heritage.

> Her lack of a human body makes it entirely irrelevant what race she is portrayed as.

I get the "what's on the inside" idea - it could be irrelevant. But there are also reasons why it does matter. She's specifically using a generic-looking body to not stand out and the setting is Japan. Americans do stand out from a crowd in Japan. (although in the anime nobody else seemed to use the same model...)

I heard that reasoning forever:

* It's fine that Hugo Weaving used prosthetic eyelids to look asian, the movie is about reincarnation across different ethnicities

* Emma Stone can play a half-asian half-white character since the character is half-white anyways.

* Ang and the other 3/4 principals can be white in The Last Airbender, since...???

* Mickey Rooney was being funny in Breakfast at Tiffany's, don't take it so seriously

Imagine being an asian-american actor and losing a role for Motoko Kusanagi to a caucasian actor, when the industry already has a long history of preferentially casting caucasian actors in at least the past 20-30 years, and before that basically always hired caucasian actors to play other ethnicities, not always very respectfully.

I cannot agree. That Motoko is a Japanese woman is not irrelevant. What makes GITS interesting to many Westerners is precisely that it is a Japanese take on humans and technology. Instead of Hollywood's man vs machine it is a complex, deep marriage between the natural and the artificial.

Kusangi has the ghost of a Japanese woman even if the shell she has is a mass manufactured generic. I'd prefer Motoko to be a Japanese woman because that is just more interesting.

It's not just the Major, it's the entire cast, which seems to be largely devoid of Asian actors in prominent roles.

It's disgusting and incredibly disrespectful. I don't know how they can continue to make these insane casting choices.

Why bother even pretending its set in Japan if the characters all seem to want to distance themselves from even the appearance of being Japanese?

> If they don't, then why should US movie studios?

Because not all americans are white, and if there ever was a chance to see someone who looked like me in a movie being cool, I would hope it's the anime adaptation. GitS is merely the latest in a long line of movies to re-cast asian roles for caucasian actors. Some more: Avatar the last airbender, Aloha, Cloud Atlas was especially cringeworthy since caucasian actors had prosthetic eyelids... imagine if robert downey jr's character's blackface was played non-ironically.

I wouldn't mind if it just happens sometimes, but it happens almost every time... They could easily find american actors who speak perfect english, that's supposed to be one of the advantages of being a country of immigrants no?

I understand the financial motivations of a casting decision, but its somewhat of a catch 22. It's difficult to find minority actors who have lots of experience. It's difficult to get a lot of experience as a minority actor since you end up getting typecasted for a few roles.

Did you see Armitage III? Ross was voiced by Kiefer Sutherland.

That entire series was really well done. It does not surprise me at all that they hired good actors too.

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