25 Times White Actors Played People Of Color And No One Really Gave A S**t

Film: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) is a Hollywood classic that centers on the romance between young New York socialite Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) and a man who moves into her building.

Character’s Background: Mr. Yunioshi is Holly’s hot-tempered Japanese landlord, who she consistently tries to avoid. 

Actor’s Background: Mickey Rooney was not Japanese. In one of the most outlandish displays of yellowface and Hollywood stereotyping, the American-born actor of Scottish descent had slanted eyelids, buck teeth and a thick accent in the film. 

Film: “The 33” (2015) recounts the true story of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days.

Character’s Background: Maria Segovia was the real-life sister of one of the miner’s trapped underground. Above ground she was known for her efforts with “Campo Esperanza,” a makeshift tent community in the Atacama Desert where family members of the miners lived to stay close to their relatives. She is Chilean, with a dark brown complexion. 

Actress’ Background: Juliette Binoche is a French actress, whose complexion is much fairer compared to the real Maria’s complexion.

Film: “The Last Airbender” (2010) is based on a Nickelodeon cartoon featuring tribes and characters of Asian and Native American-descent and their journey to stop the Fire Nation from taking over their tribes.

Characters’ Background: Katara, her brother Sokka and the rest of the Water Tribe are said to be primarily influenced by the Inuit people and culture. Aang, the titular character of the film and series, is of Asian ancestry. 

Casts’ Background: The actors who portrayed the three main character mentioned above were all white with no Asian or Native American ancestry — Noah Ringer as Aang, Nicola Peltz as Katara, and Jackson Rathbone as Sokka. And the actors of color that were cast in the film? They were all cast as villains.

Film: “Othello” (1965) is one of many film adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name.

Character’s Background: Othello is a general in the Venetian army. He is also a Christian Moor, which means he is generally depicted with a dark-complexion. 

Actor’s Background: British actor Laurence Olivier has no African or Arab roots, which is why he wore full-on blackface to portray the jealous Moor. That’s right, he painted his skin several shades darker to play Othello.

Film: “West Side Story” (1961) is a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In this version, a young girl and boy from rival New York City gangs fall in love.

Character’s Background: Maria is the younger sister of Bernardo — the leader of the Puerto Rican gang, The Sharks. So, she’s Puerto Rican. 

Actress’ Background: Natalie Wood was not Puerto Rican or Latina, the actress was of Russian descent. But Maria wasn’t the only whitewashed role in the film, with the notable exception of Rita Moreno who won an Oscar for her role as Anita, most of the Puerto Ricans in the film were portrayed by non-Latino actors.

Also pictured above is opera singer Isabel Leonard, of Argentine-descent, who portrayed Maria in a rendition of “One Hand, One Heart” during the Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series in 2012. See, Hollywood? It can be done.

Film: “The Lone Ranger” (2013) is a film-adaptation of the hit TV series of the same name. The movie was more centered on Native American warrior Tonto and his recollection of John Reid’s, aka the Lone Ranger, origin story. 

Character’s Background: Tonto is a Native American warrior. In the 1950s TV series, he is portrayed by First Nation actor Jay Silverheels (also pictured above) who in real-life was a member of the Mohawk tribe.

Actor’s Background: Johnny Depp is not member of any First Nation tribe, though he told Entertainment Weekly he has “some Native American somewhere down the line” and that it might be Cherokee or Creek. If the claim is true, the franchise would still have gone from casting an actual First Nation actor in the 1950s to one of mostly European-descent in the 2010s. 

Film: “Dragon Seed” (1944) is a film set during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Jade is a Chinese woman that leads her village to fight against Japanese invaders. 

Character’s Background: Again, Jade is a meant to be a Chinese woman living in a small village in China. 

Actress’ Background: Katharine Hepburn was not Chinese, or of Asian-descent. The American-born actress was of mixed-European descent. 

Film: “Cleopatra” (1963) is a historical epic that follows Cleopatra’s passionate affairs with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Not to mention its one of the most extravagant and expensive movies ever made. 

Character’s Background: Cleopatra was Egypt’s last independent pharaoh. She is widely believed to have been of Macedonian descent, though many modern-day scientists insist she also had African roots. That means that it is very unlikely that Cleopatra was as fair-skinned and light-eyed as Hollywood portrays her. 

Actress’ Background: Elizabeth Taylor was born in England to American parents. Her family’s ancestry was rooted in Western European.

Film: “21” (2008) is a film based on true events that follows the story of a brilliant MIT student who is trained, along with other students, to become an expert card counter in blackjack. 

Character’s Background: The protagonist of the film, Ben Campbell, is actually based on real-life MIT card counter and blackjack player Jeffrey Ma. Ma is an American of Chinese descent. In fact, most of the real-life blackjack team was of Asian descent but were portrayed in the film by white actors. 

Actor’s Background: Jim Sturgess is a British actor, who required a dialect coach to master an American accent for the role. While Sturgess’ role in “21” was completely whitewashed, the actor is also known for having worn full-on yellowface for his “Cloud Atlas” character in 2012.

Film: “A Beautiful Mind” (2001) is a movie based on the life and career of brilliant mathematician John Nash.   

Character’s Background: Alicia (born Alicia Lardé) is an MIT student who would later become John’s wife. The real Alicia was Salvadorian. 
 
Actress’ Background: Jennifer Connelly is not Latina and has no Latin American roots. The actress is of mixed-European descent. Connelly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role in 2002.

Film: “Noah” (2014) is a retelling of the biblical story of a man chosen by God and entrusted with a mission as he purges the Earth with an apocalyptic flood.

Character’s Background: Noah, much like other biblical figures, is from somewhere in ancient Middle East. That means it’s unlikely that he was so fair-skinned.

Actor’s Background: Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand and is of mixed-European descent. He wasn’t the only whitewashed character in the film, fellow cast members included Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson.

Film: “Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014) is based on the biblical story of Moses and his defiance against Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses as he leads thousands of slaves out of Egypt. 

Character’s Background: Moses, like Noah, hails from ancient Middle East. He eventually leads the enslaved Israelites to freedom. 

Actor’s Background: Christian Bale is a British actor with no Middle Eastern ancestry. He’s also far from the only white actor in the film, Australian actor Joel Edgerton portrays Ramses.

After a blog calling the film “racist” for having white leads while people of color were cast as servants and slaves went viral and the hashtag #BoycottExodusMovie began to trend, director Scott Ridley defended his decisions with a simple excuse: money. 

“I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,” Scott told Variety. “I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come up.” And that was that. The film still went on to make over $260 million worldwide.

Film: “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” (2010) is based on the video game franchise that follows the fugitive fictional prince of Persia, Dastan, on different adventures. 

Character’s Background: Unsurprisingly, the Prince of Persia is meant to be Persian. Persia is actually what most people recognize as present-day Iran.

Actor’s Background: Jake Gyllenhall is not Iranian. He was born in California and is of mixed-European and Jewish descent.

Films: “Short Circuit” (1986) is a sci-fi franchise about an experimental robot that is struck by lighting and gains human-like intelligence.

Character’s Background: One of the robot’s inventors is Ben Jabituya, a scientist of Indian descent. 

Actor’s Background: Fisher Stevens is not of Indian ancestry and essentially donned brownface for the role. For comparison, pictured above is real-life Nobel Prize-winning Indian scientist Har Gobind Khorana. 

Film: “The House of Spirits” (1993) is a film based on Chilean writer Isabel Allende’s bestseller of the same name. It tells the story of a rancher, his wife and their family as they face turbulent times in Chile.

Character’s Background: Clara del Valle Trueba is a clairvoyant and the wife of said rancher. Much like all of the characters in the film and book, she is Chilean.

Actress’ Background: Streep is not Latina or of Latin American descent. She is of mixed-European ancestry.

Film: “The King and I” (1956) is a musical set in Siam (present-day Thailand) and centered around a British widow who becomes a live-in governess to the King of Siam’s children. 

Character’s Background: As the King of Siam, he is of Southeast Asian descent.

Actor’s Background: Yul Brynner was mainly of Russian descent. 

Film: “The Good Earth” (1937) is based on the historical novel of the same name and centers on a family of farmers struggling in China. 

Character’s Background: The protagonists of the story Wang and O-Lan are — you guessed it — Chinese. 

Actor’s Background: Wang is portrayed by Paul Muni and O-Lan is portrayed by Luise Rainer. Neither were of Asian descent. Both wore yellowface for their roles.

Film: “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) is the final film in the Dark Knight trilogy, which center on the DC Comics vigilante Batman. 

Character’s Background: Ra’s Al Ghul is one the biggest and longest-standing villains in the Batman universe. He is said to have been born in Arabia and is considered to be of Arab-descent.

Actor’s Background: Liam Neeson is just one of many white actors to portray the character on film. He is Irish.

Film: “Drive” (2011) is based on a novel of the same name and centers around a skilled Hollywood stuntman and getaway driver that runs into trouble when he tries to help out his neighbor, Irene.

Character’s Background: In the book, the stuntman’s neighbor is actually Irina — a young Latina woman in her twenties. In the movie, the character was re-written as Irene.  

Actor’s Background: Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn said he re-wrote the character of Irina to be a white character because he couldn’t find a Latina actress he wanted to protect…? “I couldn’t find any actress that would click with me personally,” he told The Huffington Post. “I couldn’t make a decision for some reason. I had all this talent in front of me and out of the blue I get a call from Carey because she wanted to meet me about doing a movie. She came by the house and she walked in and I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is what I was looking for. I wanted to protect her’ … And I knew that was the Driver’s motivation.”