Odd that nobody else is commenting about this, but like you , Nez, I have a lens too and also the film school background, in fact I worked in that industry from the age of 12 to 23 and then bugged out because of many things similar to what you are saying here, and multiplied by ten.
The amount of reality available in the film world is close to zero, it is a fantasy medium and a money medium principally, and not an ideal location for truth telling or having unpleasant realities displayed, although there are exceptions.
Although hard to believe, I have never seen Ms. Jolie in any forum, acting, adopting, working for the UN or playing a Cubana, but I read the other day that she showed up at a benefit wearing an off the rack $26 dollar dress, so I give her points for that. And she is very good looking, although maybe too bemba for her looks.
I had some disagreements with the recently deceased Gilliard about some of his opinions in this same area. If Jolie wants to play a Cubana, why not play a white Cubana is all I have to say. There are plenty of Cubans whiter than me {my friends from Cuba range from Chocolate Oscuro to Blanca Rosada}so I guess the problem is with the makeup, at least this is the problem under the Nez Lens.
The concept that the brown people don't get enough roles is valid and I agree there.
You and I {you , Nez} know that Jolie got the role because they needed a box office draw to finance the film. One of my close friends from the early seventies {gone now} was Raul Julia, I made his first films with him when he was still appearing on Broadway in Two Gentlemen of Verona. We talked about the film and pigmentation problems very often, so this is no new topic to me.
The entire film industry is whacked as hell.
BUT: now digital releases are so cheap to make, ANYONE can produce any film they want as long as it does not require big name stars and expensive special effects.
So, write a script and cast the film and roll the digital camera and get some brown people out there.
Comprende?
Si se puede, don't dwell in excuses.

you are absolutely right. a white cuban would change my feelings completely. but of course, the story wasn't about a white cuban.

and i agree: the off-the-rack cheepie dress is muy chido.

It gets particularly weird when you consider that Heston played the cop in 1958 and six years later, Anthony Quinn wound up playing Zorba the Greek. I mean, if Quinn wasn't good enough to play a supporting role as a Mexican in 1958, how did he suddenly pull off a lead role in 1964 playing a Greek?!

I know it's not directly related, but another Hollywood make-up story I've been thinking about lately is the dye job they put Forrest Whitaker through for "The Last King of Scotland" (which I finally got to see a couple of weeks ago). The make-up they slapped on Whitaker looked like a mud pack. If they absolutely HAD to make him darker (though most viewers wouldn't have known the difference), I can't believe that was the best make-up in the business. It was so noticeable as to be distracting. And why was that necessary? We all know it's a movie.

I'm surprised that anyone would characterize this post or the Colonizer of the Year Award post as you hating Jolie. Neither one comes across as attacking. The other one has a bite for sure, but taken especially with how you talk *about* the post in the comments... Anyway, everything you said makes sense. It's creepy.

If Ms. Joli was a great actor, maybe. Lawrence Olivier played Othello, Moor of Venice, and he sure doesn't look Moorish to me. But, could Oliver play Crazy Horse? Anthony Quinn (who was Mexican) did a credible job as Crazy Horse (and, come to think of it, Errol Flynn was pretty good as Custer). Of course, Quinn could play just about anybody, and be credible. But then, he was a real actor. Same with Anglo-Indian Boris Karloff -- he made a hokie Native American, but then, he was hokie in everything.

But, I realize Nezua is right... would we accept Forrest Whittaker as George Washington, or Chung Yow Fat as a Hugo Chavez? If it's theater, and the "willing suspension of disbelief" I might buy it, but obviously, the movies are trying to have it both ways... an actress playing a part and a "credible" stand-in for the role. Can't be done.

thank you joan. i appreciate that. i have to tell you, i was completely unprepared for the blowback. i pretty much kept away from the thread at JG's, where everyone piled on. i said a few things, but you know. when people are infuriated and not listening anymore, i dont engage that. but yeah. i hear you.

Nez, great post as always, but that David Carradine pic is killing me! His form is atrocious, in every way, it is horrible to behold. And he's supposed to be a Chinese master! And he's still riding that wave of yellowface, selling pseudo-spiritual-martial-arts books and doing YellowBook.com commercials (get it? yellow! hardy har!).

Regarding Jolie in brownface, when BFP posted about this a while back, I commented that "...going further back, this also reminds me of Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star, Anna May Wong, whose entire career consisted of playing dragon lady villainesses and prostitutes. In 1937, at the height of Wong’s success, Hollywood attempted to produce its first positive portrayal of Asians, The Good Earth, based on the novel by Pearl Buck. Anna May Wong was offered the part of Lotus, the wicked concubine, one of the few negative characters in the film; all positive Chinese characters were played by white actors. The lead role of O’Lan went to Luise Rainer. Wong refused to take part; Rainer won an Oscar for her performace."

In other words, this particular film is simply another chapter in Hollywood's consistent history of racism. Yeah obviously Jolie was chosen because she's a huge star, but the very system which generates Hollywood stars is racist, so let's see...

Richard, hehe actually Hollywood did cast Chow Yun Fat in a non-Chinese role: the king of Thailand in the remake of The King and I, a story about a white protagonist bringing civilization and enlightenment to Asia. Of course the role of the king was popularized by Yul Brynner, who was white. So whites can play characters of any race; and Asians can play Asians of a different ethnicity because who cares they all look alike (another example: Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li were both Japanese in Memoirs of a Geisha, which was written by a white man); but only whites can play whites. Neato!

Cheers.

thanks for the link, 'mano. i thought i remembered someone else posting on this somewhere.

jajajaja! david carradine! what a fool. i STILL have resentment that the brilliant bruce got edged out of his own junk by that guy, died a year later and WUT? are you serious??? "yellowbook"????

oh man.

yes, i agree...another chapter. i mean, i can't even make it halfway through Touch of Evil. and what about DW Griffith's masterpiece? Birth of a Nation? holeee. that's right at the start of film. you don't really get too much older than that, save the lumiere brothers.

jeje...good summation of the Ethnic Role Rules.

I feel you on "Touch of Evil." I also haven't been able to sit through the whole film, though I've tried a couple times cause it's supposed to be so great and all. And not just because Heston look ridiculous with all that make-up, and sounds like a jackass with that accent, but that white man is the only "good" Mexican. As I said, I haven't seen the whole thing, so maybe a Mexican or two who aren't rapists and drug dealers appear later in the film. I doubt it though.

I've been pissed about Jolie since I heard about it. Well, first I was shocked. It seems to me that Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" and whatshisface in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" have been held up as examples of the bad old days and the kind of casting Hollywood would never do anymore. So at first I was shocked; color me naive.

Now I'm just angry. It's impossible that the people involved in making the decision didn't know it would be controversial. They just didn't care. I take as a giant F-You to communities of color.

Salma Hayek spent a few years working to get the movie about Frida Kahlo into production. A few months before filming started, along came Madonna, trying to pull strings and get the lead. I was a little pissed, so I understand your take on this completely. It turned out to be a great movie. Madonna would have ruined it.

I don't know how far to take the "ethnic authenticity" argument. Not being Thai, Chung Yow Fat was a more credible King of Siam than the half-Mongolian Yul Brenner to me. But, then Brenner was probably a better Egyptian than Chuck Heston was as Moses! (Oy vey... playing both Mexicans AND Jews in his wooden style!)

Katie Jurado said she left Hollywood because the only good roles for Mexican actresses were as prostitutes. Of course, she won her Oscar playing a prostitute in High Noon. There's no way to believe Angela Joli as an Afro-Cuban, of course... but then Salma Hayek is no Hungarian-Mexican either.

I think that the issue of ethnic authenticity is more of a structural/institutional issue than an indiviual one. For each role, you can say "oh, but s/he did a good job!" or "but we couldn't get so-and-so" .. even "there aren't any good ______ actors/actresses around!" and stand a fair chance of that being true. But that's not where the problem lies. Summing up role by role by role doesn't give you anything, any more than summing up story after story of the one disadvantaged person that made it to the top gives you a good picture of what's happening in the country economically.

(Not that I'm saying that's what you're doing, Richard, but that this is my problem with the way these questions are generally evaluated.)

The problem with stuff like this is that the system sucks. As you point out, and as others pointed out here, a lot of the roles that are available to people of color (or other visible minorities) well, suck. And a system exists where we can are expected to suspend disbelief enough to accept Chinese women playing Japanese women, or Cuba Gooding Junior playing Eddie Murphy, but we can't even really think about a person of color playing a white person. Those things are the problems... not that any one role went to any one actress, or that any one person played a stereotypical or 'bad' character.