I’m a huge comic-book Thor fanboy (and couldn’t make it through the movie, I was so bored). But I say again: so what? Comics & movies aren’t the same medium. Movie-Thor was never a lame doctor, as I understand it, and never suffered from the 60-second limit in regards to the hammer; and movie-Jane Foster was a astrophysicist (I think), not a nurse or doctor. Did changing either of those bother you?
And people threw a shitfit about it.
Inscrutable too.
I didn’t even know about the character of Heimdall until I saw the movie, so I didn’t care if Idris Elba played him. Jessica Alba could have played him, and it wouldn’t have mattered to me. Actually, speaking of Alba, there’s another minority actor that played a white character in a Marvel production.
I was addressing Inner Stickler’s point that minorities never get roles that could be filled by whites and you can continue to press the point that Asgardians aren’t humans, so they can be whatever color they want to be, but that doesn’t change the fact that Heimdall is colored like a caucasian in the source material the movie was based on.
So? It still happenend.
Jessica Alba? 
I think we could pull up a lot of data points for this one. One of my close friends in high school was a quarter Japanese. I had no idea until I met his father, who was half-Japanese/half-Caucasian, but who had of Asian features. His son looked more white than everyone else I know.
So it happens. And by that logic, most of the characters could have at least some Chinese ancestry.
Jessica Alba is Hispanic, Sue Storm is not.
That would be even worse. There’s only one Asian in the cast and she’s a prostitute? The “Me love you long time!” connotations are horrible.
I actually forget she’s a prostitute. You’re right of course.
As my little sister is fond of saying, “Maybe so, maybe no.” General attitudes towards sex work are different in the Firefly-versek, as opposed to 21st-century America. Malcolm’s ostensible disdain for Inara’s profession is the exception, not the rule.
Ron Glass? Gina Torres?
Nine actors in the opening credits. Seven “white,” two “black,” colors in parentheses because I don’t really believe in human races except as a hurtful delusion probably set up by Mephistopheles. Anyway, “almost all-white” sounds right to me.
Morena Baccarin is Brazilian.
A) One or two examples of ethnic actors getting roles that would normally go to a white actor is small potatoes given the innumerable number of roles given to whites that could just as easily be given to ethnic actors.
B)You think a studio will be willing to engage in colorblind casting if they were going to have to deal with fanboy racists every time?
C) This thread proves that regardless of her heritage, people aren’t thinking of Alba as an ethnic actress.
True but irrelevant. We’re talking about reaction to the show, not reaction to the character within the fictional 'verse. If 21st century American’s find it objectionable that there are no Asians in the main cast when the fictional culture supposedly includes a Chinese influence, changing the actress playing prostitute character from Brazillian to Chinese doesn’t really help matters much. That’s all we’re saying. Inara’s a fine character, and not your typical depiction of a prostitute, but it still would be a probelematic choice, IMHO.
You said you guessed minority actors never got roles intended to be played by white actors. I gave counter-examples proving it happens, if rarely. Uncommon ≠ never.
A couple of things. I don’t like to participate in race-related questions as a rule because I know they’re so loaded and I’m not exactly coming to them from a emotionless viewpoint. But here I am all the same. These aren’t related or anything, they’re just three separate thoughts.
- I did say “almost all”. And you know what, two black people don’t count for me…not because I have any problem with blacks but these people are using Chinese and there’s Chinese signs and Chinese everywhere…and we couldn’t find one Chinese actor? Anywhere? Bull-fucking-shit. Not even for the bit roles? Is there ONE speaking part, anywhere, for a Chinese person? Is there anybody in the entire 13 episode run that is actually Chinese and talks?Why couldn’t there be? How about that big guy who married/got engaged to Saffron? One of the people in that little village with the drugs? Someone on the train? If there is, please tell me, because I don’t remember anyone.
- There is no doubt white people consistently get picked over non-whites. There was an article not too long ago in…Vanity Fair? Somewhere? Where they were talking about the promiment upcoming actresses. Everyone of them were white.
- Asian men do not, as a rule, get white women in movies or in tv shows. Hell, Will Smith is really popular - how many times has he been cast against a white woman and allowed to consumnate the relationship with her? Forget Asian men!
I think Inara could have also been Indian, or Pakistani. I think she would have been equally beautiful. And as I said before, I like the show. I watch a lot of sci-fi and fantasy shows and nearly all of them have all white people and I still love them. But there is no doubt in my mind that Hollywood is mostly racist and mysognistic. Not entirely, things are changing, just like things are changing in sexuality. Actually, this is one of the reasons I watch more British telly - Indians are common in their TV shows, and they are not special because they’re Indian. They just happen to be brown Englishpeople.
It IS getting better though. I certainly hope that what’s-his-face in Breakfast At Tiffany’s would never happen again - Mickey Rooney, that’s right. Ruined the movie for me, and I do love Miss Hepburn to death.
As for Thor. Come back and talk to me when Thor himself in Thor is cast by a non-white, not just most of the bad guys. Then maybe I’ll acknowledge some color-blindness!
Oh, and lastly - I know Inara is not really a prostitute. It’s actually the reason I forget. But that doesn’t change the fact that it would be loaded to cast her as Asian, especially if she was the ONLY Asian in the cast. If you had more than one, then you might be able to do it.
ETA:
But you know, when we say things like this, or dare to complain, we get accused of…well, all kinds of things. Like, “Don’t watch the movies - no one’s asking you to watch them!” Or “There’s no white people in Bollywood movies!” (Actually there are.) I mean, there’s really no way to win this. I accept I live in a predominantly white country, OK? I love it here! I love the movies and the TV and the culture. I just wish…well, wish in one hand and shit in another and see which gets full first, right? 
Please point out where someone said they were going to give the roles to white actors but the ethnic actors were too good to pass up.
I suppose if there were two white guys and 7 black guys, it might sound OK to say the cast was almost all-black. But still, that’s 22% white. Seems like that’s not an insignificant percentage.
Anyway, back to the Chinamen. Firefly is a western, set in space. I suppose there’s a bit of unconscious or semiconscous bias towards American-looking actors. Plus one half-chinese guy who wanders from town to town.
And 1 out of 4 is 25% but if you had 4 apples and I took 3, I doubt you’d have any difficulty saying I took almost all your apples.
And east is east and west is west, and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.