# Other Cringeworthy Blackface/Yellowface/Etc. movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 23, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135 "2026-06-23T15:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/161 "2026-06-26T16:05:37Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned Godfrey Cambridge in the 1970 film, Watermelon Man. He portrays a white man (in whiteface) who one day wakes up as black (in natural-face). > > The film contrasts activities that in one society are normal, but a parallel society, quite different. One, as white man, is normal – sprinting to catch the bus to work and cutting across lawns for a shortcut. But who, as a black man, is arrested as a suspicious criminal, trespassing for nefarious intent. I’m failing to see the cringe factor here. It’s a satire about racism, and considering the story, I’m at a loss as to what kind of casting they might have done that wasn’t a person of one race portraying another part of the time. > [@furryman](#): > > One of my mom’s biggest complaints was that in the movie Madame Curie she was played by Greer Garson, who to put it bluntly was much prettier than the real Madame Curie. Was Marie Curie being homely important to the story of her life, her relationship to her husband, and especially her dedication to her science? If not, then what difference did it make (all respect to your mother, of course)? If so, then she might have a good point. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/162 "2026-06-27T02:22:46Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Robert Downey Jr.’s blackface portrayal seems to have avoided criticism, though. At least not that I’ve heard. > > At the time that _Tropic Thunder_ came out, I do remember there being controversy about the role; some seemed to be from people who didn’t understand that it was a parody of the practice, while others seemed to be from people who found that, even as a parody, it was still unacceptable. I don’t recall anyone every criticizing RDJ’s playing Kirk Lazarus playing Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris. I think mostly because it was played as such a parody of an actor engaging in the practice with such earnestness, having no idea why he was so offensive. I do recall Ben Stiller getting a lot of crap for his “full retard” portrayal of Tugg Speedman playing Simple Jack. > [@Loach](#): > > > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > > > Emma Stone as a part-Chinese, part-Hawaiian woman in Aloha. > > This one slightly annoys me. She was playing a character based on someone Cameron Crowe met. The person he met was part Asian, had an Asian last name, talked a lot about her Asian heritage but looked like a blonde white woman. In other words she looked like Emma Stone. Having someone who looked Asian would defeat the purpose. Emma Stone wasn’t doing yellowface because she was playing someone who was supposed to look like her. She wasn’t made up to look Asian. It’s been awhile since I saw that film and no particular interest in watching it again. But did her ancestry have any particular bearing on the plot whatsoever? Scarlet Johansson got a lot of crap for her portrayal of Major Motoko Kusanagi in the live action **Ghost in the Shell.** Although the creator of the original manga even stated there’s no reason a manufactured cyborg living in a made up Asian-themed megalopolis couldn’t have been made to look like Scarlet Johansson. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/163 "2026-06-27T03:09:59Z")
Not everyone living in an Asian megalopolis looks the same, any more than everybody in New York City looks the same. However, I suspect what is really going on in this case is people are trying to think way too hard about something that even the author said is not in the manga, as opposed to the actual themes of the manga. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/164 "2026-06-27T14:07:05Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > It’s been awhile since I saw that film and no particular interest in watching it again. But did her ancestry have any particular bearing on the plot whatsoever? It had bearing to her character because like the real life person she was based on she made in central to her character. A person of Asian descent who didn’t look Asian who felt it necessary to point out her background. She was a person in real life that the writer felt was interesting enough to make into a movie character (as he has done his entire career). Maybe it was too fine a needle to thread in a movie, The other choice was to not write the character at all which he probably wishes he did now. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/165 "2026-06-27T17:03:02Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > there’s no reason a manufactured cyborg living in a made up Asian-themed megalopolis couldn’t have been made to look like Scarlet Johansson One could make the same argument about the Seoul-dwelling androids Oliver and Claire in the Broadway musical _Maybe Happy Ending_ - and yet the producers faced pushback when they cast white actor Andrew Barth Feldman for a short run as Oliver, because the roles had been exclusively played by Asian actors until then. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/166 "2026-06-27T17:56:22Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > sort of boomerang brownface, take a close look at the actor in the purple dress in this scene from 1961’s West Side Story. That’s Nobuko Miyamoto, aka Joanne Maya, a Japanese-American, interned during World War 2, as the Puerto Rican Francesca _West Side Story_ also had the perplexing situation of actual Puerto Rican players in the cast being redundantly brownfaced — because surprise, surprise, many of us are phenotypically “too white”-looking. But of course that movie has the cringier casting decision, that in a _musical_ where the lead is a Latina, the role went to non-singing Russian-American Natalie Wood. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/167 "2026-06-27T18:22:17Z")
To be fair, the original Broadway productio starred actress Carol Lawrence as Maria and she was WAY more white bread than Natalie Wood ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/168 "2026-06-27T18:22:29Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > _West Side Story_ also had the perplexing situation of actual Puerto Rican players in the cast being redundantly brownfaced — because surprise, surprise, many of us are phenotypically “too white”-looking. Similarly, Samuel L. Jackson “blacked up” for his performance as the house slave in _Django Unchained_. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/169 "2026-06-27T18:47:07Z")
Was not aware of that! A terrific performance, his… ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/170 "2026-06-27T19:05:33Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > But of course that movie has the cringier casting decision, that in a _musical_ where the lead is a Latina, the role went to non-singing Russian-American Natalie Wood. With the singing dubbed by Marni Nixon. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/171 "2026-06-27T19:17:54Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Was Marie Curie being homely important to the story of her life, her relationship to her husband, and especially her dedication to her science? If not, then what difference did it make (all respect to your mother, of course)? If so, then she might have a good point. I feel like the point of a movie starring a plainer Marie Curie would be that anyone can succeed, not just beautiful women. Of course the real question is: would such a movie succeed? Probably not. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/172 "2026-06-27T19:26:07Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Of course the real question is: would such a movie succeed? Probably not. I think the real question is, what story are the movie-makers trying to tell? I haven’t seen that particular movie, or at least I don’t remember having done so, but it is possible that her looks, good or indifferent, are irrelevant to the story. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/173 "2026-06-27T22:57:08Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > Hard to believe they were still willing to use Flip as a character in a Little Nemo movie made in 1989. > > Isnt Flip a green skinned frog like person? [You](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/4/44/Flip-little-nemo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20141228233034) [make](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fflip-little-nemo-v0-vlingn6zfzbe1.jpeg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D415e1037f43f0f9f55f104fd7ce291092a971b42) [the](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR5t9We6kARK4kiX-P_cNm07tfOqtfQW8Ao9w&s) [call](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTwAN8GgBUm4CFFrS72KL0QqcpRRLml5eHgRA&s). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/174 "2026-06-28T00:45:13Z")
Yep, green and frog like. First image doesnt come up. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/175 "2026-06-28T02:26:57Z")
Skimming through this thread to post a specific example, but did anybody mention Gene Wilder in _Silverstreak_? Now, TBF, he plays someone doing a laughably bad job of pretending to be black to get past law enforcement not a black character, but still pretty cringey to watch now, at least for me. Recently I watched _The Awakening_, 1980 mummy horror story with **Miriam Margolyes** as an Egyptian obstetrician. Not a very good movie, but yeah, her scenes are pretty cringe. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/176 "2026-06-28T02:48:34Z")
Is it cringey if it’s supposed to be cringey? Given Richard Pryor’s in character reaction it was, IMHO, supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/177 "2026-06-28T03:20:24Z")
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this one earlier. In “Uncivil Warbirds” (1946), the Three Stooges play Confederate soliders trying to spy on Union officers. To that end, they employ a variety of guises/disguises, to include all three of them in blackface (and Curly in drag). Definitely cringeworthy. But I cut them a little slack because of the memorable line from Moe (“You ejaculated a mouthful!”) and their immortal redition of “Dixie”: _Oh, way down south in New York City Cotton grows on the trees so pretty On the trees? One the trees In the South? South Brooklyn_ ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/178 "2026-06-28T08:58:54Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Skimming through this thread to post a specific example, but did anybody mention Gene Wilder in _Silverstreak_? Now, TBF, he plays someone doing a laughably bad job of pretending to be black to get past law enforcement not a black character, but still pretty cringey to watch now, at least for me. Maybe. I’m laughing too hard, especially when Richard Pryor says “We’ll get past the cops – I just hope we don’t see no Muslims.” A “yellowface” that gets a lot of flack: British Caucasian actor John Bennett’s portrayal of the Chinese magician Li H’sen Chang in the _Doctor Who_ story “The Talons of Weng-Chiang.” Just about all of the Chinese characters (most of them played by Asians, at least) were Tong henchmen. At one point Chang, in his stage magician act, has the Doctor volunteer to go inside his “magic cabinet”. When Chang and his assistant are spinning the cabinet around, the Doctor casually saunters out, while the audience laughs. Chang opens the cabinet, finds the Doctor gone, and mutters to the audience: “It appears one of us is yellow.” Oof. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/179 "2026-06-28T09:11:07Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > I’m laughing too hard, especially when Richard Pryor says “We’ll get past the cops – I just hope we don’t see no Muslims.” Which had a very different connotation in 1975! > **[Nation of Islam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Islam)** > > The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical group committed to black nationalism, it focuses attention on the black African diaspora, especially on African Americans. While describing itself as Islamic and using Islamic terminology, its religious tenets differ substantially from orthodox Islamic traditions. Scholars of religion characterize it as a new religious movement. As of 2007 it was estimated to have 50,... ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/180 "2026-06-28T19:55:41Z")
Shakespeare has been mentioned, but specifically, how restricted should any of these roles be? Can a Gentile play Shylock? (Should that play even be performed any more?) Can a non-African play Othello (considering the wide range of what a “Moor” might be). I remember cringing in 1965 at Olivier’s movie version, which was only partly because of the blackface. What about the descendant works, like the opera Otello? Madame Butterfly? When I was in college they were producing The Importance of Being Earnest, and I was in love with the 1950 recording that included Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell. I really, really wanted to try out for Lady Bracknell myself (I didn’t, just because I didn’t have the chutzpah) but would I have been wrong to do so? Stephen Fry has done so himself in recent years, although I didn’t care for what I saw of it. I guess my point is, how much do great works/classics get a pass from the odium usually associated with blackface, yellowface and brownface? I don’t think anyone here is prepared to say that these kinds of casting should never, ever be done. I think we should give an Asian woman a chance to play Hamlet, if she wants to and people want to see it, and I think it’s still considered normal and not shocking to cast non-Asian singers as Butterfly. Where and how do you draw the line? Or is it like the judge’s definition of obscenity, you know bad racial casting when you see it, even if you can’t articulate it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=10)