As it happens, there is one living in the United States.
Maybe some enterprising reporter will ask him.
How are we supposed to pronounce the surname? Having lived in Sweden for ten years it kind of hurts the ears to pronounce it with a hard G.
Did anyone get arsey about the British (of Indian descent) Naveen Andrews playing an Iraqi on Lost?
I’ve never uynderstood this ridiculous conceit that we need the “right” ethnic people to play the roles in our film. Good lord, this is America, dammit! This is where we have people named John Running-Bear Wu (real person, BTW)! Screw Ethnicity! We’ll damn well use whatever we can cast that acts halfway well and looks hot while doing, and you will bloody well sit down and enjoy it (preferably with popcorn and a soda, and maybe some raisinettes).
Except that this approach overwhelmingly benefits only one group.
I’ve never heard his name pronounced with a hard G. I’ve always heard it JILL-en-hall.
Really? SO we need Affirmative Action to ensure that only properly-bred people with a discrete pedigree can attain those roles doles out for them? They can’t it by, y’know, talent? And who, exactly, shall decide who gets what role? Frankly, this pathetic liberal crap where “Asian” people get “Asian” roles is one of the most insipid peices of self-righteous tripe I’ve ever heard. There is no such fucking people as “Asian”, or “White”, or even “Black”.
Fair enough. I get all sorts of confused really easily.
See also: Scarlet Johansson. According to Mark Kermode that is pronounced joe-hansson, despite her Father being from Denmark.
ISTR that she basically said “pronounce it however you want” but was coy about how she personally pronounces her name.
Did anyone have a problem with an Arab (ok Copt) like Omer Shareef playing a Russian or German?
What about Sergeant Lincoln Osiris?
Now it’s on Yahoo:
http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/2642/prince-of-what/fp#photo0
Times have changed, I guess. Nobody complained about Kerwin Matthews playing an awfully anglo Sinbad in Seventh Voyage of Sinbad*. Or Guy Williams as Sinbad in Captain Sinbad. They actually complimented John Philip Law’s “ethnic” look for Golden Voyage of Sinbad 9even though he’s not remotely Arabic, or any other area ethnicity). And no one complained at Patrick Wayne (John Wayne’s son! Shades of The Conqueror!) playing the role in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
Heck, as recently as 2002 no one was complaining that Brad Pitt was doing Sinbad’s voice (and the drawn character not looking very geographically-appropriate) in the animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. And there are quite a few other Sinbad movies out therre.
Howcum Sinbad can get away with it, but Aang in Last Airbender can’t?
Sinbad and the Prince are the same “race” as the actors playing them, just a different ethnic group. I guess the Airbender kid is intended to be Asian, which puts it in the category of “yellowface.” From what I read, it’s not technically earth though, and so his ethnicity derives from the American creators trying to make an anime pastiche and giving the characters kung-fu traits.
Jake’s tanned and dirty in that role, not in blackface. No biggie.
And Jemma is smokin’ hawt regardless of the ethnicity of her character.
It’s not even remotely Earth, and in fact there’s not much racial or even ethnic differentiation anyway - the characters have a few minor differences, but nothing major. Nor do they really look east Asian in any definable sense.
They did borrow a lot of cultural tidbits, though. The Air nomads are a mix of Mongolian and Tibetan influences )historically appropriate, too), the Fire Nation Japanese/Korean (likewise), the Earth Kingdom Chinese, and the Water Tribe more or less generically eskimo. But the few “ethnic” identities seem to be limited to Water tribe having slightly darker skin than the Fire Nation than the Earth Kingdom than the Air Nomads. That’s… about… it.
I recall a fair amount of complaint about that, actually. Although in this case, it wasn’t just a case of casting an actor against his ethnicity - they rewrote the character to change him from an Arab into a Greek.
What you should have said:
“Yeah, and Hilary Swank has a vagina, and she won an Oscar pretending she has a dick. That’s what actors do. They pretend.”
-Ari Gold, Entourage
Iranians do freckle, but it’s generally not a desired thing there. There are blonde Iranians too.
I watched the trailer and I must say the costumes and architecture struck me as being not-Persian. Also the movie looks like there is sand everywhere which is not the way Iran really is. There are also palm trees in the trailer. My wife never saw a palm tree once when she lived in Iran.
Here’s a video with an Iranian singer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw2Q5-56oCU&feature=related
I don’t think Jake would look out of place at all next to her.
Middle East South Asia freckles are a BIG no no. I have a fellow Barrister who freckles and she puts make up to hide it.
Incidentally rePalm Trees, its not Iran its the Persian Empire (thye Sassanid Empire to be exact) and it definatly rules areas with Palm Trees.
Having just come back from watching this film I’d like to make clear that the issue is not Gyllengal playing a Persian prince, it is the fact that the film is complete, unmitigated, shit.