Super Social Analysis: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and LGBT in Movies

[proserpina65]

Quote

It's not like she's attacking the film in a fit of bigotry.

I think Zuleikha's point is that Ms. Wu accused the film of being a White Savior story based solely on the trailer, without having actually seen the film.  Which is a joint Chinese/US production directed by a Chinese director and featuring a primarily Asian cast, so maybe wait see the film itself and then criticize if it really is a White Savior movie.  I can see the basis of the criticism, given the trailer's prominent featuring of Matt Damon, but trailers have been known to radically misrepresent the films for which they were made.  Personally I'm hoping it is a case of misrepresentation by trailer because then the movie itself might be interesting; the trailer isn't particularly.

[slf]

14 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I think Zuleikha's point is that Ms. Wu accused the film of being a White Savior story based solely on the trailer, without having actually seen the film.  Which is a joint Chinese/US production directed by a Chinese director and featuring a primarily Asian cast, so maybe wait see the film itself and then criticize if it really is a White Savior movie.  I can see the basis of the criticism, given the trailer's prominent featuring of Matt Damon, but trailers have been known to radically misrepresent the films for which they were made.  Personally I'm hoping it is a case of misrepresentation by trailer because then the movie itself might be interesting; the trailer isn't particularly.

No, I get what Zuleikha's saying, absolutely. I just don't think Wu necessarily has to. You're supposed to judge a movie by it's trailer. And between the trailer and the summary Wu (and many, many other people) felt there was enough to criticize.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, slf said:

No, I get what Zuleikha's saying, absolutely. I just don't think Wu necessarily has to. You're supposed to judge a movie by it's trailer. And between the trailer and the summary Wu (and many, many other people) felt there was enough to criticize.

I'm sorry, I must've misinterpreted your comment because it certainly didn't sound like you got what she was saying in that specific post.  Also, I stand firmly in the "Never judge a movie by its trailer" camp because I've found that they are rarely representative of the actual film, in both bad and good ways.  We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

[slf]

Yeah, I get that. And hey, if it turns out the movie isn't like that I'll be happy to admit it, certainly. I expect Wu will be as well. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[angora]

I feel similarly - I'd love it if this is an amazing film with heroic, complex Asian leads and not a hint of White Savior-ness, and I'll more than happily eat crow if that's the case.  Given the many uncool movie decisions of recent years, though, I don't feel obligated to give the film my trust before it earns it.

Although, if it does turn out to be wonderful, I'd still question the choice to promote it in such a way that makes it look so racially tone-deaf; even in this article, where Zhang Yimou defends the casting and says Damon is one of five heroes (the other four of which are Chinese,) the poster on the imbedded trailer is the same one we've seen before, showing only Damon's face and only his name.  You'd think that, with the controversies that have stirred up over race and casting with other films, the people behind the movie would be at least slightly cognizant of how this was going to look and come out of the gate with promotional materials that would at least ATTEMPT to assuage doubts many viewers would have, rather than give Damon the only lines in the trailer and put out posters making it look like the fact that he's in it is all you need to know about the film.

[Ambrosefolly]

I normally hate reboots, especially if the previous films were well made, but I wouldn't mind a reboot of Blade with either Chiwetal Ejiofor or Idris Elba, since Blade is supposed to be British.

[Trini]

More casting news for the "female Ocean's Eleven" movie, which will actually be an Ocean's Eleven sequel, it seems.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Trini

[PatternRec]

On 7/19/2016 at 3:04 PM, Bruinsfan said:

Sent her a complimentary tweet myself. I hope she gets cast as whatever movie/game/comic book characters will give these people the most cardiac arrests over the next few years and makes millions of dollars doing it.

Leslie Jones as Duke Nukem, re-imagining the whitest misogynist in gaming as a black woman should do it. Better yet, make it a grindhouse-style double feature with a Tina Fey scripted Leisure Suit Larry Laura. hahaha

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm honestly so fucking excited for that.  Put Rihanna in all of the movies

[topanga]

48 minutes ago, Trini said:

More casting news for the "female Ocean's Eleven" movie, which will actually be an Ocean's Eleven sequel, it seems.

I don't want to see this. Not because the cast will be female. Just because I don't want to see another sequel. Of an already rebooted movie that had 2 sequels too many.

[Trini]

I do want to see a female-led caper/action movie, but I don't think it needed to be connected to O's 11 -- people would have been comparing it to that anyway.

[PatternRec]

In regards to The Great Wall we're all missing the real point: why are the Mongolians being portrayed as fire-breathing komodo dragons? 

[Princess Sparkle]

I know people can be iffy on her, but I hope the 8th member of the team is Melissa McCarthy.  She and Sandra Bullock had such amazing comedic chemistry in The Heat, and I would love to see them work together again.  I can completely envision them with the same kind of dynamic that George Clooney & Brad Pitt had in Oceans 11.  And I will say, kudos to whoever is driving the casting - be it Sandra Bullock or the producers - for getting three different non-white women for the main cast.  

Also, if you'd like to keep your sanity, don't do what I did and read the comments on that casting article.  I think I almost rolled my eyes out of my head.  

[PatternRec]

On 7/28/2016 at 7:09 AM, Luckylyn said:

Aliens did have that flirtation between Ripley and Hicks that I really enjoyed.  I'm still bitter about what Alien3 did to Hicks and Newt.  I like to pretend it didn't happen and that Ripley, Hicks, and Newt became this badass family.

Good news is that the new Alien movie that's in development is going to pick up after Aliens, and act like the later movies didn't happen.

1 hour ago, Trini said:

I do want to see a female-led caper/action movie, but I don't think it needed to be connected to O's 11 -- people would have been comparing it to that anyway.

Hollywood is always pretty conservative when it comes to spending money. I'll bet once there are a few all-female franchises/reboots make some cash they will start greenlighting non-franchise/reboots. I'm not saying it should be that way but sadly it's how it is. And of course we're getting female-led movies genre movies already like The Heat and Spy which is a plus. 

Now where's my all male Steel Magnolias? :P 

Edited August 10, 2016 by PatternRec

[Ronin Jackson]

I can understand the exasperation over The Great Wall. I mean, best case scenario it should have been an actual Chinese film with Chinese characters speaking Mandarin. But it wouldn't have that Hollywood budget. The budget is the issue here... realistically what we need to hope for is for smaller films to be made with under represented minorities in the lead that enjoy the benefits of Hollywood theatrical distribution. Given THAT'S still a stretch the way Hollywood does business, expecting big budget films Chinese historical epics with no A-list actors (we do still need an A-list Chinese actor to emerge in Hollywood) is at the moment, a pipe dream.

Zhang Yimou is the the one reason I have an interest in seeing the film. Though when indie or foreign film directors get their shot in Hollywood the results haven't always been that great, especially the bigger the budget gets.

[Raja]

On 8/10/2016 at 11:59 AM, PatternRec said:

In regards to The Great Wall we're all missing the real point: why are the Mongolians being portrayed as fire-breathing komodo dragons? 

You would have thought the 47 Ronin taught them a lesson

[PatternRec]

32 minutes ago, Raja said:

You would have thought the 47 Ronin taught them a lesson

I haven't seen 47 Ronin. I heard horrible things. At least Great Wall is being directed by Yimou Zhang...

23 hours ago, Ronin Jackson said:

Zhang Yimou is the the one reason I have an interest in seeing the film. Though when indie or foreign film directors get their shot in Hollywood the results haven't always been that great, especially the bigger the budget gets.

I liked Snowpiercer. 

[methodwriter85]

Since this topic came up recently...

Hugh Jackman Shared New Photo on Instagram, Prompting Worried Fans About His Age

He's probably doing age make-up for an updated Wolverine character, but it would be interesting if that's what he really looks like before he does make-up and hair dye to look young.

[PatternRec]

16 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Since this topic came up recently...

Hugh Jackman Shared New Photo on Instagram, Prompting Worried Fans About His Age

He's probably doing age make-up for an updated Wolverine character, but it would be interesting if that's what he really looks like before he does make-up and hair dye to look young.

He looks about right for his age. I don't think he looks old or bad at all. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

9 minutes ago, PatternRec said:

He looks about right for his age. I don't think he looks old or bad at all. 

The headline to that article is so silly: "...Worried Fans About His Age" "Worried about his age"? For crying out loud, folks, Jackman still has 2 years before he qualifies for AARP, ya wanna wait 20 years or so before you worry about him keeling over?!

Hopefully this illustrates how ludicrous it is when actresses are scrutinized for their age.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Wiendish Fitch

[PatternRec]

1 minute ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Hopefully this illustrates how ludicrous it is when actresses are scrutinized for their age.

but actresses are so brave for aging.... 

[methodwriter85]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

The headline to that article is so silly: "...Worried Fans About His Age" "Worried about his age"? For crying out loud, folks, Jackman still has 2 years before he qualifies for AARP, ya wanna wait 20 years or so before you worry about him keeling over?!

Hopefully this illustrates how ludicrous it is when actresses are scrutinized for their age.

I mean, it's kind of the point of why I posted it. It seems like men are starting to get scrutinized in that way after many years of holding true to the "no last fuckable day" in regards to men.

[Ronin Jackson]

21 hours ago, PatternRec said:

I liked Snowpiercer. 

Yeah that was a pretty cool flick, but it wasn't really a Hollywood movie so much as it was an independent film. The film was famously thrown under the bus by the Weinsteins because he wanted the Bong Joo-ho to recut it and he refused. Truth be told The Great Wall probably has a similar financing model behind it, but Snowpiercer's budget was about $40 million and The Great Wall's budget is reported to be about $135 to $160 million. The budget size is key. Also, The Great Wall will surely get a big theatrical release as opposed to getting tossed into the VOD realm like Snowpiercer. 

Anyway Zhang Yimou says there are five heroes in the film and Damon's character is one, and the other four are Chinese. If the other characters get equal or more screentime I'd probably say the controversy is mute. If Damon's presence is one way to get a film with significant Chinese leads on big screens in the US and abroad, ultimately the question has to be asked if it would be preferable that there be no films with significant Chinese  leads on big screens in the US... because at the moment that's the alternative. Compromises may make for better alternatives in the future.

[Zuleikha]

Damon is being promoted over the Asian leads because they are not known in the US. I think this was a bad choice for contemporary US, but I don't think it's a mysterious choice. This is the traditional model for promotion, and I would bet is similar to how Hong Kong films are promoted. I think the marketing team made what would have been the logical choice a decade or more ago and wasn't aware how much the US has changed (for the better, IMHO). I'm also still waiting for more information about Pascal's character both because I am a huge Pedro Pascal fan and because he is not traditional casting for British soldier. 

If Damon's presence is one way to get a film with significant Chinese leads on big screens in the US and abroad, ultimately the question has to be asked if it would be preferable that there be no films with significant Chinese  leads on big screens in the US... because at the moment that's the alternative. Compromises may make for better alternatives in the future.

I don't agree with the idea that Damon (or another non-Chinese Hollywood actor) has no place in the movie. Cross-cultural contact really happened in history. I don't think there's anything problematic about telling those stories. On the contrary, I think it's good for them to be told because I think a lot of people picture the past as consisting of people living in homogeneous countries with no flow of people across borders. What's a problem, IMHO, is when the stories are only seen through a white gaze. Which this one isn't.

(also because I don't think my earlier point was actually understood, I'm going to point out that Zhang Yimou has had to defend Damon's casting and the movie already as a result of Wu's critique. So if she's wrong, her critique has caused harm to him by putting him in awkward positions. That's exactly what I mean about the benefit of the doubt not being for Hollywood, but for Zhang Yimou and the other PoC actors. It's exactly like what happened to Leslie Jones in Ghostbusters)

[Ronin Jackson]

On the subject of gender behind the camera, it's about damn time: http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/12/12461724/michelle-maclaren-to-direct-the-nightingale

This sounds like a better use of her talents than Wonder Woman, which pretty much only interested me when she was attached (and which can now be relegated to the rest of the DC/WB trash heap). Of course it probably won't bring in the money and clout doing a big comic book movie would.

[PatternRec]

Btw, is anyone here familiar with Lexi Alexander. I lover her to death. She's very outspoken about gender and POC in Hollywood and I think she's amazing!, this video pretty much is what made me fall in love with her:

[AimingforYoko]

I was one of the few who didn't hate her Punisher: War Zone.

[xaxat]

Two different approaches to casting animated films

Moana. A historical fantasy set in the Pacific Islands.

Duane Johnson (Samoan descent)

Auli’i Cravalho (Hawaiian descent)

Temuera Morrison and Jemaine Clement (Maori descent)

Nicole Scherzinger (Filipino/Hawaiian descent)

Alan Tudyk 

 

Kubo. A historical fantasy set in Japan.

Charlize Theron

Art Parkinson

Ralph Fiennes

Rooney Mara

Matthew McConaughey

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and George Takei (Japanese and Japanese American)

 

ETA James Gunn wrote an excellent response to critics of the casting of 

Spoiler

Zendaya as Peter Parker's girlfriend Mary Jane

.

Quote

Spoiler

For me, if a character's primary attribute - the thing that makes them iconic - is the color of their skin, or their hair color, frankly, that character is shallow and sucks. For me, what makes MJ MJ is her alpha female playfulness, and if the actress captures that, then she'll work

 

I've was an advocate of at least considering a POC for the role of Spiderman, but I really like the way this project has developed.

Edited August 22, 2016 by xaxat

[galax-arena]

I watched The Handmaiden. Not through entirely legal means, and there was only a crappy fan-made sub available, but hey. (I'm planning on watching the movie when it's released in theaters, too! Don't come after me!) 

Overall, I really liked it, although some of the sex scenes came across as male-gazey, which probably doesn't surprise anyone. I wish I knew why men were so fascinated with scissoring. 

I know this movie has received some criticism for substantially changing Sarah Waters' Fingersmith. I've never read the book, but I'm vaguely familiar with the plot and various twists. I imagine that book fans probably won't be too happy that one of the biggest twists was taken out and that (apparently) the male character's role was expanded significantly. That's understandable, but since I've never read the book, I had no problem enjoying the movie in its own right (male-gazey sex scenes aside), even if as an adaptation it might have been lacking. 

A period piece featuring Asian lesbians and a happy ending? I am so there. 

[JBC344]

On ‎8‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 9:39 AM, xaxat said:

Two different approaches to casting animated films

Moana. A historical fantasy set in the Pacific Islands.

Duane Johnson (Samoan descent)

Auli’i Cravalho (Hawaiian descent)

Temuera Morrison and Jemaine Clement (Maori descent)

Nicole Scherzinger (Filipino/Hawaiian descent)

Alan Tudyk 

 

Kubo. A historical fantasy set in Japan.

Charlize Theron

Art Parkinson

Ralph Fiennes

Rooney Mara

Matthew McConaughey

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and George Takei (Japanese and Japanese American)

 

ETA James Gunn wrote an excellent response to critics of the casting of 

  Reveal hidden contents

Zendaya as Peter Parker's girlfriend Mary Jane

.

I've was an advocate of at least considering a POC for the role of Spiderman, but I really like the way this project has developed.

I don't know if you need to "hide" the first piece of information since the second piece mentions the character name.

[xaxat]

Ooops.

Spoiler

It's kind of strange because it's apparently a surprise reveal in the movie, but even the director is already talking about it.

[Trini]

Counterpoint to the Zendaya casting: *spoiler alert* 'No, Zendaya in Spider-Man: Homecoming Is Not the Progress We’re Looking For'

Read the whole thing, but these are his main points:

Quote

... More importantly, Zendaya’s casting is yet another sign that makers of Hollywood sci-fi fantasy action films will “race-bend” a character (change a character’s race from what it was in a book, film or cartoon), slap themselves on the back for being progressive and expect black fans to be satisfied, while pretty much maintaining the status quo. Race bending is fine so long as it’s for girlfriends and sidekicks, but the movies are still white-boy fantasy adventures in which the lead remains a straight white male no matter what. And that unfortunate fact can’t be separated from the choice to cast Zendaya as.... ...

... Progress seems to come only in one form and on one side. This kind of casting also reinforces the equally problematic “Your princess is in another castle” attitude among white men, which trickles down to men and women of color who are consuming these films. A black woman can be a damsel in distress so long as a white man is validating her beauty and value as someone worth saving. Not an Asian man. Not a black man. Not a Latino man. And not another woman (we’ll get to the LGBT topic in a moment). Straight white men are still the ultimate arbiters of value in these films. The plot is always “White male nerd is ignored, abused or mistreated, saves the day, gets the girl: now with BLACK GIRLS!!!”™ Gay leads, women-of-color leads and men-of-color leads need not apply. ...

I don't fully agree with that second paragraph, though.

[topanga]

Quote

For me, if a character's primary attribute - the thing that makes them iconic - is the color of their skin, or their hair color, frankly, that character is shallow and sucks. 

And it bothers me that fan outcry for a movie to be "true to the source material" works in favor of white actors but works against POC.  So it's okay if Katniss doesn't have olive skin in the Hunger Games movie or if Ben Affleck isn't Latino in Argo--even though the real reporter was. But how dare Hollywood cast Michael B. Jordan in a Fantastic Four movie or Zendaya in the upcoming Spiderman movie? 'The characters in those comic books are white, gosh-darnit. Therefore, they should only be portrayed by white actors.' 

Edited August 24, 2016 by topanga

[proserpina65]

3 hours ago, topanga said:

And it bothers me that fan outcry for a movie to be "true to the source material" works in favor of white actors but works against POC.  So it's okay if Katniss doesn't have olive skin in the Hunger Games movie or if Ben Affleck isn't Latino in Argo--even though the real reporter was. But how dare Hollywood cast Michael B. Jordan in a Fantastic Four movie or Zendaya in the upcoming Spiderman movie? 'The characters in those comic books are white, gosh-darnit. Therefore, they should only be portrayed by white actors.' 

My only slight point of disagreement is that it was too bad that Michael B. Jordan got stuck in Fantastic Four since it was awful.  (Something which was not in any way, shape or form down to him.)

[topanga]

13 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

My only slight point of disagreement is that it was too bad that Michael B. Jordan got stuck in Fantastic Four since it was awful.  (Something which was not in any way, shape or form down to him.)

Oh, I agree with you, too. I wish the movie would have been better so he could've told the racist Internet trolls to suck it. 

[DollEyes]

19 hours ago, topanga said:

Oh, I agree with you, too. I wish the movie would have been better so he could've told the racist Internet trolls to suck it. 

ITA. The Fantastic Four reboot sucked despite Michael B. Jordan, not because of him. 

[Zuleikha]

And it bothers me that fan outcry for a movie to be "true to the source material" works in favor of white actors but works against POC.  So it's okay if Katniss doesn't have olive skin in the Hunger Games movie or if Ben Affleck isn't Latino in Argo--even though the real reporter was

FWIW, there was and remains plenty of outcry about Lawrence's casting as Katniss (and IIRC, Hutcherson's casting as Pita). I don't believe it was the same fans, but "fan outcry" does now go both ways, and IMHO, it's important to acknowledge. Heck, look at the furor over Johansson's casting as the Major in Ghost in the Shell.

IMHO, Affleck is a separate issue because Argo isn't a sf/f fandom story. I'm not sure how many people realized Affleck was playing a Latino person initially. I will admit that I had no idea until I read an article questioning the choice some time into the movie's release.

I agree with and disagree with the linked article about Zendaya's casting as Mary Jane. I feel like progressive media crit articles are falling into the clickbait trap, where they present everything as good or bad without acknowledging that most things are in the shaky in between. This article acknowledged mixed feelings about Zendaya's casting, but it never really acknowledged the pros.

[gator12]

As people have pointed out on Twitter, Black women don't get cast as love interested, they are not seen as love interest. Plenty of White actresses make their career out of being love interested, being in romantic comedies before going on to receive accolade from the industry elite. 

[4evaQuez]

So I watched, Don't Breathe this holiday weekend. While I loved the movie and would recommend it to others, there was one message in the movie that I found rather offensive. I was trying to decide if I should put this in the gender or race forum, but I decided here would be best.

The main character, Rocky, is a white woman. As a result of this social identity, although the character chooses of her own volition to decide to break and enter into a blind man's home to steal his money (this is not a spoiler as it is in the trailers for the movie and is the basic premise), she is not held responsible for her actions. To the contrary, there is a belief that her actions are justified , and she should be reward for her heinousness. What upsets me about the movie is that the movies promotes the idea that Rocky being a white woman should be protected over all else regardless of her own despicable actions. The two white, male characters choose to do all the same things that Rocky does, but they are not protected from the consequences of their actions. Based on the rules of this movie's universe they are adequately punished. One white male character is the only character in the entire movie who shows any type of morality, sense of actions having consequences and even guilt. Rocky shows none of these character traits. Rocky shows a lack of character and morality in general. However, the movie expects us to root for her because of the combination of her whiteness and gender.  I'm trying not to give away spoilers, but I will say I found the ending upsetting. While I did not want the character to "pay" in the way the antagonist planned for her, I do think she should have received the same punishment as the male characters since she chose the same decisions.

I couldn't help but wonder if the movie would have portrayed Rocky as a strong heroine - which I believe is the character they were aiming for - if she was portrayed by a black actress. I couldn't help but think that her actions would have been portrayed as vile, which they were, if a young black actress was in the Rocky role.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Following her on Twitter is a fascinating exercise. Lots to learn, lots to think about, lots to mull over.  She's incredibly honest about the business and makes it clear that she loses a lot of so-called Hollywood 'allies/friends' in the process.

[VCRTracking]

This is funny though.

[PatternRec]

@Ms Blue JayI love her honesty on Twitter. 

@VCRTracking that's amazing!

[Trini]

This new report on diversity in Hollywood films is also relevant to the Race and LGBT threads but I'm putting it here:

Quote

Authored by Professor Stacy L. Smith and the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the study is the largest intersectional analysis of characters in motion picture content to date. The group examined the 800 top films from 2007 to 2015 (excluding 2011), analyzing 35,205 characters for gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT status and – for the first time – the presence of disability. The results reveal that Hollywood remains impervious to change.  

Quote

The study found that 68.6 percent of named characters were still male, and only 31.4 percent female across the 100 top‐grossing films of 2015 (making a gender ratio of 2.2 male characters to every female). This figure has not changed since 2007.

In addition, females were over three times as likely as their male counterparts to be shown in sexually revealing clothing (30.2 percent vs. 7.7 percent) and with some nudity (29 percent vs. 9.5 percent).

“The findings reveal that Hollywood is an epicenter of cultural inequality,” Dr. Smith said in the report. “While the voices calling for change have escalated in number and volume, there is little evidence that this has transformed the movies that we see and the people hired to create them. Our reports demonstrate that the problems are pervasive and systemic.

Direct link (PDF) to the full report with graphs and charts.

[SeanC]

On 9/5/2016 at 1:44 PM, 4evaQuez said:

I couldn't help but wonder if the movie would have portrayed Rocky as a strong heroine - which I believe is the character they were aiming for - if she was portrayed by a black actress. I couldn't help but think that her actions would have been portrayed as vile, which they were, if a young black actress was in the Rocky role.

Rocky would still be the main character whatever race you cast her as.  She's meant to be a sympathetic criminal, which is hardly a rare type in movies; that the mark turns out to be a psychopath is meant to paint over any moral ambiguity.

Unrelatedly, the lead role in Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time has been cast.  As a lot of people were expecting based on the director, they're going with non-white actors (black and mixed race) for the main parts.

[proserpina65]

Quote

Unrelatedly, the lead role in Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time has been cast.  As a lot of people were expecting based on the director, they're going with non-white actors (black and mixed race) for the main parts.

As long as the basic essence of the character doesn't change - that Meg is an outcast among her classmates because of her intelligence and aptitude for math and science - I'm fine with diverse casting.  This is one of my all-time favorite books, and I identified a lot with Meg when I was growing up, so the producers better not screw this one up.

[VCRTracking]

Quote

As people have pointed out on Twitter, Black women don't get cast as love interested, they are not seen as love interest. Plenty of White actresses make their career out of being love interested, being in romantic comedies before going on to receive accolade from the industry elite. 

I do remember Nia Long as Gionavanni Ribisi's girlfriend in Boiler Room and Angela Bassett as Robert DeNiro's in The Score, but the fact I remember them is because they're the exception to the rule.

[xaxat]

Hollywood Under Pressure to Put More Chinese Actors in the Spotlight

Combine that with the fact that AMC, the largest US movie chain, is owned by a Chinese company,

Wang Jianlin plans to bring more Chinese movies to the US cinemas he now owns

Quote

Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, which owns AMC Theatres in the US, said he plans to screen more China-related films in the country.

“(AMC’s) boss is Chinese, so more Chinese films should be in their theaters where possible,” Wang said on a talk show (video, link in Chinese) on Sept. 3. If a proposed acquisition by AMC of Carmike Cinemas successfully closes, Wang will end up being the biggest owner of movie theaters in the US.

Add Chinese governments's explicit policy committing  Chinese media properties to advance soft foreign policy and US studios' desire to break the Chinese market means we could see a lot more Chinese actors. And not just in a cameo way. From the Wall Street Journal article,

Quote

Chinese moviegoers even have a term to describe actresses who serve as little more than props in Western films: “flower vases.”

So perceived under representation in China may become a driving force for diversity in US produced films.

[angora]

Has anyone seen The Magnificent Seven yet?  I'm wondering how well the PoC characters not played by Denzel fare.  Seeing the diversity in the trailers really piqued my interest, but if it's a "well-rounded characters for Denzel and the three white guys, and then there's these other three guys, too" situation, I might give it a miss.

[calliope1975]

2 hours ago, angora said:

Has anyone seen The Magnificent Seven yet?  I'm wondering how well the PoC characters not played by Denzel fare.  Seeing the diversity in the trailers really piqued my interest, but if it's a "well-rounded characters for Denzel and the three white guys, and then there's these other three guys, too" situation, I might give it a miss.

None of the characters are really fleshed out, Denzel included, and no one makes a big deal about the different ethnicities other than a few minor comments. Perhaps not historically accurate, but I went for a fun, popcorn flick and that's what I got. 

[Silver Raven]

6 hours ago, angora said:

Has anyone seen The Magnificent Seven yet?  I'm wondering how well the PoC characters not played by Denzel fare.  Seeing the diversity in the trailers really piqued my interest, but if it's a "well-rounded characters for Denzel and the three white guys, and then there's these other three guys, too" situation, I might give it a miss.

There are a few comments about the Comanche character, but not much, and no racial slurs are ever used.  Even when it's clear that Denzel Washington's character is not welcome in a small town, they only ever call him "Cowboy".  In fact, the most racism comes from Chris Pratt's character against Manuel Garcia-Rulfo's Mexican character.  There is one hand to hand fight between the Comanche, Red Harvest, and a Native American character called Denali, who has no background, who appears to be a former Army scout, fighting for the bad guys.