Top 20 Most Notorious Whitewashed Roles in Movies

This was a mixed bag by all accounts. On the one hand, this film was considered one of the better-adapted video game adaptations upon release. On the other, it stars Los Angeles native Jake Gyllenhaal as a street-urchin-turned-Persian prince. It would have been potentially trailblazing to see a Middle Eastern actor in the lead role, as well as a Middle Eastern cast. But Hollywood must Hollywood, and thus, we must watch Gyllenhaal mug it up with a fake British accent. The results were not that inspiring, hence “Prince of Persia’s” disappointing box office returns.

This is more the case of light skin-washing than whitewashing. When Zoe Saldaña was first cast to play singer and activist Nina Simone in a biopic, the news caused immediate controversy. For one thing, the real-life Nina Simone was darker-skinned than Saldaña, from a poor family in North Carolina. Saldaña is Afro-Latina with Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry, chiefly raised in Queens, New York. Although Saldaña always identified as Afro-Latina, she later regretted taking the role, feeling she should have advocated for an African-American actress to play Simone. A misguided choice, all in all.

Because, of course, the first thing you think of regarding the Great Wall of China is Matt Damon. Making the lead of an epic film set in China an Irish mercenary sparked immediate controversy, with critics accusing the film of falling into white savior tropes. Granted, Matt Damon was not playing an original Chinese character and is just one heroic character among many. But for a film financed by Chinese investors and eager to capture the Chinese market, the decision to make its lead Irish is a head-scratching decision at best. Our take? Go big or go home. Otherwise, it’ll flop at the box office, as “The Great Wall” ultimately did.

Now, this is a disappointing choice. For a film about the U.S. occupation of Okinawa and interracial marriage, you would think it would have one of the most lauded actors in Hollywood history play an equally meaty role. Instead, Marlon Brando was cast as local native Sakini, who acts as interpreter. Brando has as great a range as ever, but this yellowface should never have happened. Brando was himself a strong civil rights activist, bitterly disillusioned with Hollywood whitewashing. He even famously refused to accept his Oscar for “The Godfather,” with Sacheen Littlefeather speaking on Native American rights. No doubt he would have regretted this missed chance of having an Asian actor play Sakini.

This one is a little complicated. Angelina Jolie, it turns out, was personally chosen by the real-life Mariane Pearl to represent her in the film adaptation of the latter’s memoir. But for all the furor that ensued in the wake of this film, Jolie should have simply declined. Pearl was mixed race, with a Dutch Jewish father and an Afro-Chinese-Cuban mother, whereas Jolie is of German and Slovak descent. Jolie’s performance as the wife of a kidnapped journalist was praised by critics for its restraint and pathos. It would have been nice, though, to have seen a mixed-race actress tackle that same role.

Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s successful novel, this sci-fi horror film’s all-female expedition into an alien-occupied zone should have been no problem. But in the novel, Natalie Portman’s character is of Asian descent, whereas Dr. Ventress is half-Native American and half-white. Director Alex Garland claimed he didn’t know the characters had specific ethnicities, going loosely by the first book and not the trilogy as a whole. The novel doesn’t even give names to the women, who are described only by their job titles. The film performed very well regardless, but it is certainly a missed opportunity.

Speaking of missed opportunities. In the original 2010 novel by Isaac Marion, zombie R finds new life—and burgeoning romance—with the still-human Julie, referencing Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Julie’s supportive friend, Nora, is specified to be half-Ethiopian. When the novel was adapted as a film, the filmmakers cast Californian Lio Tipton, formerly Analeigh Tipton, for the role. It was no great detriment, as the film went on to modest success and solid critical reviews. But casting more non-white actors would have developed the zombie apocalyptic worldbuilding much better, as well as allowing some young talent to get the acting credits they need, even in minor roles.

This acclaimed film noir directed by Orson Welles has at least one major misstep. While Welles does a compelling turn as the villainous Quinlan, Charlton Heston’s casting as Ramón Miguel Vargas wouldn’t fly today. As Heston could have played a light-skinned Mexican, the brownface was frankly unnecessary, if par de course in the ‘50s. And while Heston eschews the stereotypical tics and mannerisms common in Mexican roles in his performance, a believable Mexican he ain’t. It would have been something to have had an actor of Mexican or Latino heritage play the role.

Hollywood’s streak of conveniently forgetting Egypt is still an African country is still unbroken. “Prince of Persia”-style casting shenanigans continue with the even bigger failure, “Gods of Egypt.” Most of the cast of Egyptian gods was of northern European descent, but the most egregious casting must be Gerard Butler as the main Egyptian god, Set. Though the characters in question are indeed otherworldly gods, you would think the gods of a specific culture would be played by the descendants of that culture. “Gods of Egypt” received a fierce backlash and a disappointing box office performance.

The casting is a little hilarious in retrospect. The Ancient One was originally a male Tibetan in the “Doctor Strange” comics, but the creators of the film adaptation felt it would lean too much into kung fu martial arts stereotypes. Similar attempts to cast an Asian woman, the creators felt, would have also fallen into hoary tropes. Hence, the character was changed into a Celtic mystic, with Tilda Swinton playing the character as androgynous, with she/her pronouns. Attempts to distance the character from his Asian roots failed, with many decrying the move as whitewashing and disloyal to the comics. Either way, Asian actors missed out on a fine role for no good reason.

This epic historical drama has no shortage of stellar performances. For a movie called “Lawrence of Arabia,” though, you’d think that there would be more Arab actors in key roles. To his credit, Alec Guinness by no means gives a bad performance. He clearly did his homework on Prince Faisal and maintains a strong screen presence. The same can be said about Anthony Quinn as the Howeitat leader. As committed as these two acting giants are, though, wouldn’t their roles have felt infinitely more authentic with people of Arab descent?

Inspired by actual events, a majority of the characters in Ben Mezrich’s best-selling novel were Asian American. While this film adaptation isn’t without a few actors of Asian descent, the main players are all white. The casting choice that infuriated people the most was Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell, who was based on a Chinese-American named Jeff Ma. Producer Dana Brunetti claimed that he would’ve “LOVED to cast Asians in the lead roles,” but the filmmakers reportedly had no bankable Asian American stars at their disposal. While that *might* be true, you have to wonder how hard they looked…

There is no excuse for this one. Truman Capote’s novella by the same name only briefly mentioned Holly Golightly’s Asian photographer neighbor living on the top floor. For the Blake Edwards film adaptation, however, Mr. Yunioshi appears as Holly’s landlord, turned into a garish comic relief character played by Mickey Rooney, of all actors. The result is one of the most offensive, garish portrayals in cinema history with prosthetic teeth and unfunny cartoonish slapstick. You would think a photographer would have more grace. Forget Asian representation—this represents no human in this world. Needless to say, this role is one of the most infamous examples of yellowface.

To be fair, this isn’t the first time a white actor has been cast as Ramesses. Yul Brynner previously portrayed the pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire in “The Ten Commandments.” Of course, that biblical epic was released in 1956, whereas “Exodus: Gods and Kings” came out in today’s supposed-to-be PC world. Naturally, casting another white actor as Ramesses felt like one of the biggest steps backwards that Hollywood could take. It didn’t help that most of the other actors were Caucasian as well, but Edgerton in particular seemed grossly miscast. Where Brynner at least looked the part of a pharaoh, Edgerton feels more like somebody playing dress up at a costume party.

Dating back to the early 17th century, this film’s source material is a William Shakespeare tragedy revolving around a Moorish general. Though the titular character’s exact race has never been confirmed, the term ‘Moor’ did mean people with dark-skin, most likely from Africa, back then. So why in the Bard’s name did we get British actor Laurence Olivier in blackface for the role?! Sure, by the mid-60s, Olivier had made a name for himself in multiple Shakespeare adaptations, but the actor also had to create an accent and a distinct walk as well as deepen his voice for a performance that – while Oscar-nominated – was unfavorably likened to Al Jolson’s infamous blackface character Jack Robin in “The Jazz Singer.”

This seminal sci-fi anime’s live-action film adaptation came with major baggage. The casting of Scarlett Johansson as Major, a cyberterrorist survivor-turned-operative with cybernetic enhancements, especially attracted backlash. Set in the Hong Kong-inspired New Port City, based on a Japanese manga, many fans expected the cast, or at least its lead, would be of Asian descent. The film’s twist that Major was originally a Japanese girl only worsened matters. Ironically, “Ghost in the Shell” creator Mamoru Oshii had no problem with the casting, claiming Major’s cyborg body was an assumed one, and Japanese fans were likewise unbothered. Still, it missed out on a crucial opportunity for an Asian actress to lead the film adaptation of this seminal work.

Anybody who’s familiar with the story of “Peter Pan” knows that Tiger Lily is Native American. The folks behind this reimagining apparently didn’t get the memo, though, as they cast the light-skinned Rooney Mara in the role. The filmmakers tried to compensate for this by having Tiger Lily’s tribe be made up of various different races and nationalities. While that’s a noble gesture, there’s still no reason why Tiger Lily couldn’t have remained Native American. Mara is an immensely talented actress, but she simply looks uncomfortable in this whitewashed role. As far as missteps go, it may not be “What Made the Red Man Red” bad, but it's not that good either.

Now here’s a casting choice that made the Internet erupt like a volcano. Although roughly 70% of Hawaii’s residents aren’t white, this box office bomb enlisted Caucasian actors across the board. To make matters worse, Emma Stone was cast as a character who’s supposed to be one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Native Hawaiian. As much as we love Stone, even she felt this was a misguided decision in retrospect. Director Cameron Crowe additionally wrote an apology on his blog. If there’s a silver lining to this controversy, it’s that more people started to realize just how common whitewashing is, which will hopefully influence change in Hollywood.

Inspired by Eastern philosophies and Japanese anime, the characters in “Avatar: The Last Airbender” were largely depicted as Asian and Inuit. In this despised live-action interpretation, however, our heroes are all white and any Asian actors are restricted to minor roles. You could argue that the cast isn’t completely whitewashed, seeing how M. Night Shyamalan populated the Fire Nation with actors of Indian and Middle Eastern descent. Since the Fire Nation is primarily depicted as villainous, though, this ultimately sent out a negative message, fanning the flames. Failing to accurately represent a single character, it’s easy to see why “The Last Airbender” helped coin the term, “Racebending.”

John Wayne will forever be remembered as a screen legend. With that said, it was hard to imagine the actor playing anybody other than a cowboy or cavalryman. Given his narrow range, it was especially hard to accept the Duke as Genghis Khan. No seriously, we’re not making this up. John Wayne, the most American actor who ever lived, plays the founder of the Mongol Empire. That sounds like the setup to a joke and “The Conqueror” is admittedly pretty hilarious at times. Of course, none of those laughs were intentional. On that basis, this was undoubtedly one of the most ill-advised casting choices ever.