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The biologists hair had been long and dark brown, almost black, before theyd shaved it off.
So what was writer-director Alex Garlands explanation?He says he simply didnt know.
But the characters in the novel I read and adapted were not given names or ethnicities.
There was no studio pressure to cast white.
The casting choices were entirely mine.
But there was nothing cynical or conspiratorial about the way I cast this movie.
Portman also saidsomething similarduring an edited on-camera interview with Yahoo!
When asked the question, she said that its the first shed heard of the whitewashing allegations.
(I think its fair to say that this decision is on him, in this case.)
But lets follow his reasoning to its logical end.
So the question is whether Garland really didnt know about the narrative arcs of the second and third books.
Thats a lot of similarities!Indeed.
If so, then, its fair to ask whether the question of race and ethnicity ever came up.
While VanderMeer has been enthusiastic about the adaptation, he has sidestepped the question of whitewashing.
What does that mean?Your guess is as good as ours.
This comment indicates there was a problem that Garland recognized and tried to address retroactively.
This creates a familiar dynamic in cases of whitewashing, where people of color are pitted against each other.
In these conversations around representation, Asian-Americans and Native Americans consistently get sidelined.
(The list of recent grievances fromThe MartiantoPantoDoctor Strangeto the unfortunate Johnny Deppmovieis long and injurious.)
Well, are there any actors who could have played those parts?Sure!
For Lena, theres Olivia Munn, Maggie Q, Sandrine Holt, just to name a few.
In that scene, shes a psychedelic rubber monster with no mouth,literally miming Portmans character.
Wait, wasnt Sonoya in Garlands first film,Ex Machina?Good eye.
Yes, this isnt their first collaboration.
Mizuno played the other robot on Oscar Isaacs island: the one apparently programmed so she cant speak English.
Should I watchAnnihilation?Sure!
If you love being terrified by insidious structural racism and also aliens.
