Ghost In The Shell Star Scarlett Johansson Comments On "Whitewashing" Controversy

Who cares... She's HOT

get over it. this is a hollywood adaptation of a japanese property. naturally, many liberties are going to be taken just like with ANY adaptation. on to the second point... in hollywood, you cannot sell a big budget movie to the masses unless it has a a well known actor starring in it. there are literally no A-list japanese actresses working in hollywood at the moment who would be able to bring people to the cinema based on their popularity in the way scarlet can. for a movie to be greenlit and be given a large budget, you need these crucial pieces to be in place otherwise the film will never get off the ground.

so there are two answers here. scarlet was cast in the role for business reasons and due to the fact this is not a direct adaptation of the source material but rather a loose one just like every other anime/manga/game adaptation we have ever seen. when akira finally gets greenlit, the same situation is bound to happen. no need to cry about it.... prepare yourself now.

Producers can choose whoever they want in any movie, Ripley in aliens was originally a man, and Joseph Feinnes is playing Michael Jackson. Moreover, Motoko Kusanagi was a robot in Hong Kong, but her name is Japanese.

However, with that said I would have preferred to see a Asian female lead as Motoko Kusanagi and I am sure there are literally thousands of great Japanese female actors that fit the role and look similar to Mamoru Oshii's version of Kusanagi.

Now that I think about it, Fan Bing Bing from China would make a great Kusanagi, she is beautiful and a great actor. Many people here may not know her, I think she was in one of the Xmen films, but I saw her in a Chinese TV drama series as the Empress of China, she was great. I think you can watch this on YouTube.

But to Johansson's credit, she was great in Lost in Translation, still on my top 10 best films I have ever seen.

A black actor takes the place of a historically white superhero (ie...Human Torch) and the interwebz crashes in rage.

A white female takes the role of what has been a Japanese female and its just a movie.

Sounds like a bit of a double standard to me.

Aren't actors supposed to be acting like a character? It's all pretend...They can be any color, sex, size, it doesn't matter, they can still pretend to be anyone they want. If you don't want to see it, don't see it. Everyone was cool with men playing women in Shakespeare...Get over it.

C'mon stop whining, Scarlet Johansson is perfect for it, given what roles she has done before.

Wow.... the political correctness is strong with this actress. The "weight of such a big property on my shoulders"... right weve never seen a femal protagonist in a nerdy film. Resident evil, Super Girl, agents of shield, catwoman. Given, none of these were anime, but they are comics...

LOL love how she plays the women card against the race card.

Of course Japanese people won't make a big deal about a white actress playing one of their characters in an American film. To them Americans are white people. That's like if Japan was to make a marvel/dc film, all the actors would of course be Japanese (Asian decent). So the argument that oh the director/Japanese people don't care so we shouldn't either is moot. And plus Scarlet has shown she can sell tickets on her own so I doubt anyone who would be gaining money would doubt the her pick. Personally Scarlet is a little too much famous for this. It's going to be more about her than the actual story, example see Lucy. Was it a good movie or was scarlet just good in that movie?

Oh and FYI for the comments, race and nationality are different. American, British, Japanese are nationalities (places) and not a race.

The hypocrisy of people and the double standards. "it's racially insensitive to play another race" blah blah blah. I don't hear anyone complaining whenever an american plays a european or vice versa. Or how will smith was playing a white guy in suicide squad. This isn't real people, grow the hell up. People get roles for a reason.

Idiots, it's a movie. Watch or don't watch it. Watch the anime, she looks European.

"I certainly would never presume to play another race of a person," she said. "Diversity is important in Hollywood, and I would never want to feel like I was playing a character that was offensive."

Yet that's exactly what you're doing lol

"Also, having a franchise with a female protagonist driving it is such a rare opportunity. Certainly, I feel the enormous pressure of that--the weight of such a big property on my shoulders."

Really??? After all of those movies you've starred in...GTFOH

Considering "Motoko Kusenagi" wasn't confirmed to be her real name and the cyborg model she uses is of a european design, people harping on about white washing baffle me. She's white in the animes, ffs. Not to mention the people behind the original animated movie said Scarlet Johansen was a fantastic choice.

But then there I go assuming people are getting up in arms without doing any research or having any understanding in the subject and we all know that doesn't happen.

"Also, having a franchise with a female protagonist driving it is such a rare opportunity. Certainly, I feel the enormous pressure of that--the weight of such a big property on my shoulders."

Ummm you're like in EVERY female action movie despite not being believable in the role what "pressure" can you feel at this point?

Does it really matter what colour you are? It's their money , in the end they can cast whoever they want.

"Don't worry guys, we made everyone white."

Pretending to be another race is not what whitewashing is, that's called blackface. Replacing other races with white characters is the issue.

If they're telling a Westernised version of the story set in New York or something rather than the fictional Japanese city because it's a film for Western audiences, then it's not necessarily a bad thing. The Departed was great & that was a Western version of Infernal Affairs. They just need to be open about what they're doing.

In terms of ScarJo 'benefiting the film', I'm sure her name sells a lot more tickets than say, Doona Bae but I don't think anyone would argue against that. Do we need to be less scared of having non-white leads & give other the chance to have the kind of star power that will sell more tickets? Furious 7 did pretty well.

"Whitewashing" smh she is an actress she can play whatever/whoever she wants including a Japanese women since it's just make-believe any proof that an equally qualified Japanese actress was passed up intentionally?

This sort of reverse racism divides people and is only helping the far-right. Racism can not be fought with racism.

Scarlett is not as hot as she used to be I think. I remember melting everytime I saw those big soft lips. But it happens no more...

I use to feel the same way as people who complain about whitewashing but if you think about it, most anime/manga characters may be based on japanese people but at the same time, they do not all look japanese. Matter of fact, the look of of anime characters tend to look westernized. I mean Goku's supersaiyan form is blood with blue eyes, ever seen a blond japanese person? For that matter ever seen a japanese person with green, red, purple hair or eyes...