Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 September 28

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September 28

Term for casting actors whose ethnicity differ from that of their roles?

On Wiki, I can find articles for whitewashing and racebending, where actors of a particular race get cast for roles where the character is of a different race (e.g. White for Black/Hispanic, etc.). However, I've also observed another phenomenon where an actor gets cast for a role of the same general race but different ethnicity (e.g. an ethnic Japanese actor playing an ethnic Korean character). Is there a commonly used term for this phenomenon? 71.190.158.13 (talk) 04:19, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Color-blind casting. or integrated casting, or non-traditional casting (which seems to be the preferred term in the profession). Wymspen (talk) 10:56, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

I remembered when I was in Japan, they have a Japanese actress playing the Joan of Arc. I kid you not!!

"Though widely known in the West, St. Joan of Arc is an obscure historical figure for many people in Japan. Maki Horikita, who portrays the 15th-century French war heroine in the upcoming TBS stage production “Jeanne d’Arc,” rises to the challenge of making Joan’s tragic life story relevant for a Japanese audience. It is also the first-ever stage performance for Horikita, who, at 22, is one of the few young actresses in Japan with a solid reputation for her craft."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2010/11/19/stage/joan-of-arc-takes-center-stage/#.Wczf_K2B0UE 110.22.20.252 (talk) 11:45, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Color-blind casting, as mentioned above, became a very popular term in the 90's. Previous to that, it was commonly called integrated casting. I don't know what terms were used before the 70s. It is a neutral term. It doesn't have positive or negative connotations itself because it is used for both positive and negative situations. For example, when Danny Glover was cast in Lethal Weapon for a role intended to be a white policeman, the color-blind casting was heralded as the future of Hollywood (it wasn't). When The Last Airbender used a white cast for Asian characters, the color-blind casting took on a new term "racebending," which was further pushed in Cloud Atlas - bending every character to multiple racial and ethnic stereotypes (very poorly, in my opinion). Other than Cloud Atlas, I haven't seen racebending used much as it was a play on words with the "bending" in the Last Airbender. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 12:12, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Then the next issue, if you do cast somebody of a different race, is if you use blackface, yellowface, etc., to make them look like the desired race. This can be more offensive than the casting choice itself. Mickey Rooney's Asian character in Breakfast at Tiffany's was one example that drew a great deal of criticism. See Breakfast_at_Tiffany's_(film)#Portrayal_of_Mr._Yunioshi_and_Yellowface_controversy. StuRat (talk) 04:37, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Replies above aren't addressing the question asked. I don't think it has a name, but Zoe Saldana's role in Nina is a recent example. Saldana is Dominican/Haitian/Puerto Rican, and there was some controversy about her being cast as an african american historical figure. I looked through some news articles about that controversy and couldn't find any terms for this phenomenon. Staecker (talk) 11:14, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Arsenal F.C.

Hello there i have an enquiry on a football matter, iv been looking at your uefa cup europa league page which teams from europe take part in who done well the previous season including teams that came runners up i know now days they would enter the champions league but the season in question is 1973-74 as an arsenal supporter i was wondering why they was not in the competition that year or did they get knocked out in a prelimery round etc, you see they finished runners up in the league in 1972-73 so i would expect them to have been in this competition , im pretty sure they wasnt banned so thats why im contacting you people who do an excellent job ,if theres any light you can shine on the query id be much graefull to find out, thanks anyway, keep up the good work,jimmy mason.

According to a passage in the article Arsenal F.C. in European football,

"The European Cup Winners' Cup, later retitled the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, was founded in 1960 and involved the winning clubs of national cup competitions in Europe. Arsenal, in the First Division at the time, were ineligible for both competitions, given that the club did not win a league championship or domestic cup for almost two decades. [My added italics.]

So in 1973-4 Arsenal, being only runners up in Division One the previous year, did not qualify. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.217.210.199 (talk) 20:22, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

No, that's not it. The solution is in note 1 in 1972–73_Football_League. The English football league continued to enforce the rule that only one club from any city could compete in the UEFA cup, and London was already represented by League Cup Winners Tottenham Hotspur. --Wrongfilter (talk) 20:31, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

I've added the same note in Arsenal F.C. in European football. jnestorius^(talk) 16:15, 3 October 2017 (UTC)