this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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I don't think it really matters if he looks like the actual dude. It's rude as hell to pick a generic/famous white guy to portray a non-white historical figure. Some stills of him look really similar for sure but actually watching Lawrence of Arabia he just looks like someone rubbed dirt or bronze on his face and called it good enough
Many "white people" definitely could pass as Arabs so I don't know what you're talking about.
Like, the only perceived difference between "white and non-white" is literally a few kilometres of water
Sorry to confuse you. White and non-white was a blanket term because this post is also about John Wayne portraying Genghis Khan. If you really don't understand why an English actor portraying an Arab prince or an American Actor portraying a Mongol can be problematic then this all must be very confusing for you...
I do understand that it's hard to find a white American that looks like a Mongolian, but it's definitely not hard to find "arab-passing" whites
The likeness isn't the point or even what I'm trying to explain. In fact, I agree that they share a basic likeness. Again... If you really don't understand how an English actor portraying an Arab prince or an American Actor portraying a Mongolian can be problematic then you've missed the point, again. The point is that Hollywood in the 50s/60s hire famous actors, that really have no connection to the aforementioned historical figures, over actors that do. I'm sure there were many incredibly talented actors that are actually from east Asia that would've been a better fit to play Genghis Khan. Same for finding an actor from the Arabian Peninsula. These people were robbed of the chance to share their heritage over an actor with a bigger name and pull.
Again, it's a fucking movie, not a life or death situation for "non-white" people. If an actor kinda looks like a certain historical character and does a good job at portraying it it's OK. Again, the white American portraying a Mongolian part definitely doesn't follow at least one of these conditions.
Next up "Florida man defends holywood using black-face to the death" citing " just as long as the actor did a good job" yehaaaw
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_ridicule
Go it. So Black-face sounds absurd to you but Brown-face or Yellow-face doesn't.
Dude stop fighting that strawman. I just said that people may look like historical characters that aren't of their ethnicity, and it's fine to have them as them in a movie. Like, Rami Malek is of Egyptian ancestry and he portrayed Freddie Mercury, who was a Parsi (descendant of Zoroastrians in India), but he did a good job and was well characterized in Bohemian Rhapsody