OMG. OMG OMG OMG. Everyone! you have to read this article about The Last Airbender extras casting director, DeeDee Ricketts (who is probably casting the whole damn Avatar movie, from the looks of it).
Here's a choice excerpt:
"We want you to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire," she said. "If you're Korean, wear a kimono. If you're from Belgium, wear lederhosen."
Holy shit. HOLY SHIT. Korean kimonos? Belgian lederhosen?
For added perspective, please check out this excellent op-ed piece. It features the POV of someone who actually attended the Philadelphia casting call.
And let me end this blog post right by linking to the website of DeeDee Ricketts.
Once again, a choice excerpt:
Check out the AFFRICAN IMIGRANTS we found for TEARS OF THE SUN, the Afghan Village with real AFGHANS we discovered for CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR or the LA GANG MEMBERS who made TRAINING DAY sizzle. Finding real people, who add the nuances that make any scene more believable, is what we strive for.
HOLY SHIT. Please note that both "African" and "immigrants" are spelled wrong in that paragraph. No wonder the casting is totally fucked in The Last Airbender.
P.S. If you haven't been there already, please visit Saving the World with Postage. It's a LiveJournal blog devoted to protesting the insane Avatar casting decisions.
P.P.S. Check out the new and improved Charlie Wilson's War... now featuring "real AFGHANS" who were discovered exclusively for the filming of this movie! Way to go, DD Casting!!!
W O W. How is this even possible? The only smart move left is to scrap the whole movie. There is nothing to salvage here. We said it before, some things should never be optioned.
and this DeeDee Rickets... Total bonehead.
unfortunately, i know it won't get scrapped. amazingly, they did scrap Zuko's first casting choice... and that's a big deal for this sort of project.
at the end of the day, though, the whole thing is just nuts. i think they need to rethink how this entire project is getting produced.
part of Avatar's charm and a huge component of its success is that it presents a different type of worldview for a fantasy epic. i think that appeals to both kids and adults. and, from how it looks so far, the production team of this film is stripping away that unique worldview and replacing it with the same old Hollywood fantasy movie bullshit.
Do not be discouraged by the lack of taste the Hollywood crowd shoveled upon you. They save their best manners for the mirror they lie to just before falling asleep. TYpically the average entertainment person wakes up with a cloud above their head..a small bubble with their name appears to remind them who they are supposed to be, then they go into action role mode for the day until it starts all over again. DD Ricketts and the rest of the sycophants have come not to rescue thee, but to exploit thee all.
I Nicholas Mercer S.A.G. tell you to show pity on us fools, we are just full of bad manners. If you truly want an entertainment persons attention..just walk of to them , smile, then slap them as hard as possible. Humility will stand before you.
The more important question I have about the Tri-state area is--who is making a film or creating a unique piece of theatre that is script driven with quality people behind the project?
I have been in the area for two weeks and think the people are FANTASTIC!
Nicholas Mercer, now with "real AFGHANS"!!!
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DeeDee's website slogan is "A headshot above the rest".
Oh if ONLY if she meant "headshot" the way I think of it, we wouldn't have to worry about her further butchering the Avatar cast.
hahaha truth!
Listen, guys. It doesn't matter what ethnicity the stars are, it's how they portray the character. The characters in the show mention NOTHING about how different they look or where they come from, it's about what they BEND. Sure, this Dee-dee woman is ridiculous and I'm prepared to hate her as much as you do. But the fact that some of the main actors are white has nothing to do with it. Dev Patel and the rest of the Fire Nation characters are all played by Indian actors, you know.
We've never even seen this Noah Ringer kid. I don't care what you say, I'm going to see it. I'm a huge fan of the show and the people making it. And the only reason they haven't cast Mai, Ty Lee, Azula, Toph, etc. is cause they don't show up until second season.
this chick is nuts! get over the whole ethnicity thing. they based it on acting, not ethnicity for the main guys. Give them a chance.
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I wish they had mai in it but oh well
the only thing i can say is that we wouldn't meet azula till the end of this film anyway so maybe mai would be in the sequels
Check it out...
Old blog-- good comments
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00021651.html
wow...
so, u guys think its not racist cuz they made the fire nation indian?? that's even worse!!! now, its 3 white nations, against one asian nation. AND the asian nation are the villains
i'm gonna have to completely side with THIS IS SH** on this one. i'm not judging the acting ability if the actors, but rather the cultural message that the producers, casting directors, and director are sending to me with their work so far. and with their casting, so far, they've taken the entire multi-cultural concept that made Avatar awesome and they've turned it into "white vs. brown." it looks pretty #$%^ing awful right now.
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Her bad spelling has little to do with any possible cultural problems, but as for the rest of it...
The ethnicity of certain of the various nations is VITAL to the mythology that underlies the plot. There are many real-world traditional cultures that assign different ethnicities to various spiritual attributes. The most vital of those myths to the plot of Avatar is that the Fire Nation is White/Western European/Caucasian and that Air Nomads are Asian. Sokka and Katara just don't look like themselves when played by white actors, but the metaphors inherent to the plot are destroyed if Fire Nation isn't white.
while i agree with the first part of what you're saying, Bad Casting, i can't say agree with the cultures you've assigned to the different groups in Avatar. i see the Fire Nation as inspired by China and a bit of Japan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Nation#Fire_Nation ) and the Air Nomads as Tibetan along with some influence from the Chinese Shaolin monks ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Nation#Air_Nomads ). so while i agree that the casting has messed up some of Avatar's richness and diversity, and i think that you may have derived a completely different meaning from the cultures in the cartoon.
I think Valentino Rudi, a master of Tai Chi, should've played the head of the Water Nation. Instead the part was given to a non Tai Chi guy. but good actor, lets see what happens in the next movies
Its not Dee Dee i know here and she didnt say this. She doesnt cast for the whole movie she picks the costumes you wear. i am in this movie so stop all these rumors
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Johnny, i know DeeDee's not casting the whole film, but i'm also not spreading rumors -- this info is straight from a newspaper article that quoted DeeDee:
http://thedp.com/node/58123
and if she is seriously the person in charge of costumes, then that makes it even worse because the whole thing she got wrong was the culture-costume connection!!!
"If you're Korean, wear a kimono. If you're from Belgium, wear lederhosen."
those aren't my words. that's DeeDee's quote from the newspaper article about Airbender casting. Lederhosen is German, not Belgian. Kimonos are Japanese, not Korean.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/01/m-night-shyamalan-had-a-sense-about-airbender-this-would-make-a-killer-movie.html
nice outcry in the comments on this article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/01/AR2009030102088.html
Here's a good quote from DeeDee that sort of sums up everything that's wrong with the Airbender production:
"Night doesn't know what it is he wants, but he'll know it when he sees it."
Hmmmm, I think Avatar: The Last Airbender was clear enough to give a good blueprint for M. Night. Not really that complicated. Fill your lead roles with a diverse collection of people and make the rest of the casting match. It's just too little, too late from this whole production team to try and turn around the stupid decisions made early on.
I also like how this article says "What do members of the Earth Kingdom look like? Like they're from Mongolia. Or Cambodia or Laos. Something like that. Exotically Asian, at least." That's just embarrassing for this entire production.
AND... let's just sum up everything that needs to be said:
go to (thx Ross!)
http://www.ugo.com/movies/frank-marshall-clarifies-key-issue-in-racebending-controversy
AND scroll down to the comment from Sharkman Jhones.
I'll post the comment here so everyone can see what I'm talking about:
TITLE: Way get nearly everything wrong. (in response to the content of the above article)
"Executive producers, by definition, have absolutely no creative control over the movie. They're entirely business and legal issues, and barring that, it's often given to writers who have their work adapted into a movie, but otherwise have no creative control or say. Comic Con 2008 also was before the casting was revealed (December 2008) and before filming even *started* (March 2009) so that quote you said is impossible. Also, they're not authors of a book, they don't own Avatar, Nickelodeon does because they did the series for Nickelodeon. If Nick wanted to, they could make an entirely new Avatar series without their help at all and Mike and Bryan would not be able to lift a finger to stop them. You're also lumping Asians into one group when the show took things from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, various Inuit Tribes and more. That's just as diverse as putting Spain, Britain, France, Holland and Germany together, but Asia, the largest continent in the world holding the vast majority of the world population, isn't? Ringer isn't mixed race. I'd love to see where you heard that, outside of M. Night saying he had a "mixed quality." If he was actually Asian or of mixed race, the production would have been quick to point this out, just like they were quick to trumpet the roles of "Earthbending Boy" and "Earthbending Father," two roles filled by Asian actors that were so important, they didn't even warrant getting a name. Characters played by white actors in this movie include: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Gran-Gran, Pakku, and Roku (even though he's Fire Nation.) Sokka's two "exotic" love interests are played by partially white actresses (the actress for Yue *is* of mixed heritage, but identifies as white on her MySpace so it's about as worthwhile as Cameron Diaz being Cuban.) So if you're a Fire Nation antagonist or an unnamed background character, then the character is played by a non-white actor. But if you've got a name, and you're a protagonist in the movie? White. That's not diversity, it's tokenism. Racism is alive and well, unless you've ignored the recent illiegal immigration debate (Being Mexican and living on the border, ignoring it is something I don't have the luxury of doing) or all the crap surrounding Obama's election, with people saying he wasn't even born here. Just because it's gotten better, doesn't mean the struggle is over. Lastly, M. Night being Indian doesn't make him immune from making discriminatory decisions. He's not some Indian Spike Lee where his movies are all about what being Indian American is in urban America, he hasn't even cast a non-white star for a single one of his movies." - Sharkman Jhones
CCCCCOOOOOSSSSIIIGGGNNNEEEDDDDDDDD!!!
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please tell anyone about auditions for the last airbender book 2 cause i really want to audition and i know ya'll want to audition so please try to find some!!!
m.night if you see this mesage please post auditions on every single website post videos tell us about it on tv or put it on twitter or anything!!!
all i know i just want you to tell us about auditions!!!:)
i want to audition for katara i think i look exactly like her!!!!
further proof that the problems with this movie come from the top down -- Shyamalan interview:
http://io9.com/5504967/shyamalan-addresses-airbenders-race-controversy-and-answers-your-questions
my personal favorite parts are:
1. when he says that the Airbenders are all mixed-race. so great, basically, all the dead people will be diverse. good message.
2. that the Earth Kingdom will be part "African-American"... uhhh so that means that the Earth Kingdom will specifically have pockets of people with African ancestry BUT they had to be raised in America! haha what the hell! black, Shyamalan. it's okay to say black. or you know what? say African. you say that the the other Earth Kingdom people are Chinese, not Chinese-American, right? WTF. this is such a sad, sad, sad mess. i want to cry.
wowzers. not only is that chat stand pass revoked - i'm removing oldboy's guild memberships, home security contract, and his realtor's jacket (assuming he has one).
basically, any qualifications/certifications this guy claims to possesses are now invalid.
let this serve as the Audioshocker's official burn notice on M. Night Shyamalan and DeeDee Ricketts.
http://www.geneyang.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry100524-195255
yup that sums it up pretty well - good find nick
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I wish the Hollywood jews wouldn't race bait so much. I know they want Obama a second term and all, but this gets a little nuts.
First of all, DeeDee Rickets is not even her real name.
Like every jewish person in Hollywood, she changed it.
These are just some examples:
Isadore Demsky became Kirk Douglas
Allen Konigsberg became Woody Allen
Alan King was born Irwin Alan Kniberg
Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz
Paul Muni was born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund
Leonard Alfred Schneider changed his name to Lenny Bruce
Melvin "Mel" Kaminsky become Mel Brooks
Gene Wilder was born Jerome Silberman
Dyan Cannon was born Samille Diane Friesen
Frank Oz was born Richard Frank Oznowicz
The last 2 "Hollywood White Wash" controversies for the covers of Vogue and Vanity Faire magazine were also brought ot us by jewish photographer: Annie Liebowitz.
Her late partner called the white race "The cancer of human history" so uh, no; I don't think she prefers whites. She's pretending to be stupidly racist to piss people off. She's race-baiting.
By all means: PLEASE ban this movie! They don't deserve a DIME.
Todd, your racism/antisemitism isn't appreciated. I respect your right to have your own opinion, so I'll leave your comment. But I want you to know that I disagree with you, and I think it's safe to say that everyone else who works hard to keep this site going feels the same way.
what the...
Ebert reviews The Last Airbender and it's...
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100630/REVIEWS/100639999
...even worse than I expected!!!
cosigned, notarized, and sent to the ISO for approval as an official standard-- IN TRIPLICATE.
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Now that people have actually SEEN the film, I wonder if any of them would still argue that those kids were the "best" actors who auditioned.
@reyvn77: notarized. [EDIT: great Avatar post on your blog, BTW.]