Natalie Portman on signing the pro-Polanski petition: I very much regret it
Natalie Portman is still promoting Annihilation, the film where her character is supposed to be mixed-race Asian, according to the source material. We discussed the issue last week – Asian-American advocacy groups were pissed off that yet another film had been whitewashed, and Native-American activists also have a problem with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s casting too (her character was supposed to be Native American). To be fair, in the first book of a trilogy, Portman’s character isn’t described in physical terms, and Annihilation is based on the first book. Natalie only found out about the whitewashing during the promotion last week. Now that she’s had a few days to think about it, she has more to say, about whitewashing, Roman Polanski and a lot more. You can read her Buzzfeed interview here. Some highlights:
Finding out her character had been whitewashed: “Yeah, it felt terrible. This is the thing: There’s a very big problem of representation in Hollywood, and I have very strong feelings about it. There’s much fewer women onscreen than men, and this movie has so many and I feel so proud of it. And particularly women of color are not seen onscreen — and this movie also has wonderful representations of women of color as well! I feel very strongly about the issue, and there just needs to be more representation, and I would hate to be part of that problem. We based it on the first book, which does not mention race at all. And it’s really unfortunate, and was a surprise to me for sure. And I think we live in a post-Hamilton world where we don’t even need to think about what’s authentic to the character, like faithful to the character. It should just be that everyone can empathize with everyone. And also going against a horrible history of over-seeing white actors and under-seeing otherized people and minorities.
The moment at the Golden Globes when she said “the all-male nominees”: “I discussed with some of the women I’ve been working with that they had offered to me to present the director category, but I felt uncomfortable because it seemed to be excluding some deserving nominees. And how could I bring attention to it without disrespecting the nominees? Because it’s not their fault, and they all made great work. You don’t want to not recognize them. It’s just, why aren’t we recognizing the people who aren’t part of this exclusive club? So one of the women recommended I say that, and it felt like stating something that was true.
How she feels about signing the Polanski petition in 2009: “I very much regret it. I take responsibility for not thinking about it enough. Someone I respected gave it to me, and said, “I signed this. Will you too?” And I was like, sure. It was a mistake. The thing I feel like I gained from it is empathy towards people who have made mistakes. We lived in a different world, and that doesn’t excuse anything. But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live. My eyes were not open.
Believe women: “I think there’s a direct connection between believing women about their own experience and allowing women to be experts of their own experience and every woman’s voice being heard. Whether it’s someone talking about their work and not being listened to, or someone talking about their own experience of assault and being told that they don’t know what they’re talking about, I think there’s a direct connection between that. Of course, do I know anyone’s experience? No. But would I question a man who said “someone stabbed me”? Never! You know? I think it’s bizarre. We know that women are systematically not listened to. That victims of sexual assault are systematically not listened to.
I don’t really have a problem with what she says here, and she raises many good points, and I believe she’s trying. I wasn’t going to see Annihilation in theaters anyway, so it’s not like I can “boycott” the film because of the representation issues.
I do want to point out one thing to Portman, and this is just one thing that struck me, and she may need to work on in the future. The part where she says “There’s much fewer women onscreen than men, and this movie has so many and I feel so proud of it. And particularly women of color are not seen onscreen — and this movie also has wonderful representations of women of color as well!” – I know what she’s saying, and every piece of art doesn’t have to be all things to all people, and every piece of art doesn’t have to have representations of every single marginalized group at all times. But there were very specific criticisms lodged at this film from Asian-American groups and Native American activists regarding the whitewashing from the source material to the screen, and Natalie’s making a very white-feminist argument of “well, isn’t it just great to have so many WOMEN in the film” and “well, there’s a black woman and a Hispanic woman in the cast, so we filled our quota.” I’m not saying she’s just ScarJoing this sh-t, but when you’re telling marginalized communities who have very specific complaints that they should just be grateful that (white) women are in the film, or that other marginalized groups are represented, that’s not a great argument. “Lucy Liu could have been cast in the lead role?” “Yeah but we cast Sofia Vergara in a supporting role, so it’s cool!”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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