19 Actors Who Took Roles That They Proooooobably Shouldn't Have
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1. When Scarlett Johansson (a white woman) played Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character, in Ghost in the Shell.
©Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
2. When Ben Kingsley — although of Indian descent — played Gandhi in Gandhi, during which he wore dark brownface and body makeup.
Ronald Grant Archive / Mary Evans
3. When Jared Leto (a cisgender man) played Rayon, a trans woman, in Dallas Buyers Club.
©Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection
4. When Mickey Rooney (a white man) played Mr. Yunioshi, a racist stereotype of an Asian man, in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
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5. When Eddie Redmayne (a straight, cisgender man) played Lili Elbe, one of the first recorded trans women to undergo sex reassignment surgery, in The Danish Girl.
©Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collect
6. When Elizabeth Taylor (a white woman) played Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, in Cleopatra.
Mary Evans / Everett Collection
7. When Emma Stone (a white woman) played Captain Allison Ng, a character of Hawaiian and Chinese decent, in Aloha.
©Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
8. When Ziyi Zhang (who's Chinese) and Michelle Yeoh (who's Malaysian) played two Japanese characters in Memoirs of a Geisha — a film that depicts a traditional aspect of Japanese culture.
Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
9. When Jake Gyllenhaal (a white man) played Dastan, a character who's descended from Persia (modern-day Iran) in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
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10. When Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth (both white) were cast in 21 — a film based on a true story about the MIT Blackjack Team, which consisted of all Asian students.
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11. When Natalie Wood (a white woman of Russian descent) played Maria, a Puerto Rican woman, in West Side Story.
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12. When Laurence Olivier (a white man) played Othello, a famous black character in Shakespeare's catalogue, in Othello, which he wore blackface for and adopted a camp accent.
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13. When Nat Wolff (a white man) played Light, a Japanese character, in Death Note.
©Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection
14. When Rooney Mara (a white woman) played Tiger Lily, a Native American character, in Pan.
©Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
15. When Zoe Saldana — a woman of Hispanic, Lebanese, and Haitian descent — played Nina Simone in a biopic where she wore darker makeup and a nose prosthetic.
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16. When Christian Bale (a white man) played the biblical Moses, who is Egyptian, in Exodus: Gods and Kings.
©20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection
17. Finally, when Angelina Jolie (a white woman) played Marianne Pearl, a woman of Afro-Cuban descent, in A Mighty Heart, during which she wore darker makeup and a kinky wig.
Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection