By Monique
Remember when the news about Scarlett Johansson playing playing Major Mokoto Kusanagi in the live-action Ghost in the Shell film was released? Remember how it was apparent that people would start petitioning and venting in outrage? Well, here’s the petition.
More than 12,000 people, including big fans of the original manga and anime series, have signed a Care2 petition in order to remove Johansson from the film.
Julie Rodriguez, the creator of the petition, had this to say about Johansson accepting the role.
“What concerns me is the fact that minority actors are so rarely given opportunities in big-budget leading roles[.] It’s a self-defeating cycle: Hollywood insists viewers won’t be drawn unknown minority actors, but they’re never given the chance to break out of a narrow set of background roles to prove themselves. Ghost in the Shellcould have been a perfect opportunity to buck this trend, but instead promising actresses are being passed over.”
The petition also notes that a recent survey states that Asian characters made up only 4.4% of speaking roles in top-grossing 2013 Hollywood films.
Here’s more background information on Care2’s track record when it comes to petitions:
Care2 members have a history of tackling media representation issues. A Care2 petition recently asked Warner Bros. to stop casting white actors to play people of color, following an announcement the studio had cast white actress Rooney Mara to play Tiger Lily, a Native American character, in Pan, the studio’s adaptation of Peter Pan. The petition gathered more than 73,000 signatures.
A separate Care2 petition targeted director Ridley Scott, who recently cast a slew of white actors to play Biblical Egyptian characters in his Dec. 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings. The Care2 petition asking Ridley Scott to stop whitewashing gathered more than 25,000 signatures.
Do you want to sign the petition? Click here!
Julian 